The Film Retriever

 Since the beginning of my photographic journey, I always considered myself to be a Canon-ian. My first " real " camera was the EOS 5 which I still own and works perfectly fine after 17 years of moderate use. Then, when I started writing this blog, more and more cameras landed on my hands. I loved the Minoltas, the 9xi and XD-7 have been some of my favourites; and as the journey continued, the Pentax-es came along. The MX is just a magnificent camera; I would definitely include it within the TOP-10 best cameras ever made. Then there was the Olympus OM-1n, a camera that became instantly my main camera to use and love. But there were no Nikons. The only SLR's I used was the (below) average EM and my brother's F-801s. A half a year ago, a friend from rangefinderforum.com started a thread on the forum, seeking a camera aficionado who would like to give to a Nikon F4s a new home. After a few seconds of hesitation, I sent an email stating that ...

  This is an in-depth review of the Yashica FX-D Quartz. I based this review on various resources on the Internet and my personal experience of using this camera for the last two months. As it is usually the case, this camera is a car-boot sale find. The lady who sold it to me told me that I can have it for a pound since it was not working. Actually all it needed were new batteries. With the acquisition of Contax by the Kyocera Group back in the early 70's, Yashica and Contax started the production of very similar products for two very different client groups. Yashica focused in the production of cameras for the amateurs / enthusiasts while Contax focused in the production of hi-end cameras for the Pros. In line with this policy, both companies produced cameras that bear a big amount of similarities to the point of being named sister cameras, if not twin sisters. Think of the Contax RTS and the Yashica FR (reviewed on this blog). Both Contaxes and Yashicas bear...

I have to admit that sometimes I can come across as a quite dogmatic person. When i hold an opinion, i feel that it is the right one and it is very difficult to make me change my mind. At the same time, i seem to be easily persuaded sometimes which sounds like a contradiction itself. Those who read my blog have noticed it already, camera "A" is the best camera in the world" until I lay my hands on camera "B". Also statements like " This camera is a definite keeper " are usually followed by " I ended up selling it eventually ". The views i hold about servicing a camera (or CLA - Clean/Lubricate/Adjust) are pretty similar too - i have gone from one extreme (" No point servicing a camera ") to the other.   Before someone accusing me for inconsistency, let me first explain that it is quite the opposite - it allows me to be able to see the advantages and disadvantages of both views. And when i first started writing up ...

I am going to echo here something that I have already mentioned elsewhere on my blog. It is always, with a great surprise that I realise that the cameras/lenses that I always avoided, end up becoming my favourite ones. The Zuiko lenses are one of them (the Minoltas being the other ones). These few months that I ended up using the Olympus OM-1n with a couple of Zuikos i fell completely in love with them. Different production stages Now this is something that causes a bit of confusion to me. What i am going to write here is my understanding of what i read on the net. Please email me if you think that something is incorrect and i will try to set it straight. It seems that there are three different production stages with Zuiko lenses: a) The early, silver-nosed ones: Identifiable by the silver colour at the edge of the lens, on the place where you mount the filters. These lenses are single coated and some people on the net tend to avoid them as they ...

I don't know why I always avoided Olympuses. My brother had an OM-10 which was by all means a beautiful camera; it's just that I never got warmed up to them. I had twice the chance to get an OM-1 cheap and twice I shied away. A couple of months ago, a senior gentleman was selling this beauty for £20 on my local car-boot sale, so I went ahead and bought it. He told me that he had bought it in the late 70's and has seen very little use. That must be true, the camera doesn't even display any wear next to the strap lugs and in the battery chamber, there was an original mercury cell, still giving accurate exposure readings. As always, if you want to read everything about the background of this camera and have a comprehensive guide about its different functions and accessories, MIR's website is the place to start. I will limit my review here on my experience shooting a couple of films with it. First of all, I have to say that the OM-1n is a much ...

This beauty of a camera was an unexpected gift from my wife. Found it cheap (£15) and thought that I would be happy to have it. And she was right. The Pentax M-series, was Pentax's answer to the explosive popularity of Olympus' idea to miniaturise cameras in the 70's. The Pentax ME/Super and MX are fantastic cameras to have and the immense popularity of the ME gave rise to a number of different models (ME/Super/ME-F/MV etc...). With the exception of the Pentax 110, the ME and it's bigger brother (the ME-Super) are the smallest SLR cameras produced. Indeed it is diminutive but so well made that it impresses you with it's small size and solid weight. Once you view through it's viewfinder, a nice surprise awaits you. The viewfinder projects such a large image that it is a pleasure to look through. Despite not being the brightest viewfinder around (I love the viewfinder on the Minolta X-700) it has big magnification and it is bright enough. ...

Another car boot sale find, i bought it for the lens actually - i need a Nikon lens for my Nikon F4s so the price of 50 pence sounded right to me and i got the camera with it. The camera comes from the late 70's (1979 to be exact) and it was aimed at the inexperienced photographer who wanted to know nothing about exposure but just focus, point and shoot (although you had to select the aperture). The Nikon EM is a diminutive camera, it took Nikon almost a decade to catch up with the trend first started by the Olympus OM-1 back in 1972. With the EM, Nikon presented their E-series lenses, compact in design to complement the EM, FG, FG-20 etc.. The EM is very straight forward camera to use. You turn the selector to B (for Bulb), M90 for a mechanical back up speed and Auto. The camera is compatible with AI lenses (Automatic Indexing) and has it's own dedicated motor-winder called MD-E.  The first impressions when you pick up this camera are very good. Very com...

A long overdue post about some more lenses i used since the original post found here . I am going to limit the post to the lenses that i currently own and i will not include others that i have owned in the past and sold them. I am basing my scoring on usability, personal preference and - most important- performance for the price.    * Minolta AF 28 f/2.8 I am starting with this lens for an obvious reason. It is by far the best lens of the bunch reviewed here. Excellent flare control and ability to record high detail. Sharp even wide open it is plenty sharp by f/2.8. AF speed on my Minolta 9xi is excellent. It includes a lens hood that is integrated on the lens. I bought this lens for £8 so i am very very happy with it, usually goes for around £80 which i believe it totally deserves it. Some sample pictures here and here . An excellent lens. Score: 9 out of 10 * Tokina 28 f/2.8 SL Another excellent lens that ca...