[0:13] Welcome to episode 114 of the Camerosity Podcast, the world's first and only open source film and digital photography podcast. My name is Mike Ekman, and we're back with another exciting episode. Our last show was over a month ago, and it's been since July since we invited anyone to join us. So for this, our 14th episode, we're recording on a Saturday at a time which is more friendly to our listeners in Europe. We don't have any specific topics to discuss today, so we hope to spend the time catching up and hearing all that you have been up to.

[0:42] We're also short two hosts today, and we do have Paul and Stephen. Hey guys, how you been?

[0:46] Good, Mike. Doing well.

[0:47] Yeah, doing pretty well.

[0:49] I can see the waiting room is filling up, so let's admit everyone and get going.

[0:53] Okay, all right. We got some exciting callers. I see NP, Wayne Scheipers, Leo Lukens, Ron G., Bob Rodolone's back, Will Pinkham, and Leon on camera wearing a fancy Camerosity podcast shirt. That's amazing. I didn't know they allowed it over there in Europe.

[1:15] Well, welcome, guys. It's been a while, not only since we recorded, but the last one we did, we didn't even send out any invites. We just had the five hosts get together and chat about what we were doing. We started talking so quickly we forgot to even record an intro until the very end. So a very unusual episode, but it's been a while since we've opened up the gates and I've seen some of your faces, and I'm excited to be recording. We kind of threw this together at the last minute, which, to be fair, is the nature of the show. We're at our strength when we don't think too hard about stuff, so I'm really excited to get going.

[1:53] Greg Harp just joined, and it looks like Norris Luz is in here too. So before we get started, I just wanted to acknowledge and thank several listeners of the show for the time and effort that they put into sending me a care package. Part of the delay in these shows has been due to an unexpected surgery that I had to have. So a bunch of people participated: NPR, Greg did, Norris did. A lot of the work was done by Vlad Kung, who actually was the orchestrator of everything, and they sent me a really cool box. I didn't know it was coming. Paul, you contributed to... all I got was that morning Vlad sent me a message saying, "Mike, you're getting a package today from UPS." He goes, "Make sure when you open it, you record yourself opening it." And I'm like, "What the hell is in this box?" And he goes, "Just open the box on camera." So I did.

[2:46] Inside of it was a whole host of really neat things. Everything from some expired film, I had some Kodak Panatomic-X in there, some unperforated film, to salty Japanese Lay's steak-flavored potato chips, a jar of chipotle grasshoppers, which is sort of a joke with me and Vlad because he fed me grasshoppers once before. Some homemade stuff, just so many cool things. I just want to say thank you, guys.

[3:16] But my favorite part of what was in that box was most people sent some nice letters just explaining what the show means to them. You guys have heard the origin story so many times, but this is something we do for fun, and I feel like that spirit is sort of why the show is successful: we don't take too much of this too seriously, even though we do take it seriously. I care very much about the quality of the show and you guys, and clearly you do too, but we also like to have fun. So thank you, guys, and anybody who's not here, too.

[3:48] But yeah, I just mainly wanted to get caught up on what everyone's been doing lately. Let's see, if I look through here, I haven't seen Wayne Shepers in a while. Wayne, the mustache is still awesome.

[4:00] Yes.

[4:01] Anything new with you? What have you been up to lately?

[4:04] Since last week, I've been enamored with my new Nikon Zf. I've been enjoying it tremendously. It's incredible.

[4:12] What do you like most about it? Besides the way it looks, it looks like a very good classic Nikon SLR. But give us a 60-minute sales pitch on it. Sixty seconds, sorry.

[4:24] I really like the physical controls, the control layouts, and it makes shooting adapted lenses really, really easy, because with the electronic viewfinder you can program the little button on the front to be your zoom in. It focuses on eyes, even with manual lenses, so it just automatically detects the eye. You can just hit the button, it zooms in, you can get your lens tack sharp, and it just takes really pretty pictures as well.

[4:56] Okay. Yeah, I've had gas for those before too, but I really like my Z5. Even though the Zf is a wonderful-looking camera, and I do appreciate the retro design of it, the Z5 does everything I could possibly need for it. So that has helped me resist the urge, because I don't shoot enough of my film cameras as it is. I shoot my digital even less. In fact, if I were to exclude the beauty shots that I take of film cameras that I use in my reviews, I rarely shoot my digital cameras anymore. It's not so much that I don't like it. It's just that for casual family shots, smartphones are good enough, for just random pictures of my kids playing soccer. But I always want to be carrying a film camera instead. So when I go to family functions or out on a hike or something, I always have a film camera with me.

[5:56] So I do love those, though. They are pretty nice. I come from using an old Nikon D3200. That's 12, 13 years old at this moment. It's great for what it is, but sometimes it's lacking in the autofocus department, and my old X-Pro1, I only use it with adapted manual lenses, so also no autofocus. I was due for an upgrade.

[6:23] Due for an upgrade, yeah. Leon agreed with what I said. He said that a recent photo walk was the first time he had shot digital in quite a while. So a lot of us are still carrying a lot of the film stuff around. Leo Lukens, welcome. It's been a while, I think, right?

[6:41] Yeah, first time hopping on the podcast.

[6:44] Okay, it is your first time. Okay, great. Well, welcome. As you know, we do a lot of editing, so feel free to tell us what you've been doing. Where are you located?

[6:55] Yeah, so living in Burlington, Vermont, so up in New England. I find myself road-tripping up to Montreal quite a bit, so I like to walk around the city and take photos up there as well. A big Nikon guy, just a little bit of gas on my part to start it off. I just picked up my first Nikon rangefinder about a month ago: an S2 with an EP stamp body, the 35mm f/2.5, which also happened to be EP stamped, as well as the 3.5 centimeter finder, which also has the EP stamp. So for me, this has been my day-to-day walk-around camera kit for the last month. I have just a Peak Design strap on one side, and then I usually mount the tripod mount as well, so I kind of sling it under my shoulder. Fun camera, super sharp lens. I know you guys are a fan of it as well.

[7:48] There was a discussion recently on Discord from somebody who had purchased an SP and was very dismayed at how hazed up the rangefinder was. He had brought it to several technicians to see about cleaning it, and they told him that they couldn't, and he was a bit upset, or disappointed I should say, about how difficult it's been. And for that very reason, you know, Bob Rodolone is here. Hey, Bob. But I know that even from the very first time I ever started talking about Nikon rangefinders, there was the likelihood of the SP's rangefinder, thus the prism, developing haze and becoming, in extreme cases, unusable, but most of the time just very badly hazed. Because it's a glass prism, it's not as simple as just cleaning a beam splitter, and very few people will even take that on.

[8:41] But the S2 almost never has that problem. Now you lose out on all the extra frame lines, but I can clearly see you have an auxiliary viewfinder on your camera, so that's the way I prefer using it anyway. And the way that you have that camera set up, with the 35mm f/2.5, which is a really, really good lens... the difference in price between the 2.5 and the 1.8 is astronomical, and in my opinion, the 1.8 isn't really any better. Unless you really need that extra, what is that, two-thirds of a stop to get to 1.8, there's almost no advantage to the 1.8 and you pay so much more for it. So you have an incredible value for a wide-angle rangefinder lens. You have it on the best body you could have it on, in my opinion, and then you have the auxiliary viewfinders. So that's a really good setup that you have there. Have you seen some results from it yet?

[9:34] I have. I developed a roll of Kentmere 100. I pushed it two stops, which is kind of my preferred way to shoot that film, and it's awesome. I love how sharp it is. It really surprised me. Definitely need to run a couple rolls through it. I haven't shot any color with it yet, although I primarily shoot black and white. So I've been super happy with it so far.

[9:58] Is the S2-1 viewfinder?

[10:01] Oh, gotcha.

[10:02] On said, it is.

[10:03] It is. Yeah. And Bob, love your book.

[10:07] We can't hear you, Bob. Your mic's not working, but we can see you though.

[10:11] In terms of color film, I picked up a couple of rolls from Atlanta Film Company. It's Vision3 250D. This is the new supply that never had Remjet. We've seen some of the announcements from Kodak that they're making, I think, all of the Vision3 motion picture color stocks without the Remjet, so you don't have to go through that extra step. I know some companies would proactively remove it for you, or you could remove it yourself. And some people, like Anthony, who's not here today, have gotten really, really great results out of the original version of this film. But you can now buy this pre-ready to go. I mean, they put it in a nice cassette for you, and I really like the look of these. It's a daylight-balanced film, which tends to give slightly warmer colors.

[11:01] And being in the United States right now, it's autumn, so we're starting to see some of the leaves change and a lot more oranges and yellows naturally, and this film really shines. So I think, Leo, being up there in Vermont, you probably have some really beautiful colors too. I would recommend giving this a try. As far as I know, and this could have changed since I bought this because it's been about two months, at the time Atlanta Film Company was the only online merchant selling the new version of it that didn't have the Remjet. Of course, you can still get the old stuff too, but this is just so much simpler. It develops in normal C-41. You can still do it in ECN-2 if you want, but there's no reason to. Just develop it in regular C-41, and I'm really impressed with the results that I've gotten from this.

