6 May 2012 -- click here for earlier articles

Most people think about it sooner or later: an old 'knockabout' film camera that they can leave in the car without worrying about too much. But it's more complicated than it looks.

First, you want a good quality camera that can resist a bit of banging around. This precludes a lot of cheap cameras. Even if they don't stop working altogether, they can get misaligned, mist up, gum up or otherwise misbehave. Why carry a camera that takes bad pictures?

Second, you don't want it in excessively good condition. If it's too pretty, it's hard to give it the kind of offhand treatment that 'knockabout' implies.

Third, and for obvious reasons, it should be battery independent, or at most, rely on batteries only for the meter. By all means change the batteries once a year, on your birthday, if you're that sort of person. I'd rather guess the exposure.

Fourth, there's the problem of films going off, especially if they're overheated, so it makes sense to store the camera in the coolest part of the car and to shoot black and white, or, with colour, to process the films reasonably often, especially in summer: once a month, say, whether they are finished or not.

All of which explains why I find it a better idea to carry my 'real' camera(s) with me, rather than rely on a 'knockabout' camera which, to be honest, I never use.