A topic that we've lightly touched upon in previous episode, but never dared devote an entire episode to is the taboo subject of repairing your own cameras.  There are those who firmly believe all repairs should be left to the capable hands of professionals, but there are others who have no problem with opening their own cameras and trying it out themselves.

If you're in the latter group and are interested to hear some tips and tricks from those of us who have been brave/foolish enough to try it, Episode 89 is all about repairing your own cameras.  Joining Paul, Stephen, Theo, and Mike are returning callers A.J. Gentile, Alyssa Micha, Andrew Reynolds, Christopher Wells, John Michael Mendizza, Keir Frei, Larry Effler, Pat Casey, Rafael Espinoza, Ray Nason, Wayne Scheipers, and Will Pinkham who all share their own experiences.

We cover a wide range of topics, starting with what you can and cannot repair on a Kodak Medalist and whether you can still send your Leicas to the factory in Wetzlar to get repaired.  Hear who we think makes a good set of JIS screwdrivers, lens spanners, and Mike recommends a rubber grippy tool.  We share our recommendations for cleaning cameras, getting sticky residue off film doors, replacing mirror bumpers and foam light seals, how not to clean a reflex mirror, what works on lenses and what not to use.  We even cover the taboo topic of washing your camera in the dishwasher!

Although there is very little GAS in this episode, we do get into a few model specific camera repairs.  Alyssa Micha shares with us her beautiful 1903 Kodak camera which had moldy bellows and what she needed to do to replace them.  We talk about how to and how not to fix the infamous Canon Squeal of the Canon AE-1 and A-1 cameras, along with how to deal with the sticky backs of the Nikon N80 and N90, Mike talks about a product he used to mold a custom hand grip for his Minolta 650si.

We talk about various cleaners, when and when not to use lighter fluid, acetone, glass cleaner, and for the love of God, please never use WD-40 on any camera!  Although this whole episode is about home repairs and cleaning, we end the show talking about how best to take care of your camera to minimize its chances of never needing to be repaired, how to deal with humidity, and whether or not to store your cameras in their original leather cases.

Meet Anthony, Paul, and Mike: If you are in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, March 22nd, come to the Ohio Camera Swap at the Hilton Garden Inn Cincinnati/West Chester and say hi to us.  Who knows, maybe even some other Camerosity Podcast regulars will show up as well.  While you’re there, maybe you can buy something from us!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you!  Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

Our next episode will be number 90, and like we've done for episodes 70 and 80, we will be devoting the show to cameras of that decade.  For Episode 90, we will discuss cameras of the 1990s (or 1890s for that matter)!  Finally, Theo will get a chance to talk about his beloved Mamiya 7, but in addition to that there were many other terrific cameras from that decade like the Nikon N90s and the premium 28Ti and 35Ti point and shoots, the Contax AX, and the Olympus µ[mju:]-II.  In addition to terrific film cameras, the 1990s was the first decade with a large number of digital cameras like the Minolta RD-175 and Nikon D1.  We will record Episode 90 on Monday, March 24th at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

(Note that Daylight Savings Time started in North America on Sunday, March 9th, so be sure to check your local time if you plan on joining the show!)

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

Way back in Episode 27, the Camerosity gang went on a three hour tour to a tropical paradise and asked everyone what would be their idea of three "desert island" cameras that they would want to be stranded with if they couldn't have anything else.  That discussion proved to be a fun one and something we had wanted to revisit again.  It would take us all the way to Episode 88 when we would finally put out the call for another Desert Island episode.

Joining Anthony, Paul, Mike and our new regular host Stephen Strangways, are returning callers A.J. Gentile, Andrew and Christopher Wells, Ira Cohen, Will Pinkham, and first time caller Robin Stone.

Starting with this episode, we are welcoming Stephen as one of the regular hosts to the show.  His presence and knowledge on many previous episodes has impressed us, and after considering regular scheduling conflicts with the four regular hosts, we thought it was time to add a fifth person.  Although Theo has missed the last two episodes, he is still very much apart of the show and will return soon.  With a fifth host, in the event one of the "original four" have a scheduling issue, we can continue without hesitation.

