"Olympia" camera

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One of "Olympia's" many name variants image by Michiel2005 (Image rights)

This article refers to a series of 35mm cameras, sold under a bewildering number of names, whose intentions are to deceive the shopper. They have been attributed to the Ouyama company of China.

Elaborate styling that superficially resembles an SLR, a metal weight in the base to conceal the all-plastic construction, and (typically) a battery-driven film advance all conceal that these are basically trashcams. They have fixed focus, poor-quality lenses; and while the aperture may be adjusted from (nominally) f/6.3 to f/16, there is a single, non-adjustable shutter speed. The apparently large lens diameter is mostly a dummy clear plastic cover, the actual optics are much smaller and recessed into the plastic barrel.

Most shameless is the variety of names under which the camera is sold. Olympia is intended to sound vaguely like Olympus; while some models are sold under flat-out counterfeit Canon (or "Canomatic") branding—right down to the font of the Canon name.