The Film Retriever

How strange it feels to realise that back in my teenage years, I just wanted to have all the Nikons in the world because they were the “best” cameras. Minoltas were…ok-ish… whatever.  Now, 20 years on, I have 5 Minoltas and not even one Nikon (the L35AF is been sold), I am a sucker for my 9xi and I would love a XD-11 too. Makes me wonder how these cameras where advertised/promoted by the photography magazines I used to buy back then.  Anyway, contrary to what you might expect, I will start this review with a little bit of Leica history. Back in the mid-seventies, Leica realised that if they wanted to keep up with the rapid developments on the SLR field, they needed to acquire the Know-How of the Japanese electronics industry. Their Leicaflex series, although mechanical masterpieces, they started to look dated when you compared them with cameras such as the Olympus OM’s, Canon’s AE-1 or the Minolta’s XE series. A joint venture between Minolta and Leica was...

I actually bought this camera accidentally - I saw it and I thought it was the Fuji Silvi which is more sought after camera and have the same user interface. I bought it for £1 and when I returned home I realised my mistake. Ohh.. what the heck, it is just a pound so it stayed in the cupboard for some time, thinking most of the time to sell it. Eventually I forgot all about it and a month ago, as I was tidying up the closet I found it again. I thought to run a film through it and see how it performs. Fuji's User interface. Big and easy to follow The little Fuji comes from the distant 2002 and it was marketed as an upper class hi-end compact. It had a street price of £200 when new and Popular Photography reviewed it along with cameras such as the Minolta TC-1, the Contax T3 etc and gave it a 3.5 out of five. No bad at all actually. According to the magazine the lens performed very well to excellent with very low flare due to Fuji's EBC coating.  The pi...

Drop dead gorgeous Have I ever mentioned about the legendary third issue of the 1989 Φωτογράφος (Photographer) magazine ? It was a camera-porn galore, forty cameras within four pages, it was the issue that inspired all this love for cameras. It included cameras such as Contax RTS and 164, Canon F1, EOS 1, EOS 650, Minolta 9000 and 7000i, Nikon F801, Nikon F4, Leica R6 etc.. etc... The Yashica 200-AF was the cheapest AF-SLR in that issue and although way out of my budget, I thought that if i ever buy an AF camera, it would probably be this one. Yashica was a wealthy company back in the mid-60's. It became popular with camera lines such as the Lynx's or the Electros. Yashica was probably the camera your father or grandfather had when they were young. In the early 70's, Yashica began collaborating with Contax, with yashica focusing on the production of the affordable line of cameras and Contax producing the Hi-end and more expensive ones. Things were going OK ...

This cute little Canon was literally landed on my hands when a senior couple donated it to me to use it. It came in a pristine condition together with an original canon lens hood, canon skylight filter (!), a speedlite flash and a cable release. Going through the boxes, i also found the original receipt for the flash (£9.99), hood and cable release (£9.86) but not for the camera. Everything was bought on the 18/8/1977. It even had the original 1.35V mercury batteries in which were actually working fine after all these years. Canon describes this camera as "A camera for the masses" and the biggest selling point was the date printing feature which goes up to 1983, so i am not going to bother with it. The camera operates with two 1.4V mercury batteries which are long banned. I am using two SR44 together with some silver foil to make up for the difference in size. I did not see any difference in exposure due to voltage difference, for those seeking the perfect...

I will tell you right from the start. This is one of the best (if not the best) camera I've ever laid my hands on. It's fast, it's well build and the exposure and focus is always spot on. This is a pro camera - no doubt about it - it's heavy and I dare to say it has the best design I've ever seen. This camera was meant to compete with the likes of Nikon F4 or the Canon EOS-1but unfortunately it did not do so well. There are plenty of theories out there as to why this happened and I am going to stir in one more. Some say that it was the lack of a build in flash that cost Minolta good sales but this is certainly not the case as neither F4 or the EOS-1 had one. Another very popular theory says that the 9xi didn't do so well was due to it's awkward user interface - and that is true to some point but the EOS-1 had a similar interface, with most functions hidden under a compartment door and so did the Pentax Z-1p which sold well actually. And le...

I got this camera for a pound. The owner said that she had never used it and i do believe her as this camera seems to be in brand new condition. I have a soft spot in my heart for Yashica rangefinders, my father's camera was a Yashica Minimatic-C which he used to record his life in Australia in the '60s. That camera became my very first toy and therefore my bias towards those cameras. But, what's not to like with these cameras? The fit and finish is excellent and their lenses are beyond any criticism. The MG-1 was marketed as not a professional model, they lacked a parallax correction and a fast lens, but still this model is so well made that you wish your digital slr was so well-made. Yashica's Electro series is quite straightforward to use. You set the aperture and the camera selects the speed. If with the selected aperture, there is the risk of overexposure, then a red light will light on - if there you are underexposuring then an orange will light on. N...

Ahh... that's a nice little camera. Many people consider the Dynax 5 a stripped down version of the well sought after 7. And it is, the specifications are quite impressive lacking only in the user interface, lesser build quality and a slower top speed. The AF and the exposure system are the same so expect this camera to deliver the goods time after time.  The AF is fast and confident and the light meter gave me perfectly exposed pictures. But as always there are some things that i would like to be different. 1) The P(anic?) button. It resets everything including the AF points which, in order to select, you need to keep pressed the AF button and at the same time turn the dial. Not very convenient and at times annoying having to do it again. 2) The size of the camera. I usually love small cameras but this one is way too small. I keep pressing the depth of field preview as there is not enough space between the camera's grip and the button. 3) The camera's bac...

Here is the Canon EOS 300V, a camera I bought to replace the Minolta 500si as a lightweight SLR which I could mount a 50 f/1.8 on.The design of this camera will surprise the Canon users as it employs a different user interface. I have no idea why canon wanted to change a successful recipe, not that it is difficult to get used to the new one, but i just wonder. If you ask me, this is an ugly camera and not only that but the fit and finish are not the best. I think it is made in Korea rather than the good old "Made in Japan" ones - but, hey, there are some good news. The camera is the smallest SLR I've ever seen,with the EF 50 f/1.8 it feels like an oversized compact rather than an SLR. And it is one of the lightest too, 365gr body only (* correction: No it isn't. The minolta Dynax 5 is definitely smaller and lighter. Full review coming soon). Canon claims that the 300V has the fastest autofocus on it's category, I think that this is half the trut...

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, ...