Windsor: The Diana's Long Lost Cousin

We all know the many clones of the Diana and the Detrich Collection. But what makes mine so special is that I HAVE IT!

One sunny day I was walking around Kampong Glam, in Singapore, when I happened to pass by a shop selling vintage items. The shop was called Trippies. I would not consider it an antique store because they sold vinyl, old record players, old posters, old cameras, old toys, old collectables and a couple of trippy furniture. They even had a miniature museum of robot toys from the past.

However, sitting on a shelf, a Windsor Diana clone camera immediately caught my attention. How rare is that? A collectable Diana Clone from the 60’s, in front of my eyes. Of course, my mind was shouting “BUY! BUY! BUY!”, but I didn’t have money then. Luckily, the second time I went back to the store, I managed to save up and bargained it for just $20, which is cheaper than your average Diana F+.

The minute I reached home, I inspected my new beauty. Dirty lens, dusty body, working shutter, working aperture, missing metal ring on the lens, missing strap, missing paper design (USE 120 FILM) on the advance knob, missing lens cap and NO FLASH PLUGS? Fine. I started working on it and it is as good as new.

I felt fine when my Windsor did not have a flash plug, I can always fire my flash manually. The greatest thing about my Windsor is that it has the words “MADE IN HONG KONG” on the lock for the back cover. I used my dad’s old digital Canon’s cap and some tape for my lens cap. Instead of metres, the focusing system was in feet, and I had difficulties knowing how far away was things were. I placed tape to cover the advance window so light would not shine in as the red plastic was dried up.

I started shooting with my first roll of film. Everything was working fine, but quite dark and my pictures did not make me “wow” so much though…I shot with my second roll. Even worse, over and under exposed and still did not inpress me. I shot my my third (my recent) roll. WOW! The colours were amazing, and perfect exposures! I LOVE MY WINDSOR!

To conclude this review: Look out for old stores selling cool stuff. It’s a MUST BUY if you come across any of the Diana clones from the 1960’s, you will never regret it. I LOVE MY WINDSOR!

written by domo-guy on 2012-02-21 #gear #plastic #medium-format #review #camera #reviews #lomography #120-format #diana #windsor #user-review #diana-1960-s