My camera gear lust truly knows no boundaries. But in my defense, ever since I first got into large format photography, neither my Horseman L45 monorail camera (since sold) nor my Graflex Pacemaker 45 Crown Graphic quite seemed to completely scratch my large format itch. The Horseman is (well, was) quite simply too big and too heavy for serious field work (it’s not what monorails were even designed for), and the Graphic, as much as I love it, doesn’t provide enough view camera movements to be considered much of a contender for serious large format work — where perspective control, and depth-of-field control, through the use of those movements are central to the art form. Quite literally the only camera in existence that combines all the use cases of a monorail camera and a press camera into a single package is the Linhof Master Technika, or Master Technika Classic (more on that distinction later), and it’s the reason I’d wanted one for years. I never thought I’d have the opportunity, but it presented itself, and I think I have pretty well found my photographic capstone, not just for my large format endeavors, but for my film camera collection as a whole.
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Review: Nikon F5 135 (35mm) Film Camera
As I pointed-out in my review of the Nikon F4, I’ve said many times over the years that, “I’m just not a Nikon guy.” I also pointed-out that I was walking those words back a bit at that point. And now, as I sit down to write this review, I’m forced the reckon with an inconvenient truth: I am, now, indisputably, “a Nikon guy.” I didn’t see it coming, really, but the acquisition of a Nikon F5 professional SLR is the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. What else did I not see coming? How very much I could actually love a modern, highly electronic camera from what I refer to as the “new school” of SLR camera design.
Continue reading…Review: Minolta XG 1 (XG-1) 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Do you remember your first real film camera? Do you still have it? I do — and I still have mine. That camera? The Minolta XG 1, introduced in 1979, and later (in 1982) very subtly renamed (with a hyphen) as the XG-1, at which time it also received Minolta’s updated, so-called “rising sun” logo. I’ve been writing content here for years, and somehow or another, despite it being my first decent camera, I’ve overlooked writing a formal review of it despite mentioning it in other articles and reviews dozens of times. After the camera received a CLA recently, its first servicing in the 43 years I’ve owned it, I was reminded how much I love the camera, and love using it — and it was about time I shared both its story, and my feelings about it.
Continue reading…Review: Nikon F4 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Over the years, I’ve uttered these exact words, multiple times: “I’m just not a Nikon guy.” But these days, I find myself walking those words back a bit. I wouldn’t necessarily define myself as a “Nikon guy” even now, but I have definitely carved-out a spot in my photographic heart for the beloved Japanese camera and optical brand, having now, with the Nikon F4, discovered for myself what others have apparently long known.
Continue reading…My Favorite Film Cameras: 2023 (The Evergreen Edition?)
Early in 2022, on a whim, I wrote an article titled, My Favorite Film Cameras: 2022. I’m not sure what, exactly, prompted me to write it, apart from just obsessing over cameras — my passion running over as my collection of cameras continued to grow. Since then, the collection has only continued to grow, although now, in mid-2023, the pace of expansion has slowed nearly to a stop. In part, that’s because I’m focusing more attention on actually using my cameras, but moreover, it’s just getting to the point where I’ve experienced all the cameras I really ever sought to experience. Any remaining in the “yet-to-be-experienced” group are, at this point, simply too expensive to justify buying. This includes any Leica you care to name, a more recent Rolleiflex than the one I already own, a Mamiya 7, a Pentax 67, and maybe a handful of others.
As I thought about updating the list for 2023, the challenge of whittling-down and sorting it to just ten examples became became an impossible task. The more I thought about it, the more clear it became that my “favorites” can easily be segmented by type, and within each, there’s an obvious stratification.
Additionally, it feels like the resulting list isn’t likely to change in the future — hence the phrase in the title, “The Evergreen Edition?”. I did put a question mark at the end because, well, who knows. For the moment, I’ll just call this my 2023 list.
Continue reading…Review: Nikon FE 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Last year, I surpassed the 200 camera mark in my film camera collection, and out of those, only one camera sported the name Nikon: My mother’s mid-1980s N2000 (known as the F-301 outside of North America), which I inherited when she passed a few years ago. It had been a gift to her from my father, and despite its simplicity, it was a little too much camera for her, and saw very little use. When I finally got around to using it, I came away relatively unimpressed. That was a few years ago, and while I need to give it a second chance, my sour opinion of it left me wondering why so many people are so enamored of Nikon cameras, and haven’t ever been able to shake the feeling that I was simply missing something. Recently, I seem to have gotten a glimpse of the reasons for all that Nikon Love among a certain subset of film camera enthusiasts.
Continue reading…Review: Petri V VI (Petri V6) 135 (35mm) Film Camera
When you think of Japanese SLR camera makers from the film camera era, you probably think of Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Minolta. Perhaps also Olympus, Yashica, Fuji, Ricoh, Mamiya, or Konica as well. Maybe it even stretches to the obscure, like Cosina or Chinon. But seemingly, almost nobody recognizes another Japanese company that made an interesting mark in the history books: Petri. Originally known as Kuribayashi, Petri was initially the name of a camera model, but later adopted by Kuribayashi as (ostensibly) a more market-friendly name for the company itself. In 2022 when I became enamored of 35mm SLRs and wanted to try pretty much anything that looked interesting, I saw, and purchased, a Petri 35mm camera, what I know as a Petri V VI, but often referred to as the V6, Petri Flex V6, Petri Penta V6, and other variations. After putting a couple of rolls through my beautiful example of the type, I decided it’s high time for a review.
Continue reading…5 Stupid Things You Can Do to a Linhof Master Technika (and How Not to Do Them)
The venerable Linhof Master Technika is a highly respected, highly regarded camera that represents a significant investment for its owners. It seems clear that they were designed and intended for professionals who don’t generally need to be protected from themselves. They are also extraordinarily poorly documented by Linhof, with owner’s manuals that, quite bluntly, contain misinformation and what I might call “errors of omission” — stuff important enough that it should have been mentioned, but wasn’t. That all might have worked fine if we still lived in a time when you bought your film camera from a local dealer, with real human beings there who could demonstrate and explain what (and what not) to do, why, and how. But we don’t live in such a time, and so the buyer of a Linhof Master Technika (or prior Technika models) is left to their own devices, free to screw things up with impunity, then blame the camera and its design. Some of that blame might be justified, but if you’re new to the Technika, let me — as someone who’s made multiple, expensive mistakes — explain how you can (and should) avoid them.
Continue reading…How to Buy a Student Camera (or First Film Camera)
So, what makes a film camera a student film camera? How is it different from any other film camera? What exactly do you need to look for? Which cameras make good student cameras? And where should you buy one? In this article, I’m going to endeavor to provide my take on the answers to these questions — ones important to anyone who’s signed-up for a film photography class (or is considering it), or who is looking to get into film photography for the first time.
Continue reading…This TLR Took a Face Plant (Or, What Not to Do with Your Camera)
Since well before the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been learning (slowly and carefully) how to repair and restore certain types of film cameras. As time has gone on, I’ve tackled increasingly bigger challenges, and one of them recently was resurrecting a Yashica-D twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera that its previous owner apparently dropped, face down. What follows is a narrative on bringing that camera back — with a subtext for all of us on how not to handle your cameras, since drops onto hard surfaces are not generally reparable. And when they are, as I discovered, it can be quite challenging.
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