This is a Sokol Automat, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by LOMO (Leningradskoe Optiko Mechanichesckoe Objedinenie) in the Soviet city of Leningrad between the years 1966 and 1978. The Sokol is a large and heavy camera capable of full programmed automatic exposure via three CdS cells (earlier examples had six)…
“Donut bokeh”…. …once you see it, you instantly know you’re talking about an image shot with a catadioptric lens. Catadioptric lenses are as unmistakable themselves as the images they make with their large dimeter barrel with a noticeable round obtrusion right smack in the center of the front element. Catadioptrics…
This is a KMZ Horizont (Горизонт), produced in the former Soviet Union between the years 1967 to 1973 by Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod (KMZ). This was the first model in a long line of successful swing lens panoramic cameras that were produced until well after the collapse of the Soviet Union. …
This is a Salyut (Салют), a medium format SLR produced at the Arsenal plant in Kyiv, Soviet Union between the years 1957 and 1972. The Salyut was the first Soviet made medium format SLR, and is very similar, but not an exact copy of the original Hasselblad 1000 F. It…
This is the Voskhod (Восход), a 35mm scale focus camera built by Leningradskoye Optiko-Mekhanicheskoye Obyedinenie (LOMO for short) between the years 1964 and 1968. The Voskhod was a well built and uniquely designed camera with an arrangement of controls that made it ideal for both landscape and portrait orientation. It…
This is a Minolta Maxxum 800si, a 35mm single lens reflex camera produced by Minolta starting in 1997. The 800si was the flagship model in Minolta’s fourth generation of autofocus SLRs after it’s predecessor, the 9xi was discontinued. When the Maxxum 800si was sold in Europe and Japan, it was…
This is a Minolta Maxxum 650si Date, a 35mm single lens reflex camera produced by Minolta starting in 1995. The 650si Date is a slightly updated version of the 600si, adding a date back and a panoramic mode, but is otherwise the same. When the Maxxum 600si was sold in…
This is a Pentacon Six TL, a single lens reflex medium format camera made by VEB Pentacon starting in 1966. The Pentacon Six TL shoots 6cm x 6cm images on regular 120 roll film, and is an evolution of the earlier Praktisix made by VEB Kamera-und Kinowerke first produced in…
This is a Fujica ST901, a 35mm SLR produced in Japan by Fuji starting in 1974. The ST-901 had a long list of features including TTL metering, aperture priority automatic exposure via a Silicon Photo Diode, an electronic shutter with step less speeds from 20 second to 1/1000 second, digital…
Back in February 2018, I posted the first Keppler’s Vault article which I created as a way to make available some old photography articles I found online which I thought others would find interesting. The first Keppler’s Vault was from the February 1953 issue of Modern Photography and was all…
This is a Yashica 35 Model M, also known as the Yashica M and Yashica 35M, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by Yashica starting in June 1960. The Yashica 35 Model M was part of Yashica’s Minister series of 35mm rangefinders, which were loosely based on the body of the…
This is an Aires Penta 35, a single lens reflex 35mm film camera produced by Aires Camera Ind. Co., LTD between 1959 and 1961. The Penta 35 was the first and only SLR camera produced by Aires before they went out of business and was seen as a last ditch…
