April 2021

Review: Graflex “Graphic 35” 135 (35mm) Film Camera

Here we go again… Another camera I’d never heard of that I see listed somewhere. I go do my homework and learn a little something about it. I become smitten. I buy one (or in this case four). But this time was a little different, since all the examples I bought were non-functional, and I hadn’t a clue who might be able to repair them, or at what cost. I was, as they say, headed down a rabbit hole. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending, but it did take some effort to get there.

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The Curious Case of the Non-Fitting Lens: Kodak Retina Aux Lenses

One of the challenging aspects of collecting and maintaining vintage cameras is the sheer lack of detailed historical technical information available for the vast majority of them. Many of the companies who made all this camera gear are long since gone, and virtually all of them who are still around have shifted their business models, often quite dramatically. That can make it a big challenge to figure-out how to solve weird problems that just shouldn’t be happening to start with. And such as it was for me recently.

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