[11:46] Yeah, Anthony said earlier today that he bought a hundred-foot roll from, who was it, My Film Warehouse or somebody. They gave him three options. Well, you gave them three options: outdated with Remjet, current with Remjet, or non-Remjet. And there was like a $50 difference between the first and the third. Then he got it, and he found out he had bought the second option and they sent him the third. So he got the non-Remjet version for a really good price.

[12:17] Yeah. And he's tested it already. He said it tested out great. That's probably my favorite color negative film right now, that 250D. And yeah, I was going to say the thing to look for if you're looking for listings

[12:29] …that have the new version is the AHU, antihalation undercoat, I think is what that stands for. It's what it has instead of Remjet. And Kodak actually calls it AHU, so... But there's nothing special you need to do during the development, right? I would assume minilabs could probably handle it fine too, but I do my own at home and I had no issues with it whatsoever. It came out really, really nice. That's not the same, and there's nothing wrong with Color Plus 200 or some of the other 200-ish color films out there, but this one just has a slightly different color palette.

[13:04] I feel like being in autumn right now is an ideal time to shoot this film. So if you're on the fence about trying a color film, order a couple of rolls. I'm hoping eventually places will start stocking it, so it's a little bit easier to find. But I was really impressed with it. Hey Greg, how are you doing?

[13:24] Hey. Anything new?

[13:27] I could ask that question every day and it would be true.

[13:30] That's possibly true. I did bring one goofy thing to show off, just because it was the dumbest thing I've gotten recently, and I blame Leon. No, and it doesn't work, but I got this.

[13:43] What the heck?

[13:45] This is a 3D World TL120 or LT120. I'm not sure which way. It says TL120 on the lenses and LT120 on the bottom. It is a 3D camera with a TLR-style finder, and it has three 80 millimeter f/2.8 lenses that are slaved to each other. I don't know if you can really see them rotate together, but there's a silver gear in the middle that rotates and changes the focus on all three lenses. Then the two apertures for the two lenses are slaved together via another gear. And then it's just got a basic shutter, and it's 120 film, two 6x6s.

[14:20] This one does not work, sadly. The electronics, I knew, would be shot, but the shutter I thought was fully mechanical. It looks like one of those that defaults to 1/500 or 1/1000, something like that, when the electronics don't work. So I may have to work on it.

[14:39] There were a couple of those for sale at the Ohio Camera Collector Society auction two or three years ago. They were brand new in the box and neither one worked.

[14:49] Yeah, not surprised. I think it's probably a fairly common story.

[14:53] Now how old are those? When was it made?

[14:56] Early to mid-2000s.

[14:58] Mid-2000s. Okay.

[14:59] So it looks like a typical plastic-bodied 35 millimeter SLR. It's just big. It's a 120 SLR. It does use a red window for the winding, but it doesn't have a wind lever. This prism may fall off, because this thing was in parts when I got it. It's missing a shutter button, but it just has a mechanical shutter release, so I can wind it and fire the shutter. It'll move the film and everything, but I can't control the shutter speed right now. So I may have to map it and get something that will time the shutter correctly. Because I mean, I gotta make this thing work.

[15:34] And yeah, Paul, you can actually find one. I don't suggest this is what you should pay for it. You could find a sold one on eBay for about $3,400. And you can find one for sale on eBay right now for about $3,400.

[15:49] Jesus Christ.

[15:50] I didn't pay that. Leon, I paid 75. Not 80. 25 bucks. I showed it to him and he said if it was in Germany, he would have bought it already. And I said, okay. Just for the laughs, just because, at least, I got three 80 millimeter f/2.8 lenses with medium format coverage, worst case scenario.

[16:12] Yeah. "Worst" is a very good word to use with that camera.

[16:16] Yes, it is.

[16:17] Descriptive of what you can expect with it.

[16:20] It's not the same thing, but I've made a poor decision on a Nishika N8000. This is the quad-lens one. There was the Nimslo, which was the '80s version. I think these were made around '90. And the thing that attracted me to this one is that I got it in the original box with the manual. It did not, however, come with the Vincent Price VHS tape that they released around that time that demoed the benefits of lenticular 3D imagery. So I haven't tried it, but it's kind of funny, because on the top plate it has what looks like a little liquid crystal display. It's hard to read, but it basically just tells you what the depth of field is for the different settings, but it's just a sticker. They just put this on there. So it's one step up from a scam. It's trash-cam quality, all plastic, but it's still pretty lightweight.

[17:14] Mike, I think most early collectors get scammed into that camera.

[17:20] I got one full because it comes in the case. It looks so pretty in the photos.

[17:25] Yeah.

[17:27] I got one of those, too.

[17:28] Well, the thing it's good for is GIFs.

[17:31] Yeah.

[17:32] You're making GIFs. I mean, because you've got four different images side by side. People call them wiggle images now. But when this camera came out, obviously that wasn't a thing. So how it was originally used, you would take the four images and send them to a special processor.

[17:49] I always remember seeing them in Cracker Jack boxes. They were those little things with a plastic lens. It's almost like a Fresnel lens, but it was just a whole bunch of lines. And if you pivoted it left and right, it looked like the image moved. And you could make those with these, to make a 3D print. It was called a lenticular print. And that was a thing for a while. But I don't know that anybody does that anymore, or if it's even possible to create that type of image.

[18:15] But now we do what Paul said, where you just take the four separate images, because it's a square format. It takes four square images on regular 35 millimeter film. If you scan those into the computer, it's the same principle as a stereo camera, in that each image is at a slightly different angle from the other. And so each of the four images is at a slightly different perspective, and if you turn that into an animated GIF, you get a subtle motion effect of whatever you're taking a picture of. That seems to be the popular way of using them.

[18:49] I don't know if I'll ever try it. I might one of these days, but I just have such a backlog. But I saw it in such good shape. Usually they're trashed, scratched to hell. Some of them you'll see brand new in the box, and people are asking $200 for it. I think I paid 40 for this one, so I couldn't pass it up.

[19:07] Yeah, Mike, they do sell for a couple hundred bucks, and the Nimslo is even more, because the guys that are doing the GIFs really want them.

[19:17] As I've worn you guys out on this mess that I just got, a bunch of cameras, in the mess were three stereo cameras that I had not really had before. There was a Wurgen-Adexa (?), which was very cool. I sold it this morning. But there was a Realist 45, which is sort of unusual. It's like the David White cameras, but a little bit more advanced and a little earlier, and I had never seen one of those. That was cool. Then there was... I got a David White with the electric viewer, which was cool.

[19:53] What's Ron holding up?

[19:55] I think one of you is holding up one on that.

[19:57] This is 16 different shots for the off camera. So I haven't played with it yet. I'm not sure I want to spend all the time editing to make a GIF. This one actually is like your golf swing, so it doesn't take it all at the same time, it rotates through.

[20:15] Didn't you have one of those, Mike?

[20:17] Mike had one of those too.

[20:19] Leon's got it right now. It's a Bayoum 16 (?). They sold those in golf pro shops, where that was the primary source for them. I got the whole box and all that stuff. I also got the same camera that Mike held up, but mine has Vincent Price too, for what that's worth.

[20:39] Yeah. I don't have anything to play it on, but that's okay.

[20:42] I think you can watch it on YouTube. I'm pretty sure someone transferred it. And if anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole of lenticular printing, you can actually make your own lenticular prints just with a regular inkjet printer, a little bit of software setup, and purchased lenticular sheets that you just place over top of your print, or you can even laminate it on if you want. But it is possible to make the prints at home.

[21:03] Yeah, it's usually just that grating over an offset print, normally. So the grating, the lenticular plastic, you can still buy.

[21:10] Okay, I didn't know that. Paul, I was going to ask, that version, did that one have the lever wind or knob wind?

[21:16] It was a lever wind. I actually just picked one of those up not long ago, and I got a broken one intentionally because I'm going to do some terrible things to it. But it's because of that film transport.

[21:29] I have been trying to un-Japanese-auction myself, because I got a little out of control there. But in my last consolidated shipment, two separate times, I saw the same stereo camera that I somehow had never heard of before. It's called an Owla (?), a Japanese stereo camera. When I first saw them, I thought, what is that? And then as you look at it, you realize it's just a pretty basic generic one. But it's got kind of a distinct look, and I really liked the logo. Then without even knowing this thing existed, two of them popped up. And I bit on both of them. I got outbid on both, so I didn't win either of them.

[22:08] But then while looking up another camera that I've been researching, Bob Rolone, a while back, had given me a whole bunch of these old late-1950s Japanese magazines called Camera Art, and I was flipping through a couple of those issues and there was an ad for the Owla (?) in there too, which I had clearly missed. So I have an advertisement for this camera, and it's like it was taunting me. But I didn't win one, so maybe one will come my way eventually.

[22:36] There's a lot more in the stereo 35 millimeters, in terms of the selection, from the Realists to the David White ones. Almost everybody seemed to have made one. You could find them from a great deal of companies. Bell and Howell made a few. I have one called a TDC. Kodak had a couple. There's a lot of them.

[22:56] Norris has probably the rarest.

[22:58] Which one is Norris going to show right now? It's probably the rarest of all.

