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Ferrania Rondine – Little Italian Bird
Box cameras are boxes with a lens. Simple. In Italy, Ferrania had other ideas and created one which just oozes style. The Ferrania Rondine was created when workmanship was still a priority, and even tools like a camera had to have a great aesthetic to them. In the wild, this camera brings out comments from “Isn’t that so cute!!” to “That is a beautiful camera”. Make no mistake though, this is not a high-end camera, but a camera aimed at the lower end of the market, but Italian products seem to have a very sophisticated look to them. Box cameras have featured here before, including the Ensign Ful-Vue (another gorgeous…
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Polaroid Sun 660 Autofocus Land Camera – Instant gratification
The Polaroid 600 series of instant cameras were widely distributed for easy way of everyone to have instant photos. Review of Sun 660 model.
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Lomochrome – Feeling the purple and turquoise
Lomochrome films Purple and Turquoise are specialty films designed for creative results. I shot both in medium format in the Fuji GS645S.
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Kodak No. 2 Brownie Model E – Photographing outside of the box
There is a saying that a camera is just a light tight box to capture the image. Box cameras are the best example of this, only one step more technologically advanced from a pinhole camera. In the early 1900s Kodak was introducing box cameras in all shapes and sizes for a range of different film sizes. The Kodak No. 2 Brownie thankfully uses one of the more common film formats, and in-fact introduced 120 film to the world, which is still the standard size for medium format photography. Every so often, after using a variety of cameras, it is cathartic to get back to basics and box cameras are perfect…
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Olympus XA3 – Red cameras go faster
The Olympus XA3 is a compact semi automated camera known for quality out of such a small camera. Perfect for the pocket, I use mine as much as I can.
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Olympus Pen S – The never-ending story
The Olympus Pen S is a tiny little half frame camera, that started popularised the smaller is better concept. I shot everything I could with mine.
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Pigeonflex – Bird of a feather
The Pigeonflex, a 1950s TLR camera, with vintage aesthetics, delivers quality 6x6 frames. Read about my experience with it.
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Agfa Jsolette 4.5 – When J is not a J
The Agfa Isolette range of cameras have a cult following. That includes me as I own both Isolette and Jsolette labelled cameras. The ability to shoot medium format, especially 6×6, with a camera that is small and at a stretch pocketable, is very enticing. Throw in the fact that they look lovely, and you can understand the popularity. I personally like quite a few different “folders” as you can see by another review of the Voigtlander Perkeo I. This model is the Agfa Jsolette 4.5. Agfa has used the names Jsolette and Isolette interchangeably, as the letter J referred to an I in German. There is a misconception that the…
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Watameter – What the?
Scale focus cameras can be fun. There is no precise focusing, you pre-set focus points in advance, allowing a quick “draw” approach, and the viewfinder is very uncluttered. They are also generally cheap, so a very easy way to get into film photography. There is occasion though, where some precise focusing would be helpful, which is where accessories like the Watameter come in. The Watameter is an accessory rangefinder giving you the ability to determine the distance to your subject, which you then apply to your scale focus camera and in theory gives you precise focusing ability. I enjoy using old folding cameras (folders), like the great range of Agfa…
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Ensign Ful-Vue – Is it really the full view?
When does a box camera not look like a box camera? When it is the Ensign Ful-Vue from 1946. Until then most were basically a box with a lens on the front. There were a few variants, including box cameras that had better viewing lenses and looked more like Twin Lens Reflex cameras, but still generally had a box shape. When Ensign released the Ful-Vue they moved to a very modern shape for the period, and I think created one of the most striking looking box cameras ever. I picked this camera up when I was living in London around 1999 and promptly put it on a shelf. While…