On this episode, we go through a tremendous amount of GAS, covering many unexpected models including multiple Horseman cameras, a Fuji G617, Argus Brick, Nikon F2, Leica CL, Zeiss-Ikon Tenax II, and many, many others.

In addition to commercially available cameras, both Andrew and Christopher Wells share with us their own home made 3D printed large format creations.  Custom cameras built to use any combination of lenses, shutters, and film backs in a million different combinations are truly one of the more fascinating aspects of this hobby.  And if 3D printing your own camera isn't cool enough, Andrew took it a step further and even made his own bellows!

In addition to tropical island GAS, we answer the question of why the Nikon F mount is backwards of almost every other interchangeable lens system and the Wells brothers give us a quick update of the state of current Polaroid Originals instant film.

Meet Anthony, Paul, and Mike: If you are in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, March 22nd, come to the Ohio Camera Swap at the Hilton Garden Inn Cincinnati/West Chester and say hi to us.  Who knows, maybe even some other Camerosity Podcast regulars will show up as well.  While you’re there, maybe you can buy something from us!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you!  Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

For our next episode, we will be discussing camera failures and home repairs.  What are some of the most common problems vintage cameras face and what can you do to get them back up and working?  While the Camerosity Podcast fully recommends professional CLAs to keep vintage cameras going as long as possible, we understand that a full service on every vintage camera is impractical, so sometimes you have to take matters in your own hands.  If you aren't afraid to go inside a camera and possibly make it worse, the next episode may be for you!  We will record Episode 89 on Monday, March 10th at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

(Note that Daylight Savings Time starts in North America on Sunday, March 9th, so be sure to check your local time if you plan on joining the show!)

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

In yet another request from our listeners for topics you wanted to hear, for Episode 88, you can include me as someone whose been interested in hearing an episode about the Kodak Retina and other German Kodaks.

For many years, whenever I needed to write something about the Retina, the person I always reached out to was Dr. David Jentz.  David is not only the founder of the Historical Society for Retina Cameras, but also has published multiple written works about the Retina and its history. 

In addition to his knowledge about the Retina, David frequently collaborates with historian Klaus Schicht who has studied the man who created the Retina, Dr. August Nagel.  Although Klaus does not appear on the show, David was able to quote some information regarding topics we discussed on this show.

If one Kodak historian was not enough, we also invited Todd Gustavson from the George Eastman Museum to be on the show to fill in the blanks for any other Kodak related questions which came up.

This was a closed episode, so we did not have any callers, and both Paul and Theo weren't able to make it, but what we lacked in callers, we more than made up for in fascinating Kodak, Nagel, and Retina history.

Listen to Episode 87 to get a background on who Dr. August Nagel was, how he became a doctor, brief histories of his time working for Contessa Nettel, Zeiss-Ikon, and Nagel Kamerwerke prior to joining Kodak.  Did you know that before Kodak AG made cameras, they made film in Germany?

We discuss other German Kodaks such as the Recomar, Pupille, Kodak Duo Six-20, and the mysterious Kodak Regent.  We get into the differences between the use of "Nr." and "Type" when referring to prewar and postwar cameras, and finally solve the mystery of Paul's Retinette Angenieux lens.

In addition to camera history, we also take a deep dive into Kodak's introduction to making 35mm film.  While Kodak's type 135 daylight loading cassette was their most notable contribution to 35mm film in the 1930s, did you know they made 35mm film for the Leica and Contax before that?  David shares with us information about Kodaks original 35mm film, along with some detailed patent information about the Retina, and much more!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you!  Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

For our next episode, we are getting on a boat and heading on a "Three Hour Tour" for our second Desert Island episode.  If you were stranded on a desert island with only three cameras, which three would they be?  Will a high spec but fragile electronic camera make the cut, or will people choose less technically impressive models built to withstand a lot more abuse?  Let us know what you’d choose!  We will record Episode 88 on Monday, February 24th at 7pm Central Standard Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

David Jentz - https://www.blurb.com/user/hsrc028N

The Historical Society for Retina Cameras - https://www.hsrcretina.org/

HSRC Publications - https://www.hsrcretina.org/hsrc-publications

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

We return with yet another exciting episode of the Camerosity Podcast.  For Episode 86, we dip into the listener mailbag and select a topic you all have told us you wanted to hear about, adapting vintage lenses.  Taking an old film camera lens and mounting it to a modern digital camera isn't exactly anything new, as adapting lenses from one mount to another camera has been done since the early 20th century.