[23:01] I came across this, and I've got to give a shout-out to Vlad for helping me with this. This is the Hachio Stereo Alpin (?). I've seen it randomly in postings and old magazines. There were fewer than 50 of these made in total, and I never thought I would acquire one. And I see Mike disappear. Maybe he's going to go grab one of his own.

[23:28] No, no, no, uh-uh. I don't have one of those.

[23:31] No?

[23:33] It's apparently the first of its kind in Japan to use 35 millimeter. I think it's 24 by 23 millimeter exposures. So it's the first of its kind aerial camera.

[23:48] And it's a rangefinder?

[23:50] Yes, I see the rangefinder windows.

[23:52] Yeah. Right here.

[23:54] That's very neat.

[23:55] Yeah. And someone on Facebook actually just contacted me this morning and said that he's got one that was passed down by his grandfather, and it's seven serial numbers before mine. And his grandfather was a pioneer of the 3D camera society. I don't want to butcher this, but he's been writing articles on stereo photos for several decades. He's one of the pioneers in the U.S., apparently.

[24:21] Mike, it reminds me a bit of you, a bit of a camera and photography historian, and will contribute a lot in the US. So I'll send you as a background.

[24:34] And I think you'd find it interesting to look at. It's pretty cool. The camera that I went to grab isn't as rare as the one you held up, but they're still pretty uncommon, and I think they look really neat. This is called the Henneal TriVision (?). I actually have two of these. This is the black one. The black is Bakelite, and part of the reason these can be hard to find is that a lot of times the Bakelite is broken. But I have a brown one, and the brown one is actually broken. It's got a nice big old crack going down the center of it. But this one's in really great shape.

[25:01] The impractical thing about these, though, is that it uses 828 film. I guess you could put unperforated 35 millimeter through it. It's got three windows in the back, so if you did that, you'd have to either add paper backing or figure out a way to cover that up. I probably would never shoot this, but it just has a very distinct Art Deco look, with two little guns pointing out over something. There's a whole series of those American Bakelite stereo cameras. Remind me, Mike, I think I got a couple extra of the brown ones from the last Texas auction, so I got a whole bin.

[25:40] Oh really?

[25:40] Yeah. So maybe I can replace one of yours.

[25:43] Okay.

[25:44] Yeah, we briefly mentioned the Texas auction in the last show, because that was right around the time when a lot of us were getting our packages. But Norris, you, well, Greg, you had some stuff too.

[25:55] I'll bring the fun one.

[25:56] The fun one, yeah. You only got one lot, right? The one with the Canon rangefinder.

[26:03] No, I had two or three lots, three lots, I think.

[26:06] Did you? Okay.

[26:07] I had some Kodak Retinas, and then I had that one pink point-and-shoot that came with it.

[26:12] That's right, yeah.

[26:13] And then I had a couple of Canon lots. It was a private estate being run by a local estate sale company that had no knowledge of cameras. The way that they grouped the lots was completely nonsensical. They would have one lot with a whole crapload of incredibly valuable cameras, and then there'd be a random Pentax by itself. Or there would be a crapload of Arguses, all Argus together, and then there would be one Argus in another lot.

[26:43] And then what Norris is holding up there is called the Globuscope, which is bizarre. He's probably going to show how it works. It looks like something from a science fiction film that would be used to detect, you know, an alien life form or something. But it's actually a robocop (?).

[27:04] Yeah, it rotates 360 degrees. Here it is.

[27:09] So he's going to do it.

[27:09] Yeah, there you go. Just spun around. This thing just spins, and there's a little slit with a lens behind it. It exposes the film in a 360-degree panoramic. So it's fully mechanical. It doesn't require any batteries at all.

[27:24] Oh, it's not battery-powered. Okay.

[27:26] No, no. So you can see where the film spools are. And here's a little lens, and let me see if I can read the lens for you. It's a Globuscope 25mm f/3.5 to 22. And what's neat about that is it was not highlighted at all. That thing was in the back corner of a dark shelf. I think maybe there was one semi-clear picture of even what it was, but that was also on the same shelf, in the same lot, as a Bellenhael photon (?), two cartons, a civilian and a military one. So that one was the one that got bid up. That was the, what would you call it, the premier lot. Everyone said, who's going to win that one? That was a big lot.

[28:08] I'd never seen this camera at any auction, so I just went for it and did some calculations.

[28:16] If you want a cheaper version of what Norris has, it's a little bit more affordable, you could do the Lomography Spinner 360, which is the same exact concept, but definitely not as cool as the Globuscope. Or if you want a medium format version, I've got that Sites round shot 222 (?).

[28:32] Oh wow, okay. And that spins 362?

[28:35] Yeah, and it's neat.

[28:37] Which lens did you put on that one? Is that the Nikon PC lens?

[28:42] Yeah, Nikon PC lens. You can waste a lot of film with this thing.

[28:46] Have we covered 100% of all the 360-degree spin cameras on the show?

[28:52] All three of them.

[28:54] There are probably others. There's a guy on social media I've seen recently, and I think it's an old Kodak. It's a giant, I want to say large format, but it looks like a giant format camera, and it's on the old spinner and does a 360. It's huge, though. I've got to find that clip and show it to you guys. That's definitely something I've never seen before.

[29:13] That's a Cirkut camera.

[29:15] It's none of our business how much money you paid for these lots, Norris. But I have to ask, though, how much did you pay to ship it to you? Because Jeremy did a huge favor to go and grab it for quite a few of us.

[29:30] I know mine's probably 80% of it. I had probably 250 pounds of cameras, just to give an idea, and they came in five different boxes. I think I spent around three to 400 bucks on shipping. So to give you an idea, Jeremy came by me on the way home from that and dropped off my couple of boxes. He had a Mini Countryman, which is a decent-sized little wagon, and it was loaded full of boxes up to the roof line. And he said 80% of this is Norris.

[30:05] Getting that shipped to you through traditional means, you would have taken a bath, I think, on some of that stuff.

[30:11] 100%.

[30:12] Because Dan Hausman, he's not here today, he won one of the lots, it turns out. And he didn't know about Jeremy. I mean, he did not participate in the Camerosity Texas auction shipping discount program. And I don't even know if he got it. I'm assuming he did, because it's been enough time. But it was like several weeks after that auction had ended, and I was talking about something else, and he hadn't even received his package yet.

[30:39] So I think the auction people ended up saying, maybe to you, Greg, or maybe Jeremy, that they were underprepared for how much demand there was going to be for these things. This is a company that does this professionally, and they did not realize how crazy camera buyers are. So they were a little overwhelmed. And then I think having to hand that off, because a lot of these private companies, they don't ship anything. They just use a local UPS Store or something to handle it all.

[31:07] And those people will sometimes, because this happened to me once before where I used one of those couriers, if you buy one lot but that lot has 12 things in it, they charge you a per-thing fee of a couple bucks. When you have a whole bunch of individual things, even if it was sold as one lot, as far as the shipping company is concerned, it's multiple pieces, and the fees can escalate very, very quickly. So that's a big red flag, a big caution. I would say if you are considering buying through a local auction, make sure you have a solid understanding of the shipping situation, because that could be the deciding factor in whether the auction is worth it or not. But in this instance, it worked out really well.

[31:54] Yeah, I was talking actually to the daughter of the family that auctioned off all this stuff. That auction house was also handling their normal household items as well. So for the pickup dates, they only gave, I think, a one-day window, and everybody was there for the cameras and the household items. So it was very chaotic. But on the flip side, all the cameras were her dad's old collection, and it took him decades to do this, and they were pretty happy with the results. So we contributed back to it.

[32:26] Yeah, from what I understand, Jeremy talked to them. I talked to them a little bit. Norris talked to them. I heard the number, I don't know if I should say it, that they got, and they were thrilled with it. I'll say that they were very happy with the result. I think they could have made three times as much if they had been a little bit more patient and listed things properly. I didn't say that when I spoke to them.

[32:54] Right. Well, sometimes it's the convenience factor, too. Anytime you talk to someone that's trying to get rid of a large collection of anything, it doesn't have to be cameras, it could be stamps, baseball cards, guns, whatever, vases, it's like, how much time do you want to put into this? Do you want someone to just take care of it for you and just get rid of it and then give you money? If that's what you want, you're not going to get the full amount. And the fact that they were happy, it doesn't really matter what they could have gotten.

[33:18] The difference between "I know nothing about cameras and I'm selling this Leica" and a reputable seller is that you're going to get less. Joe Schmoe selling a Nikon rangefinder is going to get less than if Bob Rotolo is selling it, or Norris, or even myself or Paul. The name attached to it does add a little bit of provenance to me. It doesn't guarantee it's going to be perfect, but I think people expect to pay less when they're buying from someone who goes, "I don't know anything about cameras."

[33:51] So since you mentioned Bob, can we segue to Bob's camera book and the set of SP that's on the cover of the book? That exact set just got auctioned off this morning, well, American morning, at the Wetzler auction for 4,000 euros, the exact set.

[34:12] Oh, with a book too.

