July 20, 2018Fish and Chips. Kermit and Miss Piggy. Cheese and crackers. All classic combinations. Just like these, photography has its great combinations. A camera with a particular lens, a camera with a specific emulsion, an emulsion with certain development and so on. Welcome to a new series. Rather than a review of photographic equipment or emulsions, this series will concentrate on…
March 16, 2018In the realm of Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras, many people chase the Rolleiflex, the shining light at the top of the mountain. This is in a landscape of TLRs of which there are more brands and types than I could possibly list. The Rolleicord is its smaller brother. While understandably a lower spec and not many people would argue…
March 2, 2018Box cameras are without a single doubt the longest line of a particular type of camera ever produced. It can be argued that they ran for 140 years, possibly longer depending on how loose the interpretation is. There is even a new one being produced now in 2018! The Kodak Brownie Six-20 Model D is considered one of the more…
January 20, 2018Box 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…
December 7, 2017In the last couple of years there has been a resurgence in film manufacture. Several kick-starters have been successful and even the traditional manufacturers have announced some new emulsions with the balance being there have also been a few discontinuations. Before this resurgence though, Lomography had filled the gap to renew interest in film. The interesting approach Lomography took has…
November 18, 2017There 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…
September 15, 2017A camera to allow your photography to take flight? To release your creativity free as a bird? Probably enough bird puns for now. So, was the Pigeonflex a camera to set the cat amongst the Pigeons? Ok that was one more. Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras are an interesting type of camera. They have a history in street photography, especially…
September 5, 2017The 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…
May 27, 2017It’s 1926, you want to record details about your photo and don’t want to carry a notebook, enter the Kodak No. 1 Pocket Autographic. It might not be automatically recorded, but considering this was 91 years ago, that is quite progressive. Kodak folding cameras had been introduced just over 30 years earlier in 1895 and had slowly been progressing during…
March 2, 2017Medium format in a small package, the Fuji GS645S Professional gives that to you in spades. Apart from some of the folding cameras, this is one of the smaller cameras I have come across which shoots 120 roll film. I really enjoy cameras where they have been designed in a thoughtful way to achieve a specific outcome and again this…
October 11, 2016There is a saying that “everything in Texas is bigger”. So, let’s take the svelte Leica M camera, and visualise what it would look like if it came from Texas, but to add a twist, has the build from Japan. We have just described the Fuji GSW690III Professional camera. This is a camera capable of some amazing results, has an…
September 7, 2016Sometimes there is a real sense of clarity by stripping back to basics. There are of-course basics and then there are real basics. That is what using a camera that is one-hundred years old and is effectively designed as a box brings us. The Kodak No. 0 Brownie Model A is a camera which helped introduce photography to the people,…