But what about the crazy number of lenses that weren't meant to be adapted?  How about uncommon Angenieux lenses from French Kodak Retinettes, photocopier lenses, or astronomy telescopes?  If it has glass and it focuses light, it can be adapted, and that's what got us going on this episode.

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike are returning callers, AJ Gentile, Miles Libak, Nick Marshall, Pat Casey, Patrick Rapps, Ray Nason, Stephen Strangeway, Will Pinkham, and first time callers Alyssa Micha, David Jentz, and Rollin Banderob.

On this episode, we talk about a huge number of lenses we mount to various digital and film cameras, but Alyssa starts us off with an ambitious project of adapting 35mm lenses to a Crown Graphic Graflex press camera, Stephen gives us some education on flange distance, why the Nikon Z mirrorless camera is ideally suited for adapting lenses, and Theo gives us his thoughts on how well a Mamiya press lens performs on micro 4/3rds.

We discuss whether it is wise to spend extra money on premium adapters vs the cheap Chinese ones you can find on eBay, David Jentz talks about adapting DKL mount lenses and the struggles to find a good DKL adapter, and why you need to be concerned with image circle size when picking lenses from differing formats.

Miles Libak shares with us a purchase he just made of a Contarex lens mount converted Canon F-1, and Paul talks about the best adapters to use for adapting Nikon rangefinder lenses to modern digital cameras.

This episode proved that a relatively simple topic of adapting lenses included a deep wormhole into a huge amount of combinations of lenses including Paul's tip on how to remove a stuck Leica M to LTM adapter.

For those of you who can't get enough of the Camerosity Podcast and would like the chance to meet 3/4 of the hosts, Anthony, Paul, and Mike will be at the Cincinnati Camera show in West Chester, Ohio on Saturday, March 22nd!  If you have nothing going on that day and can make it to the Cincinnati area, come and join us!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

For our next episode, we are are taking another suggestion from you all and dedicating a whole show to the Kodak Retina and other cameras made by Kodak AG, the German arm of Kodak in Stuttgart, Germany.  We will be welcoming author and Kodak Retina expert David Jentz, along with Kodak historian from the Eastman Kodak Museum, Todd Gustavson to talk with us.  This will be a closed episode, so we won't be taking any callers for this one, but rest assured, the Camerosity gang has a long list of great questions to ask our esteemed guests.  Episode 87 will be recorded soon and should be available by the end of February.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

David Jentz - https://www.blurb.com/user/hsrc028N

Amedeo Lens Adapters - https://www.ebay.com/usr/amedeo.m

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

The Camerosity Podcast returns with Episode 85 where we wander back into the wonderful world of high end camera auctions.  For this episode, we went all the way to Vienna, Austria and invited Jo Geier from Mint and Rare Cameras and the Wetzlar Camera Auctions.  In addition to Jo, we also welcomed back Dan Tamarkin from Tamarkin Camera and Auctions.

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, Mike, and our two special guests are returning callers Brian McDomnhaill, Dan Cuny, Fernando Villava, Gheerwijn Clicque, Ira Cohen, Wes Loder, Miles Libak, Tom Zoss, and Wayne Scheipers,

As you might expect when you have two of the world's most respected camera auctioneers on the same episode, we talk about a lot of super rare and collectible cameras.  Everything from the original Ur-Leica to rare cameras like the Carl Zeiss Jena Contax, the Australian Snider 35 rangefinder, and Luxus Leicas.  In addition to some pretty deep GAS, some love is given to several more affordable cameras like the Canon P, Tower/Nicca rangefinders, and the Nikon F4.

In addition to GAS, several great questions were raised including whether or not the definition of 'rare' has changed over the years, whether or not finding collectible cameras is getting harder to find, and why there aren't more younger people collecting cameras.