[34:13] Bob's book is so good at being thorough, with great pictures. It's laid out logically whether you're a Nikon rangefinder fan or not. It's just such a great reference book. In terms of the definitive camera book that has the most possible amount of information about one system, I might suggest that Larry Goobus' Zeiss Ikon Historica book is larger than Bob's book. But I don't like the way it's laid out. I find Larry's book difficult for locating what I want, whereas Bob's book has such a beautiful layout. It's so easy to find stuff. Say you want to learn about that 35 millimeter f/2.5 lens: you just flip through it, and you can see the names of the lenses at the top of the page. It's so easy to find. And he's got some cool prototype information in there too.

[35:03] The only thing that angers me about reading Bob's book is that he didn't make an SLR version of that book. If you could go back in time and find the younger version of yourself to free up some time, I would put in a request to do a definitive SLR book, because it would be nice to have that level of thoroughness and organization in an official Nikon SLR book. But I'll take what I can get, because it's very, very good.

[35:28] So what else, Norris? Obviously don't go through every single thing you got, but besides the Globuscope, give me two more things you were really excited to get from that auction.

[35:39] In that same lot, I actually had a Rapid Take (?). I want to go grab it. It's a very unique little camera. It's a plunger mechanism, and I'm going to go grab it. You guys talk so I can show it off.

[35:56] Fine. I got one lot. I got one of the Argus lots, and it was the one that had two Ks, no, three Ks, three Argus Ks, and one of them was brown. And I could only see it from the auction photos, you know, brown leather. I ended up reaching out to Michael Reitzma and Phil Sterrett, who are two of the most knowledgeable Argus people I know.

[36:18] They literally wrote the Bob Rodolone quality book for Argus. And I said, have you ever seen a Brown Argus K? And they're like, no, I have not. And it's got really good patina, and it's real leather. I mean, it's aged, it's dirty. You can tell that this is not a risk that's been done recently, but I didn't know until I actually got it in my hands to see if this is original. And it does appear to be a re-skin. Somebody did it. They did a very good job, but you can tell the leather is not perfectly cut around every seam. But it's definitely been on this camera for so long that it's, I think, part of the camera's history. For all I know, this was reskinned by a store selling it new. Maybe it was this way from the very beginning, but it does not appear to be an original Argus factory design.

[37:11] But there were two other ones in the lot. One works perfectly, so I will get a review of one of these. The Model K is one of the rarest Arguses. And it's got three really cool design elements.

[37:27] One of them is that the viewfinder is at the bottom. We were talking earlier about the Stereo Realist, which I think has the viewfinder at the bottom. For a brief moment in time, there was this idea that if you put the viewfinder at the bottom of a camera instead of the top, you could stabilize it on your forehead. I'm actually looking through the viewfinder right now at you guys.

[37:48] Oh, that's wild.

[37:50] If I take my glasses off, I'm literally pressing the back of the camera to my head and I'm looking right through at you guys. I suppose at a slower shutter speed, you'd be stabilizing it against your forehead, even though you look kind of weird doing it. So I guess there is kind of a logic for it, even though it's incredibly awkward.

[38:11] The second cool feature is that it has an extinction meter, which many cameras from the 1930s did have, so that's not unusual, but it's actually coupled. It's a coupled extinction meter where changing settings, f-stops, actually changes the brightness that you see through the extinction meter. Most extinction meters are just a clear piece of plastic with a gradient, where one's brighter than the next one, which is slightly darker. The idea is that whichever one is the last slit you can see light coming through, there's usually a number or a letter, you look it up on a chart, and that gives you the exposure settings. That's how you're supposed to use an extinction meter. Whereas this one is actually coupled, and you turn this knob, and on the bottom of the camera there's a little needle. I don't know if you can see it, but it points to the exposure setting that you're supposed to use. So that's kind of neat.

[39:05] And then the third thing is, and I don't know how you would do this in practice, but there's a way to load film through the camera, or actually extract film from the camera, without opening the back. So one of these knobs screws off and there's a chamber in here where you can access your 35-millimeter film cassette without having to open the back of the camera. Again, I don't really know why that's useful, but those are the kinds of quirky things that I like about cameras like this. So one of these days I'll probably do the review on the black one, because to me that one's more original and it actually works. This one does not, but I do really like this brown one.

[39:47] And in that same lot, I got two olive drab Argus As. And then I also got a pretty rare Argus called the Argus B, which is an Argus A but with a German Prontor shutter and a faster f/2.9 lens. The lens is labeled Argus, but I feel like it's still a German lens that they maybe just didn't put the name on, because Steinheil, Schneider, the Radionar is sometimes found in 2.9. There were a couple of different German companies making 2.9 lenses at that time, and I just find it unlikely that Argus would have made their own 2.9 lens that they put on such a rare camera and then never used that lens again. More than likely they bought a couple hundred of them from some random white-label German company and then just slapped their name on it.

[40:45] But so yeah, I got that lot and I flipped a couple of things. There were a few duplicates. There was a really neat Argus C3 accessory kit, brand new, never before used. I probably sold that for 30 bucks. There were a couple of C33s. I already have one of those, but they were in really nice shape, and I was able to sell those. So after selling off some of the duplicates from that Argus lot, my net cost on it was zero.

[41:11] So I'm sure, Norris, you'll come out ahead eventually, but the challenge is when you get something cool like that, you want to keep some of them too. So, all right, Norris has lined up a whole bunch of subminiatures.

[41:22] Yeah, yeah. I have a thing for little cameras as well, and this lot really attracted me. This is a Rapid Take (?). It came with the original box and the printed instructions, which is always neat for me. It's made by Raymond LaRose, who actually designed the Whittaker Micro 16. As you can see, I got them in different colors here. So it comes with the same system of a plunger, and it actually shares the same cartridge as the Ansco Memo inside.

[42:04] Oh, okay. They use Memo cassettes.

[42:06] Yeah, exactly. So it takes 12 by 24 exposures, on this fully metal design. It's not a big light. It's a viewfinder camera, and it's interesting that the viewfinder is on the side of the camera and you look through from the back.

[42:22] Well, that makes it actually more like the Ansco Memo, which had a tubular viewfinder on the top. Not exactly the same, but similar in concept.

[42:31] Similar in ideas, yes.

[42:33] If you do try to shoot that, you can reload those Memo cassettes simply by pressing film in there. But my advice is do not try to load 24 exposures. It's very difficult to shove that in. I see NP agreeing with me. Just try to go for 12 to 14 exposures and stop, otherwise you'll almost certainly jam the film and crinkle it or something. But you should be able to get a couple of images out of it if you try to shoot it.

[42:57] Okay, cool. I might try that. I just recently did a review of the Whittaker Micro 16. I have some sample pictures, and that loads the exact same way. You have to press film into these metal cassettes, but that's double-perforated 16-millimeter. So if you don't have any of it, you can order it off of Film Photography Store or wherever you buy your film from.

[43:21] Can you remember any other plunger mechanism cameras?

[43:25] I think there's a couple more. The Vitessas had them. There was the Penty (?), the gold-colored ones that had the plunger as well. The thing that's neat about the Whittaker is whether the plunger sticks out depends on gravity. So if you hold the camera in one orientation and you push the plunger in, it pops back out. But then if you flip the camera upside down and push it in, it stays in.

[43:49] I think this turn at 90 degrees. There you go. I think this one's broken.

[43:53] Okay, well, they're supposed to, because the idea is you don't want that thing sticking out when it's in storage.

[43:59] Turn it 180 degrees. Okay, now push it.

[44:04] So he's holding it one way, it's going to keep coming out. Now turn it 180 degrees again, push it back in, it'll stay in. See? That's how they're supposed to work.

[44:13] Very neat. And then I got two other little cameras that spin on my list. One is the Combi, the Kemper Combi (?). I have a review of that one too. And the Expo Police camera, which is a tiny one.

[44:28] NP, you were agreeing with me when I was commenting about reloading the Memo cameras. Have you done that before?

[44:33] Yeah. I can't remember what camera I had now, but I think it's an older Ansco. I want to say it's Bakelite. It has the claw system, where you ratchet the back on the film door and you push this thing forward. I can't remember what the model is. It actually might be a Memo, but not the one that you were talking about. I think it's a later version. There's an Agfa Memo too, maybe that's what I'm thinking of. But yeah, I tried to load it up, and I think I jammed some film in, and that's how I learned.

[45:09] I've officially gotten to the point where I can't find stuff on my shelves anymore. I have two of the Agfa Memos. They made those both in half frame and full frame, and it's really easy to tell, because on the full-frame one, the ratcheting thing you're talking about goes the full width of the camera. The half-frame version only goes halfway across, and the shape of the viewfinder is different too. But the Ansco Memo is only half-frame.

[45:33] Right, right, okay.

[45:34] They're both really cool. In fact, somebody, maybe it was Norris, there was a lot in the Texas auction that had like 20 of those Ansco Memos. I don't know who bought them.

[45:45] I think I counted close to 40.

[45:47] Yeah, it was ridiculous. I don't know what he was doing with them. I couldn't tell that there were too many variations in there.

