The Argus C3 is one of those cameras that for American collectors is one you could accidentally collect. I cannot tell you how many Argus C3s (and their variants like the Matchmatic) I’ve picked up in job lots of cameras where I wanted something else. I’ve seen them at antique…
What is it? This is a Kodak Motormatic 35 camera. It is an updated version of Kodak’s first 35mm auto exposure camera, the Kodak Automatic 35 which was released the year before. The Motormatic added a spring motor advance, allowing a photographer to make exposures as fast as he or…
What if? Those two words form a question that has been pondered by almost every person in every industry likely since the first humans walked the Earth. Early cave men invented the wheel after wondering what if I could take this rock and put it on a stick and attach…
What is it? This is a Pentax PC35AF, a 35mm compact camera made by the Asahi Optical Co. in Tokyo Japan between the years of 1982 and 1984. It was the first compact Pentax camera capable of auto focus and was the first in a long running PC-series of cameras…
The month of April is the first full month in spring, and is often associated with things like warmer weather, the start of Major League Baseball, Easter (most years), and for many people, April Fool’s Day. The history of April Fool’s Day goes back quite a bit farther than most…
This is a Canon DL-9000 Professional 35mm camera made in Japan. The DL-9000 is a top of the line camera boasting well over 30 features that are essential for all pros such as a very large flash, an Optical Lens, Motor Drive, Red Eye Reduction, and many, many other…
This is a Contessa 35 (model 533/24), a compact folding 35mm rangefinder camera made in Stuttgart, Germany by Zeiss-Ikon between the years 1950 and 1955. The Contessa was designed as a premiere fixed lens compact folding camera that had the features and quality of the best of what Germany could…
It might come as a surprise to those who collect vintage cameras today that not everyone knows how to use a TLR like a Rolleiflex. With a huge amount of information available on the Internet with countless review blogs like mine, easily searchable user’s manuals, and groups like the Vintage Camera…
This is an Argus C33, a 35mm rangefinder produced by the Argus Corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan between the years 1959 and 1961. The C33 was an oddly designed, but ambitious update to the original C3 which added many features that had become standard for rangefinders in the years after…
Good news everyone! Rangefinders are back! Wait a minute, where did they go? I guess a bit of perspective is due here. Prior to the early 1950s, the SLR was a niche product. The Ihagee Exakta was the only major 35mm SLR system around, and it was very expensive (yes,…
What is it? This is a Canon AL-1 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera which was first introduced in March 1982. It was the last in the Canon A-series which started with the AE-1 in 1976, and was one of Canon’s last cameras to use their aging FD lens mount. The AL-1’s…
If your experience with photography is limited to hand held 35mm or roll film cameras made within the last 100 years, you likely have never heard of the Packard shutter. The history of the Packard shutter and how it came to be is shrouded in mystery. There is very little…
