Vintage camera reviews, repairs and photography blog
This section of the site has reviews and repair information on the Vintage cameras I own or have owned
The Minolta Dynax 5000i SLR camera was produced by Minolta in Japan in the late 1980s as part of their second generation of auto focus, 35mm cameras. It was a mid range model in terms of feature set, although it was the entry level offering in their own camera range, sitting below the 7000i model. My Minolta Dynax 5000i Camera I actually bought my copy of the Minolta Dynax 5000i quite a while ago as part of a collection of […]
Read more
The Nikon Coolpix SQ was one of the last in the Coolpix series of cameras to feature the split body design where the lens unit can be rotated about an axis with the display unit. My copy was purchased as a rather battered, but still functional camera, and in this post I discuss it’s design and the main feature set. Nikon Coolpix SQ images My Nikon Coolpix SQ camera My Nikon Coolpix SQ was purchased from eBay for the sum […]
Read more
For anyone who owns a Pentax DSLR there are a whole host of K-Mount lenses available to use on it dating from the very first Pentax cameras to use the K-Mount, as well as lots of third party lenses which were also made with this almost universal lens mount. I have used several of these lenses and published the results on this site, but they have mostly been manual focus, prime lenses. I thought it would be interesting to see […]
Read more
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, […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
This is a look at the Nikon Coolpix 995 camera which was introduced by Nikon in about 2001. It follows the design of other Coolpix cameras in that the optical unit is separate from the display unit, making it possible to hold the body at an angle where the screen is easily seen while the lens is pointing at the subject. In effect, this was an early attempt to solve the problem which is currently solved with an articulating screen. […]
Read more
This is a descriptive review of the Eumig Sound 31 XL Super 8mm sound cine camera, which is a battery powered camera which takes super 8 mm cartridge film and is equipped with a 8.5 to 24mm zoom lens. Eumig Sound 31 XL Images My Eumig Sound 31 XL Camera I bought this camera for £5 in an ebay sale because I had the idea of attempting to recreate some of the 8mm films my father used to take when my […]
Read more
This is a short post which describes my initial impressions of the Winait 8mm film scanner which is used to convert 8mm home movie films into digital mp4 files. Update: I have had considerable problems with this unit which I’ve documented in this post. I would certainly not recommend anyone purchase one or any of the same machines made by Winait under different names. Why did I buy a Winait scanner? When I started thinking about the Found Film site about […]
Read more
The Agfa Karat series of cameras covered a wide variety of models from the initial release in 1936. I’ve covered a few different models on this site, but this model is the one that started the series – the Agfa Karat 6.3 Art Deco. Agfa Karat 6.3 Art Deco Images My Agfa Karat 6.3 Art Deco Camera This was a camera which I bought basically on impulse because it was a good price. I found it as a buy it […]
Read more