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There are small cameras, and then there are small cameras. And if you’re used to cameras like the Minolta TC-1 or Olympus XA series, the Rollei 35 T is not a tiny camera. About the size of a package of cigarettes, the Rollei 35 is a camera I once avoided for a couple of reasons. It’s small, and it’s a scale focus viewfinder camera. However, after seeing some fantastic results from my good friend Bill Smith who recently got a Rollei 35 S, I decided to bite the bullet. And I have to say I’m not disappointed, even though the camera is a Singapore madeRead More →

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Back in 2005, I was an avid attendee of the Presbyterian Young People’s Society (PYPS). Through the inspiration of fellow photographer and brother-in-Christ Rob Ellis, I started taking a camera to these events. It was through PYPS that I began to this wild journey as a photographer. But back in 2005, digital proved out of my price range, so I rocked the film. And on a whim, I picked up a roll of Ilford XP2 Super from my local Foto Source Store. I was super excited to have gotten a roll of black & white film. My parents were less so, wondering where I couldRead More →

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When it comes to Canon cameras, you can count the number of times they’ve been featured on the one hand. I’ll admit that I am a Nikon guy, but I couldn’t say no when this beauty was offered up. The Canon EOS 650, while a fairly plain and no-nonsense camera, is a significant part of the history of photography. The EOS 650 is the first autofocus offering from Canon, and the lens mount it introduced changed the company’s direction. And while I was a little wary of the camera, it performed beautifully. It did take a bit of time to figure out some of theRead More →

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The history of Svema film or the entire photographic history from the former Soviet Bloc is a topic for a blog post all on its own. In the case of Svema, they had been producing black & white film for many years before the Second World War. However, they did not have a colour film. When the war happened, and Russia rolled through Eastern Germany, they captured many camera and film manufacturers, including Agfa. From the Agfa plant, they got their hands on colour films and produced Svema Color 125. The film has a colour palette all of its own and something that you don’tRead More →

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No strangers on this bridge, Lomography Potsdam 100 is the second film released in their Kino series of films. Potsdam 100 is ORWO UN54 a film that I have shot a lot with for the past several years. Compared to N74, UN54 is super sharp, fine-grained and has a fantastic tonality and one I have only developed in a limited number of developers, so I’m looking forward to trying it out in different developers. Designed as Eastern Europe version of Kodak Plus-X and it certainly shows. What struck me is that the film is marked as Lomography Potsdam in the rebate area, which means thatRead More →

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And now for something completely different. Out of all the cameras I’ve reviewed, I can say that this is the first time I’ve reviewed a custom hand-built camera. I mean this camera doesn’t even have a name, so I have for the sake of my record keeping, named it the Francuz Cherry 66. As it is for sale and built by eBay user Francuz01, Cherry for being made from cherry wood and 66 for the fact it shoots 6×6 exposures. Now pinhole and I have a strange relationship, I initially had no desire or time or it and when I did shoot it I dislikedRead More →

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It’s not every day that a new film jumps into the market without some pre-release hype, but leave it to CatLABS to slip under the radar with new film stock. In their description of the film, they state that it is in the spirit of Panatomic-X so who am I to skip over the film, I wanted to shoot it now! The film is rated at ASA-80 so a couple stops faster than the classic Kodak emulsion but something I could work with and even pull if needed. I think the film comes from the New55 Atomic-X which is also has a little bit ofRead More →

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As you well know, I’m a huge fan of Kodak Panatomic-X and by far it is the one film I would like to see come back in some modern form. And while I can give TMax 100 a similar look, what if I could find that look I’m fond of in a modern new film? Well, I feel I can find that in CatLABS X Film 80 and sure it’s not an ASA-32 film, but what if I pulled it? I mean I got stable images out of TMax 100 at nearly a two-stop full, in this case, it’s only about a stop and aRead More →

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According to the Kodak Datasheets on Eastman Fine Grain Duplicating Positive Film, which I will refer to from now on as Eastman 2366, is a low-speed duplicating film intended for making master positives from black-and-white camera negatives. Eastman 2366 is a blue-sensitive black-and-white film has very high resolution and provides very high acutance. In other words, this is not a film for regular photographic use. But what’s the fun in that? I first came across Eastman 2366 among other specialised Motion Picture Film from the Film Photography Project but to develop these as negatives using standard chemistry, while possible it’s hard to find times toRead More →

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If there’s one lens that I don’t use that much is the 135mm focal length. I shoot a tonne with my pair of Nikon 105mm lenses and the 100mm in my Maxxum system is becoming a fast favourite. But I have a pair of 135mm lens one in Nikon the other in Rokkor that just don’t get the same amount of love as the others do. And oddly enough there are plenty of other photographers out there that their lenses feel the same lack of love. Enter Dan Novack when he posted a challenge on the Negative Postive’s Podcast group on Facebook asking if anyoneRead More →