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These days the two big camera names that see fanboys (and girls) in both camps is Cannon vs. Nikon. But that wasn’t always the case. In the 1950s Nikon and Canon were still fairly unknown in the pro-market, both were producing rangefinder cameras stamped with “Made in occupied Japan” the real competitors of the 1950s was Contax and Leica. Since I have both a Leica IIIc and a Contax IIIa I figured I should do a side by side comparison and have these two heavy-weights of the mid-century fight it out. Before you continue, I suggest reading by reviews of each camera, first the ContaxRead More →

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There are certain brand names in cameras and even models of cameras that carry a certain quality that goes along with it, and often the idea that the simple matter of owning one will improve the quality of your photographs by extension. One of those names is Leica. The Leica has been attached to many greats within the world of photography. The Barnack Leicas are among those cameras and have created great images in the hands of famous photographers. So I went into this and found a good camera at a fair price, but I soon found that maybe Leica wasn’t for me, having goneRead More →

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This year it was a real shame that Polaroid Week just snuck up on me. It serves me right for not watching social media a little more closely. But I still managed to get out on the last day to get some Instant film shooting in. This year I was sort of limited. My wonderful Automatic Land Camera Model 250 has a dead battery and I didn’t have time to fix it up with the AAA battery fix. Also I didn’t get in any order from Impossible to run my Spectra (the only Integral Polaroid I have working), and didn’t get a couple packs ofRead More →

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This past Tuesday, the Ides of March, is also Expired Film Day. So I figured I would do a post about shooting expired film along with tips/tricks that I’ve come across with shooting old/expired film stocks. While I do a majority of my shooting with fresh film stock there is a certain level of fun and intrigue when shooting with expired film stock. 1. You can Shoot Film that is no longer available fresh. There are plenty of film stocks out there that is new that you can often make behave like well loved film stock in the past but it just never will beRead More →

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Even though it looks like the iconic Kodak Brownie, we’re going to clear the record; this camera is not a Brownie. And although this model came after the Brownie, it is a camera that has its origins before the Brownie and flexible films. The Hawk-Eye is a camera that I don’t take out that often the reason being that it stands at over 100 years old. I did get it before it joined the century club and at that point, I still thought it was part of the Brownie family. I took it out for review shortly after its 100th birthday. A basic, no-nonsense cheap,Read More →

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Playing along the same lines of the fixed lens camera rangefinders of the 1960s and 70s the Olympus 35 SP is one of the top models that you can get from that era, I’d actually rank it equal with the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s. And the best part as many people go for the Cannonet line of cameras, the 35 SP again like the 7s is more of an underdog camera and like many Olympus cameras has gained somewhat of a cult following. But what made the camera stand out among it’s peers that a dual metering system that had both a center weighted and anRead More →

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When it comes to bare-bones Mechanical SLRs, the Zenit 122K is as bare-bones as they come. This mostly plastic camera comes from the rather odd times right near the end of the Cold War and Soviet rule in Russia. I mean it’s pretty basic even for someone who just wants to learn how to use an all manual camera. But oddly enough the camera still looks cool, in fact at forty yards you might think it a Contax RTS III or similar camera with a squat prism and all black with white lettering, but don’t be fooled this camera is no Contax…not by a longRead More →

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It’s called “The Brick” for good reason, and was for many years the every-man camera in the United States. Aimed at the middle-income market as a solid camera with good optics that could compete with some of the higher end cameras coming out from Kodak. Special Thanks to James McFarlane for this special guest camera! Disclaimer: This is an old review, and is scheduled for an update and may look funny during that update. However, due to a large number of reviews that require this update it may take some time. Please be patient during this process as the reviews may appear incomplete and inRead More →

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The Signet 35 was the top dog in the Kodak 35mm line following WW2, this beautiful all metal rangefinder had it’s top lens, the Ektar mounted on the front, a shutter that could go up to 1/300″ and an accessory shoe. This was the snapshot camera for the wealthy and the elite, and today it works as great as it looks. The Signet 35 like many other Kodak cameras of the day was designed by their top designer, Arthur H Crapsey. I was loaned this camera again by Mike Bitaxi to review and I was actually really happy with the results I got out ofRead More →

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The Yashica FR-I is another one of those late 20th century 35mm SLR, based on the Yashica FR and Contax RTS it’s an aperture priority camera which already gives it a plus in my books. And with the C/Y mount you have a pile of great lenses available. However the camera itself has, at least for me, some usability issues that really turned me off the camera as a whole. Disclaimer: This is an old review, while I am striving to update my reviews to include more images and improved details. Sadly I have insufficient resources to update this review and it will contain incompleteRead More →