In my featured post of the week, Ludwig Hagelstein from EMULSIVE writes a gloriously in depth review of the legendary Pentacon Six TL. A monster of a medium format SLR that has a design reminiscent of the Kochmann Reflex-Korelle from the 1930s. Weighing in at over 1360 grams, this monster of a camera was in production for over 21 years, a feat only bested by a small handful of cameras.
As is the case with many East German cameras produced during the reign of the Soviet Union, this is a no frills, utilitarian camera, but therein lies it’s best attribute. A mechanical monster with nothing else that gets in the way, and access to some of the best Zeiss lenses out there. Someone, close my eBay account as I know what I’ll be searching for the next time I’m in the toilet!
Here are more great posts from some of my favorite sites:
If you thought the Pentacon Six TL was big, Pentax must have said “hold my beer and watch this” when they released the Pentax 67, a titan of a medium format camera that weighs (with prism) in at a massive 1810 grams. That’s 4 lbs for you non-metric types! This week Michael Ngyuen from Japan Camera Hunter gives a very thorough review of this beast along with several VERY nice photos (wink wink nudge nudge)!
The Canon MC is a camera I’ve reviewed previously on this site and it took me two tries to get one that only barely worked. Even through all of it’s problems, I could see this had the potential to be a very capable compact 35mm camera, if it worked. After reading this comprehensive article by Hamish Gil about a Canon MC loaner he got from a friend, while he wasn’t impressed with the auto focus performance or it’s noise, it’s clear the camera performed correctly as he got some really great photos.
So many people say film is dead, and there is no shortage of guys like me tinkering with film cameras having fun taking casual photos with them. But there’s far fewer people using them professionally, so it was with great interest that I read Johnny Martyr’s take on why he shoots weddings using only black and white film and no flash. I’ll skip to the point where I tell you that I almost want to get married again, just so I can hire Johnny to come shoot my wedding! Almost…
You had me at “Panatomic-X”. Kodak’s slow speed Pan-X black and white film remains one of my favorite emulsions of all time, and in this quick review of the recently released CatLABS X Film 80 in 120 format, Alex Luyckx shows off some sample pics from a few early rolls. While the jury is still out in terms of how this film compares to Pan-X, it is worthy of note that CatLABS is an all new emulsion, and not a rebadge of Fomapan or some other type of existing emulsion. At $5.55 a roll, it’s competitively priced, and based in initial samples, looks like a winner! I can’t wait to order some of my own!
Back in April, I posted my thoughts on the Chinese made Canon DL-9000 Scamera, an entirely plastic piece of junk that barely worked and made some pretty terrible pictures. When I saw this bright yellow plastic Superheadz camera with it’s Super FAT Lens reviewed over at Canny Cameras, I imagined this would be nothing more than another Chinese made promotional piece of junk given away as a gift for some type of magazine subscription, but it seems I was wrong. While still a pretty basic camera, it delivered some really fantastic images with a distinct vignetting that Instagrammers have been mimicking for years. Color me impressed…and that color is yellow!
Technically, this isn’t a new post, as Jim Grey previously put his thoughts down on the Konica Auto S2 back in 2016, but this week he updated that review with some new information and new sample pics, so I thought it was worth including here. The Konica Auto S2 is a model that I’ve shot a clone of, in the Wards am551, and I was quite fond of it. It’s a large and heavy 1960s rangefinder with an outstanding lens, but don’t let me tell you that, check out Jim’s updated review here.
Cosina made cameras often get a bad rap by collectors as they were models produced under brands like Canon, Nikon, and several others, yet these Cosina rebadges really aren’t that bad. Sure, they have a ton of plastic, but they almost always have all of the necessary features with reasonably good build quality to earn the nameplates often adorned on them. Peggy Marsh from Camera Go Camera brings us her thoughts on one of the more recognizable Cosina cameras, the Nikon FM10 and she feels very strongly about it!
If you even kinda like heavy metal, a band that you would have to go out of your way to not be familiar with is Amon Amarth. The self proclaimed kings of Viking metal, these Swedes have been making some of the most consistently good metal since their formation in 1992. In this, their 11th studio album, “Berserker” does not disappoint and neither does the review from the writers at Angry Metal Guy. I often refer to Amon Amarth as the AC/DC of metal, as their sound is remarkably consistent from album to album, and they reuse the same basic formula with only incremental changes, and that’s the same here. With 57 minutes of crushing, yet often melodic Viking metal, “Berserker” is every bit as good as the album that precedes it “Jomsviking”, but maybe a touch behind my favorite album, “Surtur Rising”.