...a plethora of creative nonsense...
Posts and reviews about technical aspects of, collecting and restoring photographic equipment
Reading Time: 2 minutes This is a simple 110 cartridge film camera, designed by Schlagheck Schultes Design; like the rest of the range it is styled in black and silver and has the ubiquitous red sensor button for the shutter. The film is advanced by closing and opening the case after shooting. It has a 3 element resin Color Agnar Lens at 26mm with a fixed aperture of f/9.6. It has a socket for Magicube Flash Bulbs.
Reading Time: 4 minutes And so, back again to the dreaded Lomography. It is funny how it always ends up there. One thing I will say is that the Lomography crowd have an almost insatiable desire for hacking things, making cameras do weird and wonderful effects and sometimes I …
Reading Time: 7 minutes Don’t worry, this isn’t an advert on finding a cheap ‘experience’ or anything like that (if you want that you can go here), it is about doing film macro photography with retro tools that you can often find very cheaply. I love finding interesting bits …
Reading Time: 12 minutes Focal Length, Field of View and Depth of Field… These all sound very exciting. Or maybe not. Perhaps they just sound slightly frightening. They are the sort of thing that you can delve into in quite some complexity, or try to avoid as much as …
Reading Time: 10 minutes I have come to accept that I have GAS and I cannot control it. GAS? Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I had to put this in because it is the oldest puerile joke among photographers, but now it is out of the way I will get on …
Reading Time: 7 minutes I have recently got back from my first family holiday since my son was born, staying in a lovely cottage managed by my mother in the village of Cwm Penmacho in rural Conwy. This little village lies at the head of the Machno Valley, about …
Reading Time: 2 minutes This is a small compact viewfinder camera. It has no branding other than the Barclaycard Logo, though I assume it will be a rebrand of something else. It has a sliding lens cover, a flash, and a closeup control for shots between 0.6 and 1.2m which moves the lens away from the film plane (acting like a very simple extension tube).
Reading Time: 4 minutes This is a version of the classic Holga re-made for 35mm film. It has a smaller squarer body, with what looks like the original lens mount on the front, which has been relabelled with a focal length of 47mm – this has been commented on a few times, but seems to be accepted that this is the correct focal length – I would guess the meniscus lens differs inside the mount. The BC in the name stands for “Black Corners”, a reference to the vignetting evident on the images it produces.
Reading Time: 4 minutes I recently got hold of a little Ricoh 500G from the local car-boot sale. The shutter and lens were all in good nick, but there was a crack to the viewfinder covering, and when I opened it I was met by sticky black pile of …
Reading Time: 9 minutes The primary selling point of the Genesis III was its Automatic Picture Composition System – subject to certain picture modes the camera would set an appropriate aperture and shutter speed combination, focus and even zoom for you, based on 3255 programmed image variations! Focusing is carried out by a dual mode system – an active IR beam and passive TTL phase differential detection.
Reading Time: 4 minutes This was the first film compact I bought, for £2.99 in a charity shop in Scarborough, boxed with a case and information leaflet. I can find very little about it on the internet. This is one of my favourite cameras and has a special place …
Reading Time: 2 minutes The best camera is the one you have with you. Unless it is a BlackBerry Curve… Interestingly this came up in conversation recently about how the BlackBerry, only a few years was an important and groundbreaking piece of technology – how things change. About The …