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So, back in December 2025, Alex handed out some expired film to James and Bill, and today we’re back revisiting the topic of expired film. And while Bill & James haven’t had the chance to shoot their rolls, Alex did shoot his odd duck of a roll. Everything from colour shifts to fog and bad chemical packs, it’s all about shooting and using expired film. From developing without any data to best practices, techniques and chemistry needed. Looking for a good spot to get your gear and material fix check out Burlington Camera (Burlington, ON), Downtown Camera (Toronto, ON), Belle Arte Camera (Hamilton, ON), Pond’sRead More →

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A fixed-lens rangefinder is good, but the gold standard for photography was an SLR. I had used SLRs before, including the beat-up K1000 in my high school darkroom and a fellow student’s parent’s SLR. And now that I had been bitten by the photography bug, I was on the hunt for one. The effort did have a false start; I got a Zenit B at a garage sale and failed miserably with that camera. I ended up trading it for another K1000 because the other guy wanted the Helios-44-2 lens attached. But then I happened across the Minolta SR-T 102. Since I already had aRead More →

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While it has taken me a while to come to like Ilford HP5+ the one thing that this film stock can take is punishment. And I’ve done a fair bit of pushing on HP5+ in the past with some excellent success. Last year it was pushing it to ASA-1600 and developing in Fujifilm SPD with some of the best results I’ve seen. I have also seen some excellent results back on the slower end of things. So I have high hopes for this roll. Film Specs Manufacturer: Ilford Photo Name: Ilford HP5+ Type: Panchromatic B&W, Cubic Grained Film Base: Acetate Film Speed: ASA-400, Tested Latitude:Read More →

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I can’t recall when I first saw the historic city of Galt, Ontario. It was probably on a trip to see the outlet shops at the old Southworks location (now the Gaslight district), but I did do a bit of Urban Exploration in that same area several years later. Today, Galt is a part of the modern city of Cambridge, one of four historic settlements that merged in the 1970s. Galt was among the largest, and the historic core remains one of the best to visit if you’re a fan of historic architecture. When I first thought about taking a closer look at Galt, itRead More →

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And Now for Something Completely Different… Today, Alex is joined by David Smith, a Biology professor and researcher at Western University in London, Ontario. While we mostly talk about cameras on the show, David has something unique: microscopes. As many history nerds know, many camera companies we know and love today began producing optics, including microscopes. Dr Smith came by this affinity for collecting honestly, as his mom is an antique dealer. David talks about his microscopes, how he started the collection, and how it led to film photography and a fantastic collection of Leica rangefinders, lenses, and medium-format cameras. You can find Dr SmithRead More →

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If there was a symbol of Hamilton’s rise, fall, and rebirth, that symbol downtown would be the Lister Block. It also was one of the jewels of the Hamilton Urban Exploration scene and could make for a fun night of exploration, which, depending on access, would see an easy group including the Lyric Theatre, Tivoli, Royal Connaught and then Lister Block. After getting out, I grabbed slices from National Pizza. But those days are long gone, Lister and Connaught being restored, Lyric long gone, and Tivoli is sealed demolished. Among all the places I explored, Lister Block is one that I was around when itRead More →

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In: Optical Review Blogs
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Alright, I said I wasn’t going to get one of these, well, specifically an autofocus version of the Nikkor 20mm lens. The Minolta one solidified my enjoyment of the 20mm focal length, and I was passively looking for a manual focus lens, either AI or AI-S, because then it would work on all my cameras without fail. But I also don’t turn up my nose to a lens when offered. And well, here we are, the 20mm f/2.8D. I do like my wide-angle choices, and the 20mm offers up a nice in-between when 24mm isn’t wide enough and 14mm is too wide. And I don’tRead More →

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In the Urban Exploration hobby there is a concept of a risk to reward ratio. The idea is that an explorer needs to determine if the risk of entering the abandoned building is worth the reward of what might be seen inside. In my case, if I saw an abandoned house in an active neighbourhood, I might think that the risk of getting caught inside what could be a mundane house is not worth the potential reward of having a perfectly intact time-capsule. Another explorer might think differently. But if I saw an abandoned factory, I would probably think that the risk of getting caughtRead More →

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Last year, we were so caught up in our own tenth anniversary that we completely forgot about the fifth anniversary of the K-Mount! While the K-Mount is most often associated with Asahi/Pentax, it was a joint invention by Asahi and Zeiss Ikon. Like the M42 mount, the K-Mount was intended to be a universal, open-source lens mount. But the partnership never materialised, and the two companies parted ways, with Pentax retaining the mount and one Zeiss lens design. Since its introduction, the K-Mount has changed slightly as technology advanced. To celebrate, the team is here to discuss the cameras and lenses for this iconic mount,Read More →

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Many photographers of a certain age started with the Pentax K1000. I went a different route, and it’s different from even my preferred camera type today. I went with the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, a fixed lens rangefinder from the 1960s. The Hi-Matic made things real; it was the first camera that was mine and the first good camera that I used. Before this, I used disposable cameras, like the point-and-shoot my parents had, and I still remember the 110 plastic camera I got at a McDonald’s event (at least, that’s what I think in my head-canon). While I would end up with a lot ofRead More →