35mmc – Nikon F4 Review – A Design Revolution
If there is an iconic camera from the 1980s, the Nikon F4 certainly rates among them. This space age design is a radical departure for Nikon and shows the power of industrial design combined with a tonne of advancements made through the earlier decade. And while the F4 has long departed from my tool kit I can appreciate the design as does Robert Gulley who penned this excellent review of the F4! You can read the whole thing over at 35mmc.com!
Photo Thinking – Voigtländer Superb – Just Superb
I enjoy TLRs, and you’ll pry my Rolleiflex from my cold dead hand, but that doesn’t mean there were not any other excellent or rather superb TLRs coming out of European camera makers at the same time. Meet the Voigtländer Superb, Theo describes the TLR as striking and a direct shot across the bow another camera maker. And you know, the designers and engineers certainly got something right. Plus the naming of the camera is right on brand for Voigtländer! Read more over at photothinking.com!
The Schnitterker Six: Little House On The Prairie 50 Year Cast Reunion
While I see photography, especially film photography where you get your hands into the whole process as a special kind of magic, there is an even deeper magic, tin types and other wet plate methods. I’ve had the chance to use the process once under careful guidance of another photographer and loved the process. But I also accept the reality that I won’t be doing it regularly at home. But this article certainly caught my eye of a tin typist team that worked on tintypes during the 50th Anniversary Cast Reunion of the show Little House on the Prairie. It certainly is an appropriate medium give the period where the show was placed. As many of the historic photos of the actual family were captured in this process. You can read more over at: schnittkersix.blogspot.com!
Mike Eckman – Nikon FM2n Review
If there is one camera I regret letting go of, the FM2n is that camera. It’s a fantastic all manual, all mechanical camera that is one of the few that Nikon produced for a long period, something that many cameras didn’t always enjoy. And Mike has nothing but praise for this camera and certainly has been again keeping an ear to the ground to see if one that isn’t super expensive comes across my desk. You can read more over at mikeeckman.com!
My Journey Into Photography – Phoenix 200 – A Brand New Colour Film made by Harman Technology
While I have my own review of the new Harman Phoenix coming out in a few weeks, I wanted to share another excellent review of this brand new film stock. Jim has managed to show off exactly what I got from this film as well. While it certainly is not the best but it is a working and viable film. And I rather like the results that Jim got, and a little jealous of the snow on the ground. You can read the full review jimgravesphoto.blogspot.com
Canny Cameras – All Fur Coat but Nae Kickers – The Lomography Lomomatic Review
110 is a weird format, originally designed as a replacement for 126 Instamatic, but in a far smaller negative size. I’ve used my share of 110 cameras, from Minolta to the iconic interchangable lens Pentax 110 SLR. But for some reason, it didn’t die as a format, yes it’s better than Disc but still! But it also comes as no surprise that Lomography has taken to 110 and it makes sense. And while I have no desire to shoot the format, I cannot deny that their new 110 offering is a fine looking camera. But as Alan says in a way that only the scottish can, it ain’t pretty, it just looks that way. Read On at: austerityphoto.co.uk
Silvergrain Classics – Are Films REALLY Safe In Airport Scanners?
While we all know that X-Ray scanners at airports and certain public locations can affect your faster films (anything ASA-800 and faster) there are new scanners starting to pop up around the world’s airports based on CT scanner technology. The common agreement is that even one pass through those scanners with any film will cause damage. But was that put to the test, well Silvergrain Classics and Lina Bessonova have put that to the test. You can read the results at: silvergrainclassics.com
Down The Road – AI is not ready to replace me on this blog just yet
If there is one thing that I have been pushing hard against is the use of generative AI within the creative sphere. That includes generating images and text using artificial intelligence. And it’s not out of some fear from the sheer volume of science fiction that I have read and watched where AI has gone on a murder spree (Terminator, Battlestar Galactica). It’s more that AI doesn’t sound human, it also steals from people who take time to create from their own minds. But Jim Grey posted this rather humourous post that he had Microsoft’s CoPilot right and it is downright cliche. And even if Jim had not said that it was written by AI, you can easily tell. Read On brave souls at blog.jimgrey.net!
Forty-First Regiment Blog – Bored Officers, An Afternoon of Whisky and a Deserter on the Loose in Detroit. What Could Go Wrong?
History is first and foremost stories, and while we all know the stories of the War of 1812, there is a lot to be said about the period before the war happened, that weird little time between the American Revolution and the renewed conflict of 1812-5. One such story is shared by Tom Fournier over on the 41st Regiment’s blog (that is the reenacting group here in Ontario) of one such tale that took place in 1805 involving whiskey a deserter and some interesting writing. I will say, it took me a few tries to make it through this post as it is a copy of an article written in 1889. Read On at www.fortyfirst.org/!
Kyle McDougall – Old Digital Cameras Are Still Good (a look back & reminder)
I recently came across an old ‘digicam’ from 2011, and instead of tossing it in the e-waste bin, I kept it, the camera had a good functioning battery, takes SD cards, and a 16.1MP sensor. While it is a CMOS sensor, not a desirable CCD sensor that a lot of people look for in a digicam, I wanted to see what the camera could still do in 2024. It is only fitting that this video from Kyle McDougall about how old digital cameras are still good! And it’s true, even my D750 is getting on a decade old at this point.
Sophia Carey – My Film Camera Collection in 2024
As someone who has a large toolkit of cameras, I’ve always wanted to do a video like this, but honestly, with the number of cameras I have it would be nearly impossible to cover them all. However, this is a great look at the collection of the UK based photographer Sophia Carey. She does excellent work, especially around portraits using medium format, and has a great little collection of practical cameras.
grainydays – My Combat Camera Story
There are many cameras out there that I would enjoy trying at least once (or twice) one of these cameras is the Graflex KE-4. The KE-4 is a 70mm camera designed for combat use, the trouble is getting your hands on the film needed as 70mm film can be difficult to source. But Grainydays managed to figure out a way to adapt 120 film and showed off what this camera can do and shares some of the cautionary tales of buying used old cameras.
Ryan McBeth – Sydney Australia Mall Incident and Disinformation (Westfield Bondi Junction Mall)
Mis-Information and Dis-Information are rampant these days, thankfully there are a tonne of excellent folk out there who are actively combating it and giving people the tools to identify these bad-actor accounts. One of my personal choices, is Ryan McBeth, I know that thanks to his videos that I’ve been able to identify some dis/mis-leading posts shared on my own social media feeds.