In much the same way that film photography vendors seem to hide in plain sight, so do enthusiast web sites. As useful as Google and other search engines are, I’ve found it difficult to track down some of the more interesting enthusiast web sites once I’ve stumbled upon them accidentally and neglected to bookmark them. Hence, this page.
Have something to contribute to this list? Please do contact me and let me know about your site — or your favorite sites for your favorite cameras.
Brownie (Brownie Cam)
browniecam.com
Remy Steller out of The Netherlands runs an incredible web site devoted solely to the Brownie cameras of all types, including still and movie Brownies. You’ll find a very well organized collection of materials, including a very, very comprehensive collection of owner’s manuals. It takes real passion to create a labor of love like this web site, and even if Brownies are not your thing, it’s really quite difficult not to get lost in this web site and all the historical perspective that it brings to table. Really nice.
Graflex
graflex.org
When I first visited this site, I was convinced that it hadn’t been touched in years, and for some of its content, that actually appears to be fairly true. But it also seems as if I stumbled onto archived pages that were still showing in a Google search but aren’t really intended to be online anymore. Regardless, there’s a lot of very specific depth on these classic view cameras.
Hasselblad V-System (Hasselblad Historical)
hasselbladhistorical.eu
This site appears not to have been touched in any way for years, and the information available here is somewhat limited, but nevertheless interesting. One of the biggest benefits is that you can find open, non-watermarked PDF manuals for many of the Hasselblad V-System bits and bobs (including cameras).
Ihagee Exakta (Wrotniak)
wrotniak.net/photo/exakta
Andrzej Wrotniak has a startlingly comprehensive collection of Exakta esoterica that — if you’re interested in these cameras — will keep you busy for hours reading it all. His site is a truly invaluable resource for all things Exakta, and I like his personal story about how the Exakta came to be some important to him.
Ihagee Exakta (Ruys)
ihagee.org
Hugo Ruys in The Netherlands runs a very plain vanilla web site for the Exakta (and more broadly, Ihagee), but it’s a treasure trove of information and esoterica you’ll never quite fully digest.
Kodak Retina
retinarescue.com
New Zealand’s Chris Sherlock is an expert on the Kodak Retina, and provides a really wide array of information on them. It’s a very interesting read, and it’s easy to get lost on his site, to be honest. Chris also provides repairs.
Mamiya TLR (Graham Patterson)
gapatterson.org/mfaq.html
Graham Patterson has a bunch of photography morsels on his web site, but I found it and still refer to it primarily because his site is a rich source of details on the Mamiya TLRs (i.e., C-Series). His System Summary for the cameras is a gold mine of details that any Mamiya TLR owner should read.
Minolta (The Rokkor Files)
rokkorfiles.com
Antony Hands, based in Australia, runs an excellent website for Minolta fans, called, logically enough, The Rokkor Files. To be clear, the site focuses on manual focus Minolta cameras. From all indications, Antony hasn’t touched the site in years, and his other web work seems to be on auto-pilot as well. Be that as it may, The Rokkor Files is a great read on all things related to the classic, beautiful, functional and robust manual focus cameras that lent Minolta its reputation.
Minolta
minolta.eazypix.de
The unnamed individual who runs this site hasn’t updated anything in quite some time, which has no bearing on its usefulness as a reference. The thing I keep coming back to this site to see is actually the person’s extraordinarily comprehensive reference to Minolta SR (MC, MD) mount lenses. If you own a camera with the mount — and we have a few in our house — it’s invaluable in figuring out what’s what, and whether a particular lens is a good and appropriate candidate for purchase.
Rollei (Rolleigraphy / Ferdi Stutterheim)
rolleigraphy.org
An actively maintained Rollei web site, primarily concerned with the Rolleiflex, but with some additional insights as well.
Rollei (Rolleiclub)
rolleiclub.com
This site is a bit of a disaster, and clearly isn’t being maintained at this point, but hidden under the visual clutter is a lot of useful information on Rollei cameras, including serial numbers, dates or production, and various other esoterica.
Yashica TLR (Paul Sokk)
yashicatlr.com
Paul Sokk is an Aussie photographer who is super-passionate about Yashica TLR cameras, and has amassed a cache of esoterica about them that is, frankly, unbelievable. Quite literally anything and everything you’d ever want to know about these cameras you can learn about on Paul’s web site. I have several Yashica TLRs myself, and have learned all manner of things from Paul’s archives. His site is really one of the rare examples of the Internet living-up to its original promise. Kudos to Paul for creating the site, and continuing to pay the hosting bill so we can all benefit from it.