Characters like Jeffrey at Slipperyskip Computers have started cramming tiny motherboards into some very cool cases.
The Stylophone Beatbox has just been released, 40 years after the original Stylophone took the world by storm.
Paul Schweizer's sailplane designs have introduced thousands of pilots to soaring. My favorite is the 1-26 single-seat glider.
"Very interesting and Rare military Gun outfit delivered for Vietnam War reporter, with case and 5x lenses." I actually have one of these riflestock camera supports. It's awesome, though I doubt you could use one in public these days. This guy's is on eBay right this very second, if you've got money to burn...
RA Friedman writes, "I've produced a working Steampunk Polaroid mod that uses Fuji pack film. I have to calibrate the focusing scale and make some other improvements, but the beastie works.
An old Polaroid 405 back, some foam, a rubber band, a small bungy and a bit of cogitation and voila! The camera is only about four pounds and takes big 3.25 x 4.25 shots. The final version will be able to fold up easily and won't need bungies. I also hope to add a ground glass for more accurate focusing. Why you ask? Well a Crown Graphic is a bit big to carry around all the time and this will easily fit in my travel bag.
I'm not really sure what brand this camera actually is. It's sort like a Voigtlander Avus, but more cheaply made. It has a Deckel shutter and a Zeiss lens, so it's not trash, but it lacks a tripod socket on the bed , so thus the funky tripod arrangement using a flash bracket.
If the bellows look new, it's because they are. A very nice gent named John Fyfe made a new set for this baby and also overhauled the camera and shutter so it works like new. What would I do without people who do stuff like this?"
Friedman's Tsirkus Fotografika Flickr pool is filled to the brim with steampunk portraits and brilliantly distressed experimental shots. Heartily recommended.
Update: We'll announce the winners on Tuesday, January 5th. We'll post their entries, along with a few of our other favorites. Thanks to all who entered, we enjoyed getting a glimpse of your retro gear!
The White Stripes (a.k.a. Meg and Jack White) released a couple of limited edition Lomography camera sets last year. Thinking they'd make the perfect gift for Retro Thing readers, Jack sent us a few to give away for the holidays.
Two lucky winners will each win a pair of custom cameras decked out in the band's signature red, white and black color scheme - right down to the peppermint swirl on their frame advance dials. Only 3000 of each were produced, and together they're worth more than $350.
The Meg Diana+ Multi Function All-Plastic Camera comes with a 'Nobody Knows How To Talk
To Children' Ringflash and a custom Peppermint Film Mask filter. Its
partner in crime - the Jack Holga Color Flash
Camera Kit - includes a funky Fisheye lens, 'The World Through a Plastic
Lens' softcover book, a three filter set and the Peppermint lens filter.
Watch the video to find out how to enter. Please, only one entry per person. Contest open to residents of the contiguous USA only (unless you're willing to foot international shipping costs). All entries must be sent to [email removed] by 12 noon January 1, 2009 (CST).
As the holidays approach, we all think about those great gifts that took on a life of their own even after Christmas. Hopefully we love all the goodies that we exchange with our loved ones, but every once in a while there's something really special under the tree that we remember forever. When I was in 6th grade, upper management (I refer of course to my parents) decided that it was time to put away the things of childhood. That was the Christmas I got an electric pencil sharpener and a popcorn popper (both of which I still use!). Those were very nice presents, if not a little anticlimactic after years of Star Wars figures and Lego, but among the torn wrapping was my very own 35mm camera.
This would have been the early 80's, and point and shoot cameras had just begun to be affordable. This Hanimex 35 Micro Flash isn't the camera that Santa brought me years ago (mine was a Keystone), but it is a good example of that era of accessible photography gear. Both cameras had a built-in flash, which was still a relatively new feature in low cost cameras. There were no fine adjustments for exposure, nor any need to focus; any slow moving thing from 5 feet to infinity was in range.
