I've been making images with plastic cameras since about 1989 when I was introduced to them by one of my teachers, Loret Steinberg, at R.I.T.

I started out photographing with the Arrow ( a version of the Diana) and later with a few Dianas once I could get my hands on them. Diana cameras are hard to find now since they haven't been made in about twenty years. Loret managed to get her hands on a supply of Arrow cameras that she sold to her students at her cost. I think they cost $10 each. A few months later, I started using the Chinese made Holga and it currently is my plastic camera of choice.

I like the way the cheap optics of these camera add aberrations and soft focus to the pictures. I never really know what I'm getting with these cameras when I photograph with them. You could say they are the opposite of a high-end digital camera.. "Simplicity - personified". They have no meters and often have a simple single-speed shutter operated by a flimsy spring mechanism. Pictured below are a sample of the "toy" cameras that I shoot with.
The Diana Camera:

The Diana is a medium format camera. It has to be the most fragile of the plastic cameras I use. It also takes some of the most extreme plastic lens images I've made. I guess that is because of its flimsy single element lens design. The camera leaks light like a sieve and requires lots of gaffer tape to seal up light leaks. I found this camera pictured at left in an antique store in Missouri back in 1997. The focusing knob on the front of the lens has little or no effect on the quality of focus.
The Holga Camera:

The Holga is the "work-horse" of my plastic cameras. I currently own seven of them.. they cost about $20 a camera. They are a bit more robust than the Diana and actually have a lens with "working" focus. The Holga also sports two f/stops. I found Randy Smith in NY state who modifies the Holga camera to do all sorts of great stuff. Randy has modified several of mine including the one pictured at left. He added the cable release, a tripod mount, and the time exposure lever on the right side of the camera next to the lens. I got him to modify some Holgas to have extremely small apertures. Check out Randy's web-site. Randy is the Marty Forscher of plastic camera modifications.
The 1940 Argus Bakelite 35mm camera:

The Argus camera sports an anastigmat triplet lens.. sounds impressive doesn't it? Don't let it fool you.. it has cheap optics and I love it. I think Argus was trying to copy the look of a Leica M series camera, but this Argus isn't anything close to the well machined and precise Leica! While the Argus technically doesn't have a plastic lens like the two cameras above, the images it makes sure fall into the same category. This camera also leaks light so I seal it up with gaffer tape. My camera was made in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1940 out of that revolutionary early plastic.. Bakelite. The Argus camera company is still in business and makes 35mm, APS, and digital point and shoot cameras. I found my Argus pictured here in an antique store around 1989 in New York state.