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It’s the rumble in the professional jungle! Yes, I’m pitting the two mid-1990s pro bodies I have in my toolbox against each other in a friendly competition! This contest isn’t to see which is better than the other, I use and work with both cameras often side-by-side. And honestly I consider them both equally amazing cameras in my mind, I mean look at the glowing reviews I’ve given both cameras. For this little contest, I’ve set a few rules. First, this contest saw completion on the same day, shot-for-shot. Also, I set both to matrix/average metering and full Auto Exposure. In both cases, I mountedRead More →

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I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a sucker for professional 35mm cameras, and there are two that I’ve always wanted, the Nikon F5 and the Minolta Maxxum 9. While I loved working with the Maxxum 7, the 9 still drew me in just that little bit more. And while the 7 and 9 share many similar features and design cues, the Maxxum 7 to the Maxxum 9 is what the Nikon F100 is to the Nikon F5. All solid cameras, just the 9 and F5, are aimed more at the professional than the advanced amateur. I was sold on the 9 as soon asRead More →

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Certainly an odd-ball in the 600-Series line up from Polaroid. The Impulse is actually my favourite format for the 600-Series cameras from Polaroid, with the grey plastic and rubberized grips. It’s almost as if Polaroid wanted to try out the style that would eventually go into the Polaroid Spectra line of cameras before actually building it. Gone is the typical clam-shell design that is iconic of the 600-Series cameras. The Impulse is a fixed focus, point-and-shoot with a pop-up flash. They also released two sub-variants of the Impulse, the Portrait (which has a selectable focus via an auxiliary lens) and the AF which features Polaroid’sRead More →

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Thinking back to what could have been, I remember when I first got into film photography, photography in general and happened across Minolta. The SR-T 102, Hi-Matic 7s, even the X-7a, but I wanted to make the jump to autofocus. I was in a local bargain shop and happened across an open box, the Maxxum 7. It didn’t come with a lens and was well outside my price range. And now that I know more about that shop, it was probably hot also. I ended up switching to Nikon. But here it is now, the Minolta Maxxum 7, what many online sites describe as theRead More →

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If you’re a fan of the Polaroid Automatic Land Camera or old school pop-out folders, then the Lomography Belair X 6-12 will be a familiar camera. I’ll be referring to the camera as the Belair from now on. And while the Belair shares some design features of the Auto Land Camera, the two are very different cameras altogether. The Belair doesn’t try to be anything but a fun camera that sits nicely on the edge of being a toy camera. A fairly simplistic camera, but has one thing that drew me in, the giant 6×12 panoramic images and the interchangeable lens. Special thanks to AngelaRead More →

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When it comes to Soviet cameras you can never be too sure, I’ve had some winners in the way of the Fed and Zenit E, but also some failures with the Zenit 122K. However, when Boris, a member of the Toronto Film Shooters group offered up his Kiev-19 I jumped at the chance, and the day I tested it on, was the perfect way to see if these Soviet Cameras could take a Soviet Winter. But the Kiev-19 is no ordinary Soviet Camera. While most use a universal mounting system like the M39 or M42 Screw Mount, this camera uses a Nikon F mount. NotRead More →

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When it comes to Fuji I have had some experience with their equipment, from the Texas Leica to the beast of the GX680iii. However, I have never tried one of their 35mm options. And they have a few, the cult Klasse being among them. So when I went to look for something unique to review for number 101 and the first camera review of the new year, the ST605 came across my desk. At face value the Fujica is just another mechanical SLR from the 70s, I mean the look the styling. But in reality, the ST605 is a sleeper, an inexpensive SLR that takesRead More →

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It is only fitting to round out the first 100 reviews with the final single digit film camera from Nikon, the mighty F6. The F6 is the last film camera to be produced by Nikon. And while the Nikon FM10 is still produced, it is in fact, made by Cosina rather than Nikon itself. It is also worth a note that this particular F6 is the final one to be sold by Nikon Canada. While the F6 was produced in the age when most professional photographers were shooting digital regularly, the F6 turned into a camera more aimed at the advanced amateur who wanted thatRead More →

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If you’ve seen this camera before in my reviews, you’d be partly correct; the Leica R3 is the cousin of the XE-7; both are internally the same camera with some external differences (also the obvious being the lens mount). The XE marked a new era for Minolta as it introduced the idea of a semi-automatic camera and a confident professional air to their cameras, not to mention a unique style of names, the X rather than sticking with the old SR nomenclature. While many companies went with smaller form factors in the 1970s, Minolta stuck with their bulky designs, at least for a while. ButRead More →

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In photography’s history, critical technologies reshaped photography, from the earliest processes with plates and harsh chemicals to flexible films, interchangeable lenses, and folders to SLRs. One of the most significant changes is the introduction of microprocessors into cameras. This led to the creation of affordable cameras with auto-exposure functionality and the right ecosystem for creating autofocus cameras. While Minolta did not invent autofocus, they were the first to get an entire ground-up autofocus system SLR with a new look and feel compared to previous SLRs to market and meet with commercial success. The 7000 AF is a camera born of the era. While still aRead More →