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I first found the beautiful downtown of Dundas in 2010 when I did an epic two-day multi-site tour at Doors Open Hamilton. Although I would not return for several more years, I only recently started returning to this stunning downtown as it offered up a different backdrop to my photography but a familiar theme, that stunning mid-19th-century small-town feel. Dundas has this in spades, all in a small, compact, and easily walkable community. Archaeological records show that 10,000 years ago, long before European contact, the first humans settled in the rich valley in the shadow of the Niagara Escarpment. The woods, streams, and fertile soilRead More →

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It’s been a long time since I thought about the Darnley Grist Mill. It wasn’t until I saw a memory pop up on Facebook that I was heading out to kick off the start of my War of 1812 project, which included a stop at the Darnley Grist Mill. I ‘discovered’ the location in a book with a list of different sites related to the Anglo-American War of 1812. Oddly enough those shots never went into the project despite the connection of the mill to the war. But despite touching on the subject of mills and local supply lines, I never used those images. HavingRead More →

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Well, here we are at the start of a new year and looking back at last year’s outstanding Frugal Film Project! I had a lot more fun with this project, and it helped nurture my soft spot for consumer 1990s/2000s SLRs. It’s funny; I never saw these as viable cameras before, yet they have a beautiful charm. You don’t have to worry too much because they can be a dime a dozen. Plus, they work with many lenses that most people use with their other autofocus systems. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Minolta (Sony) all have lenses that work on both digital (full-frame) and 35mm bodies.Read More →

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I first learned about the fourth generation of Minolta SLRs from the Film Photography Project and Leslie Lazenby’s promotion of the Maxxum 700si as one of the perfect autofocus SLRs ever produced. And having used one in the past, the 700si is a good camera. I used one for a few rolls before passing it along; I had yet to return to the Minolta A-Mount. Then I got a 7000, which burned and was replaced with a Maxxum 9 because why not go from one end to another? It was with the ‘9 that I got my taste for the A-Mount. But in my reviewRead More →

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There’s nothing better than getting out for a small photo walk to help close out the year, and while technically, this walk took place before Christmas, this is my final post for 2023! Most Classic Camera Revival hosts try to get together for a social event at the end of each year. We tried last year, but the weather didn’t cooperate the day we picked. So this year, we wanted to take advantage of it. On 17 December, the gang (most of us) gathered in beautiful Dundas, Ontario, for the host-only end-of-year walk. I packed my Dynax 600si Classic to test the era-appropriate 28-80mm kitRead More →

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If there is the closest thing to a universal developer in the film photography world, that developer is Diafine. If you’re thinking, “Wait, aren’t all developers universal?” You are right; a B&W developer will develop many different film stocks. But it doesn’t often happen that two other film stocks, shot at different speeds, can be developed simultaneously. There are some examples of cross-over, but only a few. Diafine uses three main development times and a couple of unique combinations. These are shared across many different film stocks that allow you to develop multiple rolls shot multiple ways in the same tank. You can also shootRead More →

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There are many cities and towns in Ontario that I feel connected to, primarily through my photography. They have been common in my photography projects, reviews, and videos. One of these cities is Hamilton, Ontario. I spent many years learning the art of photography and exposure by tromping through the many abandoned buildings the city offered to explorers through the early 21st century when I was active in the hobby. While most of my time was spent in either the downtown or industrial sectors, I had only a passing interest in a part of Hamilton, Concession Street, up at the edge of Hamilton Mountain—the ratherRead More →

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You will have to pry my Rolleiflex from my cold dead hands. But as wonderful as they are to use and the top-notch images, they aren’t the cheapest camera. But the folks at Rollei (Franke & Heidecke) realised that the cost of their cameras put them out of reach of many photographers. Enter the Rolleicord, the low-cost TLR, in the greater Rollei ecosystem, is the lowest tier, with the 2.8 Rolleiflexs at the top, followed by the 3.5 Rolleiflexes next and then Rolleicord. But that doesn’t mean you should turn your nose up at these cameras. While they never reached the same level of technologicalRead More →

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I first visited the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in 1995 on a March Break with my mom, brother and Oma. While this was post-fire, they were all crammed into the one surviving original hangers. I still am a bit of a flyboy. I logged countless hours in Microsoft Flight and Combat Flight Simulator. But seeing these warplanes up close and personal was a dream come true. The stunning array of machine guns at the front of a B-25 Mitchell (there’s a 4×6 print at my parent’s home of that) and the massive bomb bay of the Avro Lancaster. Since then, the museum has become aRead More →

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Regarding film developers, I tend to stray from those designed for one specific film stock. It’s not that I don’t want to try them; I have a dislike of closed image systems. A good developer should be able to achieve a specific result with various films. And for a while, I thought that Foma Retro Special is explicitly designed for Foma Retropan 320 Soft, and while this is the ideal film for the developer, it can do so much more for the entire line of Foma films. After finding a source for the developer, I purchased a pack since I am finally running a reviewRead More →