Joining James & Bill on today’s show is noted long-time photographer and camera seller Paul RyBolt. Paul is one of several hosts on the Camerosity Podcast and is a wealth of knowledge from the camera retail world, collecting and using all sorts of cameras and film stocks. The conversation covers everything from the vast collections, including Kurt Ingham’s that Paul has helped sort through to shooting slide film, 6×9, Cibachrome, Corn Sweat, Stereo gear, Ansel Adams as a piano player, and single-malt scotch. Listen to Camerosity (and even join in): mikeeckman.com/category/camerosity-podcast Check Out Paul’s eBay Store: ebay.com/str/paulkris Instagram: instagram.com/ryboltcox Looking for a good spot toRead More →

In all fairness, McMaster University is an excellent institution but the title came to me as a bit of joke and play on the phrase, Jack of All Trades, Master of None. I honestly had other plans for August’s roll in the Frugal Film Project but due to various scheduling difficulties I found myself in the middle of the month without having shot the roll. Now I usually get the roll done as early as I can so that I have time to develop, scan and write. But life happens, plans change, and I ended up needing to get the roll done. So rather thanRead More →

The third in the Elan series of semi-professional cameras released by Canon and the direct successors to the original EOS 650, but why not call it the Elan III? Well, that’s because Canon makes weird choices with their camera names. In the case of the Elan 7, the number seven has nothing to do with the number of models but rather the seven focus points in the new AF module installed in the camera. Unlike my previous Elan camera, the IIe, the Elan 7 I’ll feature in the review is the model without eye control. But the difference between the IIe and the 7 isRead More →

Shooting X-ray films has been relatively niche in the still photography field, but it can often be a lower cost per shot when shooting sheet film. This isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed or used a former medical X-ray film stock; the first was Washi F, which produced some magical results. The second was a non-medical X-Ray film, Washi I. So when I was offered a chance to try out the FPP X-ray film in 35mm, I wasn’t about to say no. This is a reasonably fast film for what it is, rated at ASA-200 but can be shot up to ASA-400. It is uniqueRead More →

You will have to pry these cameras from our cold, dead hands! Yes, back in May, a group of bloggers released another coordinated set of blog posts outlining the five cameras you’ll pry from our cold, dead hands! We thought that would be an excellent topic for CCR, so here we are! But we aren’t just letting this stay in our hands; we also invited the Toronto Film Shooters Meetup group to join! And it’s only fair that our first ‘open source’ episode includes the TFS, as that is the group that formed the foundation of this podcast!  The cameras in today’s episode all seemRead More →

Established in 2013 by MainStreetHost and taken on by Alex Luyckx Photography in 2015, #photochat is a community of photography professionals and enthusiasts who congregate to talk shop and discuss anything and everything photography. After a brief pause through 2023 Photochat is back with a monthly chat model. To participate in our monthly chat (every Second Thursday at 1:00 pm), search the #photochat hashtag on Twitter, Mastodon, and BlueSky Social to see the conversation, or find me at @AlexLuyckxPhoto on Twitter, Mastodon & BlueSky. Include the hashtag in your tweets to answer the questions and talk with the other participants. If there’s a topic you’dRead More →

Despite having visited many of the towns in my part of Ontario there are still some hidden gems that have been on my hit list but never actually gone to see despite having them on said hit list for so long. One of these places is the Hermitage, not the one in Russia, but rather the one in Ancaster, Ontario. If you haven’t heard of Ancaster that’s okay, it has been a part of Hamilton since 2001 despite being one of the earliest urban centres in the Greater Hamilton Area predating both Hamilton and Dundas. With my plan to sell off some of my lesserRead More →

The massive silos at the foot of Bathurst Street caught my attention long before I started going into abandoned buildings; I actually feel that these silos and a set of abandoned houses on Derry Road near Pearson Airport (long demolished now) are what first drew me into the world of Urban Exploration and the natural curiosity to see what was behind those closed doors and boarded up windows. I also vaguely remember seeing figures up at the tallest point one night coming back from a Blue Jays game. Either way, the Canadian Malting Company silos in Toronto were one of the grail locations for manyRead More →

It’s been a while since we’ve done an entire episode dedicated to Canon cameras and today we have some real treats! We’re discussing the earliest Canon cameras, those LTM rangefinders that put Canon on the map and more importantly Canon LTM glass, some talk about the AE-1 and AE-1 Program, and a little bit about choosing the right EOS camera for you. And if you are looking at getting into Canon’s rangefinder line, Bill cannot recommend enough the wonderful book Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933-68 by Peter Dechert! We’re also welcoming a special guest who is no stranger to CCR, Alex Smith is back with hisRead More →

Per Ardua Ad Astra – Through Adversity to the Stars As a personal rule, I tried hard to avoid using the same locations twice, but there are always exceptions. Last year I featured one of my favourite local museums, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. While that post was directly about the museum itself, for this year the museum is merely a backdrop for something different, a celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Air Power through the century. The one thing that you’ll notice in this post is an expanding history section and also a selectionRead More →