10th March 2018 simon Lightroom, post processing 2 Comments

Evaluation of ON1 Photo Raw as a Lightroom user

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been evaluating a copy of ON1 Photo Raw with the thought of switching to it from Lightroom and I’ve written this post so I could share my thoughts. First some background. I didn’t actually decide to look around for a Lightroom replacement because I’m dissatisfied with Lightroom. I received a promotional email from ON1 about a discount being applied at the moment because a new version has just been released, and I thought […]

4th March 2018 simon Landscape, Minolta, Photography, Single lens Reflex Leave a comment

Snowshill manor on film

This is a picture which I took a couple of years ago of Snowshill manor in Gloucestershire on Fuji 400 Superia Xtra 400 film with a Minolta X-505 super camera. Although I’ve published a group of pictures from this location before, I was sorting through some images to decide which could be archived to save some disk space. and I was struck by how good this looked. There is a brightness and clarity in this image which I didn’t manage […]

18th February 2018 simon Photography, Rangefinder, Single lens Reflex, Theory, Viewfinder One comment

An index of camera types

This post is meant to be an index of camera types which have been produced over the last hundred or so years. It will be added to as I get time and as I acquire new examples of the different types in my collection. Viewfinder camera The viewfinder camera, of the type show to the left, is a basic camera which was normally sold as a snapshot camera. The actual name ‘viewfinder camera’ just refers to the fact that the […]

10th February 2018 simon Kodak, Reviews, Viewfinder, Vintage 2 Comments

Kodak Retinette type 22

This is a short pictorial post describing the Kodak Retinette type 22, 35mm, viewfinder camera which was made by Kodak between the years 1954 and 1958. Kodak Retinette type 22 Images. My Kodak Retinette type 22 camera As with many of my camera collection, this was purchased from eBay as a non-working vintage camera, but unlike many of them there isn’t much wrong with this unit except for a problem with the back film chamber door which doesn’t lock. Ok, […]

Stripping down a Beauty Beaumat - top cover removed

3rd February 2018 simon Beauty, Rangefinder, Repair 2 Comments

Stripping down a Beauty Beaumat rangefinder camera

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a Beauty Beaumat rangefinder camera from eBay which had a variety of faults. Today I decided to see if it was repairable and so this post covers the procedure I used whilst stripping down a Beauty Beaumat. Striping down a Beauty Beaumat Images. Normally in these type of posts I would write a description of what I did and try to point out any particular areas of difficulty to look out for […]

Beauty Beaumat 35mm rangefinder - side view showing light meter

25th January 2018 simon Beauty, Rangefinder, Reviews, Vintage Leave a comment

Beauty Beaumat 35mm camera.

The Beauty Beaumat is a 35mm rangefinder camera with a few rather interesting features which set it aside from some of the more ‘run of the mill’ rangefinder cameras which were produced around the same time, which was about 1960. Images of the Beauty Beaumat My Beauty Beaumat Camera I bought the Beauty Beaumat because I’d not seen one before, and it seems to be one of the more exotic models. It was bought from eBay for a few pounds from […]

14th January 2018 simon Cine, Eumig, Reviews, Vintage Leave a comment

Eumig Electric 8 cine camera

This is a descriptive post on the Eumig Electric 8 cine camera which was produced by Eumig in Austria in the late 1950s. It is an electrically operated, 8mm home movie camera and is a step above the mechanical, clockwork models used by many home movie enthusiasts at the time, and therefore had a slightly higher price than simpler models. Eumig Electric 8 Cine Camera Images My Eumig Electric 8 cine camera I picked this camera up from eBay as […]

8mm Telecine - Initial slightly unfocussed image

6th January 2018 simon Cine, film, Photography 4 Comments

Building an 8mm Telecine machine – Part 1

This is the first part of a series which may take several months to complete, but which I hope will eventually describe the process I’ve used to build an 8mm telecine machine from an old Eumig dual format projector. The driver for doing this is the failure of the Winait machine which I bought in September, which has proved to be defective and which I’ve subsequently rejected via the Amazon A-Z guarantee. Since I can’t use that device to convert […]

