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Well, here I am again at the start of another fifty-two roll project. I honestly did not think I would do one of these again especially with 35mm. But 2020 was a weird year and I was able to complete a whole pile of history and personal photo projects that carried me through the whole year. But did not allow me to build a big over-arching project for 2021, and that left a huge gap in my schedule, so why not bring back the fifty-two roll, but switch everything up. This will mark my fourth project of this type so I took aspects from threeRead More →

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When it comes to Polaroid cameras, I have a love-hate relationship with them. I often find I don’t gel well with these instant wonders, and the cost of the film remains fairly steep. And these days almost all of the old-school Polaroid cameras are starting to get long in the tooth. Sure the Polaroid One is a great option and made in this century, but there are far more of the older cameras around than, the newer ones. This is where the Spirit enters, it is one of the first of the new Type-600 Polaroid cameras released in the early 1980s and is a bitRead More →

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In: Developer Review Blogs
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It’s funny how some developers just drop right into your lap. One of my readers, Jon Porter, wanted to know my thoughts on FX-39. And at the time I had never even heard of Adox FX-39, so I hopped onto my source for the rarer chemicals, Argentix.ca, and found that yes they did carry Adox FX-39 II. Is this new version any different from OG FX-39, not on the surface, it just has been adjusted to last longer. But that wouldn’t be a problem. I went through my first 500mL bottle quickly and in a couple of months. FX-39 is based on Neofin Red (createdRead More →

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If there is one lens that I use even less than my Rokkor 135/2.8, it’s my Nikkor 135/2.8. This beat-up lens is one of the groups that I got when I received my Nikon F3 kit back many years ago. In that kit along with the 135/2.8 was the 105/2.5 which got all the attention and the glory. I was always more of a fan of the 105mm focal length and the 85mm focal length before that. The 135mm length seemed a little redundant. Then last year when Dan Novak ran the 135mm challenge I dug out this lens from the back of the shelfRead More →

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Let’s face it, 2020 wasn’t the best year and while we would have loved to have gathered with all our listeners in the GTHA region for our five year anniversary that just couldn’t happen because we’re still in the time of plague. And while we never got into the studio as much as we wanted, we figured in the final episode of our season we should safely gather with three meters between each other to bring you the season finale. And like the holiday season that is upon us, there are lots of leftovers and our team has been busy through this past year andRead More →

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In: The Canal
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There is always a bittersweet feeling when you wrap up a project. You’re proud that you completed the project and hopefully worth the effort you took to complete it from beginning to end. But you’re also sad because you cannot keep working on the subject. While this one, compared to some of my two recently history projects, was far smaller. The Anglo-American War of 1812 and Canadian Confederation were exhaustive topics filled with all sorts of twists and turned. The Welland Canal is far more straight forward, which is why I could complete the project in such a short amount of time. I guess learningRead More →

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In: Film Review Blogs
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These days it seems that photography Kickstarter campaigns are a dime a dozen. But the company with the most number of wins under their belt is Lomography. Say what you will about them, they can deliver on their promises. Sometimes it might take a swift kick in the rear-end to get them moving, but they do move. Now I’ve shot a fair number of Lomography films, most are re-rolled and rebranded. Of course, they also encourage production of other film stocks, such as their Berlin and Potsdam films that are both rebrands of ORWO N74 and UN54 films. But they also produce some wild falseRead More →

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Well, I don’t know about you but 2020 turned into a little bit of a dumpster fire and while the wild ride there is now hope at the end of the tunnel. We just have to stay the course for a little while longer. But there are only a handful of things that we can actually control. Despite the rocky year that was, I did get a lot of photography done and plenty of projects completed and wrapped up which means I have a clean slate for 2021! And what is now becoming a yearly post this is what I have planned for the newRead More →

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In: The Canal
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When it comes to all the posts I’ve written about the Welland Canals, this one is probably the most important. The reason is that if it hadn’t been for the efforts to save the historic Welland Canals, this whole project would not have been worth creating. The reason is that there would be nothing left of the first Canals at least in original forms. Sure there might have been plaques installed eventually, and some sections of the earlier Canals may have survived, but I don’t think in any meaningful sense. The preservation of the historical Welland Canals was the last thing on the minds ofRead More →

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In: Camera Review Blogs
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I’ll have to admit, ever since I went to Europe in 2015, I’ve wanted to add some sort of folding medium format camera to my collection. Something compact, shooting at least 6×4.5 or 6×6. And for a little while earlier this year, I had my eye on a Mamiya Six (the original one, not the modern rangefinder). After reading and searching, I realised that there were too many questions about the Mamiya Six and stopped looking. And then this beauty fell into my lap, and I’m glad it did. The Ikonta 521 might not be the best folding camera out there, but it is exactlyRead More →