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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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Pigeonflex – Bird of a feather
A 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 the Rolleiflex, yet they are designed quite different from the rangefinders which are generally thought of as street cameras. They shoot in square format, like well-known Hasselblad studio cameras, but are designed to be used mobile. You look through the viewfinder, with the image reflected by a mirror, like a…
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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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Kodak No. 1 Pocket Autographic – The Original with EXIF Data
It’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 that period. The other major line of cameras from Kodak at the time was the box cameras which were very basic. You can read more about one of them here. We owe a lot to both cameras, especially the folding Pocket cameras, which introduced the real concept of not only…
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Fuji GS645S – Camera with a Roo Bar
The Fuji GS645S is a medium format fixed lens rangefinder camera shooting in 6x4.5 format. With a great exposure meter and lightweight, ticks all the boxes.
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Fuji GSW690III Professional – The Texas Leica
There 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 extremely sharp lens and is quite mobile. It also shoots big 6×9 negatives with so much detail that suck you into the picture. Not a street shooter, but a great companion for travel photography. Specifically, the GSW690III, is the third generation of a successful line for Fuji, and as per…
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Kodak No. 0 Brownie Model A – Shooting at over 100 years strong
Sometimes 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, but how is it to use in the modern age? History Kodak has a long and very focused history, of which is well known and too long to include in this article. The Brownie history is also a very long one, starting in 1900 until the final model being produced…
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Voigtländer Perkeo I
The Voigtländer Perkeo I is a small folding 6x6 medium format camera. It is as much fun to use as it sounds.
