Keppler’s Vault 104: What’s Wrong With Your Lens

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of collecting and shooting cameras is the quality of lenses that have been around for well over a century.  The formulas used in lenses we use today were perfected around the turn of the last century.  Perhaps the most famous lens design of…

Keppler’s Vault 101: Advanced Photo System

As a collector and blogger, I spend so much of my time researching and writing about cameras from the early to mid 20th century and digging into old photo magazines looking for interesting articles or advertisements about whatever topic I am working on, that sometimes I tend to forget about…

Keppler’s Vault 99: The Japanese Camera Industry

Between the years 1947 and 1955, the total amount of exported camera goods from Japan to the rest of the world rose from a miniscule $9200 to $7,144,442.44, $4,683,332.02 of which went to just the United States.  In the decades that would follow, Japan would become the world’s biggest and…

Keppler’s Vault 94: The History of Zoom Lenses

Ever since the first cameras and first photographic processes were developed in the early 19th century, innovations have continuously come along to improve and simplify the act of making a photo.  The first celluloid films in the late 1800s allowed up to 100 images to be shot without having to…