The Film Retriever

Ahh... at last, the elusive T-3, the predecessor of one of the most sought after cameras on the net, the T-4. This is a car-boot-sale find, an old lady sold it to me and apologised for the cracked LCD panel which works well though. It came loaded with film so all i had to do is take the camera out and start shooting. The T-3 is a noticeable bigger camera than the T-4. It is weather-proof and of course the centre of attention is the 35mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss lens.There is a rumour going on the internet that the lens is the same on both the T-3 and the T-4 but on the T-4 it was limited to open up to f/3.5 because it is too soft at f/2.8. That is not correct, these are two different lenses. The one on the T-3 is half a stop faster and the 4 elements are spread in 4 groups rather than 3 in the T-4. Other features include the New Angle Scope which is actually a waist level finder for hip-level shots. I cannot say that i found it terribly useful but i read that there are many peopl...

I got this camera from one of my wife's friends, who very kindly volunteered to give me her camera once she learned that I use old film cameras. Much to my amazement, my wife returned home holding a FED-3 type b but a model that commemorates the 50 years of the Russian Revolution. FED was never good at keeping track of their serial numbers unlike Germans but with the anniversary models, FED kept a basic numbering system, mainly starting with 67xxxxxxx (1917+50=1967) and they did the same with the lens's too. I managed to find some more info on ussrphoto.com. " Although soviet camera industry produced a lot of commemorative cameras, only very few Fed's were among them. That's why an anniversary Feds becoming very scarce nowadays. To commemorate the "Great October - 50" Fed issued three cameras: Fed-3b, Fed-4b and Fed-11 Atlas with special engravings. The Atlas is very uncommon. Although mass-market Fed cameras have no date prefix in their serial numbers, ...

Canon EOS 10 /10S "Good while it lasted". Or "A midsummer night's dream". Or a fantastic camera that went wrong. The EOS 10/10S was a groundbreaking camera at its time, really a step ahead from competitors, offering superior AF speed / accuracy and overall performance that only cameras costing twice the money (mainly Minolta 9Xi) could offer.But unfortunately those great cameras suffered from a major drawback, a shutter susceptible to malfunction due to the shutter bump foam getting deteriorating and eventually seeping through the shutter blades in the form of a tar-like oil, causing a "lazy shutter", i.e. a sticky shutter. This affects the 6XX / 10(s) / 100 EOS camera series, the bumper was replaced with a rubber one on the EOS 5 but it seems that in the case of 10/10s the problem is more prominent. You can actually bet that at some point the camera will suffer from a lazy shutter. You can always open the back and try to remove it yourse...

Olympus always knew how to make compact cameras that you carry with you all the time. Do you remember the OM series? Or maybe the legendary XA ? This one was the next step, the Mju-1 in Europe (Stylus infinity in America), is a nice little compact with sexy sleek lines that can fit into your shirt pocket. It was followed by the Mju-II, an improved version with a 35 f/2.8 lens and a spot meter and then there were numerous version with Zoom lenses and so on.. Olympus got it right straight from the start with this camera. It had everything the amateurs wanted and it was taking very good pictures. There are the usual flash modes but unfortunately there is no way to disable permanently the flash (once you shut the camera, it resets to default - Auto). Good news though: the fill in flash does not pop up in almost every occasion like the Fuji does. In the little Fuji i need to remember to turn it off every time i switch on the camera, with the olympus you might get awa...

I came across the DL super mini while i was going through a box of junk cameras on a car boot sale. It was in pretty bad condition, dirty with a small nick on the lens cover and loads of dust on the lens and the viewfinder. I asked the seller how much he wanted for it and he told me that he " has no idea what it is but i can have it for a couple of quids ". The Fuji DL SuperMini is Fujifilm's largely failed attempt to sit between the Hi-Class pocket cameras (Minolta TC-1, Nikon 28Ti, Ricoh GR-1) and the consumer range of advanced compacts (i.e Olympus Stylus Epic) and that failure is mainly due to two reasons. First of all, it reached the UK market with a delay of 1,5 year of it's release and second because of poor marketing which meant that after one year it was replaced by the DL SuperMini Zoom. It enjoyed better reception in the Japanese market (under the name Tiara) and there is an updated model called Tiara II, differing in some internal programing and an...