[45:54] There is just a thing. Paul and I have observed this before. Kurt Ingham was the same way. There are certain collectors who, for an inexplicable reason, have a desire to collect all copies of a certain camera that may not even be that collectible. In Kurt's case, he had an insane number of Kodak Vest Pockets, the 127 cameras, and he had quite a few of the Voigtländer Brilliant, the little box camera with the brilliant viewfinder. He had a lot of those too, but definitely a ton of the Vest Pocket cameras. Paul and I used to joke around that Rudy had a whole box of like 75 of them, and if you upset him he would send you some Vest Pockets together.

[46:41] It's just funny how sometimes you'll see a certain kind of camera where there's a whole bunch. The guy that I got the Miranda lot from last year, in addition to just having a lot of Mirandas, there was also a camera called the Ranger 35 (?), Soligore 35 (?). It was a little 35-millimeter scale-focus, simple three-speed leaf shutter, basic, basic Japanese camera. But he had probably 40 or 50 of those too.

[47:11] Oh wow. Bob's got a few of those. I've seen him.

[47:14] So Leon said that while we were recording, he mapped a Retina and got it working live on the air. So that's impressive, to fix a Retina that easily. I will say though, especially when you get into the later Retinas, I am not at all suggesting that what Chris Sherlock does, and anyone who can properly fix a Retina, is easy. But if the only thing wrong with a Retina is the shutter, it is still just a Compur, and clearly Compurs are good shutters. If you have experience cleaning a stuck Compur shutter, they're not any more complicated because they're attached to a Retina. So it is doable, right? It's when you get into the overhauling of the entire camera. If the film transport is bad because someone cranked on the advance lever past where it's supposed to have that interlock, obviously the reflexes or the later Retinas with that cord, that adds additional complexity too. But if you have an earlier Retina, like the II or the IIa or the Ia, Ib, whatever, and the only thing wrong with it is that the shutter is just gummy, sluggish, anyone who has experienced cleaning

[48:26] ...and servicing a Compur should be able to do it. He's telling me it's the big seat. So that is a later one, but at least it doesn't have the piano cord though. So that's cool.

[48:36] We haven't heard from Will Pinkham. Hey, Will. It looks like you're in a different spot than where we usually see you when you join shows. Is it because it's daytime?

[48:45] It's just because it's daytime. I think there's better light.

[48:48] No, there's always a rack of sewing needles or thread or something behind you.

[48:53] The thread's gone.

[48:54] Oh, you got rid of it? Okay.

[48:56] Yeah, trying to eventually redo this room, so I was slowly partying out there.

[49:01] All right. Just not used to seeing how much light is on your face now.

[49:05] Definitely. Not bad. I had, well, probably not exactly like you, a little unplanned surgery last weekend. So that slowed me up a little bit, but not too bad. And I haven't been acquiring too much.

[49:19] I think many shows ago we had a rangefinder talk. I was asking some questions and actually got some really good recommendations, which I got hung up on, having to acquire a new rangefinder. And then I actually realized I have a lot of them around, different ones. So let's just try using them.

[49:37] There you go.

[49:37] So I think I'd had that Ricoh 500, which I got a while back, and the focus was completely locked up on it. I don't know, in one of the episodes we were talking about just heating things. So I left it in my car on a nice hot day while I was at work all day, and it freed it up perfectly. The focus moves great, and everything else was completely fine on the camera. So I did take that out and have been shooting with it a little bit, and I really like it, except I hate the focus.

[50:08] You hate the focus?

[50:09] Yeah, it's the one that has...

[50:13] Yes, the paddles.

[50:13] Yeah, the paddles.

[50:14] Really? See, I like those. I think that's clever. Do you do it with both hands?

[50:19] You're supposed to, yeah.

[50:20] Okay. I think that's the part I just couldn't get used to, kind of using both hands and holding it up like that.

[50:26] I mean, you can still grip it with one hand like you would a normal camera. You could do that too.

[50:30] So I'm going to try again. I should put one roll through. I didn't process it yet to make sure everything's cool. But I really just want to love this camera. I like the weight and the look, and the viewfinder. I think you'd mentioned the viewfinder is fantastic.

[50:43] They're good.

[50:45] Yeah. If you don't like the paddles, there's a camera I don't recommend you buy, it's a Grayflex 35 (?). It's got push-button pedals that go in and out. They're these little black buttons that go in and out, and that's the only way you can focus the camera. It's neat, but it is a little awkward.

[51:02] That's a little weird. So yeah, I don't know, I'm going to try it again. But otherwise, I've kind of just been going through my collection and pulling things out to see what has enough functionality to give them a try, and see how much I like it or abandon it. Not too much else.

[51:17] Good to see you guys actually in the show. I really missed actually having it. It was fun, definitely.

[51:25] Knock on wood. I mean, anything can happen, but I think we're nearing getting to a more regular cadence for the shows again. So stay tuned. And this is a special episode, a Saturday, doing it in the middle of the day. It's 3:01 p.m. here right now. I'm in the Central time zone, so it's about nine there for Leon.

[51:48] Stephen, we haven't heard from you. So you're earlier, it's 2 o'clock for you. Anything you've been up to recently?

[51:54] Interesting. Well, I've been quite busy with moving, so I haven't been doing a lot of cameras. But I did come across one that I had to snag.

[52:02] Some people may remember that a while ago I had found a dark blue Olympus mju Mini Digital. This turned out to be a color that was exclusive to Europe. And I'm kind of doing the crazy thing of trying to collect all the colors. I see these in Italy and the Czech Republic and other places on eBay where they won't ship to Canada. I had found one in 2024, it was in Ukraine, and they would ship to Canada. It was $300, and I thought that was just too much, so I spent a month making offers to the guy and he kept turning them down. Finally I just bit the bullet and decided to buy it. I had it shipped, and it got stuck in Canada Customs because they didn't like something about it. They decided to return it to the seller, except for some reason, rather than sending it back to Ukraine, they shipped it to Australia. So that was quite an adventure that I wasn't too happy about, but I did get a refund on it.

[52:55] And then a year later, in 2025, I found one on eBay in Italy and they would ship to Canada. So I got that one, and it was only $100. I was kind of glad it all worked out that way in the end.

[53:09] And then earlier this week, there was an auction in Japan for one of them, which was kind of odd because it's a European model. It even has a little E on the bottom, so it's exclusive to Europe, but somehow it turned up in Japan. I thought, I don't need it, I've already got one. But I also started trying to justify that maybe I could keep one on the shelf and actually take one out shooting, because it's quite a fun little camera. But really what it came down to was the fact that in the last few minutes of the auction, it was sitting at $40. And I thought, if I let this sell for $40, I'm just going to always regret it. So I started entering some bids, and I managed to snag it for $50. So now I've got two of them for a total of $150, as opposed to the first one I tried to buy for $300. So it goes to show, sometimes you just have to be patient.

[53:55] Yeah, that's the best tip. If you're new, or even if you're not new, sometimes you get gas, and you see a camera that you're super excited about and you want to get it, and you're just like, well, they're just too expensive. The best thing you could do is just wait and wait and wait. Things do turn up, so be patient. If you require instant gratification and you're a collector, you're going to pay out the butt for a lot of things. But if you can afford to just wait and see what happens, deals do come up, and sometimes you can make a deal even without spending money.

[54:24] Like I said, I had wanted an Argus K (?) for a long time, but I was unwilling to pay $250 or whatever they were going for, and I just kept waiting and waiting. I ended up being able to get this auction lot where I was able to sell some of the stuff, so my net cost on it is nothing. I've been able to add that, plus a couple of other cameras, that Argus B, for free essentially. It took a little bit of work and time, and certainly Jeremy Scott was a huge help in that. But even if I had to pay the UPS Store, whatever they were using, I would have just had to sell more of what I got and put a little more effort into it. But yeah, patience is definitely a good thing to have.

[55:04] The only negative downside to deal hunting like that is sometimes it makes you want a deal just because it's a good deal, even if you don't need it. Right now, I've stumbled across a Nikon 18-200mm VR lens where the manual focus doesn't work but it autofocuses, and it's $35 US, about $50 Canadian. I don't need it, I don't want it. I probably wouldn't shoot with it, it's too heavy. But I remember when those were impossible to get at full new price because they were so desirable and were selling for a ton of money, and now $35 US. I almost just want to buy it because it's cheap.

[55:41] Or you just keep it as trade bait for somebody else. Sometimes that works, because knowing people in this hobby is a great asset, you know, who's looking for different things. Paul literally has a black book. Each time I've been involved with you on a large lot of stuff, you'll tell me, "Oh, I got that sold already. I already know who's going to buy it." You had that Leica Model B, the Leap Shudder (?) Leica that you let me borrow for a week. You had that thing sold before you even had it, right?

[56:15] Yeah. The lot that I just bought, 427 pieces, was a lot of money to lay out, but I recovered three quarters of it within the first three days. Yeah, I know who wants what, and I just get in touch with them and they take it. And I'm a victim of that, by the way. Ron is one of my favorite pigeon, one of my favorite customers.

[56:40] Brody and Slip?

[56:41] So what I've been doing, this is what I've spent my life on now, trying to figure out how these things work.

[56:49] The Ikoflex.

