For playful photographic purposes, the "Blackbird, Fly" 35mm Twin-Lens Reflex (TLR) Camera (aka, the BBF) from Blackbird
is a novel camera cashing in on the 'fantastic plastic' craze. The BBF
revels in its low-tech simplicity having quite a bit in common with a
disposable camera - and that's a good thing. The uniqueness prompted by
optical and mechanical imprecision is a desirable flavor in which to
imbue photographs with. This genre of image making is meant to be
youthful, spry, moody and experimental.
Twin lens reflex
cameras such as the Blackbird, Fly possess an optical pathway that
differs from common SLR and point & shoot cameras in that they have
a pair of lenses, one atop the other. The bottom 'taking'
lens, responsible for image capture, contains the aperture and shutter
assembly and brings the light to the film plane behind it. The upper
'viewing' lens is solely for composing and has a reflex mirror which
projects the image upwards to a horizontal ground glass shielded by a
chimney stack hood.
The TLR design's main advantages are that the
viewfinder is never blacked-out by a mirror during activation of the
shutter, so the photographer sees the subject during the exposure, and
that the away-from-the-eye way in which you use it tends to allow
subjects to be more at ease around the camera.