I saw this for sale for a fiver and thought, ooh, that would be interesting. Maybe I could use it to recreate the Cottingley Fairies photos?

And then it arrived and I thought…maybe not?

The camera was very, very basic. I didn’t see how it could get close enough to anything I could cut out in the way of fairies. Plus, at the same time, a friend did the same thing in a much more professional way. So, what to do?

I decided to change track and use some toys, luckily, I had plenty of those. As I had no confidence in the camera, I stayed home and tried it out in my garden. I didn’t see the point in lugging the camera, light as it is, and toys into a forest somewhere if it didn’t work.

Before the results, here is a little more about the camera….nothing. It is a glorified disposable camera. I couldn’t find anything on the box or online about the settings. I would hazard a guess at f9 or f11 and 1/100th with a minimum focal length of at least a metre if not more. The box said it was distributed in Scandinavia by Sagofen. But when I looked up the website it quoted, I got an offer to buy the name. Clearly, that website was no longer viable. I changed tack again and researched the ISBN, which gave me a few more details. They were based on the mini photo album that was included in the box. I found the album was released in 1998.

The whole package is based on Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies. If you know me, you will know that I am not into fairies, just the Cottingley ones due to the story, location and early photographic history. You will also know that I like dinosaurs and my weird Chatter Chimp. I actually have two of those. I have my original one, which lost its voice box about 50 years ago…well, not lost, it broke and I took it out to make it more cuddly. Then, earlier this year, I finally found another which also had a broken voice box. BUT, I am older and wiser now, so I managed to get it fixed. Anyway, I used that and some dinosaurs for my test roll.

I loaded the camera with a roll of Exeter 400 and got to shooting. The viewfinder of this camera was weird. It seemed to magnify the image?? Maybe the lens would also magnify the image so you could get closer to the ‘fairies’. Interesting.

So I filled the viewfinder with my dinosaurs and chimp and hoped the photos would have the same cropping.

This was taken on my phone and shows what I saw in my viewfinder. I was standing more than a meter away, maybe two, but the dinosaurs still filled the viewfinder.

But when I developed the film…

I hope you like the ‘other’ two dinosaurs. I stepped forward a couple of times, just to check the minimum focal length. AND, by the selfie, you can see it has a minimum of a little more than a metre.

I am glad I didn’t take the camera anywhere far. Also, the film I used was a 400asa, and it was a lovely sunny day. This camera needs light.

Well, that was a fun way to spend a day. I don’t think I will be using this camera again. I would rather do the same project with another one of my cameras, if I were to do it again at all. I am sure I will at some point. I do have lots of toys.

I will probably sell the camera or give it away. Oh, and it did come with a roll of film. I decided not to use it as I have no idea how it had been stored or even what it was, and as I said, this camera needed lots of light.