Jo tells us his origin story to how he started both companies and shares with us what his 'white whale' camera would be, Dan and Jo show appreciation for each other and talk about how they have collaborated in the past, including a very special Leica which Dan found at a Pennsylvania garage sale.  We revisit the need to get old cameras repaired sooner than later and how quickly experts in certain cameras are disappearing, tips and tricks for new collectors, and Jo proposes a $10 "ugly" camera challenge for anyone going to a camera show.

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

For our next episode, we are are going to the suggestion box and covering a topic that you all have told us you wanted to learn more about, adapting lenses.  There are many people in this hobby who love cameras, but love the lenses more.  While an old Kodak Ektra might be pretty to sit on the shelf, it is more practical to adapt that lens to a modern digital camera and see what kinds of results you can get from it.  Episode 86 will be dedicated to the hobby of using old lenses on modern digital cameras.  We will record Episode 86 at our regular time on Monday, February 10th at 7pm Central Standard Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time.  If you live in a different time zone and would like to participate, be sure to check your favorite time zone calculator to find out the exact time in your region.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

Jo Geier - https://www.jogeier.com/ and https://www.wetzlarcameraauctions.com/

Dan Tamarkin - https://www.tamarkin.com/ and https://www.tamarkinauctions.com/

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

We are back with the first new episode of 2025!  The Camerosity crew hopes you had a good start to the new year.  Unfortunately, the episode we had planned to have Jeff and Gabe from the I Dream of Cameras podcast had to be postponed due to the wildfires in Los Angeles.  Instead, we went to the Camerosity mailbox (aka Facebook) and did an episode about square format cameras.  We had intended to cover all cameras that shoot square format, but found so much to talk about with 35mm and 127, we didn't have much time for 120 6x6 cameras, so we can save that for a future show!

Whenever you talk about square format 35mm, one of the more popular ones for collectors is the Zeiss-Ikon Tenax II, and whenever you mention the Tenax II, the Wes Loder's "Spidey Sense" starts tingling, so we were happy to welcome back Michael Wescott Loder for the first time since Episode 74!

Joining Wes, Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on this episode were A.J. Gentile, Ira Cohen, Miles Libak, Mina Saleeb, Robert Coates, and Will Pinkham where they all shared their favorite square format cameras.

We attempt to start off the list of square format cameras in alphabetical order with the Altix and quickly move into the Berning Robot and Bilora Radix, but our plan quickly goes off the rails as we jump around the alphabet with cameras like the Akarette (which isn't even square format), Metz Mecaflex, Yashica 44, and the Purma Special.  We also cover the popularity of square format Rapid film cameras from Japan like the Minolta 24 Rapid, Canon Dial Rapid, and Fujica Rapid S2.

One of the more sought after square format cameras is the Mamiya Sketch, a camera that Mike has previously reviewed, but Theo desperately wants to acquire to round out his Mamiya collection.

Mike shares his tips on rolling your own 127 film using bulk 46mm film, and Will asks for recommendations on affordable entries into square format 35mm.  Although the group is initially stumped, Mike comes up with an off the wall solution that is quite affordable!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

For our next episode, we are excited to revisit a topic that we love to talk about, Camera Auctions, specifically high dollar auctions.  Our special guest for the next episode will be Jo Geier from Wetzlar Camera Auctions.  In addition to Jo, we will be welcoming back Dan Tamarkin from Tamarkin Auctions in Chicago.  In order to accommodate Jo's time zone, this will be a "European Friendly Time Zone" episode.  We will record Episode 85 on Monday, January 27th at 1pm Central Standard Time, 2pm Eastern Standard Time, 7pm Greenwich Mean Time, and 8pm Central European Time.  For Theo, and those of you in Australia, this will be very early in the morning on Tuesday the 28th.  Please check your favorite time zone calculator to find out the exact time in your region if you'd like to participate.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

The end of the year is almost here, and the guys and I were getting that itch to record something, so on a dreary Boxing Day, we all got together for a spontaneous episode to catch up on what we've been doing.  We did not post the join link this time, but we managed to coerce our friends Dan Cuny and Ray Nason to join us for some post-Christmas camera discussion.

