""HIT"-Type Camera w/Telephoto Attachment?

[OldProfessorBear]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300075713534

... and while on the subject, what the heck is with all these HIT and similar (under a dozen different names) cameras on eBay?

There seems to be an endless supply, and the prices are at least slightly ridiculous.

(I have one somewhere, haven't laid eyes on it in years. Cute, but it really does take awful photos.)

What's the deal here? Is someone cornering the market? Why?

[Wimpler]

Some people collect them...

[Klug]

There was someone who actually used and posted results from a HIT camera on here. Maybe that's what drove the prices up. :eek:

[Glenn Thoreson]

People like to collect those HIT type cameras. The ones that aren't listed in McKeown's command very high prices, when they show up. McKeown's has a list of the known names, of which there are many. One or two models are actually usable. Sort of. Telephoto lens, eh? Now you went and put my tired old brain in motion. I have an 8mm cine telephoto that ought to be on a HIT. Hmmm..

[Don Day]

There was someone who actually used and posted results from a HIT camera on here. Maybe that's what drove the prices up. :eek:

That would be me that posted some pix last month (prices were already too high, that part was not my fault!). The Hit brand was pretty lousy, but it turns out that the Mycros are actually usable with persistence.  I've relocated all those photos to here:
http://lightofday.wetpaint.com/page/Mycro+Model+1+camera

[ImageMaker]

To a collector, this one (with the leather carrying case, film and carrier inside, and two more rolls of film, plus the telephoto attachment) is probably well up the ladder toward HIT collector heaven -- the only thing better would be to have one in the original packaging.

There are a lot of these around because they were sold, for next to nothing, from ads in the backs of comic books for about forty years (maybe fifty).  You could also find them in vending machines (the ones that dropped a clear plastic egg, usually for a dollar or two dollars) as recently as 7-8 years ago, and it wouldn't surprise me to hear they're still being made, along with film, somewhere in the world (back country of China, perhaps -- they used to come from Hong Kong long after the Japanese gave up that format).

It wasn't only the Mycro that was capable of producing useful results; there were several other versions that could, but the Mycro is probably the best known and best distributed -- almost worth buying for someone who enjoys oddball cameras and is willing to expend a little effort to feed them.

[Klug]

That would be me that posted some pix last month (prices were already too high, that part was not my fault!). The Hit brand was pretty lousy, but it turns out that the Mycros are actually usable with persistence.  I've relocated all those photos to here:
http://lightofday.wetpaint.com/page/Mycro+Model+1+camera

Glad you rang in, Don.

That'd be the one. I couldn't remember who for the life of me.