[56:50] Yeah. Well, they're all different. If you say, "I have an Ikoflex," the next question is, which one?

[56:57] Which one? So many varieties of them.

[57:00] Well, this one has a Tessar. But what they don't tell you is that you have to have the hood up to make the shutter fire, and it has double exposure prevention, so you have to make sure that's set correctly. But once you get everything done, it's really a cool camera.

[57:14] Yeah. I have an Ikoflex III, which was the premium prewar model, or maybe it was during the war. It's got a 2.8 Tessar on it, very glorious, just a beautiful camera, but it has so many interlocks on it. People make fun of the Kodak Medalist, that you have to read the manual each time you want to use it. I feel like it's even worse for the Ikoflex. And then you have the coffee can, which is incredibly basic. You have some of the later ones from the early '50s, which are basically like Rolleicords, and then you have that one that you have there.

[57:43] Yeah. I think Wayne has the same camera that I had, the same Ikoflex.

[57:47] Yeah. One of the things I also figured out, and what you said, Mike, about the Medalist: there are certain cameras that you should never pick up without having an instruction book in front of you. Another one is the Kine Exakta, because you can damage a shutter on those without even just looking at it, where it will damage the release.

[58:07] A lot of people forget, or maybe they just didn't know, that the earlier Exaktas without interchangeable viewfinders, the ones where it's only a waist-level, there's actually a safety feature where you can't fire the shutter unless your hood is open, just like you said on the TLR. So if you have an Exakta and you've wound it, and let's say you're just trying to test fire it to make sure the shutter works, if you don't lift the hood up, it will not fire.

[58:34] No, that's true. And the other problem is, don't ever try to use the self-timer on a Kine Exakta, because they're all so gummed up right now that it will jam them. They will eventually release.

[58:47] Right, but not for a long time. Explain why the self-timer is so different on those cameras. Do you know?

[58:54] You have to have the shutter speed set to a certain setting, and then you have to make sure you turn it clockwise. The way a self-timer typically works on a camera is it actually introduces a delay, like a holding pattern, where the shutter fires without the self-timer engaged. It's supposed to fire at a certain time, but the escapement prevents

[59:15] …it from firing up into a certain point. Well, that escapement on the Exakta, all the way through the very last models, is also used for the slow shutter speeds. So the same mechanical gear, you've heard a mechanical self-timer, right? The gears that are doing all that whirring and delaying can also be used to set a two-second shutter speed. So the same dial and the same escapement that sets the self-timer is also used for the slow shutter speeds. In some cases, you can actually use both at the same time. It's possible to activate the self-timer and have a one- or two-second shutter speed. And you can go without the self-timer engaged, I think as long as 12 seconds. So you could have a 12-second exposure on an Exakta using that same escapement. It's really complicated. I know I've spent time explaining how it works, but again, like you said, you've got to read the manual if you even want to try and use it.

[1:00:20] But when they do work, they do sound really cool. If you like auditory, what do they call that?

[1:00:28] ASMR.

[1:00:29] ASMR. That's it. If you like ASMR, hearing an Exakta fire with both the self-timer and a long shutter speed, it's pretty neat.

[1:00:40] Norris, you put a Ricoh leather case right in front of your cameras. Was that on purpose?

[1:00:44] Yeah, you were talking about being patient, and I've had this GAS for the longest time. It's the Ricoh Singlex, the very first version. I've been trying to find one because they're somewhat rare. I think there were fewer than 2,000 made. And they were just expensive. I've seen them overpriced, between $600 and a thousand dollars. And I just got this in. So this is a live unboxing, essentially, on Camerosity, because it just arrived. I haven't even seen it yet, other than that it came in the nice leather case. That's a very large leather case.

[1:01:19] Very large, it's huge. It's the size of my head, if you want to really compare. And here it is. I'm going to unwrap it. It's very, very heavy. It's a solid brick. I've been trying to get one for a long time, and I got this one for 100 bucks instead of 1,000, which is what they're sometimes listed for.

[1:01:39] These things are going for a grand, really?

[1:01:41] Yeah. I've seen them anywhere between $600 and over a thousand dollars, for some reason.

[1:01:47] What's the lens mount?

[1:01:48] It is the Nikon F mount, but it's not exactly the same. There is a subtle difference. Bob and I have spoken about this before. So that lens is a Rikenon, a Japanese lens that mounts on there, and you can mount Nikon lenses to that camera too. So get any Nikon F-mount lens you want and it'll mount on that, no problem. However, if you try to take the Ricoh lens and put it on a Nikon, it will not work. If you look at the bayonet, there are three claws on a Nikon F mount. One of them is a different size.

[1:02:22] The way it was designed, intentionally, was that Nikon was happy, because remember, there's more money in lenses. You don't really make money on bodies. And at the time of this, because this came out in '61, '62, Nippon Kogaku was still very much a lens company, right? You think of the Nikon camera as their pinnacle product, and to some degree it was, but really they made bodies so that they could sell more lenses, and that's where all the profit was. So the way they looked at it is, okay, if one of our competitors wants to make a camera body that uses our lenses, then that potentially creates more customers for us. But what they wanted to avoid was, because the Ricoh was a less expensive camera, they did not want people with Nikon cameras using the Ricoh lenses on them. They're like, well, we don't care if you use our lenses on your bodies, but we don't want your cheaper lenses on our body.

[1:03:21] So whatever licensing agreement Nippon Kogaku had that allowed Ricoh, because that's the actual name of the company, not "Rico," permission to use the Nikon F mount, they had to put in that little subtle design difference.

[1:03:36] So I assume, Norris, what did you grab? Did you grab anything?

[1:03:40] The craziest thing is, of all the cameras I have at home, I don't have an F-mount lens available. It's in their own storage.

[1:03:47] Joao would be appalled.

[1:03:49] I'd probably have 500 cameras in my house right now. Here's a Nikkor 20 millimeter. Here is the Ricoh Singlex. So I mounted the Nikkor lens to the Ricoh, no problem. However, if I take the Rikenon that I just took off, here is an F3. This will not mount. Watch it make a liar out of me. But I feel pretty confident it won't. Yeah, it won't. No matter how you try to line up the bayonet, it will not mount. So you cannot put this Rikenon lens on a Nikon body, but you can put Nikon lenses on the Ricoh Singlex body.

[1:04:27] And it's the same film plane distance or whatever?

[1:04:31] Yeah, you can actually shoot it. I just mount it. They were happy if you wanted to buy the Ricoh and buy Nikon lenses, no problem, because remember, that's where they made way more money, selling you a lens rather than selling you a body. They just didn't want people buying Nikon bodies. Because at that time, keep in mind too, the Nikkormat didn't exist yet, but the Nikon F did. So they were, Nippon Kogaku, Bob is nodding with me, so even though we can't hear him, I'll just say he's agreeing. A lot of what I'm repeating is stuff he's already told me, so it's like him saying it. Nippon Kogaku was willing to go into the sub-pro market, but they didn't want to shoot themselves in the foot and allow people to skimp out by using cheaper lenses on their cameras.

[1:05:26] How about a Dremel? You could fix that.

[1:05:29] Yeah, you could certainly modify it, and I'm sure there are people who probably did that, but I feel like that probably wasn't a huge concern of theirs.

[1:05:37] But that's really cool you got one. And yours looks like it's in really good shape, Norris.

[1:05:41] This lens is a freaking tank though. I mean, this has to be one of the heaviest 50mm f/1.4 lenses I think I've ever felt. And then you add it to the camera, the camera is just massive. I wouldn't be surprised if it's over 1,000 grams. And then I have the meter, a coupled meter, which adds a little bit of weight to it too. But live unboxing, that's pretty cool.

[1:06:04] Yeah, I'm pretty happy it came in just in time for the show, so I can show it to you guys, or show it off, I guess.

[1:06:10] Yeah, that's really cool. Wayne's pouring a stout of some kind right now on camera. He's getting the head really good on his glass there. Live unboxing and live pouring. Nice.

[1:06:24] It's Westvleteren 12, by the way. A Trappist ale.

[1:06:28] Trappist ale, but yeah, dark.

[1:06:30] So I want to share with you guys a journey. Norris is aware of this journey of mine. For a very short period of time in the 1950s, there was a camera company called Arco that made lenses for the Miranda. They made a few other accessories, but they also made a 35 millimeter rangefinder camera. Nobody calls it this, but I'm calling it the Japanese Retina, because in my opinion, it's built to a similar quality. It also has a couple of really neat features that I really like. One of them is that the film plane moves via a knob on the top of the camera. So it's similar to the Vitessa or the Voigtländer Prominent. It works that way too. They made a whole series of these. They're all called the Arco 35. There were models with f/3.5 lenses, models with f/2.8 lenses, and then towards the end there was one with an f/2.4 lens.

[1:07:23] I really, really wanted one of them that had this rare accessory called the View Arco, which was a coupled clip-on viewfinder that clips onto the top of the camera, but then it also connects to the shutter plane, so that when you focus, the shutter goes in and out, and the viewfinder has automatic parallax correction. It's a focusing viewfinder. So in essence it turns the Arco 35 into a TLR, a true TLR. Finding these damn things at an affordable price, even Norris, you don't have one yet, do you?

