The Ginfax Top Suxess, a suitable stand-in for disposables with a footie-friendly aesthetic (All pics: Stephen Dowling)
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The football World Cup is on. Of course I'm shining a spotlight on this camera.
The realm of novelty cameras is a fascinating one. There are cameras that look like airliners and soda pop cans. There are cameras that look like cartons of fast-food fries or packets of cigarettes. Name an object that isn't a camera, and chances are some enterprising company made a camera out of it.
One of the most imaginative companies making novelty cameras in the 1990s was Ginfax. It’s a Hong Kong company that has factories in China and makes all manner of electrical goods. In the 1990s, a lot of its efforts went into making some decidedly quirky cameras.
Ever scrolled through eBay and been tempted by a camera made to look like a can of Pepsi or Warsteiner beer? Ginfax made them, alongside another model made to look like outsized pencils or even a football.
I first spied one of these cameras, the Top Suxess, at Bievres International Photo Fair in 2025. I was on the lookout for a camera that might be a good prize for a photowalk later on that summer, the Cameraburo Compact Cup. I spied one at a stall and hummed and aahed long enough that when I decided I'd haggle for it… it had gone.
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