Recesky TLR

The Recesky TLR is a camera that comes in a kit that you assemble yourself.  You can usually buy the kit from somewhere between $10 and $20.  My experience was that it is fairly easy to put together.  Although I found getting the  shutter set-up correctly kinda tricky.  The instructions that come with the camera are not very well-done, however if you do get hung-up while making the Recesky TLR it is easy to find help by doing a search.  A lot of people have shared their experience of building a Recesky TLR. 

What you get when you are finished is an interesting looking, but flimsy feeling TLR that takes classic toy camera pictures on 35mm film.

My version seems to be always soft on the edges and less soft toward the center.  Unlike a lot of toy cameras the Recesky TLR is not fixed focus.  You focus the camera by turning the viewing lens.  The viewing screen for the Recesky is fairly bright and might be helpful with focusing for someone with better eye-sight than mine.  As it is I found getting even the soft edges and less soft center a challenge.

The aperture on the Recesky is f/11 although that can be changed to f/5.6 by removing the aperture ring.  The shutter speed is said to be anywhere between 1/50 and 1/250.  The one on mine seems to be around 1/125.  There is not frame counter.  And it can be difficult to tell how far to advance the film. Basically, I can say that building the Recesky is interesting, however for me using it wasn't much of a pleasure.  I did like a few of the images it took, however for the trouble there are many toy cameras that I find more rewarding. Still some people have found the Recesky more rewarding than I have so I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying one out.

Here is the Flickr Group.