Both my camera and this Hanimex share a similar feature; novel mechanical measures to keep the lens covered until you were ready to snap off a few pics. Mine had twin doors that flipped open at the press of the shutter button, and this Hanimex has a big hatch that covers everything (including the viewfinder). I guess the idea was to make these cameras as idiot-proof as possible by including elaborate mechanisms to keep you from shooting with the lens cap on. Either that or someone in the product design department saw a whole lot of Transformers cartoons.
This Hanimex is a bit more advanced than my old 1980's Christmas camera was, with a few more switches to cycle through some exposure presets. This 35 Micro Flash is aptly named too, as it is a very small camera for its time. The elaborate hatch does protect the optics from typical pocket debris, so I should stop thumbing my nose at Hanimex's engineers. I imagine it took some very long sessions of whiteboarding to come up with ways to make shooting 35mm film friendlier, smaller and more affordable than ever. So I'll thank those breakthroughs that made cheap cameras possible, and gave birth to my lifelong love of photography.
related:
Rollei 35mm Camera - still a mini mechanical marvel
Minox unveils a digital spy camera
Kodak's first digital camera
photokina - retro camera roundup
Eric Archer mods old 8mm cameras to record sound instead of light. He chose vintage movie cameras because of their amazing design, and because the 8mm format fits well with semiconductor light sensors.
He starts by removing the film transport and shutter, leaving just the optics, "My standard modifications include a battery-powered preamp with
audio line-out (1/4″ mono jack) + a viewfinder-mounted LED that
indicates sensor overload, and a headphone amplifier (1/8″ jack). I’ve
prototyped an accessory mount that holds the sound camera steady along
side a video camera, focused on the same point for audiovisual
recording.
Looking through the viewfinder, you see a normal image. The light
sensor’s active region corresponds to a tiny spot in the center of the
viewfinder; sweeping the camera across a scene can reveal different
sounds, and their source can be pinpointed easily."
So how does it sound? Weird. Some recordings are like eavesdropping on a robotic mosquito's dream, while others evoke a microphone stuffed into a bucket of sand or the roar of escaping steam.
Christian Polt from Lomography.com just bleemed us some intriguing news, "Polaroid die-hards can finally throw off their black suits, come out of mourning and rejoice! While it may be true that Polaroid is getting out of the instant photography game, Fuji has taken the baton. Fuji Instax cameras are a new generation of instant camera. Using Polaroid know-how as a base Fuji has made big leaps in instant photo technology - meaning faster development, more mod-cons, great colour reproduction and cheaper instant film. Lomography is pleased to present the most exciting new instant photo cameras and legendary Polaroid deadstock, plus all the instant film you could need!"
In all honesty, Fuji Instax cameras are truly hideous -- the unfortunate offspring of a forbidden liaison between a decrepit pastel-tinged iMac and an abandoned Fisher Price teething toy. If you buy one, I strongly suggest hiding it in depths of your messenger bag to avoid ritual shunning by your former friend(s) and significant other(s). Whisk it out for a quick snap when no one's looking or when they're too drunk to toss out coherent cheap shots.
The Canon L1 hit the market in the spring of 1957. This elegant 35mm rangefinder accepted removable Leica screw-mount lenses and offered automatic viewfinder parallax compensation. Some collectors argue that this was just another Leica copy, but you have to admit that it was a very sleek and sophisticated rendition.
It would be hard to imagine a modern SLR without a swing-out film door, but the L1 was only the second Canon (after 1956's VT) to offer such convenience. Previous models required the film to be loaded through the bottom of the case. The L1 also offered a convenient top-mounted film advance lever, somewhat of a rarity back then. While early production models used a cloth curtain shutter, it was later replaced with a thin stainless steel curtain to prevent pinhole burns in direct sunlight.
The L1 was priced at 87,000 Yen (US $242) with a 50mm f/1.2 Canon lens. Don't expect to find dozens of them on eBay since only around 8,000 were produced. Most were black and chrome, but approximately 200 all-black variants were manufactured. The black L1 is incredibly rare, which is unfortunate because it looks strikingly modern.
Oddly enough, Canon recycled the name in 1991 for the Canon L1 Hi8 camcorder - the world's first consumer camcorder with interchangeable lenses.
