One of the greatest stories I’ve heard while collecting and researching old cameras is how one of the greatest cameras ever made was created. The story goes that in 1911, a Zeiss employee named Oskar Barnack was recruited by his friend and former colleague, Emil Mechau to work for a…
This is a Yashica J-3, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera made by Yashica Co., Ltd. in 1963. It was an update to the earlier Yashica Penta J, adding a coupled CdS exposure meter and top plate readout, but retaining that model’s M42 screw mount. The Yashica J-3 was an…
When it comes to camera brands that we hear listeners of this show want to hear about, Pentax seems to come up more often than any other brand. As the world’s number one open source film photography podcast, the guys and I are never ones to deprive the world of…
This is a Kodak Brownie Super 27 camera, made by Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY between the years 1961 and 1965. This curiously shaped camera was part of Kodak’s long running Brownie series, and includes a built-in flash using AG-1 flashes, a two speed shutter, and a two position focus…
This is a Gelto DIII, a collapsible lens viewfinder camera made by Tōa Kōki Seisakusho starting in 1937 and produced until at least 1952. The Gelto DIII shoots 3cm x 4cm images on 127 format roll film. A large number of variations exist for the Gelto, some with leather covered…
This is a Royer Altessa Type IV, a very unique non-folding roll film camera produced by Société Industrielle de Technique Optique (SITO) between the years 1952 and 1954. The Altessa has an interchangeable bayonet lens mount and shoots both 6cm x 9cm and with a baffle, 6cm x 6cm images…
This is the Nikon F3, a 35mm single lens reflex camera produced by Nippon Kogaku of Tokyo, Japan between the years 1980 and 2001, making it the longest list Nikon camera ever made and one of the longest ever produced cameras in history. The Nikon F3 was the third in…
Whenever you think of the worlds greatest open source film photography podcast, of course everyone thinks of Camerosity, but when they think of Camerosity, the second thing everyone thinks of is the World Cup! While this exciting socc…I mean football championship is going on, what better time than for the…
This is an Auto Terra Super, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by K.K. Teraoka Seikōjo in Japan between the years 1959 and 1960. The Auto Terra Super was one of the last and most advanced in a line of Auto Terra cameras made between 1954 and 1960. The signature feature…
In the history of photography, there have been a LOT of different film formats. In a Wikipedia article about the history of film formats, a chart showing 71 different formats of film is listed, including a large number of roll film, film pack, sheet, and cassette formats. A majority of…
This is an Anscoflex II, a twin lens box camera made by Ansco of Binghamton, New York between the years 1954 and 1958. The Anscoflex II is a more advanced version of the original Anscoflex which was introduced a few months earlier. The only difference is the addition of two…
For the second episode in a row, we take a deep dive into a singular brand of cameras, and as you can pretty much already guess, Episode 36 is all about Minolta! The guys and I visit the Minolta Disco with returning callers, Alex Luyckx, Bill Smith, Howard Sandler, Mark…
