Toy camera

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China's Holga camera takes medium-format photographs on 120 film.
China's Holga camera takes medium-format photographs on 120 film.
The Diana camera, a classic that was made in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Diana camera, a classic that was made in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s.

Toy cameras are simple, inexpensive film box cameras made almost entirely out of plastic, often including the lens. The term is misleading, since they are not 'toys' in the sense that these cameras are actually capable of taking photographs. Many were made to be given away as novelties or prizes. The Diana, an inexpensive 1960s 4x4cm novelty box camera from Hong Kong, is typically the camera most associated with the term 'toy camera'. Other cameras, such as the LOMO LC-A, Lubitel, and Holga, while originally intended as consumer, mass-market cameras, have also become identified with the term.

Many professional photographers have utilized toy cameras and the often strange optical effects of their inexpensive lenses to take award-winning photographs. Toy camera photography has been widely exhibited at many popular art shows, such as the annual Krappy Kamera show at the Soho Photo Gallery in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York City. Various publications such as Photography magazine have extolled the virtues of the Diana camera in its own right as an "art" producing image maker. Several books have also featured the work of toy cameras, such as "The Diana Show", "Iowa", and "Angels at the Arno".

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