This week’s featured post comes to us from Chris Hunter at EMULSIVE, and is a very creative project combining two very different aspects of photography. Pinhole cameras, and selfies.
What started out as a bit of poking fun at the “selfie generation” turned into cans of Campbell’s soup taking pictures of itself in the mirror. I’ll admit to being curious about pinhole photography, but have yet to give it a try. As I look at the back rows of my cupboards for that can of sauerkraut I know I bought 4 years ago, I think I should!
Here are more great posts from some of my favorite sites:
If you were to limit your film choices to only those from Kodak or Fuji, you’d be missing out on a huge number of available films and until June 30th, Kosmo Foto is running the Film World Cup where they are soliciting votes from readers 3 favorite black and white films from a large list they’ve compiled. The only limitation is that they aren’t including films that are no longer made, so no Kodak Pan-X or Fuji Neopan. After the votes have been calculated, one film will be ruled the winner.
In some circles, “zoom” is a vulgar 4 letter word, but it doesn’t have to be. While most classic cameras are often found with prime lenses, there are some zooms that are worth checking out! I’ve encountered only a couple of the lenses on this list and podcast from Alex Luyckx, but had Alex asked me for my recommendation, it would have been my all time favorite classic zoom, the Nikkor 100-300 f/5.6 AiS.
I’ve been shooting film (again) for about 5 years now and I sometimes miss the wide eyed naivety I once had when I first started shooting these old cameras, so it was with some nostalgia that I read this review of the Minolta Hi-Matic 7 from Seb Copley of 35mmc who shares his thoughts not only on the camera itself, but shooting film again. My favorite moment is when he shares a spectacular image of his wife and daughter sitting in a chair at a carnival. This was a “grab shot” that Seb didn’t at the time think would turn out, but not only did it come out perfectly exposed, it confirmed to him that he should continue shooting film and that this wasn’t just a fad. This is both a camera review and a “film experience” review.
Aaaah, last week I showed my support for Johnny Martyr’s controversial use of squeegees, but now this week he says he hates eBay?! TO HELL WITH YOU JOHNNY! Just kidding of course! It’s easy to fall into a trap thinking that eBay is the only source for classic film cameras and lenses, but this week Johnny puts together a comprehensive list of retailers, websites, and other places where you can buy old cameras and lenses.
Do you like 16mm subcompact cameras? Do you like James Bond movies? If you answered yes to at least one of those questions, then this week’s look at the Halina Super-Mini 88 subcompact camera by Alan Duncan at Canny Cameras is For Your Eyes Only! Haha, did you see what I did there? In all seriousness, these subcompact cameras don’t get a lot of good reviews online as the majority of the attention is given to Minox and their clones, but there’s a ton of other options out there and Alan gives us some info on a few of them.
There are a lot of new film emulsions being sold online these days by small companies, and many of them are repackaged films from other companies, but on occasion an all new emulsion is released, and such is the case with Film Washi’s new “S” film. Originally only available in 35mm, but now 120, Kosmo Foto brings to us some history and sample photos from this crazy new film developed from motion picture soundtrack film!
This week Jim Grey from Down the Road voices his support in praise of square photographs. Square photographs have been just as prevalent in the 20th century with nearly every TLR ever made, but a huge amount of Instamatic 126 cameras, Brownie 127 cameras, and even some 35mm cameras like the Tenax and Photavit series, yet some people, myself included sometimes struggle with framing them. I tend to frame many square photos just like a landscape photo, just with wasted space above and below the composition, but when done correctly, they can give your photos a look unlike others.
I recently reviewed the Zeiss Box-Tengor to great acclaim earlier this year, and now Mark Faulkner from the Gashaus does the same. I agree with Mark’s assessment that this is perhaps the best box camera ever built and judging by the results he got from his, you likely will too!
Mention the names Vivian Maier or Chicago and you’ll usually capture my interest. So when I saw this article from James Harris at EMULSIVE, I was definitely interested. James is from the UK and was on a visit to Chicago and decided to shoot really terrific shots with his Rolle…wait, a Nikon F2?! Vivian Maier didn’t shoot a Nikon! I guess I can forgive James as his photos really are great, and I guess it’s probably hard to travel internationally with a larger camera like a Rollei. Anyway, check out the article and see what Chicago looks like through the eyes of a traveler from ‘across the pond’.