To help us find things to talk about, we decided to tackle a request made earlier this month in the Camerosity Facebook group, asking for more detail about Contax cameras which we were happy to do.  We get into some history, some real world reviews, advice, and other Contax nonsense.  Everything from the pre and post war  Contax rangefinders, the East German Contax SLRs, and the Yashica/Kyocera Contax cameras were discussed.

In addition to Contax discussion, Mike gives an update on what became of the Detrola 400 he "borrowed" from Roberts Camera, Dan shares his thoughts on his most recent review of the Ansco Memo and we talk about Memo cameras.  Anthony shares his photographic adventures he went on traveling to New Zealand, and Paul confesses his love for adapting Contaflex 126 lenses!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

We will welcome in the new year with Episode 84 in which we will be inviting Jeff and Gabe from I Dream of Cameras.  There is a high chance we will spend some time on Alpa SLRs, but there's no telling where the discussion will go with what will effectively two podcasts recording at the same time!  If you've ever wondered what it is like to have "too many cooks in the kitchen", this is the episode for you!  We will record on Monday, January 13th 7pm Central Standard Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

When you collect vintage film cameras, if they don't work, just send it out for a CLA and some technician will take it apart, clean it up, lube what needs lubing, calibrate the shutter and it is ready to go, good as new!  How boring!  If the simplicity of CLAing a film camera is not enough of a challenge for you, perhaps you should consider collecting vintage digital cameras.  Incompatible memory cards, legacy file systems, unsupported USB cables, and batteries which no longer hold a charge are all the rage!

Although the era of digital cameras barely exceeds three decades, the earliest days of digital saw a tremendous amount of innovation and strange designs because camera makers were still trying to figure out what and how a digital camera should look and work like.

In this episode, the Camerosity crew (minus Anthony) go over this early innovative era of digital camera design and pick out some of the coolest cameras of the era.  Many of these cameras have early sensors which do not stand up to the quality of modern designs, but that's not why we collect them,

Joining Paul, Theo, and Mike are returning callers AJ Gentile, Larry Effler, Mark Faulkner, Miles Libak, Pat Casey, Stephen Strangways, and Will Pinkham and we cover a great deal of history regarding the earliest and most important digital cameras like the Kodak DCS-100, Nikon E2Ns, and Minolta RD-175.  We declare two cameras from the late 1990s to be historically significant moments in camera design, on par with that of the Leica and Nikon F.

Stephen Strangways shares with us his wide depth of knowledge about camera sensors.  We discuss the differences between CCD and CMOS sensors, why companies made the switch between the two, motivations of Live View, and why DSLRs eventually gave way to digital mirrorless cameras.

We discuss the limitations of early CCD sensors, what are hot mirror filters, why we think Nikon missed the mark on mirrorless, plus we cover a great deal of cool digital cameras, some of which have features cameras today don't have, like the Sony Cybershot DSC-F828, Olympus E-100 RS, Panasonic GF1, and the Ricoh G900.

In addition, Mike shares his large collection of 17 Pentax Q-series cameras, plus a very strange "camera coffin", a wooden Nikon rangefinder camera that has the guts of a Sony alpha mirrorless inside.

As it is officially the holiday season and each of our schedules has gotten increasingly complicated, we do not yet know when the next show will be, or what we will discuss.  Rest assured, that once we know, you'll know.  Be sure to follow us on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, our new BlueSky page, and right here on mikeeckman.com.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

The Camerosity Podcast is now on BlueSky @camerosity.bsky.social.  This modern, and clean replacement for Twitter is a nice alternative to cluttered social networks out there.  Follow us there for show announcements and other content.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Keppler's Vault 86: Electronic Still Photography - https://mikeeckman.com/2021/03/kepplers-vault-86-electronic-still-photography/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

At the end of Episode 80, we promised an entire show dedicated to Zeiss-Ikon.  Unfortunately, things got in the way of us being able to dedicate the necessary time to prepare to cover such a complex and important company, so we decided to pivot and do another GAS episode.

