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…
This is a Ferrania Condor I, a 35mm rangefinder camera made in Italy by Officine Galileo and distributed by Ferrania starting in 1947. Models of the Condor exist both with and without the Ferrania branding, but otherwise are identical. The Condor was a simple, but well built fixed lens rangefinder…
This is an AGFA Memo, a compact folding camera made in Binghamton, New York by the AGFA ANSCO Corporation starting in 1939. This version of the Memo is a less common variant that shoots 18mm x 24mm single frame images on ANSCO’s Memo film, which is very similar to AGFA’s…
Back in May, with the help of Johnny Sisson of the Classic Lenses Podcast, I recorded a two part proof of concept podcast which we jokingly called the Cocaine and Waffles Podcast. https://www.classiclensespodcast.com/e/cocaine-waffles-episode-1/ https://www.classiclensespodcast.com/e/classic-lenses-podcast-presents-cocaine-waffles/ I have been wanting to explore the idea of a new kind of podcast that worked…
Between the years 1947 and 1955, the total amount of exported camera goods from Japan to the rest of the world rose from a miniscule $9200 to $7,144,442.44, $4,683,332.02 of which went to just the United States. In the decades that would follow, Japan would become the world’s biggest and…
This is the Werra, a 35mm scale focus camera produced in Jena, East Germany by VEB Carl Zeiss Jena starting in 1954. This is the first version in a long line of Werra cameras that were produced in a variety of configurations until 1968. Later versions of the Werra came…
Most industries have their own trade shows in which vendors show off their latest and greatest products to customers to lust over in an attempt to drum up excitement and sales. For the photography industry, Photokina was the largest such show, each year filling expo centers showing off new cameras,…
This is a KW Prakti, a fully automatic 35mm camera produced by VEB Kamera und Kinowerke Dresden from 1961 to 1964. The Prakti is notable as being one of the first cameras to not only have an internal electric motor for advancing the film and cocking the shutter, but also…
This is a Minolta AF-Sv, a 35mm point and shoot, fully automatic camera made in Japan by Minolta starting in 1984. Known by it’s nickname “the Talker”, the AF-Sv is notable as having a voice feature in which the camera can play back voice alerts as reminders for things like…
