I love prototypes. Getting a chance to see concepts for the next great thing which for one reason or another never materialized is infinitely interesting to me. On this site, I showed you a prototype Kodak TLR that had one of the most ambitious feature sets I’ve ever seen and…
There was a time when LIFE Magazine was one of the most highly respected news publications in the world. Originally started as a humor magazine in 1883, the magazine published humorous articles until an ownership change in 1936. In that year, Henry Luce, owner of Time Magazine bought the publication…
One thing I’ve noticed that’s true about people who love old cameras, is that they also love lists. Specially lists of the “best” of stuff. Articles such as 8 Great Vintage Street Photography Cameras, Five Best Medium Format Cameras for Beginners, and 24 Great Vintage Cameras You Can Still Buy…
The first consumer camera made by Hasselblad was the 1600 F that first went on sale in 1948. Due to the high price and some significant growing pains of the design, especially in the shutter, not many were sold. It would not be until the release of the 1000 F…
Earlier this week, I posted my take on the Zeiss-Ikon Contarex “Bullseye”. Feedback to that article has been very good with most people who’ve handled it before, agreed with my assessment that while it was a pretty camera with an amazing Rube-Goldberg-like complexity, it wasn’t a very good user. Sometimes,…
For the first 50 editions of my Keppler’s Vault series, I’ve brought to you articles from the late 1940s through the late 1960s from a variety of publications on topics that I thought were interesting enough to share. So with this, the 51st edition of Keppler’s Vault, you might think…
Today marks the 65th Anniversary of the release of Kodak Tri-X black and white film, in 35mm, 120, and 620 roll film formats. Tri-X was a film that at the time of it’s release was one of the fastest black and white emulsions ever made, and allowed photographers to take…
In an age of never-ending comparisons, “which product is best for me”, “should I buy product A over product B”, and “top 10 products to buy for blah blah blah”, consumers are constantly in search for the best of everything. For photographers, gear is often the product to which we…
In last week’s Keppler’s Vault, we talked about the concept of a Beam Splitter Reflex in which an SLR viewfinder is designed to use an optical device called a beam splitter that would both pass light through to the film plane and up into the viewfinder without any moving parts. …
I love prototypes! The promise of seeing concept models featuring designs or technologies that never came to be is very appealing as it offers a glimpse into what could have been. My recent post about a 53 page booklet from the Eastman Kodak company showed off some prototypes of cameras…
Have you ever felt limited while shooting your favorite Mamiya M645, Rolleiflex, or Kodak Medalist by only getting 16, 12, or 8 exposures per roll of 120? What if I told you that there was an exciting new development in film that would allow you to get 32, 24, or…
Are you ready for some football?!?! This “battle cry” has long been a staple of Monday Night Football, the original prime-time slot for American professional football in the United States. These days when you want to watch a football game, you get to see it on large 4K high resolution…
