Category: Vintage cameras
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Found Film in a 100-year-old Camera I got for Christmas
So my parents gave me this old camera for Christmas – a large, worn leatherbound aluminum case with shiny nickel fittings, that concealed intricate, shiny brass knobs, dials and gauges, along with a set of pristine red bellows. As my mom put it, it was a bit “like a Chinese puzzle to open,” but I finally…
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Testing the Aires 35 V
I found this rangefinder at an estate sale in Virginia. It’s a heavy, solid camera and it came with a second lens, and despite never having heard of its manufacturer, I decided to add it to my collection. Being from a different era, its previous owner had engraved his social security number in the back…
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Testing the Mansfield Skylark
Funny story about how I ended up with this one. When you bid on high-priced items on eBay, it can be useful to decide the most you intend to pay, and then submit that bid just before bidding closes. There is always a chance your internet connection is not working, or that you’re confronted with…
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Testing the 1964 Minolta Minoltina S
There’s not a lot of information on the ‘net about it, but the Minolta Minoltina-S, marketed upon its release in 1964 as the world’s smallest rangefinder with a built-in light meter is a solid little camera with a fast (f/1.8) 40mm lens. Mine came to me in a box of random vintage-camera-related junk I bought…
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Found Film: Safari!
This latest roll of found film is a 35mm roll of (I think) slide film. I say “I think” because I actually developed this some time ago and have been carrying the digital versions only. They were pretty dark and I had to use a homemade lightbox to photograph the negative, invert it and change…
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Testing the Minolta SR-T-101
Awhile back, I posted about the Petri 7S, one of two cameras my mother-in-law had passed along to me. This post is on the other camera, a Minolta SR-T-101. This Minolta is an SLR that first appeared on the market in 1966 and continued to be manufactured until 1975. From this website you can figure…
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Found Film: Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic II
I ordered one of these for a few bucks on eBay because it combined two things I like: old cameras and found film – i.e. an undeveloped 126 cartridge was still inside the camera, according to the seller. The Hawkeye Instamatic II was one of many “instamatic” cameras sold by Kodak in the 1960s and 1970s.…
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Found Film: My Very First Camera
What was your first camera? Mine wasn’t the one pictured above, but it was close: A Kodak Instamatic X-15 like the one pictured below. This camera was manufactured between 1970 and 1976. I got mine toward the end of that period, when I would have been 8 or 9 years old. But mine is somewhere in…
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Vintage Camera Test: Brownie Reflex Synchro Model
The Brownie Reflex Synchro Model was made between 1941 and 1952 in the US, and until 1960 in the UK, and closely followed the (non-synchro) Brownie Reflex. It was called a “Reflex” because, like most SLR (single lens reflex) cameras still in use today, it used a mirror to reflect the image from the lens…
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Found Film: Photos that tell your fortune!
I’m often surprised by what I discover on a roll of “found film” – but this roll was especially unusual: these photos included a fortune on each one! All mundane photos, shots taken of almost random places on the streets of Portland, Maine. I was able to track down the location based on the unusual…
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Found Film: Portland, Maine
I occasionally acquire rolls of film on eBay or inside old cameras that haven’t been developed, and were never seen by the photographers. You never know – sometimes they’re old, sometimes they’re not. This roll is not. At first, I thought this was shot in Boston. But boats move around, and this could be any…
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Found Film: The Happiest Place on Earth
It has been some time since the last time I wrote a “normal” found film post – i.e., one which hadn’t yet been developed. In fact, since October, I have been sharing a box of already-developed found film shot by the late Raymond Albert. I had a bunch of film piling up, and I have…
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Confessions of an EBay Junkie
This is what sixty bucks worth of junk looks like: OK, so I admit, I have a problem. I like to go on eBay and type “vintage camera” into the search bar and see what comes up. And I sort by time remaining, so invariably an interesting camera or two will pop up with 3…
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Raymond Albert’s Photos: Postscript
Since October 2014, I have been scanning, restoring and sharing rolls of film that were found in an estate sale and subsequently put up on eBay for sale. Unlike the “found film” I usually develop after it has been neglected in an old shoebox or left inside a forgotten camera for decades, this film was…
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Petri 7S Test
Half a year ago, my mother-in-law asked me if I could use an old Petri 7S and a Minolta SRT101 they had laying around and after some quick research online I responded “most definitely!” The Minolta will be the subject of a later post – this one is about the Petri. The Kuribayashi Camera Industry,…
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The Androscoggin Flood of 1953
The Androscoggin River roars past the Rumford Dam in Maine during the March 1953 flood. Compare the river to this photo of the same dam taken recently. Since October, I have been sharing a collection of photos rescued from the estate of the late Raymond Albert – believed to have been taken by him in and…
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Raymond Albert’s Photos: One Last Wedding
For months, I have been sharing photos believed to have been taken by Raymond Albert in the late 1940s through the late-1950s. In total, the collection consists of about 23 rolls. This post highlights roll number 22, probably from around 1958 or 1959. As an aside, Raymond Albert would have been 89 today. This roll features…
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Found Film: Grandpa Albert’s House on the Coast
For months, I have been sharing photos believed to have been taken by Raymond Albert in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. In total, the collection consists of about 23 rolls. This post highlights roll number 21. I’m guessing the current roll was taken around 1956 or 1957. In this roll we are mainly looking at…
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Guest Post: Darkroom Blues: A Blast from the Past (Part II)
This is part 2 of an article shared by a photographer friend here in Chennai which was originally written for the Photographic Society of Madras, a local photographic society founded in 1857. The first part of the article is published here. The author, Rags Raghavan, has since moved on to digital photography. You can find…
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Guest Post: Darkroom Blues – a Blast from the Past (part 1)
A friend of mine here in Chennai shared an article with me the other day, which he had written for the Photographic Society of Madras, a local photographic society founded in 1857. It reminded me not only how far we have come – in this day and age where everyone is taking perfectly lit/focused photographs at…
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Found Film: Lakes and Rivers
For the last few months, I have been sharing photos believed to have been taken by Raymond Albert in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. In total, the collection consists of about 23 rolls. This post highlights the 19th and 20th roll I am sharing/have shared, in the approximate order they were likely taken. I’m guessing the…
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Camera Test: Olympus PEN EE.S
A few days ago, I blogged about another vintage camera that I characterized as somewhat unique in that there were virtually no settings or adjustments you could make on the camera. I thought it might be one of the earliest “point and shoot” cameras. Afterward, I realized that virtually every box camera of the early…
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Found Film: The Alberts visit Quebec
For the last few months, I have been sharing photos believed to have been taken by Raymond Albert in the late 1940s thru the mid-1950s. This latest post features photos from a trip the family took to Quebec, circa 1955. On this trip, they visit a number of different cultural and/or religious sites. I was able to identify…
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Camera Test: Agfa Ansco No. 1A Ready-Set Special
This is a camera I bought, not knowing anything at all about it, simply because I thought it looked cool. It turns out that this particular model is not all that well-known, but the overall Ready-set series is. The Ready-Set series was introduced around 1928, around the time Ansco merged with the German firm Agfa…