The Diana Camera

The Diana Camera is camera zero. This is the camera that began the plastic toy camera revolution back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The story is told that instructors at Ohio State University began using the simple camera as a tool to teach photography. Many of the photographers who used the Diana, appreciated the soft surreal images the camera produced. The camera, produced as a novelty premium for gas stations, pizza parlors and the like, was already out of production when this generation of photographers began using the camera. There were cameras being made that looked like the Diana, but with different nameplates and even cheaper and flimsier construction than the original. These copies are referred to as clones. Photographers looking for the Diana and Diana clones had to scour yard sales and thrift stores to fill their needs. I found my first Diana clone in a thrift store. I paid what I thought at the time to be an exorbitant sum of $5 for a Windsor. With the advent of eBay, finding the cameras became even easier, but demand continued to soar. At its height, Diana cameras, mint in their original box were selling for upwards of $200.

The Holga, a cheaply made Chinese camera came to fill the void of an ever-dwindling supply of plastic Diana cameras. Photography became a popular pastime in China, and the Holga became the means to fill the demand. It is a happy coincidence that this camera takes photos with a similar characteristic vignette and in and out of focus image parts as the Diana. In the U.S.A, it was originally used and sold through the Maine Photographic Workshops.

The Lomo Diana+ (Diana Plus) was born in 2007. It is a Diana copy with improvements. It seeks to capitalize on the Diana mystique. This camera not only offers the picture taking capabilities of the Diana camera, but also features a removable lens to convert the camera into a pinhole camera.

I have yet to test this camera to see if it is a worthy successor to the original Diana. Mine is on order, and when I finally get my hands on it, I will report on its capabilities.

I’m not sure if the toy camera “fad” has died down, or if the appearance of the Diana Plus has driven down the price of a Diana camera or a clone, but a recent check of prices on eBay’s shows them to be much more reasonably priced.