Diana Mini - A Test Run by Adam Scott
written by polt
on August 19th, 2009
, 24 comments
(14 votes)
Note from the Editor:
Adam used a special technique called Light Leaking for this review. This is great! You do not have to do this, your Diana Mini will provide you regular soft tone photos as we are used from other Diana products. If you want to do some light leaking, read Adams “How To” below.
I was asked to have a little test run of the Diana Mini before release. When it arrived in the post I screamed like a little girl who has just been given the entire My Little Pony Set. Within seconds I was out with the camera loaded with 35mm film! The Diana Mini is a little plastic gem that fits in the palm of your hands and has tons of creative capabilities. It’s also the first half-frame camera in the Lomography family!
Half-frame cameras shoot twice as many shots on 35mm for the same price to process. With the Diana Mini you’ll be able to shoot up to 72 shots on one roll! One of my favourite features is the multi-frame switch that allows you to change from square to rectangular. With the square mode you will only be able to shoot the standard 36 shots, in rectangular up to 72!
The Diana Mini is also compatible with the Diana f+ flash which is nearly the same size of the camera itself!
Shooting with the Diana Mini is so easy, aside from the size that makes it easy to take anywhere; the Diana Mini has just two simple switches; N and B for Normal or Bulb exposures and a Sunny/Cloudy Switch. The B switch allows you to take long nighttimes exposures or leave the shutter open after firing the flash at night to burn in some ambient light. If you want crisp and sharp images you can use the tripod mount and cable release.
Let’s not forget that it’s also possible to shoot multiple-exposures and overlap frames for abstract panoramas!
- Shoot fast and forever
- Never the same thing twice so you get better “half-frame stories”
*Get close! The Diana Mini shoots from 0.6m!
*Keep your eye on the N and B switch to make sure it’s never on B during the day
*Take a blank shot before changing the frame mode on the same roll of film. - Don’t forget to take the lens cap off before shooting!!!
A big tip!
Light Leak generator: I love light leaks and love finding them accidentally in my Diana+. As the Diana Mini takes 35mm it was essential that the back wouldn’t let ANY light in so to get light leaks I cheated. When the camera was loaded I would sometimes open the back and slide it down a few Millimetres for less than a second before closing it again. This worked well to create some nice unpredictable effects. Then I took things one step further. With a 1mm drill piece I made two holes on the back and then covered them with black tape occasionally opening and closing them. This worked well also!
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