What if? Those two words form a question that has been pondered by almost every person in every industry likely since the first humans walked the Earth. Early cave men invented the wheel after wondering what if I could take this rock and put it on a stick and attach…
The month of April is the first full month in spring, and is often associated with things like warmer weather, the start of Major League Baseball, Easter (most years), and for many people, April Fool’s Day. The history of April Fool’s Day goes back quite a bit farther than most…
It might come as a surprise to those who collect vintage cameras today that not everyone knows how to use a TLR like a Rolleiflex. With a huge amount of information available on the Internet with countless review blogs like mine, easily searchable user’s manuals, and groups like the Vintage Camera…
Good news everyone! Rangefinders are back! Wait a minute, where did they go? I guess a bit of perspective is due here. Prior to the early 1950s, the SLR was a niche product. The Ihagee Exakta was the only major 35mm SLR system around, and it was very expensive (yes,…
The Kodak Medalist I and II were two cameras built by the Eastman Kodak Company between the years of 1941 to about 1952. First produced for the American military, very few Medalist I’s were sold commercially to the public. It wasn’t until after World War II when Kodak released the…
Polio is a horrible, horrible disease. During it’s peak in 1952, Polio infected nearly 60,000 children and caused over 3,000 deaths in the United States. The numbers were significantly higher in other, less developed countries. The virus most commonly affected children, specifically those aged 5 and under. When a child…
For the past year and a half, film enthusiasts and camera collectors like myself have been reading about a resurgence of film photography. How the death of film that’s been ongoing since the early 2000s could be coming to an end. People are shooting more film than they have in…
I am proud to announce “Keppler’s Vault”, a new series of posts dedicated to articles published in the 1950s and 60s in Modern Photography magazine. The name Keppler refers to none only than Herbert Keppler (April 21, 1925 – January 4, 2008), long time photographer, journalist, consultant, and editorial director…
