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…
This is a KW Pilot, a folding twin lens reflex camera produced by Kamera Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch in Dresden, Germany between 1931 and 1937. The Pilot was the first and only folding TLR to shoot 3cm x 4cm images on 127 format roll film. The Pilot, like all KW…
It’s been two years since the photography world lost one of it’s most important photographers. David Douglas Duncan, then 102 years old, passed away peacefully on July 7, 2018 with his wife by his side. Duncan was a life long photographer who later became good friends with Pablo Picasso, photographing…
This is a Canonet G-III QL17 fixed lens 35mm rangefinder camera. It was the last in a line of successful Canonet rangefinder cameras starting with the original Canonet from 1961. This model was made between 1972 and the summer of 1982 and sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide. The G-III in…
This is a Flexaret VII Twin Lens Reflex camera made between the years 1966 – 71 by Meopta, a camera company based out of the former Czechoslovakia. The Flexaret VII was the very last, and most advanced, in a line of TLRs dating back to the Kamarad Mk II from 1937.…
This is the Fujica Fujicarex II, a 35mm SLR camera produced by Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd. starting in 1963. It uses a Citizen central leaf shutter, and has shutter priority automatic exposure via the selenium exposure meter mounted in front of the prism. Although not a true interchangeable lens…
By now, if you’re in my community of film and camera enthusiasts, you’ve probably already heard that there was a fire at Central Camera in downtown Chicago last night as a result of protests over the death of George Floyd. Owner Don Flesch was interviewed last night by a local…
Last December, this site celebrated it’s 5th anniversary, and to celebrate, I wrote a post saying that when I first started, I never imagined the site would grow as it had. Prior to December 2014, mikeeckman.com was just an outlet for me to share my thoughts on movies, music, and…
This is a Certo Super Dollina II, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Certo Camera Work GMBH Dresden starting in 1950. The Super Dollina II was an update to the pre-war Super Dollina which made it’s debut in 1938. Featuring a coupled split image rangefinder and a unique folding chassis…
For nearly 100 years, one of the most popular black and white film developers remains Kodak D-76. Using the properties of the Elon developing agent, also called Metol, Kodak D-76 is often seen as a universal developer that can be used with nearly every film, no matter how fast, how…
