What if you were in the market for a Hasselblad XPan, but couldn’t afford a Hasselblad XPan, but had a broken Nikon FE, access to both a Sherline milling machine and a 3D printer, and a lot of free time? What would do? Build your own Hasselblad XPan/Nikon FE Franken-Camera,…
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. …
This week’s featured post isn’t a post, but rather Episode 118 of the Classic Lenses Podcast. This episode is devoted entirely to the fire that engulfed Central Camera in Chicago as a result of civil unrest surrounding the murder of George Floyd which has topped the headlines every day for…
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…
