Vintage camera reviews, repairs and photography blog
This post looks at the Elmo E-80 projector which is a standard 8 model made by Elmo, a very reputable manufacturer, in Japan in the early 1950s. Elmo E-80 Images My Elmo E-80 projector I bought this Elmo E-80 projector from eBay as an addition to my small (but worryingly growing) collection of movie projectors. It was sold as a working unit and it does power up and seems ok, but the two core mains lead supplied with it […]
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We recently spent a weekend at the Elvden Centreparcs and I took this picture of James holding our Cockapoo puppy Freddy in the garden of the Starbucks above the sailing lake with my mobile phone. I really like the expressions captured on their faces, although I wish had taken the photo with my XT-1 and a longer lens so I could have de-focused the background a bit. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible as at the time I took this picture all […]
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I’ve written before on this blog about collecting 8mm home movies and I’ve purchased several films over the last couple of years which I’m hoping to be able to digitise soon. Each of the films which I’ve bought has been quite interesting, but I’ve generally acquired films which were shot in the mid to late 1960s; this week however, I had quite a find when I picked up 20 8mm home movies which were shot from the early 1950s up […]
Read moreIt’s a busy time for me at the moment because I’m on holiday for a couple of weeks and instead of going away somewhere I’m doing some garden landscaping at home. However, in between bouts of digging and bricklaying, I’m also trying to take the next steps in my project to build an 8mm telecine machine. Because I haven’t made much progress on that project, a couple of weeks ago I purchased a few old VHS-C camcorder tapes because they […]
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The subject of this short article is one of Canon’s early ventures into digital photography, the PowerShot A40 compact camera. This 2Mp, compact, zoom camera was made in about 2002 and offered a range of features for both the holiday snapshot photographer and the more advanced user. Canon PowerShot A40 Images My Canon PowerShot A40 I’ve had my copy of the PowerShot A40 for a number of months now having bought it when I became interested in vintage digital cameras […]
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This is a look at the Hitachi VM-C30E, an early VHS-C camcorder, which was made by Hitachi in Japan sometime in the early 1990s. Hitachi VM-C30E pictures My Hitachi VM-C30E camcorder This unit was an eBay purchase for a little over £10 which I bought simply as a nostalgic purchase. Being interested in the history of home photography, and with an eye to adding home movies to the Found-Film site, I’ve bought several 8mm cine films over the course of […]
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This is a picture which I took several years ago when my daughter Emma was only a small child and we took a family trip to the Park at Knebworth house. It was taken with a Pentax K200D DSLR, and a Pentax 55 to 200mm zoom lens. I particularly like the way the fence which she was holding on to leads the eye into the subject matter. Related Posts:Favourite pictures – my Daughter EmmaEmma in the park at CrichEyam Hall […]
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This post looks at the Nikon F-601 autofocus, 35mm, slr camera which was one of the higher, midrange offerings in Nikon’s line up of cameras in the early 1990s. Nikon F-601 Images My Nikon F-601 Camera I got my Nikon F-601 camera as part of a large collection of cameras which had been sold by what turned out to be rather an unscrupulous seller on eBay. They had bundled a large collection of faulty cameras and sold them as untested […]
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Today I want out with my Ricoh GXR Leica A12 camera, fitted with a Tamron 90mm Macro lens, to take some macro photos on a piece of waste ground at the bottom of our street. This is a fairly common occurrence at this time of year, when the weather is nice, but I found it a bit of a frustrating experience. Normally, I can set whichever camera I’m using to manual focus and use the focus peaking mode of the […]
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This post is about the Minolta Dynax 60 autofocus 35mm SLR which was the last 35mm film camera which Minolta produced, and a pretty capable performer is was too. Minolta Dynax 60 Images My Minolta Dynax 60 I paid a total of £2.99 for this camera, which was sold on ebay as faulty. The fault described was, ‘Camera faulty – back door stuck and won’t open’. I could see from the pictures the seller had posted that there was still […]
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Today, my son James took our 10 month old puppy Freddy for a walk over the fields and took a picture of him on his phone which he showed my when he returned. I was so impressed that I though I would post it on this site. Every time I try to take a picture of Freddy, I can never get him to sit still, so I think James did remarkably well here. Related Posts:Say hello to FreddyJames with […]
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The Waltax Junior is a 120 format, folding camera which was produced by Waltax in the early 1950s. It is a simple, cheap camera which was sold mostly as an entry level, holiday snap shot camera and that is reflected in the construction which is somewhat flimsy. Waltax Junior Images My Waltax Junior Camera I bought my copy of the Waltax Junior on eBay for a few pounds in an unknown condition. It’s certainly true to say that my camera […]
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The Ricoh Singlex II manual focus SLR camera was introduced by Ricoh in the mid 1970s as an improved version of their original Singlex TLS camera. Many of the changes introduced are cosmetic rather than revolutionary, but the Singlex II retains the solid, dependable attributes of the original camera. Ricoh Singlex II Images My Ricoh Singlex II camera This camera cost me £12 from ebay as a Buy it now, postage included sale. It was supplied as only a body, […]
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This is a look at the Braun Paxette interchangeable lens, viewfinder camera which was made by Braun of Nuremberg in the early 1950s. Braun Paxette Viewfinder camera images My Braun Paxette camera I found this camera as an untested auction sale on eBay with a starting price of £0.99 and eventually bought it for about £12 including the postage. When it arrived a few days after the sale ended, I discovered a clean unit in pretty good condition cosmetically, with […]
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The Pentax Spotmatic SP-500 is one of the cut-down versions of the Spotmatic series which Pentax launched after the original Spotmatic. The SP-500 lost the self timer from the spotmatic and also the top 1/1000 shutter speed (although it actually only lost the dial setting – the shutter still works at 1/1000). Pentax Spotmatic SP-500 Images My Pentax Spotmatic SP-500 I picked this camera up as part of a bundle of ‘untested’ cameras I bought from eBay. It was actually […]
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