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Left handed camera

Anything Left-Handed Requests
Requests

We get loads of request for a left handed camera, with the shutter button on the left side so it can be pressed with the left index finger.

The Yashica Samurai film camera of the late 1980s is one of the only ones to have been in regular production but it was very expensive for what it was and was not a success.

We did at one time stock a left-handed 35mm film camera that had been made very cheaply and was almost a throw-away item, but even though the price was very low it was not worth selling as there were so many problems with it - the last thing you want is to find that you cannot actually get the photos you have taken printed!

Samsung have recently launched a digital video camera that can be used equally well left handed and right handed and you can see more details on the Samsung Q10 left handed digital video camera here.

We have approached some of the major manufacturers over the years and the answer is always that the small percentage of lefthanders does not justify the cost of development and production of a different model.

If you know any more about left handed cameras please add a comment below.

 

 

One-sided clothing

Iron cord holder left handed

Left handed cursive writing

Comments 15

  1. Rhapsodie McClintick
    I don't know a lot about left hand cameras, but if you can find a lens centered to the front of the camera, and use a neck strap case that pockets the camera with the screw, then turn it backwards in use it allows the camera to function with your left hand. The trouble is that the buttons are upside down, but with the support to hold the camera this way, even an individual that's right handed can use the camera left handed. The reason for getting a center focus allows the lens to remain at a point similar like it would with a right hand shot. The cameras with the lenses at the upper edge in right hand use would be at the bottom edge with left hand uses, so require more lift for similar left hand user focusing. The only hassle is the integrated flash with most of the cameras for right hand uses is up, and it would be down in an upside down use. The type of case for the strapping impacts the uses, but I like a half case, that has a support under the camera with the ability to screw up into the camera. Then when it's upside down, I don't have to hold the weight with my thumbs while trying to play with the controls with my left thumb.
  2. Steve Scott
    Not a proper camera I know but.. I've just been experimenting with my Windows Phone camera and, if I turn Rotate off then the onscreen shutter press stays where it is when I rotate the phone. All photos end up upside down, but that is easy to correct and better for a natural left hander than struggling with my damaged right hand.
  3. Margaret Ross
    I didn't think of that! I suspect that her first photographic results may be a little hit or miss anyway, but if she CAN use the camera right way up that would definitely be better and wouldn't mark her out as being "different" from her peers. She only has 3 fingers and a thumb (created from her forefinger), none of them very strong, but she normally works away at things until she finds a method which suits her so I have great faith in her. She likes that I am left-handed too, so we can view the problem as being one for all lefthanders like us, rather than a unique problem facing a child with a weak hand.
  4. Don Craig
    Hi, I'm no expert but using a camera upside down MAY interfere with the light meter function.
  5. Margaret Ross
    Many thanks for that idea. In the end, I have bought her a Polaroid iS426 which is very light. Someone on this site suggested taking photos with the camera upside down - a great idea - but daughter says we should just wait and see how she manages herself. She is rarely beaten by challenges and rarely asks for help. This will be her first camera so the whole thing will be new and exciting to her. I think we just stand by on Christmas Day and see how she decides is the best way to take photos.
  6. Margaret Ross
    Particularly relevant for me at the moment as young granddaughter is asking for a camera for Christmas. She was born with abnormalities of her right hand and arm which are weaker and shorter than her left hand. She, like me, is very left-handed so a left-handed camera would have been prefect. As she is only 9 it would be foolish to spend a lot on a camera for her so I hope she is able to work out a way to use the one I have bought (a £39 Polaroid).
  7. Shona Grant
    My dad had a stroke 16 years ago and one of the things he has really enjoyed but never did before his stroke is photography but he really struggles taking snaps with the camera he has .....unfortunately he has given up...as he cant get a left handed camera.
  8. David Roberts
    Hi, I suffer from M.S. and have lost some feeling in the fingers of my right hand, which now makes it very difficult for me to take photographs using my right hand. I have just purchased a s/h I Phone 4s, off Ebay which gets a very good write up for its 8mp camera and of course has a touch screen shutter release.... I am awaiting its arrival! I have also come across, the JVC Addixxion Action 8mp camera/camcorder GC-XA2BE @ £194.99, which the online retailer assures me can be used left or handed.....it looks as though it can, as the shutter is on the left! This will be my fall back camera, if the I Phone 4s camera, is no good!
  9. Don Craig
    Hi everyone, just picked up on this thread so apologies for timing.
    1. I used a LH Yashica Samuri for many years and was very happy with it An added bonus was that as it was half frame, it doubled the capacity of a roll of film. As an amputee (right arm) this was a great feature as changing film was fiddley.

    2. I'm using a Kodak Z i 8 pocket video camera. Operation is by one switch in the middle of the back of the camera so it can be used by either L or R handed users and is VERY easy to use. It's pretty good on quality of results although a bit notchy when zooming. With an extra battery and memory cards (the built in memory is TINY) and case I paid £130 3 years ago and consider it good value for money.

    Cheers and hope this helps.
  10. Andrew Hodkinson
    I am not left-handed, BUT I am blind in my right eye, and more to the point I have a pretty large nose. Conventional cameras require me to place the body of the camera completely in front of my face in order to look through a view-finder with my left eye. Cameras with digital screens are little better as they tend to be on the left-hand side of the camera back. No-one is going to make a left-handed camera, and if they did I wouldn't be able to afford it. Some sort of accessory to bring a view-finder over to the other side of the camera just might be possible surely.
  11. Richard Bramwell
    Has anyone seen or tried the new Canon PowerShot N? Its design means it can be used any way up, right- or left-handed.
  12. Tom Hurley
    I am a professional photographer and I am ambidextrous but I am very very left eyed, the only left handed camera that I have come across and have the good fortune to own is the Mamiya Universal Press film camera but I'm still looking.
  13. Lew Stamp
    I am a professional photographer, and facing a right thumb surgery. I searched on line and found nothing. So I ordered a camera flash bracket with a wrist strap which will mount under camera using the tripod socket on either the right "or the left". I also ordered an electronic camera shutter release cord. After carving away the front of the flash grip with a Dremel tool, which took all of ten minutes, I mounted the electronic release in it's place and secured it with black electrical tape. The result in not as ergo-dynamicaly balanced as the right handed, built in camera grips, but it is workable.
  14. Eric Wilson
    My brother has been struggling with right handed cameras for years, he only has the use of his left hand. This has meant using them upside down etc. He got some money for his birthday so we went looking to see if there was anything new on the market. He said he wanted something that could also take video clips, and this prompted us to look at cheapish video cameras.... we found several possibilities, Sony Bloggie (expensive), but with the button on the back and so could be used either hand, but settled for the Panasonic HX-DC1, which is a 'pistol' style with still and video buttons on the back, (where the hammer would be). I got him to try using it and, WOW, what a revelation. Yes it is really a right handed camera, but SOO MUCH EASIER TO USE. Maybe it should be advertised as Lefty friendly.
    1. Michael H
      ive have paralysis down my right did from birth, so fine motor skills in my fingers are limited... i can almost scratch myself...
      i have used a smaller Olympus V520...it has 14 megapixels which give me great photos later... and being small i can easy hold it steady and shoot at the same time... the videos too. ok it mean on the battery if using video..but i always have 2.
      and the sound is clear...ha ha maybe to clear...
      i am however about to look further for a wifi one too. my dad uses this now.
      it / they .. as i had two we excellent for catching wildlife shots in Africa.... just not long way off..

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