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…Education
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…How to Cut and Load Film for the Goerz Minicord
In mid-2022, I was generously gifted a very special camera by a friend: a Goerz Minicord, reportedly the smallest twin-lens reflex (TLR) ever made, and one of the smallest truly serious film cameras ever made for that matter. My friend had inherited the camera, I believe, but had never shot film in it. I have very few “shelf queen” cameras — those that sit on a shelf and either don’t function, or for which film can no longer be purchased. If I own a camera, I want it to work, and I want to have used it at some point or another. As a result, my first objective was to figure-out how to get film into the Minicord and give it a go. Now that I’ve figured it out, it seems useful to share what I found.
Continue reading…How (and How Not) to Clean a Film Camera
For a few years now, I’ve slowly been learning the art of camera repair and restoration, and no matter the condition of the camera I’m working on, the process begins with a good, thorough cleaning. I tend to think of it as a key part of my bonding process, sort of like giving your baby its first bath, I suppose. In any case, I’ve established both a routine and a set of techniques that are working well for me, and after posting many of these restorations to social media, I’ve gotten more and more inquiries about how I approach the cleaning process specifically. This article aims to provide the answers.
Continue reading…Film Camera Repair: Observations and Advice
My film camera collection has grown through various approaches. Sometimes it’s lusting after a specific model, and waiting patiently for the perfect example to come-up for sale. Sometimes it’s been seeing something on the shelf of one of my two local brick-and-mortar camera shops, and having it capture my imagination. Other times it’s been seeing a derelict camera in an auction listing and thinking I can restore it myself (often successfully). And still other times it’s been discovering something in an auction lot I wasn’t expecting, and being pleasantly surprised. But no matter how the cameras make their way to me, not all of them work properly, and not all are good candidates for subjecting to my rapidly growing but still amateur-level knowledge of camera repair. That’s where sending a camera to a professional comes into play, and I’ve learned — and continue to learn — a great deal about that exercise. This article captures some of the insights I’ve gleaned from years of sending my film cameras off for some TLC, and the obscene amount of money I’ve spent in the process.
Continue reading…Understanding and Using Auxiliary Close-up Lenses (Proxar, Rolleinar, Portra, etc.)
One of my favorite types of photography is taking images from unique perspectives, revealing worlds unseen — or more accurately, unnoticed; images that reveal something you wouldn’t normally see, or don’t normally choose to look for. It could be shots taken low to the ground, or from the top of a ladder, but often it’s very simply shots taken up close.
Continue reading…Combating the Increasing Cost of Film: Why and How to Bulk Load
As I write this article in November 2021, film photography blogs, podcasts and social media are abuzz about rumors (or promises) by Kodak to raise prices on film again in January 2022 — the latest of a seemingly endless series of increases. It’s not just Kodak; Ilford has raised prices, as have secondary brands like CineStill, Lomography, Adox, Foma and others. And as is customary for companies recently, they’re all blaming COVID-19 and supply chain difficulties and their own rising costs as the reason. Whether you believe that story or sense opportunism, it doesn’t matter: film photography is getting more and more expensive, nearly every day. So, what do we do about it?
Continue reading…Looking Good: Replacing Leather(ette) on Camera Bodies
Much of the world’s total supply of antique, vintage, or simply used film camera gear is at this point decades old. In fact, the newest film camera that I own, my Hasselblad 503CW, would this year (2021) be old enough to drink alcohol in my home state of Colorado (if it were a person), having been born manufactured back in 2000. And my oldest? It’s celebrating its 87th birthday this year. And much like their human counterparts, the years have not always been kind to film cameras. But like us, a little fashion advice (metaphorically speaking), or perhaps a minor little nip or tuck, can have some pleasing aesthetic results. Such is the case with refreshed leather (or leatherette) coverings.
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.
Continue reading…Side-by-Side • Kodak HC-110: Dilution B vs. Dilution H
In this first of a new series of articles, we take a look at how, and to what extent, using two different common dilutions of Kodak’s HC-110 black and white developer impacts the resulting film images. Our novel approach to this series hopefully will make it extremely easy to see and identify the differences — an approach we intend to bring to a number of comparisons in the months ahead.
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