[1:08:03] No.

[1:08:03] So if Norris isn't even willing to buy it, then you know it's expensive.

[1:08:07] So I bought my first one. This is an Arco 35. In my opinion, it's got a very German design. It's got a clamshell, so you push it in, kind of like a Serto Delina (?), where it folds open down, right? The focusing knob is right here on top, so I don't know if you can see this. When I turn the knob, the shutter moves forward, now it's moving back, forward, got that. It's got an advance lever because this is one of the later ones; the earlier ones were a knob. And then it's got this neat swing-out for the rewind. So you can swing out a little handle, and it allows you to go real fast while rewinding the camera instead of unwinding a knob. It's a rangefinder, typical features, 35 millimeter. This one has the 2.8 lens. Then I kept looking for one with the cool viewfinder and I couldn't find one, and then I settled on one with the 2.4 lens. So this is the Arco with the 2.4. Otherwise it's exactly the same, focus works the same way, advance, wind lever, whatever.

[1:09:09] And Norris kept encouraging me because there's one up there that's been for sale for a while. The reason I haven't bought it, in addition to the price being too high, is I just don't think it's in as good a shape as I want. But then, when all hope was lost, our good friend Rudy Burden ended up having one that he got from Kurt. I don't remember seeing this camera so clearly. I either just didn't know what it was, but Rudy did have access to Kurt's collection before I got there, so maybe this was one of the ones he found very early on. But he had one, and this is what it looks like. You cannot fold it shut with this thing on, and if you can see this, it's physically coupled right here to the shutter. So when you look through the waist-level finder, actually this one, the magnifying glass keeps getting stuck, but you just have to trust me on this. When you look down through the hood, it looks like a TLR, right?

[1:10:06] So this one's on loan. I do have to eventually send this back to him. My hope is that by giving up trying to buy one, that's when I'm going to find one for 40 bucks. But, you know, I have to be patient. This is one that Norris kept egging me on to try to buy, one of the ones, but I ended up finding one that I could borrow. I have these other two, which are both mine. Oh, and you can tell too, this one has the knob. It doesn't have the lever like the other one. So this is an earlier model with the viewfinder. They did make the viewfinder for these later kinds too. I think those are actually even more rare. But I have a decent selection of these to represent the whole family, and maybe one day I'll have a full review of the Arco system. Why I went down this particular rabbit hole, I don't know.

[1:10:54] Well, it's the collector's journey, right? It's that agonizing search for that camera that you want and you don't particularly want to pay out the door for.

[1:11:05] It's so unique though. I don't think anybody did this, especially not to a 35 millimeter camera. And you kind of understand why, because this thing is impractical. You can't stick this in any pocket. You can't even fold it shut.

[1:11:19] And when the doors open, the door sticks below the bottom of the camera. It doesn't even sit flat. It leans back. It keeps wanting to lean back. You can't even set this thing down. It's so bizarre.

[1:11:31] Is it the most German-Japanese camera ever made?

[1:11:34] Yeah. I have to agree with you. That's why I unofficially call it the Japanese Retina.

[1:11:39] Leon asked in the chat about the lens on the 2.4. You're right, what I have read is that optically it is the same optics as the Miranda 5 centimeter 2.8, but somehow they've got it at 2.4. I don't know if they just decided not to clamp down on the... With a lot of lenses, the aperture is much smaller than the optical path possible with the optics, and they do that for quality reasons. They'll stop it down a bit. But that Miranda 5 centimeter f/2.8, the old screw-in one...

[1:12:14] No, it's 2.4. If you got a 2.4 one as well? Okay, so they changed that design, because they have a 2.4 and a 2.8. Oh, okay. I didn't know they made a 2.8. Those are screw-in, both of them, the M44 screw-in. And those are Heliar 53 (?) optical design.

[1:12:31] So the Miranda, like what he said, it uses the M44 screw mount. Most later Miranda has used bayonet, but some of the earlier ones, like the sought-after Zunow lenses, also used this threaded mount. So yes, this should be optically the same as the one from the actual Arco (?) camera.

[1:12:51] I did not realize it was a Heliar though, so that's good to know. That'll drive some people nuts, because everybody wants those five-element lenses. They should have added the foot on the rear like the Contessa.

[1:13:00] Yeah, exactly. I've seen a couple of those, they have a little foot. I got a Certo Six (?), a medium format, six-by-six camera. It has two feet that kind of swing down, so that when you set the camera down on a flat surface it helps keep it level too. So that can be helpful for practicality's sake.

[1:13:20] I didn't know unboxings were allowed, or I would have waited. I just got this today. I finally found the Keknar (?) that wasn't a million dollars. So I've got a budget Linhof Tech Barer (?), and I literally unboxed it 20 minutes before I jumped on. I don't necessarily think it's a matter of whether they're allowed or not allowed. I just think most people can't wait. They don't have the patience to wait to do it on camera.

[1:13:44] I figured a podcast may not be the place to unbox them.

[1:13:48] I've never heard the words "budget" and "Linhof" in succession like that.

[1:13:52] Well, yeah, it's a relative budget.

[1:13:54] How's that one?

[1:13:55] I've been looking for one for four years now, and they just rarely show up. When they do, they're $4,000.

[1:14:02] Oh my.

[1:14:03] This one should have showed up with less stuff and a lot of haggling. All I wanted was a handheld four-by-five. Another one shows up.

[1:14:11] Well, I have one more buy, a package en route with nine things in it, so maybe I'll do an unboxing video for that. I did an unboxing video for the care package. I'm not going to share it publicly. Because like I said, I really had no idea what was in there. I did not know that thing was coming until about four hours before it got here. It was pretty cool. But yeah, it was 24 minutes long. I'm thinking maybe there'd be a lens in there and it would be a quick two-minute video, and it turned out to be a 24-minute-long video. It took about 40 minutes for my phone to upload it to YouTube.

[1:14:45] Well, I want to pick on you a little bit. You opened it on your porch because I think you were afraid it was ticking.

[1:14:48] Well, I didn't know what could be in it, like some graffiti or whatever. Plus I figured the lighting was better on my porch than in my living room, and I didn't want you guys to see how messy the floor of my office is. See, the camera you guys can see is intentionally only showing about two feet off the ground and up, because if I were to angle my camera down, you guys could see the condition of my floor. You'd probably lose some respect for me. Maybe not, I don't know.

[1:15:15] It could have had a bit of glitter bomb too.

[1:15:17] Yeah, right. Like that Mark Rober glitter bomb.

[1:15:22] Hey, speaking of handheld 4x5s, I just got to share this real quick. I've mentioned this to you guys before. I put together a Wista (?) travel four-by-five, and this is the one that has that weird Nikonos rangefinder on it. I don't know if you can see this, but with my really janky setup to make it work above water, it actually works okay. It's got a Topcor 90 on it, and I painted it blue, which is not coming through on my camera very well. But yeah, it works pretty well. The whole idea behind this was to have a point-and-shoot four-by-five that I could just frame stuff up and go for it. I've taken one shot so far, and I haven't developed it yet, but it handles pretty damn well. Bill, actually, on the Discord server, Bill printed this for me, so I'll have to take some pictures and show him.

[1:16:14] It's got to be nice and light too, compared to the brick over there.

[1:16:18] Yeah, it's definitely light.

[1:16:21] Leon posted two things in the chat. The first one is whether we're aware of the Meyer Optik Primotar E, and the way it does focusing and taking aperture. I want to ask about that. But I'll address the second half of what he said first. When I commented about how my camera is up so you can't see below, he wanted to know if I had any pants on. So I mean, yes, I do. I have shorts on.

[1:16:43] So wearing a shirt but no pants for the Zoom meeting.

[1:16:46] I think I am fully dressed, and you'll be happy to know.

[1:16:48] The COVID special, right?

[1:16:50] Yeah.

[1:16:50] It's business up front, party in the rear.

[1:16:53] It's business up top, sleeping time below anyway.

[1:16:57] Disturbing visualization, I apologize.

[1:16:59] Okay, so I am not aware of the Meyer Optik Primotar E and the way it does focusing and taking aperture. Does anybody know what he's talking about? He said the Primotar technically is an f/2.8 lens and it opens that far for focusing, but during the exposure, the largest aperture is only f/3.5. They didn't correct it for 2.8, but this way you get both a brighter image with more snappy depth of field for focusing and good correction for actually exposing the image.

[1:17:26] So that's something you see on a lot of TLRs, especially some of the later Rolleiflexes. Some of those cameras would have a 2.8 viewfinder lens but a 3.5 taking lens, because by having a slightly wider aperture for your viewfinder, it allows you to see a little bit less depth of field, a little bit sharper, narrower for focusing ease. Plus it lets just a little bit more light into the viewfinder. But if the lens isn't actually corrected to go that high, then you would probably get pretty low-quality images on film. So intentionally limiting the lens for exposure to a smaller aperture would fix that. But that is interesting.

[1:18:08] There are even much more recent lenses made for autofocus film SLRs, and even dedicated digital SLR lenses, that do that same thing. So it's something that has continued for many, many years.