The L35AF was Nikon's first AF camera. This camera has a cult following in photography forums but honestly after being disappointed with my Olympus XA2 i though i should hold my breath until i got my films back from developing. There are something like 3-4 models which look quite similar to this one but without the 35mm f/2.8 Nikon lens which is supposed to be a special piece of glass. You can find here a page with the history of this lens, it is a sonar design semi wide angled and very nicely coated. If you are into lens designing (and not only) check this page out.  By the moment you pick this camera up, you can understand that it is a well build camera. A bit heavy but it balances nicely into your hands, it has a nice heft to it. Back in the 80's it was an expensive camera to buy and the main selling point was of course the lens. What Nikon should have thought better are the ergonomics. This might sound weird since the L35AF has only one button but try to take ...

As always a bit of a history first. In the early '90s when Minolta 9xi took the world by storm, i started thinking that one day I would buy a Minolta. Then the Canon came and I forgot all about it. Some years ago i had the chance to meet a fellow photographer who was carrying a Minolta 700si. We swapped cameras and I was pleasantly surprised by Minolta's quality.It was then when i remember that one day I would like to have one. Well, the 500si is by no means a 700si but when i saw it, i thought that i had to have it. Now that i gave it a cool off period i think it would be a good idea to write a small review about it. I've read theothermartintaylor's review about this camera and i would have to agree with it but I think it is a bit better camera than that.The Minolta has a decent AF speed-wise. It cannot compare with Canon's but it is fairly quick although a bit noisy. Sometimes it gives the impression that it's not sure if it has focused - you will he...

Back in the mid-90's i read an article about the importance of light meters in photography. I had no idea how to use them and i was getting very nice results from my Praktica's lightmeter but still i felt like i wanted to have one. And so i did, i bought this little gossen sixtino 2 lightmeter. I went out shooting a slide film on my vacations and when i developed it i was really disappointed with the results. No wonder of course, since i had no idea how to use it in the first place. I threw it in a drawer and kept it there for almost 12 years. A couple of years ago, when i bought the Zeiss Ikon Nettar, i realized that it wasn't very convenient to carry with me the digital camera just to take some reading so i thought that i could buy a new one since the little Gossen was left in Greece. And i did, i bought the Seconik Microlite from a charity shop which worked well for a year until it started giving erratic readings. I had to call my parents to post me the old gossen. The G...

I really want to like Prakticas. I really do. But it seems that no matter how hard i try, Prakticas don't like me. I'll try to explain that a bit more. But first some history. In 1992 - if my memory serves me right - i decided that it was about time to buy a camera. I went with my brother on a camera shop and i was trying to bargain a Praktica MTL-5. Eventually I couldn't afford it and i went instead for the much cheaper BMS. I learned the basics with that camera and it served me well for 5 years until its shutter started becoming erratic. The quote for repair was as high as the camera cost me so I decided to save some money for some time and buy another one (I bought the EOS 5 finally). A couple of years ago, i took my Zenit 12XP to the local repair shop to change the light seals and while i was waiting, i spotted an MTL-3 (or was it a MTL-5?, not sure) and i asked him if i could take a better look. He handed it to me and while i started winding up the shutter and fi...

Back in 1992, I came across one very popular photography magazine which had a review of the brand new Canon EOS 5. It was the time when I was getting obsessed on what camera I should buy (I ended up buying a Praktica) and the canon was the number one on my dream-camera list. Six years later, my Praktica had suffered a damage beyond repair so I was thinking that it was time to buy a new one. I went into the shop to buy a Nikon F50 and i ended up leaving with a Canon EOS 5 paired with a cheap plastic Sigma 28-80. At that time it cost me one and a half salary to get it but I was thrilled with the prospect of using the eye control focus. It's been twelve years since then and I think that it is about time to write a short and biased review based on my experience working with this camera. So I suppose the main question is : How good is it? It is simply amazing, even after 12 years i am still amazed of what this camera can do. The EOS 5 lived under the shadow of it's own ...