This review is part of the Cameras of the Dead series which I have been publishing every year on Halloween and “Halfway to” Halloween, featuring three cameras that I’ve wanted to review that either didn’t work, or was otherwise unable to shoot. I am republishing each of those individual reviews…
Camera makers throughout the 20th century happily threw the word “automatic” around to refer to some new feature of a camera that has now been automated. Early Rolleiflexes were often called “Automats” because they had the ability to automatically detect the start of a new roll of film and advance…
This is a Nikonos II, an amphibious 35mm camera produced by Nippon Kogaku between 1968 and 1976 for underwater photography. The Nikonos series was originally designed by a company called La Spirotechnique in France in 1960, and sold as the Calypso-Phot. The Calypso was conceived by Jacques Cousteau and was…
This is a Wirgin Edixa Reflex B, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera produced by Wirgin Kamerawerk Wiesbaden, starting in 1956. This is the second revision to the original Wirgin Edixa Reflex first released in 1954, adding slow speeds down to 1 second and support for lenses with automatic diaphragms. …
This is a Start B, a Twin Lens Reflex camera produced in Warsaw, Poland by Warsaw Photo-Optical Works or WZFO for short between the years of 1960 and 1967. The Start B was an updated version of the original Start TLR from 1954. WZFO was Poland’s first and only consumer…
Earlier this year I had an idea for a fun article full of cameras with strange names, so I put together a list of 10 Unfortunately Named Cameras. The week before I was going to post the article, COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic and my country started to shut…
You would assume that any magazine article telling the story of one of the most famous street photographers of all time would mention his name in the title. This week’s Keppler’s Vault about Arthur Fellig, better known as “Weegee” is the oldest article I’ve ever featured and is from the…
This is a Konica Auto-Reflex, a 35mm SLR camera produced by Konica of Japan starting in 1965. This model was the first in Konica’s long lived Autoreflex series and is the only one with a hyphenated name. It is also the only model that can seamlessly switch between shooting full…
What do you call a flashback to a flashback? A flashback-back, or is it a flash-flashback? Whatever it’s called, this week’s Keppler’s Vault is a double flashback-flashback, first from the May 1952 issue of Popular Photography magazine, who at the time had changed it’s name to Photography magazine, where they…
This is a View-Master Personal Stereo Camera, made by Sawyer’s Inc., out of Portland, Oregon between the years of 1952 and 1955. The View-Master Personal Stereo Camera shoots 14mm x 12mm stereoscopic images on regular 35mm film for use in View-Master slides, slide viewers, and projectors. The circular View-Master slides…
If your idea of enjoyable photography is picking up a camera, turning it on, pointing it at something, pressing the shutter release, and getting great images 100% of the time, then collecting and shooting old film cameras is not for you. One of the many reasons you hear for why…
Normally I reserve my recommendations for Friday Recommended Reading posts, but this time I have a special recommendation of Episode 129 of the Classic Lenses Podcast in which I am the guest, along with Simon, Perry, and Johnny. This was an especially raucous episode where we get off topic often,…
