Classic Cameras
0 Plays ·Posted 02/11/2021
When we started the B&H Photography Podcast more than six years ago, the concept was “watercooler conversations” with photographers, about gear. Well, honestly, it hasn’t always turned out that way, but this episode with famed photojournalist David Burnett comes as close to that idea as any we have done; there’s barely an edit in the whole episode. Burnett joins us, and we just talk.
We begin with his coverage of the recent presidential
The years between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries were some of the most inventive for photographic processes. As the camera began to be taken seriously as an expressive tool, photographers started exploring the creative possibilities offered by various printing processes, including pigment-based printing techniques such as carbon printing and later carbro printing.
Above photograph: Harry Warnecke, Inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937, 1937, carbro print. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
The
In addition to its innovative image-processing abilities, the recently introduced Zeiss ZX1 is also notable as being the first camera to wear the Zeiss nameplate in five decades. This Classic Camera review is about the last camera to wear the Zeiss nameplate—the Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultrawide (1969-71), which was as technically remarkable as its 21st-century follow-up act. Although this article is a classic “camera” review, the story is really about
Welcome to B&H's Film Photo Week! Running from February 7-12, 2021 across all of B&H's channels will be loads of new content and events about film photography. You'll find invigorating chats with working photographers who still haven't put away their film cameras, tutorials to make the most of that camera in your closet, and even some opinions on how film works in contemporary photography workflows.
Find us on social media at #BHFilmPhotoWeek to talk about all things
by Berty and Emily Mandagie ·Posted 02/09/2021
Ready to take your film camera on your next epic summer road trip? Shooting film outside can be a grand adventure, full of future nostalgic moments, incredible landscapes, and a way to savor the rich colors of the world around you. There are so many film stocks available, which should you buy?
That's where we come in! We're Berty and Emily Mandagie, Pacific Northwest photographers who capture travel and landscape imagery. We spend our careers outside capturing our beautiful corner of the world, and
How “good” are vintage lenses when used on modern digital cameras? In a word, vintage lenses are “fine,” though I would have to immediately follow that statement by adding, “It depends,” because there are always exceptions to the rules, though even in these cases, the lens in question often works fine albeit with a technical or optical shortcoming of sorts.
Original photographs © Allan Weitz 2020
When adapting older-generation film camera lenses to DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, most perform well in terms of sharpness, color fidelity, color
In the early and mid-1970s, I often prowled the various neighborhoods of my native Brooklyn with my camera in tow. Coney Island was one of my favorite haunts and, despite the fact Coney wasn’t the safest of places at the time, I managed to wander the boardwalk and alleyways with a 4 x 5 field camera and a bag of Nikons slung over my shoulder without incident.
In a bid to lower my visual profile—and maybe shake up my shooting habits in the process—I started looking for a camera that was smaller and stealthier than the gear I was currently using
Over the years, I’ve dabbled with many cameras and many film formats. I’ve used pretty much everything from 8 x 10" view cameras to half-frame 35mm cameras and ended up settling on 6 x 7 for the majority of my work. Somehow, though, after all of this time, I managed to skip the 645 format entirely. I didn’t do this intentionally; it just never seemed to fall into place. The cameras and lenses are larger than those for 35mm, but the film format is smaller than 6 x 7. It’s either a happy medium or an awkward compromise, depending on how you look
My first autofocus camera, and what turned out to be my last film camera, was a Nikon N90 35mm single lens reflex (1992–2001). I needed to replace one of my Nikon F3 bodies and I got tired of waiting forever for the long-rumored Nikon F5 film camera to become available. (Sound familiar?)
The F3’s replacement camera, the Nikon F4, was readily available but the F4’s autofocus and metering systems were woefully behind the times, and if you turned the camera from vertical to horizontal or vice-versa, the meter would often get confused. And no,
Digital cameras dedicated specifically to capturing black-and-white photographs are rare birds. With the exception of the recently released Leica M10 Monochrom, its predecessors—the Leica Monochrom M (2012) and Leica Monochrom M Typ 246 (2015)—and a small handful of other niche cameras, one other digital camera stands out in the black-and-white market: the Kodak DCS 760M, which made its debut in 2001.
It’s important to keep in
If you’re into analog film cameras, by extension you’re also into light meters. This is because while most modern cameras contain excellent TTL metering systems, if you use film cameras made prior to the 1970s and ’80s chances are: A. the camera has a meter but it doesn’t work anymore; B. the meter works but it’s no longer accurate; C. they stopped making batteries for your meter when Jimmy Carter was President; or D. the camera never had a light meter in the first place. If you resonate with any of the above and your film camera has an
If you wanted to be considered a professional photographer in 1979, the year the Olympus XA was released, your choice of cameras was limited. For some in the upper reaches of the profession, Leica was still the only option. For the rest of us, there were large, solid machines like the Nikon F2 and the Hasselblad 500C/M.
But I also wanted something smaller and easier to use when I didn’t have a paying client to impress.
Above photograph: Luxor, Egypt 1982 The Olympus XA is a low-profile camera that doesn’t call attention to itself. Ektachrome
Leica has been a prestigious brand for decades. That prestige brought high price tags and eminently covetable gear. This is why last year’s launch of the CL Mirrorless Camera was such an important release for this company, and one that should be very appealing to a wider range of photographers. The CL has a relatively affordable price, much like its film-shooting ancestor of the same name, while it's still compact, powerful, and
Did you know there is a virtually separate camera store that lives inside the B&H Photo SuperStore, in New York City? The B&H Used Department can be found at the top of the staircase leading to the second floor of B&H Photo’s expansive showrooms or online! There you can sell your used gear, or you can purchase used gear in great condition. Not only does it have a selection of
First created in the early 1940s, the Kodak Medalist is a medium-format rangefinder that captures eight 6 x 9 cm exposures using 620 film. Weighing slightly more than 3 pounds, its rugged and durable tank-like build made it an attractive option for the US and British armed forces, and it saw extensive use during World War II. This version was the Medalist I and, in 1947, an improved version, the Medalist II, was released and aimed at the home market. Both versions were highly regarded upon release, and while the Medalist II was discontinued in