1. If you were to choose a favourite film camera from your collection which would it be?
Though I love my old large format cameras I’d have to say that the Zero is my fave. I take two of them everywhere. One for b/w and colour film.
2. How long have you owned this camera?
I got my first one in 2000 – the first year they were made I believe. The fellow in Hong Kong who makes them did an edition of 1000. They were numbered inside. They were one format – square and had none of the bells and whistles he’s added on to the new models. Basically a nice wooden box with a hole.
The better story is ‘How did I lose my first Zero?”. Well I was shooting up at the look out point on Castle Mountain in Alberta. I wasn’t using a tripod. You can’t hand hold these things unless you want a really blurry, I mean soft shot, sooooo I placed the camera on a rocky out crop… a big gust of wind came up and it blew off the mountain. I almost went after it but my husband grabbed the back of my sweater. I sent out a search party but they came back with only one piece of it. Especially sad as I had a couple shots left on it from a trip I took to Enrico Fermi’s lab in Italy. That’s another story.
3. How did you come to own this camera?
The first one I tried out was in Cape Cod when visiting another “pinhole photographer” friend who had just got one. I loved what it did immediately so ordered one from Hong Kong. Up until then I was shooting only in b/w using paper negs in various home made cameras or b/w film in a 4×5 box camera.
4. What things do you enjoy most about this camera?
I can shoot using 120 colour film easily. I like the wide angle I get on the model I have. It’s simple. Looks cool! When I use it everyone wants to know what it is. Many of the images on my website were shot using the Zero. www.diannebos.ca
