I still remember my first digital camera. It was a Toshiba PDR-M25, a 2.2 megapixel monstrosity that captured 1720×1200 pixel images on a SmartMedia flash card. I was the first person in my family to have a digital camera, and upon showing it off at family functions, no one cared…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Voigtländer Vitessa 1000SR, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced under both the Zeiss-Ikon and Voigtländer names from about 1967 to 1970. This camera’s dual branding was a byproduct of Zeiss-Ikon’s 1965 merger with Voigtländer AG. Despite having the Zeiss-Ikon name, the camera was entirely designed and built…
This is a Pigeon 35 Model J, made by Shinano Camera Company Ltd. in Japan, starting in 1954. The Pigeon 35 Model J is a slightly improved version of the earlier Pigeon 35 from 1952 with a better lens and shutter. All Pigeon cameras shared a similar feature set and…
This is a Super Fujica-6, a medium format folding camera made by Fuji Photo Industries in Japan starting in 1955. The Super Fujica-6 shoots 6×6 images on 120 format roll film and is an upgraded version of the original Fujica Six series that first went on sale in 1948, adding…
Throughout my life taking pictures, and later collecting cameras, one thing I took for granted was the fact that instant film exists. As a kid growing up in the 80s, everyone had a Polaroid camera. I didn’t know how it worked. All I knew was that you could go to…
This is a Royer Teleroy, a medium format folding camera made in France by Société Industrielle de Technique Optique, or SITO for short, starting in 1950. The Teleroy featured a coupled rangefinder and shoots both 6cm x 9cm and 4.5cm x 6cm images on 120 or 620 roll film. This…
In the film world, there’s a general grouping of large format, medium format, 35mm, and subminiature film. In every category besides 35mm, there’s a variety of shapes and sizes of film. Large format can come in any size from huge 24×20 images all the way down to 5×7 sheets. Medium…
This is a Leotax Model K, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Shōwa Kōgaku Seiki K.K. between 1955 and 1958. The Model K was the economy model in the Leotax series, sold with a slower f/3.5 Topcor lens and omitting all slow speeds and the top 1/1000 shutter speed found…
Ask a photo historian to give you the name of a photographer most commonly associated with the American Civil War, and the name Mathew Brady will likely come up every single time. The timing of the war between 1861 to 1865 was ideal from a photographic standpoint as it was…
This is a Rollei 35 T, a premium 35mm scale focus camera, built by Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke in Singapore starting in 1974. The Rollei 35 T was a later evolution of the original Rollei 35 which was first introduced in November 1966. When it was released, the Rollei 35…
This is a Canon 7, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Canon starting in September 1961. The Canon 7 would be the last new model to use the Leica Thread Mount which they had been using since the release of the Canon S-II in 1946. Canon took a big risk…
This is the Rectaflex, a 35mm SLR built in Rome, Italy between the years of 1948 to 1958. It was designed by a Roman lawyer named Telemaco Corsi and was the very first 35mm SLR to feature a pentaprism viewfinder, narrowly beating out the Zeiss-Ikon Contax S as the first…
