Vintage camera reviews, repairs and photography blog
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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The Yashica J-3 is a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera which was made in the early 1960s and features a useful range of shutter speeds, a built in light meter, a self timer and a universal M42 lens mount. Yashica J-3 Images My Yashica J-3 camera I bought my copy of the Yashica J-3 for £10 from ebay. It came with a Soligor 180mm telephoto lens and a 2X converter fitted, but for the purposes of the pictures above, I’ve […]
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In this post I’m going to show some pictures I took on my Fuji X-T1 mirrorless camera using a vintage Kodak Retina Ysarex f/2.8 50mm lens, made by Rodenstock, which was supplied as a standard lens on the Retina Reflex series of cameras. Of course, the Kodak Retina Ysarex won’t fit onto a Fuji X-T1 without an adapter, so to shoot these pictures I bought a cheap adapter from eBay to fit the lens on the camera. In fact, the […]
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The Argus A2F camera was one of the last of a series of viewfinder cameras made in the USA in the years just before and just after the second world war. At the time the series was made, they were a quite sophisticated camera for an American designed and made unit, although not in the same class as some of the German 35mm cameras of the time. My Argus A2F camera I found my Argus A2F camera on eBay in […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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