The resurgent popularity of "toy" cameras is one of the most interesting things to happen to photography in a long time.

It's hard to understand how a bare-bones plastic camera, with an objectively terrible lens and spectacularly limited control, could possibly be of any interest in a world where digital cameras stomp the ground with 24mp sensors and live-view exposure previews.

But the simplicity of a toy camera is its best feature. Loaded with a roll of 400 ISO print film, pointing a toy camera at pretty much anything will get you a picture. It may not be the picture you expect- it may be much better, and it may be much worse- but it's photography stripped down to its basics, and it can be a great teacher.

Each camera has its purpose: the Lomographic Fisheye camera will give you a 180-degree fisheye image; the Golden Half half-frame camera will take two images per frame of film; the Holga Stereo Pinhole camera will take 3D pinhole images. They do one thing well, as simply as possible, and there is no control more complicated than a guess-focus ring on any of them.

You can use a toy camera carefully, getting to know its ins and outs, and produce fantastic images- or you can pop off a few random shots and see what happens. But being able to step away from pixel-peeping, Photoshopping, and resolution charts to discover that photography is more than the sum of its parts- that you can take amazing pictures with what is essentially the simplest picture-making machine available- is worth the journey by itself.

Plus how else are you going to take 3D pinhole pictures or buy a real fisheye for under $100? It's just a good time. Play a bit.

Holga 120N :: $49 medium format	Holga 3D : samples : $169 medium format 3D	Holga 3D Pinhole :: $99 medium format 3D
Golden Half :: $59 35mm half-frame