Anthony and Theo were only able to make brief appearances, but joining Paul and Mike on this show was a well rounded cast of callers including AJ Gentile, Antony Hands, Fernando from Germany, Rafael E, Wannes Scheipers, Will Pinkham, and first time callers, Andrew Curley, Charles Lawson, and Jem!

A large number of Zeiss-Ikon cameras were discussed including the Contax rangefinders, Contarex, folding Nettars, Contina, Contaflex, and the square format Tenax and Taxonas.  AJ shares his thoughts on his recent pickups of a Aires 35-V and Rolleiflex SL35, Wannes picks up an interesting book about the Kodak Vest Pocket, and Charles shares a story of how he gets his Kiev cameras repaired by a Ukrainian war hero.

Mike talks about a very rare camera he was able to "borrow" from Used Photo Pro in Indianapolis, along with some recommendations on the most innovative and best user American rangefinders and medium format cameras, and a very well done book about the career of Heinz Waaske.  We also cover a very strange 1980s Fisher-Price video camera that records video onto standard audio cassettes, the I'm Back Digital Camera back, why auto focus lens adapters all suck, and Antony shares his love for the JollyLook foldable instant camera and pinhole camera.

This was a wide ranging episode with a huge number of different cameras and topics covered, so rather than continue to promote it here, I recommend you hit the play button below, or on whatever your favorite podcast player is and enjoy!

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

For Episode 82 we are going back to digital....waaay back and going to attempt to cover some early digital cameras.  While everyone knows that digicams are seeing a resurgence of interest, what were some of the earlier models that are worth checking out!  Are there any undiscovered gems out there?  Even I don't know the answer to that one!  We will record Episode 82 on Monday, November 25th at 7pm Central Standard Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

In This Episode

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Used Photo Pro (Robert's Camera) - https://usedphotopro.com/

JollyLook - https://jollylook.com/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/

Everyone get out your Aqua Net hair spray and G.I. Joe lunchboxes because it is time to hop in the Hot Tub Time Machine and go back to the 80s!  In this, the 80th episode of the Camerosity Podcast, we revisit the decade where Michael Jackson and Madonna reigned supreme, taking a look at everyone's favorite cameras from that decade.  The Nikon F3, Minolta Maxxum 7000, Olympus XA2, the Minox 35 series, Contax RTS II, and many, many more.

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on this show are returning callers AJ Gentile, Mark Faulkner, Miles Libak, Mina Saleeb, Pat Casey, Patrick Rapps, Will Pinkham, and first time caller Christopher Wells.

Each person shares stories of the cameras they used during the 1980s, but Patrick Rapps didn't get the message about the 20th century and went back all the way to 1889 with his beautiful and fully functioning Kodak No.2 String Set.  This camera was the follow-up to the original 1888 Kodak and shares many of the same design features, including that camera's distinct round film gate!

We get into a little bit of history of early point and shoot cameras and how their autofocus systems work and why so many of these early cameras consistently have such high image quality.  We discuss the history and merits of Kodak's Disc film cameras and two features of those cameras that influenced cameras that would come later.  We revisit the era of electronic still video cameras like the Canon Xap Shop and the original Sony Mavica.  We talk about focusing auto focus cameras and reflect back on how focus screens work from the Rick Oleson episode.  Theo shares with us a strange 3 lens 110 film camera, and finally, we answer a question asked in the Camerosity Facebook page about a recommendation of a compact SLR for a 10 year old.

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.  

Our next episode will be Episode 81 and we are planning on tackling the complex and wonderful world of Zeiss-Ikon.  Since the recording of Episode 80 however, some scheduling conflicts have come up which may require us to pivot this show and postpone it.  We won't know until we get closer to the show date, so if Episode 81 comes and it is not about Zeiss, we didn't forget, we just had to change at the last minute.  As of right now however, it is still on.  We will record Episode 81 on Monday, November 11th at 7pm Central Standard Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

In This Episode

• Mike Forgets How Long Ago the 1980s Was / The Leica M6 Was Popular with Hobbyists

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast

Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/

Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/

Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris - https://thisoldcamera.net/

Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/