High tech lomo...

"Definitely one of the fanciest "toy" cameras out there." Source

I bought the Olympia Canon GM8426 because it has auto advance and auto rewind. The 50mm "optical lens" toy cameras that I have been shooting with have a tendency to get a lot of tension when I advance and rewind the film which results in winding the film too tight or breaking the reel to rewind the film. I figured I could still get my toy camera fix without having to risk breaking the camera while winding the film.

In toy camera fashion, the Olympia Canon has a plastic lens, which is an "optical lens" like many of the Time Life and comparable cameras have. The optical lens was a selling point to make the 50mm lens cameras appear professional. Common folks were supposed to be impressed with the words "optical lens" or "optical color lens" typed on the camera. I suppose these words were supposed to make the buyer overlook the fact that the camera is made of plastic. As was the lead in the camera to make the buyer believe that since the camera is heavy that the camera is a solid, good quality camera.

The Olympia Canon is not a Canon or an Olympus. It is made by Olympia, I think. The model of the camera is Canon GM8426. To date, ebay sellers still pass this camera off as professional cameras. Most are untested and many are sold with the original packaging that allege that the camera is a professional camera. However, buyers are often disappointed upon snapping their first pictures when they realize that it is a lead-weighted, plastic camera (reviews). (At the time of this posting, a current ebay auction states, "This Camera was priced about $350.00 when it first came out. It is a very expensive camera.")

When I received my camera in the mail, it had a gold star sticker on the lens cap that showed its MSRP as $349.99. I'm guessing that is where the seller is getting that the camera would have cost $350 new. Because I purchased the Olympia Canon with full expectations of this camera behaving as the other 50mm optical lens cameras, I will probably be satisfied with this camera.

The camera I won on ebay was $8.50 with free shipping. I did not get the flash or the bag. I did get film in the camera and batteries in the camera. The picture on the left shows new camera packaging.