Canon L1 Rangefinder [Canon Camera Museum]
The massive photokina photographic trade show is held every two years in Cologne, Germany. The photo industry is rapidly shifting to digital, but that didn't stop us from hitting the show floor last week in search of retro-style gear. Let's start at the Minox booth...
Minox was founded in 1936 to manufacture miniature cameras. More than 70 years later, they're still obsessed with miniaturization and classic design. They've had some success with miniature digital replicas of classic designs, but now they're offering a range of photo gadgets for the discerning wanna-be spy.
The star of at the espionage-themed Minox License to Shoot booth was the €199 ($280) Minox DSC, intended to evoke their classic Minox B model from decades past. It weighs a mere 60g and incorporates a 3.2 MP (interpolated to 5.0 MP) sensor. It looks cool, but who's going to buy it in a world where capable cameras are incorporated into pocket-sized mobile phones?
Practicality was thrown out of the window as grown-up kids flocked to the Minox booth to get a look at their range of tiny camera-equipped pens, belt buckles and eyeglasses.
Kodak has unveiled Ektar 100, the world's finest grain color negative film. It's a 100 ASA daylight-balanced emulsion that offers excellent enlargement possibilities, although it requires tons of light. The film is rated at a mere 25 ASA under tungsten lighting, so photographers using it for indoor fashion and product photography will feel like they're back in the days of Kodachrome, slaving under banks of hot bulbs.
The new stock is available only in 35mm format. A decade ago Kodak would have been eager to release Ektar 100 for medium format and sub miniature cameras as well. These days, most professionals are more interested in the immediacy of digital equipment. A technically brilliant new film stock really doesn't change much. It's a pity, because Ektar 100 is pushing the limits of chemical image technology - truly a child out of time.
Minox is renowned for their sub-miniature "spy" cameras used for clandestine photography during WWII. After the war they continued to produce an elegant range of minuscule cameras that shoot 8mm x 11mm film. The market for traditional film cameras isn't what it once was (to say the least), and Minox has slowly embraced digital photography.
The Minox DSC is their first digital camera to mimic the size and form of their classic sub-miniature line. It measures a mere 86 x 30 x 21mm and weighs around 60g, while managing to include a 3.2 MP image sensor (interpolated to 5.0 MP), 128 MB internal memory (expandable with MicoSD cards), rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and the ability to shoot 640 x 480 pixel movies.
To keep the size and weight to a minimum, Minox created a modular design that incorporates an LED flash and 1.5" LCD display into a separate plug-in flash unit. The camera and accessories are scheduled for release at Photokina 2008 on September 23rd. There's no official word on price, but you can bet it won't be cheap.
Minox: License To Shoot
Giles Perkins just drew my attention to Sonja Campbell's Snapshot Museum, which features a small but growing collection of found and donated snaps. Sadly, our modern preference for digital images is rapidly turning the printed photo into a dying art.
"The collection includes black and white and colour photographs, slides, negatives, Polaroids, Photo booth, albums, vintage camera equipment, home movies and other photographic ephemera.
Snapshots are candid and honest; sometimes bad, sometimes stunning. They have a charming lack of guile and intention. Within the collection there are photographs of outstanding technical and conceptual ability that could rival many acclaimed photographers."
RT reader Chris Zorn recently brought the Nikon Coolpix 100 to our attention. He remarked, "It was built around a PCMCIA card, which (in the days before USB) was the best
way of getting pics on and off. Picture quality was not great, but fine for
the websites of the day..."
This futuristic camera was Nikon's first foray into the world of consumer digital photography. Announced in 1996, it was more a novelty than a serious photographic tool.
The Coolpix 100 offered crude 0.3 megapixel resolution and stored only 19 photos at its highest resolution. The camera was powered by four AA batteries and featured a clever pull-apart case that opened to reveal a PCMCIA card which could be slipped into a laptop to transfer images. You had to rely on the viewfinder to frame your shots - there was no color LCD display.
