Episode 80: Totally 80s

Everyone get out your Aqua Net hair spray and G.I. Joe lunchboxes because it is time to hop in the Hot Tub Time Machine and go back to the 80s! In this, the 80th episode of the Camerosity Podcast, we revisit the decade where Michael Jackson and Madonna reigned supreme, taking a look at everyone’s favorite cameras from that decade. The Nikon F3, Minolta Maxxum 7000, Olympus XA2, the Minox 35 series, Contax RTS II, and many, many more.

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on this show are returning callers AJ Gentile, Mark Faulkner, Miles Libak, Mina Saleeb, Pat Casey, Patrick Rapps, Will Pinkham, and first time caller Christopher Wells.

Each person shares stories of the cameras they used during the 1980s, but Patrick Rapps didn’t get the message about the 20th century and went back all the way to 1889 with his beautiful and fully functioning Kodak No.2 String Set. This camera was the follow-up to the original 1888 Kodak and shares many of the same design features, including that camera’s distinct round film gate!

We get into a little bit of history of early point and shoot cameras and how their autofocus systems work and why so many of these early cameras consistently have such high image quality. We discuss the history and merits of Kodak’s Disc film cameras and two features of those cameras that influenced cameras that would come later. We revisit the era of electronic still video cameras like the Canon Xap Shop and the original Sony Mavica. We talk about focusing auto focus cameras and reflect back on how focus screens work from the Rick Oleson episode. Theo shares with us a strange 3 lens 110 film camera, and finally, we answer a question asked in the Camerosity Facebook page about a recommendation of a compact SLR for a 10 year old.

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

Our next episode will be Episode 81 and we are planning on tackling the complex and wonderful world of Zeiss-Ikon. Since the recording of Episode 80 however, some scheduling conflicts have come up which may require us to pivot this show and postpone it. We won’t know until we get closer to the show date, so if Episode 81 comes and it is not about Zeiss, we didn’t forget, we just had to change at the last minute. As of right now however, it is still on. We will record Episode 81 on Monday, November 11th at 7pm Central Standard Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

In This Episode

Mike Forgets How Long Ago the 1980s Was / The Leica M6 Was Popular with Hobbyists
Minolta Maxxum 7000 and Nikon N2020 Were Popular for the Every Man
Nikon 4004 and 5005s Were Dogs, but the 6006 and 8008/8008s Were Very Nice
Pininfarina Designed Nikon SLRs in the 80s and Created the Red Stripe
Anthony’s Go To 80s Nikon is the Nikon FM2 / FM2 Motor Drives
Converting Non-Ai Lenses to Ai / Theo Loves the Nikon FA
Paul Loves the Nikon F3 / HP Finders / Nikon F3P / Nikon FM3a
Nikon L35AF “Pikaichi” / Nikon OneTouch AF3 / Pikaichi 46mm Lens Filters
Olympus XA Series / Minox 35 Series / Agat 18K / Mamiya U
Early Point and Shoots Had Superior Image Quality Due to Single Focal Length Lenses
Canon MC / Plaubel 67W and 670
Fuji Brought Back the Folding Camera with the GS645 / GS645W / GA645
Patrick Rapps and His Kodak No.2 String Set from 1889 / The Original 1888 Kodak
Don Goldberg Still Services the Minox 35 Series / Chinon Bellami / Canon Snappy S
Canon Aqua Snappy and Minolta Weathermatic Underwater Cameras / Ricoh 500 ME / Yashica T-Series
Mike and Mina Both Love the Contax RTS II / Contax RTS III / Repairing Contax SLRs
Autofocus SLRs Were Not Meant to Be Manually Focused / A Nod Back to the Rick Oleson Episode
Manual Focus SLRs with Focus Confirmation / Canon AL-1 / Minolta X-600 / Pentax ME-F
Cameras Supporting External Autofocus Lenses / Canon T80 / Revue AC3 w/ Revuenon AF Lens / Nikon F3AF
Olympus and Konica Both Gave up on Interchangeable Lens SLRs in the 1980s / Konica Tomato and Konica Recorder
Trivia: Name a Rangefinder Camera with Leica Thread Mount You Could Still Buy New in the 1980s
Kodak Disc Film / T-Grain Film / Scanning Disc Film
Mike Forgets What Decade He’s In And Talks about APS Film
Tasco Binoculars Camera / Canon Xap-Shot and Still Video Cameras / Sony Mavicas / Bronica GS-1
Mark Picked Up a Pentax 17 / Film for Classics 620 Spools / Theo Gets a Rollei 35AF
Listener Question: What Small Form Factor SLR Would You Recommend for a 10 Year Old?

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos – https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt – https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris – https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue – https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

Camerosity can also be heard on the following services:

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@camerositypodcast

Google – https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2NhbWVyb3NpdHkvZmVlZC54bWw

Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/camerosity/id1583252688

Amazon Music – https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9d316c9e-5461-4fa5-9e04-24fd27fffc3f/camerosity

Podchaser – https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/camerosity-1985806

Listen Notes – https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/camerosity-mike-eckman-3BShwKyvbO0/