I am a big fan of Australian photographer Cheyenne Morrison after reading several of his posts online and listening to his appearance on Episode 38 of the Classic Lenses Podcast. I always look forward to anything with his name on it, and this week, we have a doozy!
Not only an incredibly well written and detailed article, but it touches upon something I love very much, which is history, and not only that, its the history of one of my all time favorite lenses, the Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon. While Schneider lenses aren’t exactly “under the radar” when it comes to the most famous marques, there’s always plenty of info about Zeiss and Leitz lenses, and the huge number of Japanese lenses by Nikon, Canon, and Minolta, but you really don’t see a lot of historical write-ups like this one. Admittedly, these technical historical pieces may not be for everyone, but for me, it’s my post of the week!
Here are more great posts from some of my favorite sites:
This week Jacint (is that like Cher, or Madonna?) takes a look at the highly sought after Olympus XA, a camera I have yet to handle, but am familiar with it’s “lesser” sibling, the XA2. Prices for good working examples of the XA are quite a bit higher than the XA2 which I absolutely loved shooting. Something I’ve learned though when collecting old cameras, is that desirability is not always consistent with how good of a camera it really is. Could that be the case here?
Now, wait a minute! Two XA reviews in the same week?! I guess I missed that memo, but apparently Virgil Roger at EMULSIVE didn’t as he also puts an XA through it’s paces and shares a large number of excellent photographs he took with his. Check out his thoughts and see if he agrees with the previous article…just don’t ask him to sing any rock ballads!
“Plastic Fantastic” point and shoots often don’t get a lot of love in vintage camera circles, but that didn’t stop Peggy Marsh from Camera Go Camera taking a look at the compact Pentax Espio 928m from the late 90s. Like many $1 Goodwill cameras, the Espio produces results quite a bit better than it’s $1 appearance suggests. Take a look at Peggy’s article and the next time you see one at a garage sale, you can decide if it’s worth picking up for yourself!
Mark Faulkner posts his thoughts on his recently acquired Nikon S2 and a trip to Mexico he took with it. This is a short read, but it’s significant as it’s an example of a camera that belonged to a collector I know, and I helped arrange both the delivery and payment for it. The Nikon S2 remains one of my all time favorite cameras, and it seems that Mark is quickly warming up to it!
Well shoot, literally minutes after posting this recap, I stumble upon this very well written article by Johnny Martyr about how owning a Leica has made him a better photographer. It’s a controversial statement to make for sure, but I really enjoyed his take on it that while simply buying a Leica doesn’t make your photos better, your approach to owning the gear does whenever you invest the type of money needed to afford a Leica. It’s a perspective I hadn’t yet considered…probably because I still don’t own a Leica!
There’s a Texas Roadhouse less than 5 minutes from my house. Directly across the street from it is a Chili’s, and in the same area are 2 really good Chinese restaurants, 2 good pizza places, a McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway, and a Taco Bell. While I try not to eat out too often as it’s expensive and unhealthy, I would say that of those options, Texas Roadhouse is one of my favorites. The food is good, they have cheap kids meals, and my kids love throwing peanut shells on the ground. But this Kansas couple takes their dining preferences to an otherworldly level, eating at a local Texas Roadhouse six nights a week, every week, for 15 STRAIGHT YEARS!!!
I’ve been a fan of metal music nearly all my life, and I’ve noticed that many metal heads are often nerds…and I mean that in the nicest possible way. One of my favorite nerdy metal sites is Angry Metal Guy. Not only are their reviews great, but they sometimes do these completely off the wall posts like using an AI algorithm that attempts to ascertain how “brutal” the death metal on an album is, based solely on it’s cover art. They say, “don’t judge a book (or album) by it’s cover”, but does that also apply to Artificial Intelligence?
Finally, this isn’t news, but simply a video. You’re welcome!