In an October 1997 review, PC Pro Magazine naievely declared, "Digital cameras may seem like a bit of a fad, given that they tend to be fairly low resolution or ridiculously expensive."
It's easy to see how a reviewer could have so completely underestimated the digital revolution that was just around the corner - the handful of digital cameras available in the late 1990s were targeted at realtors and insurance adjusters who needed instant digital snapshots that could be emailed and posted to the web.
Even though digital photography was in its infancy in 1997, it took a mere decade for it to all but obliterate the consumer film market. High-end film cameras now sell for a fraction of their cost when new, and I suspect they'll continue to lose value - at least in the short term. In other words, now might be the perfect time to pick up a classic medium format or 35mm SLR film camera.
More about the Nikon Coolpix 100 [NikonWeb.com]
The 23rd Tamarkin Photographica Rare Camera Auction will be held on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 1:00 PM at their showroom in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The company also has a must-see New York showroom crammed with collectible cameras in the Gramercy Park/Union Square neighborhood. Their auction catalog lists more than 500 items including vintage Zeiss, Leica and Voigtlaender cameras starting at under $100.
Feature items include a Rolleiflex 2.8 GX 75th Anniversary Edition with card and box in near mint condition (expected to fetch $1,800 - $2,500), an 'electrified' Newton & Co. Opticians Lantern Projector with the Maker's shield marked "Opticians to Her Majesty the Queen" (EX+ condition, $1,500 - $2,500) and a stunning Leica IIIf Black Self Timer with 50mm Elmar f3.5 lens -- one of the rarest of all Leica screw-mount cameras (Ex+ condition, $7,500 - $12,500).
Tamarkin Photographica Rare Camera Auction
I've had several queries about Super 8 film recently from people unable to find it at their local photo shop. The good news is that Kodak offers five different film stocks in Super 8, and relatively affordable processing is available from a number of film labs.
The easiest and least expensive way to buy Super 8 film in the USA and Canada is to order direct from Kodak at 1-800-621-3456. Here are the current American prices:
You can get S8 film developed at number of labs including Spectra, Pro 8 mm, and Yale in the Los Angeles area. If you're shooting Ektachrome 64T, the most affordable processing service is available through Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas ($10). It makes sense to send multiple cartridges in for developing at once to reduce postage costs. You should check out the various "all inclusive" packages offered by the labs, too. They give you a single price for the film, prepaid processing, and even video transfer.
Things are a tad more expensive in Europe. Andec Filmtechnik in Berlin offers film and processing to European filmmakers by mail order, while Londoners can visit the Widescreen Centre for film and supplies.
Kodak: Super 8 Film Stocks
Super 8 Film In The 21st Century [create digital motion]
The photo industry has a dirty little secret. If you've taken a roll of 35 mm film to be processed at a local photo kiosk recently, you've probably been disappointed by the quality of the prints you received -- they tend to look noticeably inferior to the prints generated by an inexpensive digital camera.
What you might not realize is that your 35mm film negatives are being digitally scanned at fairly low resolution and printed using the same digital printer that outputs the "better" digital prints.
The reason film prints look bad in comparison is that it would take the photo shop too long to capture high quality scans of every image on the roll. Instead, they do a quick low bit-depth scan that allows them to churn out 4x6 prints at breakneck pace. Their haste results in an inferior print that simply doesn't do justice to the often beautiful image captured on film.
The solution is to use a stand-alone film scanner to digitize the film yourself.
A unit such as the Plustek OpticFilm 7200 film scanner retails for under $200. It captures 35 mm negatives or slides at a resolution of 7200 dots per inch with 48-bit color depth. It includes a USB 2.0 interface for fast data transfer to your PC and the film holder accepts up to 4 mounted slides or six negatives at a time. The quality is good enough for most amateur applications. The CCD scanning process will take a few seconds per frame and produces a far better image than your corner photo mart. Once your film has been scanned, you can manipulate it with a photo editing package and print it just like you would a digitally produced image.
Plustek's film scanner lineup
Under $200: Plustek OpticFilm 7200 film scanner [Amazon]
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