Auto Miranda 50mm f/1.9 strip down and repair - aperture set to f/16 showing oil contamination

31st December 2017 simon Photography 4 Comments

Vintage camera repair index

This vintage camera repair index page lists all the repair posts on the site which deal with vintage cameras and lenses. I’ll just point out that I am not a professionally trained repair technician, so although I hope you find these articles helpful, please read them in light of that information. Related Posts:An index of camera typesHow to check the health of a vintage cameraChecking a vintage camera’s apertureChecking a vintage camera’s shutterChecking a vintage camera’s uncoupled exposure meterAgfa […]

28th December 2017 simon Folding camera, Photography, Reviews, Rodenstock, Vintage 7 Comments

Rodenstock folding camera

This is a review and description of a Rodenstock folding camera which I recently bought from eBay UK. Rodenstock has a good reputation for producing lenses, being the original manufacturers of some of the lenses in the Kodak Retina series of cameras, but this is the first camera I’ve seen made by the company. Rodenstock Folding Camera Images My Rodenstock Folding Camera This is the third folding camera I’ve bought in the last few weeks. The other two were a […]

14th December 2017 simon Folding camera, Reviews, Vintage, Voigtlander 3 Comments

Voigtlander Bessa f/7.7 folding camera

This is a look at a Voigtlander Bessa folding camera which was made in about 1930-34 and takes 8 large negatives on a roll of 120 format film. Voigtlander Bessa Images My Voigtlander Bessa camera This camera was another eBay purchase although it was a little bit of a blind purchase because the seller described the camera simply as ‘old camera’ and only included two pictures of if. Since both the pictures were fuzzy and indistinct, I couldn’t really make […]

7th December 2017 simon Butchers, Folding camera, Reviews, Vintage One comment

Butcher’s Watch Pocket Carbine No 4 camera

This post looks at a medium format folding camera which was made sometime around the time of the first world war – the Butcher’s Watch Pocket Carbine. Butcher’s Watch Pocket Carbine Images My Butcher’s Watch Pocket Carbine camera I bought this camera from eBay and was mostly driven to make the purchase by the name, which intrigued me. I could understand why the camera had the Watch Pocket part of the name – presumably it is small enough to fit […]

Nagel Vollenda medium format folding camera

29th November 2017 simon Folding camera, Nagel, Reviews, Vintage One comment

Nagel Vollenda folding camera

This is a pictorial post about the Nagel Vollenda folding camera which was made by Dr. August Nagel in, probably, the 1930s. Nagel Vollenda Images My Nagel Vollenda camera I picked this camera up from eBay uk for a total of £15 including postage. I initially became interested in it simply because it is a folding camera and I wanted to increase the ‘folders’ section of my collection. However, once I looked at the pictures of it on the sellers […]

E. Ludwig Meritar 50mm f/2.8 sample with Fuji X-T1 - two sailing boats

25th November 2017 simon E. Ludwig Meritar, Fujica, Photography, Reviews, Vintage 2 Comments

Some samples with an E. Ludwig Meritar 50mm lens on Fuji X-T1

The E. Ludwig Meritar 50mm f/2.9 lens was one of a number of standard lenses supplied on several different cameras made in East Germany in the post war years. In this article, I’m going to show a few examples of the sort of performance you can expect with this lens when fitted to a modern mirrorless camera, the Fuji X-T1. My copy of the lens is fitted with an Exakta bayonet mount, and I used a simple Exakta to Fuji […]

12th November 2017 simon Agfa, Photography, Repair Leave a comment

Agfa Karat Art Deco film advance repair

A few weeks ago I bought an Agfa Karat Art Deco camera with a few faults, and this post is an update on the steps I took to try to restore it to a fully working condition. There were several faults with the camera, but the first and probably the easiest to fix was the film advance, so this post deals with the Agfa Karat Art Deco film advance repair. I’ve worked on the film advance of the Karat series of […]

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