Recommended Reading 2/22/19

A modern (made within the last 20 years) manual focus rangefinder with TTL metering and a Copal Square vertically traveling focal plane shutter in a compact body using the Leica Thread Mount?!?!

Take.  My.  Money.

It always surprises me after the years I’ve been collecting and researching old cameras to learn of something I had never heard of before, but this week Howard Maryon-Davis at Emulsive takes a look at one such beast.  The only thing not revealed in the article is the price, to which I am fearful I will find out very soon!

Here are more great posts from some of my favorite sites:

Instamatic cameras using Kodak’s 126 cassette film system have an unfortunate reputation as cheap throwaway cameras.  Surprisingly, there were quite a few really great cameras made over the years that use 126 film from Kodak’s own 700 and 800 series cameras, the Instamatic Reflex, and even SLR models made by Zeiss-Ikon, Ricoh and others are worth considering.  But where do you get film?  This week Theo Panagopoulos looks at reloading 126 using regular 35mm film.

I’ve covered a brief history of Kodak’s Autographic film system in earlier posts, but this week Simon Wiffen posts his thoughts on a (new to him) Kodak No. 2A Folding Autographic Brownie and how that system worked back then.

There’s always those cameras that you discovered at a younger age that for whatever reason, despite their flaws, are still endearing to you.  The Soviet-era Kiev 4 is one such camera for me.  When I first discovered this camera, I had to have one, and now that I do, I don’t use it very much as I hate the viewfinder, but I still love the camera and this week, James Northcote at 35mmc gives us his thoughts and some great sample images of his.

Ive found that in the past year or two, I’ve grown a bit fond of Ricoh’s various mid century cameras.  It all started with the Ricoh 519M and has continued into the Anscomark M, Ricoh Diacord, Ricoh Hi-Color 35, and others.  One I haven’t yet looked at is the Ricoh 800EES that Peggy Marsh reviews this week.  I don’t know if I should read her review or skip it, because frankly, I don’t need any more Ricohs….oh hell, who am I kidding!

I first discovered Frederick, MD based photographer Johnny Martyr’s blog a while back with his excellent take on the Konica III and since then I’ve kept an eye on his blog to see what he’s up to.  Surprisingly, his blog is almost exactly the same age as mine and in preparation for his milestone, Johnny takes a look back at 5 Years of Photoblogging and how it has affected him.  If anyone is predicting this is foreshadowing a similar post like this from me, you’re right!

I was interested when I saw Austerity Photo’s quick take on 5 historically important cameras, but what really surprised me is that of the 5, I have 4 of them in my collection and the 5th, which is the Pentax ME-F, I have a very similar model in the ME Super.  Of these 5 cameras, I have shot but not reviewed ANY of them!  I need to get crackin’!  Maybe I should just save myself some time and hire Jack Inston to write for me!

2019 is off to a great start for the kind of music I like.  This week Angry Metal Guy took a look at King Apathy’s latest album “Wounds”.  This is the first album since the band changed it’s name from Thränenkind and despite the name change, continues down the path of sonic excellence from this German post-metal quartet.  It might not be for everyone, but it’s certainly for me!

Although I mainly read Jim Grey’s excellent “Down the Road” blog for his photographic endeavors, its the variety of other posts that really elevate this small blog for me.  This week Jim shares his thoughts on why he feels Stuck on Facebook despite overwhelming evidence that the company is pure evil.  I’m in much of the same boat.  I hate continuing to support a platform known for treating it’s employees terribly, bullying the tech industry, and making no effort to protect the data it has from harm.  Yet, I’m still there.

I’ve bought my fair share of things on eBay and I always try to give feedback to good sellers and on occasion have dropped a simple message to thank them for a pleasant transaction.  When I read about this seller who sold a VCR player to an elderly man so he could watch tapes of his retirement party and wedding from years before it really got me thinking to how simple kind gestures can make a huge difference in someone’s life.  It seems that all we read about online anymore is negativity and whats wrong with the world.  But I really do think that taking a few extra minutes out of each day to thank someone in some small way, makes a huge difference

One Comment

  1. A fine collection of thoughts here, Mike, especially the one about sharing some joy with the elderly. The returns we get from our weekly visits to local nursing homes are beyond quantification …. A brief note about the Kiev 4A: I also find that camera “addictive”, and have increased its industrial-era appearance by mounting an auxiliary tele/wide viewfinder pirated from a Kodak Retina II. Soviet lens in the Count are dirt cheap on the E auction site, and can produce fine images, even if a bit quirky in terms of aberrations and bokeh. My main beef with the Kiev 4A is that the metal rim on its viewfinder window severely gouged the plastic lens of my eyeglasses. As is typical, I discovered this after the fact, and (in the tradition of locking the pasture gate after the horse is gone) I’ve made a little cushion ring to go over it.

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