The Diana camera, like the Holga, is a plastic “toy” camera from Hong Kong that shot sixteen 4×4 cm images per roll. It was first produced during the sixties by the “Great Wall Plastic Factory.” In the United States, it cost a few dollars per camera. The camera was famous for the dreamy, ethereal look created by the camera’s plastic single-element lens and spawned many copycats, including the “Future Scientist,” “Megomatic,” “Snappy,” “Windsor,” and “Zodiac.” The original Diana featured two shutter settings, three aperture settings, and manual focus. One downside to the Diana was that nearly all cameras had light leaks, and had to be taped up to prevent exposure. The tape then had to be removed whenever the film needed to come out. To fans, however, this was no big deal—a small price to pay for the lovely pictures created by their beloved Diana camera. I’m in complete accord.
Which is why I was so excited by this news: though production of the Diana stopped in the seventies, with the increased demand for higher quality cameras such as 35mm cameras and Instamatic cameras, Lomography has recently re-released the Diana camera—improving upon it and calling it the “Diana PLUS.” The Diana PLUS has new features such as a pinhole function, which allows you to take pinhole shots with a super wide-angle perspective, an endless panorama function (which allows you to take a sequence of pictures very close to one another) and a shutter lock feature, which is great for photographers who like to have more control over their variables.
Amazingly, this man, Allan Detrich has amassed the world’s largest collection of Diana cameras and Diana copycat cameras.
