By:
On:
In: Photography
With: 0 Comments

It has been long since I smelt the acrid odour of black powder and smoke drifting over the battlefield. But a couple of weekends back I got to attend my first Napoleonic reenactment since the Grand Tactical in 2019. And while the event hosted at Fort George in Niagara-On-The-Lake wasn’t a dedicated 1812 event, there were plenty of units that normally attend 1812 events. But the, Fort George was standing in for a frontier fort on the Spanish peninsula built by the French. While the lines were certainly smaller than what I’m used to at such events, with broad support not only from the pocketRead More →

By:
On:
In: Optical Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

If there is one type of lens that many photographers look for in a good street photography camera or any compact camera body is a good pancake lens. And while Nikon is not known for producing many ‘pancake’ style lenses, they did have a couple of winners. One of these lenses is the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, a real winner. In contrast, there have been many versions of this lens, including a long-nose version, the 50mm f/1.8 is a solid performer for the smaller form-factor camera bodies (think FM, FE) and while it may look like a Series E, it is all Nikkor. Lens Specifications Make:Read More →

By:
On:
In: Reviews
With: 2 Comments

When it comes to assistance with long processing times or the need for constant agitation, there aren’t that many options out there today. Sure there is the original Jobo system, but these are completely closed systems that often carry a high startup cost. And on the opposite end of the spectrum are the Besler and Unicolor Cibachrome bases and tanks. But what about something new, using modern solutions. Last year I had the chance to try out one such system, the AuRA film processor, and it certainly made an impression on me and my processing. Sadly these aren’t yet for sale, and given the technologyRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 2 Comments

I’m not one for point-and-shoot, automatic everything cameras. I’m not knocking such cameras; they’re excellent and have introduced many photographers to the world of film through their ease of use, pocketability and appeal in popular culture. Not to mention the Instagram and Celebrity crowd. Sadly this has also caused the price of certain premium and even primary point-and-shoot cameras to skyrocket in price. However, I do love a good unique camera, and the Minolta Weathermatic 35DL certainly fits that criteria. There are two reasons for this; the first and most apparent is that the camera is designed for underwater applications, fully watertight but can alsoRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

The KMZ ЗЕНИТ 3m (Zenit 3m) is a camera that is often bought for only a couple of reasons. The first is the desirable Helios 44 lens; the second is a collector’s item. In the overall history of Soviet cameras, the Zenit 3m marked the first popular SLR to come out of the Красногорский механический завод or Krasnogorskiy Mechanicheskiy Zavod (KMZ). Sadly, like many older Soviet cameras, they aren’t known for their longevity and often suffer shutter failure. But my good friend John Meadows uncovered his Zenit 3m, and it still works, so he loaded it out to me along with his Helios lens withRead More →

By:
On:
In: Photography
With: 0 Comments

Canada’s history with the treatment of mental health is long and sorted. And while we’ve made great leaps forward, often, many of the historical institutions have gotten lost and replaced along the way. Not that those who were patients in such facilities in the past would want a reminder standing out to them every day. While the Queen Street Asylum is long gone, replaced by the far more modern CAMH facilities, the asylum at Amherstburg has reverted to the historical configuration as a War-Era fort; even Mimicoe is now being used as a college campus. When I was deep into Urban Exploration, exploring mental asylumsRead More →

By:
On:
In: Developer Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

When it comes to basic bare-bones developers, you can’t get any simpler these days than Metol and Hydroquinone. And there are a lot of these developers out there, my first developer review, Kodak D-76, is one such developer, and there are numerous clones of the developer. Each has its little takes on this foundational developer. So it only makes sense that I review several different options, so today, I will be talking about Ilford ID-11. Often called the British D-76, ID-11, while at its core is the same as D-76, it does have a few things that set it apart from the colonists over inRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

I admit that I haven’t used many of them for Canon cameras because I’m primarily a Nikon shooter. But there’s something special about a unique camera within the overall history of a camera manufacturer, and when it comes to Canon, that camera is the EF. Not to be confused because these days, when you match Canon and EF, you’re talking about their line of Autofocus lenses for the EOS system in the EF-Mount. But before the name was applied to lenses, it was a model of Canon cameras. Often passed over in general history, the EF is unique for two reasons: it was the firstRead More →

By:
On:
In: Developer Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

I need to start learning that when it comes to black and white developers, all of this has happened before, all of this will happen again. Take, for example, Rollei Low-Speed, RLS is a modern rebranding of LP-CUBE XS. There’s very little information about both developers online outside of official documentation. But it also has some interesting notes and is the first time using a film described as a deep layer developer. But the one thing I am familiar with is a developer that works best at speed less than the box. In fact, the amount of reduction in film speed is what I sawRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for manual focus Minolta cameras. And the Minolta lineup is a unique cross-section of camera technology through the post-war 20th Century. All my early experience with photography came in various Minolta cameras, from my family’s Riva Zoom to my first personal camera, the Hi-Matic 7s and the first SLRs in the SR-T 102 X-7a. More recently, the XE-7 has been my Minolta SR-Mount of choice. But the XE-7 lead me down the rabbit hole of the 1970s of Minolta’s technology-sharing agreement with Ernst Leitz because, of course, there was something better. And that something better is the MinoltaRead More →