Patty Both Retro Camera Pencil Sharpener Black

This pencil sharpener has just about EVERYTHING going for it. When you research these retro styled hand cranked manual sharpeners, they all seem to be of the same vein as the "Carl Angel 5" sharpener. Namely, you pull out the face plate, depress/pinch a lever, insert your pencil, then crank away.I bought the original Carl Angel 5 sharpener which was a joy to use.Unfortunately, these Carl Angel 5 sharpeners and the vast majority of the same class of manual sharpeners are not very nice to the pencil wood case...the teeth that grips the pencil literally chew the wood and create depressions along the side of the pencil. This is not a problem at all when sharpening a throwaway generic pencil, however painful when sharpening a nicer pencil, like a Hi-Uni or Palomino Blackwing since it damages the woodcasing.With a bit more research, I noticed that Mitsubishi makes an interesting array of manual hand-cranked sharpeners, some that are readily available on Amazon, like the "lower end" KH-20, and some higher end stuff, that is sold mostly only via Japanese websites.Uni KH-20 Hand Crank Wooden Pencil Sharpener - Blue (japan import)The KH-20 was nice, noticeably a good solid build, all plastic unlike the Carl Angel 5, but still study nonetheless. The grippers however on the faceplate are made of a nice rubbery material that absolutely grips the pencil securely and without a hint of damaging the woodcase. This is a nice feature! Unfortunately, the point created by this sharpener was not really to my liking, because unlike the Angel 5, which adds a nice subtle concave contour to the tip of the pencil, the sharpened end is perfectly straight without any contour at all. This is just a personal preference but I think that sharpeners that add the slight contour can expose a longer point on the tip.I then decided to do more research and discovered that there is a premium version of the Carl Angel 5, called the "Carl Angel-5 Premium" (Duh!), that I was not able to buy from any local sourced retailer here in the States, so I ponied up a pretty penny and paid some extra $15-18 dollars to have one shipped from a Japanese website (Ratuken).The premium version is noticeably nicer than everything I bought before it, The "teeth" are also of the same rubbery variety that securely grips a pencil without damaging it, and it adds the nice contoured concave point which is the best of both worlds! Plus, when you crank an Angel-5 Premium, the action is buttery smooth and effortless. Quite a nice touch.No doubt, this premium version is about the best sharpener I have, however, for larger diameter pencils, like a Dixon Tri-Conderoga, or a fat "beginner" pencil, they simply don't fit.Then I spotted one of these Deli Retro Camera pencil sharpeners and noticed a few things:1) They have rubber grippers that don't damage pencil woodcasings!2) They have a larger diameter to accomodate even the fattest pencil on the market!3) They sharpen a nice, long concave point like the Carl Angel-5!4) For the price I paid for the premium Carl Angel-5, I could have bought THREE of these!5) The crank lever has a small dial that actually lets you vary the degree of sharpening from uselessly blunt to pointy sharp!Therefore, I conclude that the pencil sharpener search is over, you must buy this pencil sharpener!Negatives:- It's a ghetto build quality and I think it will break if a small child were to crank too roughly on the handle.- The crank arm does not provide as much leverage so it takes a fair amount of effort to turn the crank.That's it, can't think of anything else to detract from this otherwise ideal sharpener for all your pencils, regular and jumbo size!

I'm invalid in a couple of art forms, Photography primary, and pencil drawing. The fact that it looked like a camera but sharpened pencils caught my attention. Reading reviews, they seemed to be mostly favorable, so I bought one, mainly for the design. I've used it several times, and it works very well, and looks nice on my drawing table.

I love this pencil sharpener. It works beautifully on all kinds of pencils, even the cheap ones that our old electric sharpener would eat up on one side. I've also used it on colored pencils and gotten excellent results. My only concern is that is is made of plastic, not metal, like the more expensive deli sharpeners. I just don't let my kids use it without my supervision since it can be a bit tricky for little hands to operate. I am satisfied with my purchase and will likely get more to give away as teacher gifts.

Does not get a pencil to a completely sharp point. Otherwise pretty solidly built for plastic.The back directions are written in chinese. You can't tell from the pictures. Turn the knob left for sharpest setting.On the sides it says "I like take a photograph. It can leaves a good memory!" Again, you can't tell from the product photos.

I can't wait to give a real review of this one. I've watched a lot before I buy, I've purchased those electronic ones and gave them back. This one I was just trying to buy something cheaper since I thought all the sharpeners might be the same after trying a lot. This one shocked me by sharpened the pencils unbelievably professional - more shorter length of wood and longer length of lead, which means you can use a pencil longer time on both drawing/writing and the working life, because it saves more wood but give you more leads each time. That's what I was looking for!!! I have compared two 6b pencils sharpened by this sharpener to another one which sharpened by a popular electronic pencil sharpener in Amazone which ha got almost 100% positive reviews (are these people blind I was thinking?!!)More importantly, I'm from China, this sharpener is also from China where you can find easily in taobao, so it's first time when I saw it I got that you can adjust the degree of sharpness you want very smoothly and accurately by turning the littlen silver button on the back. 粗means fuzzy/rough and 细 means delicate/sharp when you talking about pencil tips.Overall, amazing!! The price is much cheaper than the value👍

it's ok

It was so nice, I bought it twice!I bought this originally for work (I'm a payroll specialist-- so use lots of pencils), but when i got it there, I realized it was better than my expensive Xacto electric sharpener at home (also an artist-hobbyist-- so use lots of colored pencils)-- So I decided to bring it home and take the Xacto to work.After 3 weeks, I couldn't stand the Xacto anymore in comparison to this funky little camara sharpener-- so I gave the Xacto to a resale shop and got another one like this for the office--Sharpens super quick, very sharp. It is a little light weight for really little kids, probably, and probably sharpens too sharp for them anyway-- But my 11 year old deals with it fine and loves it every bit as much as I do-- Worth the 12 bucks we paid for it!!

This looks really cool but it is a super pain to use. I need a third hand to hold the pencil in because if I don't it doesn't work! I'm very disappointed.