You’d never get a kit like this on the market today. Too many tiny, delicious pieces. Kids these days all want to know what an objective mirror tastes like; it’s almost like that rarest of delicacies, unicorn flank. But I digress, and this isn’t a cryptoculinary blog. This kit, from way back in 1977, actually let you assemble a real SLR (slightly smaller than standard, but still 35mm), and not just an SLR-looking thing like so many cameras today (snort of derision).
I can only imagine how terrible the lens must be, but its freaky optical qualities would probably give create an interesting lo-fi effect, like that sought by Lomographers and people downloading annoying iPhone apps that make their pictures look, very unconvincingly, like old plate prints. Deep breath. It looks pretty fun, but it’s the kind of fun you have once and then wish you had something better, like a kit car that costs as much as a real one. Still, it’s fun to hearken back to the old days when kids not only knew what SLRs were, but had to build ’em themselves.