This is an ANSCO Memo, a compact 35mm box camera that shoots 18mm x 24mm exposures on double perforated 35mm cinema film. The Memo first went on sale in 1927 and predates Kodak’s type 135 film format, using it’s own proprietary “Memo Cassettes” which can accept bulk 35mm film, but…
In October 2018, I reviewed the KMZ Zenit-E, one of the most well known and identifiable cameras to ever come out of the former Soviet Union. Millions of Zenits were produced from 1952 – 1996 and many of them were the Zenit-E. When they were first released, the Zenit used…
This is a Kodak Professional DCS Pro SLR/n, a digital SLR camera produced in cooperation with Nikon and Kodak starting in 2004. This camera was part of Kodak’s Professional lineup of DSLRs and is notable as being Nikon and Kodak’s first digital camera with a “full frame” 24mm x 36mm…
When most people think of a classic wide angle lens, the Zeiss Biogon likely comes up first a large number of times. The first Biogon lenses were released in 1934, and designed by Ludwig Bertele while working for Zeiss-Ikon Dresden. These wide angle lenses had eight elements in five air…
This is a Plaubel Makina IIS, a folding medium format rangefinder camera made by Plaubel Feinmechanik und Optik in Frankfurt, Germany from 1936 to 1949. The Makina name was used on a series of professional cameras that date back to 1912 and came with a huge number of features, lenses,…
Having revealed a little of what it looks like behind the curtains in my recent post, So You Want Your Own Photography Blog, I talk about the challenges in setting up a website that can be used for any photographic discussion, from reviews of new or old equipment, sharing photographic…
This is a Kiev-15, a 35mm SLR camera produced at the Soviet Union’s Arsenal plant in Kyiv, Ukraine between the years 1973 and 1980. The Kiev-15 TTL was a slightly updated model with a different exposure meter that was produced only in 1980, the camera’s last year of production. The…
In November 2017, I reviewed the Kowa SET-R, a 35mm leaf shutter SLR made by Kowa Optical Works of Japan between the years of 1968 and 1970. That camera was my third Kowa SLR, the first two being DOA when I received them. As they say “third time’s a charm”,…
This is a Canon T80, a 35mm SLR camera produced by Canon from April 1985 to June 1986. It was Canon’s first attempt at Auto Focus in a SLR, using three special AC lenses developed for it which had a self contained Auto Focus motor in each lens. The T80…
When George Eastman released the first Kodak camera in 1888, it came preloaded with a long roll of photographic film that could take 100 images before it needed to be sent off for development. The idea that you could have a camera loaded with film that didn’t require separate glass…
This is a Graflex Graphic 35 Jet, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by Kowa Optical Works of Japan for Graflex, Inc of Rochester, NY starting in 1961. The Graphic 35 Jet is an evolution of the earlier Graphic 35 which itself evolved from the Ciro 35 and Cee-Ay 35 cameras. …
Modern’s Top 47 Cameras from 1979 is the first of these lists I’ve published that originally appeared after I was born, so I’ve officially entered into an era in which I am older than the list itself! Much like the rapid changes in camera technology in the late 1950s when…