[1:18:19] Yeah, there's a lot of really lower... especially some of the older lenses. You'll see, on some of the Kodak folders, the widest they'll open is like 6.3, but you can clearly see that there's more glass there. But, you know, given the ability to correct the older lenses wide open, you would probably have such a soft image if you actually used all that glass that it would be unappealing, so they intentionally stop it down for you.

[1:18:46] Yeah, the COA (?) or Cala (?), however you pronounce it, the super wide has aperture blades in the widest aperture. You can still see the polygon-shaped aperture, it just won't open any wider than that. But it was a super compact 28 millimeter lens from that era, and that was the best that they could do. If they'd opened it wider, it would have lost out on quality.

[1:19:07] And Leon pointed out that TLR taking lenses are often much lower spec designs, often triplets. They're also, a lot of them are slower, right? You'll have an f/3.5 taking lens below an f/3 viewing lens on a TLR.

[1:19:28] I've definitely seen lenses where there's a fixed mask in place that limits the maximum aperture. And with some of the electronic lenses made for autofocus DSLRs later on, you could do things like not fully mount them, or cover up some of the contacts, and actually force them to fire fully wide open, with no autofocus control either. But every time somebody has done that, or removed a mask from one of those lenses, the results are just terrible, and you immediately see exactly why the manufacturer limited the maximum aperture. They did it for a very good reason.

[1:19:59] If anybody's noticed the trend, around the '80s or so, a lot of manufacturers... 50 f/1.8 was really, really common for decades as a normal lens, and around the '80s they started saying 50 f/2, which was much more common. Canon specifically, for example, I know that they've got their new FD 50 1.8, and some of the last versions of it are 50 f/2, and it just has an aperture mask. It is the same lens with a ring mask in there. I think it was, like you say, a compromise toward lighter and less expensive, and maybe they didn't feel like the market was calling for 1.8 anymore, I don't know.

[1:20:37] And in some cases it might cover up just a little bit of slop in assembly. There are cameras where you had a 100% view viewfinder, or very close to it, things like the OM-1 from Olympus, or the Minolta... actually, sorry, I'm thinking of the Sony A900 full-frame DSLR. Those had very large viewfinders, and then they later released models with viewfinders with less coverage. With Olympus it was the OM-10, and there was a Sony, I think it was an A850 maybe, the cheaper version of the A900, and it's the exact same viewfinder optics, exact same prism. There is just a mask that covers up the image to make it smaller at the edges. And the reason they did that was it just meant they didn't have to precisely align things at the factory. They could save a few seconds per camera, be a little bit sloppy in assembling it, and the mask would hide those alignment issues.

[1:21:29] So I don't know for sure, but it could be the same thing with lenses. If there was something a little bit off about the alignment of a lens, and you put a mask in to stop it down a little bit, it would just hide those imperfections, perhaps.

[1:21:41] I've always thought that companies would sometimes release lenses like the Fuji F2.2 (?), or Konica had an Auto S1.6, that were intended to be like f/2 or f/1.4 lenses. They just couldn't quite nail it down, so they intentionally limited it just a little bit, just to maintain performance at the expense of top speed, but still not have to scrap it, you know, and still be able to sell it or something.

[1:22:08] That Fuji f/2 has gotten a little bit of fame because it's one of those sort of wonderfully flawed lenses. It's got a sharp bubble bokeh effect, which is unusual for that kind of lens, and so the vintage lens folks have picked up on it. It's kind of a sleeper.

[1:22:24] Canon had a 2.2 rangefinder lens, didn't they?

[1:22:28] They did, briefly, when they came out with, I think, the model P, and that was the first black lens before they could get the 50 1.8. So between going from the chrome 50 1.8 to the black 50 1.8, they had some delay in design, so for about six months they produced the 5 cm f/2.2.

[1:22:48] That's cool. I'm trying to remember my Kitchingman verse and chapter.

[1:22:51] But yes, that's the way I remember the history, at least.

[1:22:57] Changing topics while he's still here. Mamp Leon sent me, or I bought from him, a working Pentina. This is a camera that I had reviewed a long time ago, but mine had died and I never could get it working. And he asserted that he did not like knowing that I did not have a working example of this camera. So he had completely serviced this one, and it works perfectly. It's a left-handed shutter release, left-handed wind lever. This was an interchangeable lens system, but they never made anything faster than 2.8 for it. But it works, a leaf shutter SLR. I've already had this for about a month now. Leon, thank you for that.

[1:23:42] And a camera I just finished shooting a roll of film in yesterday, I briefly mentioned, is the Telka III, which is this really cool French 6x9 folder. It's made by a company called Demeria Lepere Telka III. And the neat thing that this has is that on the shutter ring there are these little windows, and behind them are f-stop numbers. Next to it is a description of the type of light, and as you turn it, it will actually give you an exposure calculator of what it recommends. It's not automatic, but it's a built-in exposure calculator on the front of the lens to help you determine which f-stop you should use for a given film speed.

[1:24:29] It's a coupled rangefinder, all-metal camera. This one does have some issues. The rangefinder is way off. The automatic double exposure protection doesn't work either. But the lens is very clear on this one. The shutter fires correctly at all speeds, and the bellows has no light leak. So I just finished a roll of film in this literally yesterday. I haven't developed it yet, but I'll be doing a review of this camera. It's a very attractive, nice little French 6x9 rangefinder.

[1:24:56] We should probably start winding down. This was kind of an impromptu episode without any particular topics we wanted to talk about. I just wanted to catch up with you guys. We've lost a couple of people. NP had to go, Leo had to go. Is there anything you guys wanted to share or ask before we get... Oh no, MP's right there. I'm sorry, you're still here.

[1:25:15] I'm still here. Norris had to leave.

[1:25:16] The problem is that the screens move around. It's like the Brady Bunch, except Alice is no longer in the middle, she's in the corner or something, but where Greg's supposed to be.

[1:25:26] Does anybody have any last-minute comments, suggestions, questions? What do you guys want to talk about for the next show? We actually schedule something.

[1:25:32] Oh, it was a cat. Norris has shown his cat.

[1:25:35] We're not going to do a cat episode though, sorry. Shoot more film. There you go. Yeah, I don't know. We had some topics we were going to talk about doing, but everything got waylaid since basically July. So it's October. We'll get some more episodes in before the end of the year. Daylight saving time in the United States is about to end soon, and in Australia I think it's about to kick in, or maybe it hasn't yet, so that kind of throws things off for people from around the world. But as always, we try to do our best about giving as much advance notice as possible and soliciting ideas for future shows.

[1:26:09] How about we do one for motion cameras? Motion picture cameras. Thanks to Leon.

[1:26:15] Yeah, I mean, we could certainly do motion picture cameras. I have absolutely no experience with them. I've never shot motion picture film before. I only have two... Well, if you exclude cameras like the Ansco Memo or the Debrie Sept that technically do use cinema film and could technically shoot a motion picture, I don't really have many dedicated motion picture film cameras, or cameras that even could do it even if I wanted to. But certainly on the table.

[1:26:41] Yeah, no, I mean, no topics are really off the table. It's just that sometimes they don't fill a whole episode, so you may not dedicate a whole episode to it, but that doesn't mean he can't share with us what you've learned and what's cool about that model.

[1:26:54] So, all right, well, thank you guys for coming. It's great to see all you guys' faces. I'm really glad that Leanne got a shirt. Will, you've worn your shirt. AJ said he wanted to be here, he couldn't wear his. I've lost a lot of weight this year, and my Camerosity shirts are ridiculously huge on me now, so I actually need to order a newer one in a smaller size, because I'm swimming in them. I'm looking forward to getting a new shirt that actually fits me again.

[1:27:20] But as always, the topics and discussions on the Camerosity podcast are determined and influenced by you guys. I always say this every time, but don't feel like you have to be at the level of gear geekiness that we are to come on the show. We like people who are new. We like people who are beginners and ask us questions. It's fun to just talk to people and see where you guys are at. We just want to have as many people participate as possible.

[1:27:44] I don't yet know when the next show is going to be. I promise you, we're getting very close to a regular cadence. In fact, I can almost guarantee we'll get one more before the end of this month. I just don't know the date yet. So make sure you stay tuned to either my site, our official Facebook page, or our official Discord page, which is where all the announcements are posted. And when I know when it's going to be, you guys will know.

[1:28:07] So thank you guys for coming. For those of you in Europe, good night. For those of you in the United States, it's the middle of the day. So go, Mulya long. Have a good day, everyone.

[1:28:16] Good night, everybody. Thanks.

[1:28:18] Bye, guys.

[1:28:19] Hi.

[1:28:19] Well, good night.

[1:28:40] All right. So I got a message today from Glad Kern telling me that he sent me a package. He said to make sure that when I open it, I videotape it, do an unboxing video. So this is not a setup. This is not something that I had planned or had any forewarning of. I really have no idea what's in this box. He labeled it "open here, fragile," so it must be Italian. Probably shouldn't show my address, but there's his name.

[1:29:19] So I'm doing it outside because I don't know what it is. If there's confetti or something messy in here, it'll be on my porch. So per your request, Vlad, I am opening this on my porch, live video.