Corina: Reliable Bakelite Princess from Prague

Corina looks like a Diana clone but its birthplace doesn’t lie in China. It is simple but (in a way) perfect bakelite camera that fits perfectly even to the biggest hands. This reliable camera can be also very cheap. Mine costs only 3 euros.

I’ve found this Czechoslovakian wonder on a flea market in Bratislava for just 3 euros. It was working fine and I’ve instantly liked its solid bakelite body and handy settings. After I’ve ran a roll of film through it I’ve been amazed by quite sharp and colorful images.

Corina is product of Druopta, company from Prauge and it had been sold as camera for amateur photographers for family photography. It has quite sharp glass lens. When you hold it in your hands you find yourself thinking about all those pictures this camera had taken…All that precious memories.
Corina is very simple and effective to use. It takes 120 film (I’ve heard it is designed to take 620 film also…).

When you want to take a picture, you place your lens to operating position by unscrewing it (as you can see in my pictures). Then again with unscrewing you choose one of three scale focus icons 1. portrait 2. group portrait 3. Landscape (infinity). It is simple and it could be done very quickly! Then you set your aperture to f11 or f16 and your shutter speed to 30, 60, 125. Or you can choose a Bulb mode for long exposures. This can be little bit confusing for beginners. But when using ISO 400 film it is really easy. On bright sun you just use f16/125 setting, slightly cloudy f16/60, cloudy f16/30. Or you can experiment with apertures. Bad thing about Corina is that it doesn’t have hot shoe for flash. It has pc socket. When I want to use flash (in low light) I press the bulb than quickly flash into scene I’m photographing and release the shutter. It works.

You can choose your format with 6×4,5 mask or 6×6 without mask. Viewfinder is really small and mine is very dusty. So I usually don’t bother too much using it. Shutter release is really soft and despite bad (not really handy) location it is able to press it several times in sequence (swan picture).

If you find this camera for good price go for it! If you like the Diana you’re gonna love this one! It may be considered as something exotic for some of you. But for middle Europeans, it should give a feel like a nostalgic trip to their hearts!

written by panpriatel on 2011-03-18 #gear #review #bakelite #120-film #lomography #medium-format-camera #film-camera #user-review #czechoslovakia #druopta #dianalike