Last Friday I walked in to my local shop to snag film for my grandmothers 90th birthday party and came out with a “ Used Crazy Camera”. Just seconds before I arrived a customer had brought in this small unassuming cardboard box and inside was a free camera he had received decades before. I opened the box and was initially more interested in the story of how one ends up with this camera then the actually camera it self. After a short chat and a confusion on how to get the film door open I bought the camera. $5.45
From what I can gather back in the 70s and 80s when there was a big drive to drum up more members for magazine subscription or in this case a BankCard Travel Club, you got a “Free Gift” and some times that free gift was a camera.
The ninoka nk-700 lands securely on the toy camera quality level, being made of all plastic, but is a big step up functional from other toy cameras that came around the same time, i.e. the Kelloggs 110 camera.
Built more like a SLR looking Holga the nk-700 is a 35mm range finder with a fixed focus GLASS 50mm lens, its shoots at a constant 1/125 and surprisingly has an adjustable aperture from a white cloudy drawing to a yellow sunny one (f/6-16). Even more surprising is that it has a flash shoe and it works.… well like every other time but come on how cool is that!
Other then a few ebay and etsy listings there is little history I can find on the nk-700 or ninoka has a company other then they were made in Taiwan but I have high hopes for the camera!