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/

On this episode of the Camerosity Podcast, the guys took a suggestion off the top of the Camerosity Suggestion Box™ and dedicated this episode to medium format SLRs.  That's right, finally, an entire episode dedicated to Bronica, Mamiya, Rolleiflex, Kiev, and Norita SLRs (but not that H-brand).

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on this show are returning callers A.J. Gentile, Brian Zeman, Miles Libak, Will Pinkham, and first time callers Andrew Wells, Fernando from Germany, Henry Blanton, Robert Wawrzinek, and Tom Zoss.

The show gets off to a quick start with the Bronica system, one that Mike has limited experience with, but the listeners make quick work out of recommending an accessory that Mike immediately decided he needed.  Our love for this Japanese SLR starts with the early S-series, moves into the GS, and finally ETRS series, but one is a clear favorite.

Another well received SLR is the Kowa Six which Mike has been tirelessly shooting in the weeks prior to this show, ready to share his thoughts.  Anthony and Andrew both share their strong desires to own a Rolleiflex SL66, and Fernando shares his love for Soviet and East German medium format SLRs.

A huge number of "less common" cameras like the KW Reflex Box, VEB WEFO Master Reflex, Fujita Six, Folmer-Graflex National Graflex, and both the horizontal and vertical versions of the Ihagee Exakta 66 get their mentions.  We point out the 6x6 SLR with the fastest medium format lens ever made, who is best to repair Mamiya SLRs, and ponder the age old question, "Why didn't anyone ever make a 6x9 SLR?"

We get a little off topic, discussing John Minnick's Aero-Liberator SLRs used by Graham Burnett, Graflex's "Stove Top" SLRs, and Tom Zoss's custom Graflex XL with a very wide Rodenstock lens on it.  Plus, as an added bonus, we cover the only 16mm SLR in any of our collections, the KMZ Narciss SLR!

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 80 and we're taking the opportunity to dedicated this episode to cameras of the 80s (you get to pick the century).  The 1980s saw a huge advancement in auto focus SLRs, the use of lightweight plastics, and the beginning of the "bridge camera" era.  If you're fans of gems like the Nikon FM2, Minolta X-700, Leica M6, or the Yashica Samurai, this is the episode for you!  We will record Episode 80 on Monday, October 28th at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

In This Episode

• Mike Owns Two Bronica SLRs / Bronica S2 / Bronica GS-1

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/

One of the benefits to having four hosts is that if something comes up and someone can't be on a recording, the show can go on.  For Episode 78, we were short Anthony, so what did the guys decide to talk about while he wasn't there?  One of Anthony's favorite cameras of course!  The Zeiss-Ikon Super Ikonta 532/16 is a medium format folding camera that shoots 6cm x 6cm images and is one of the very few medium format folding cameras with both a rangefinder and fast f/2.8 lens.

In addition to it being one of Anthony's favorite cameras, it is also a favorite of professional photographer Johnny Martyr who, along with a stable of vintage Leicas, shoots his Super Ikonta professionally, offering medium format prints to his clientele.  On this episode, Johnny shares with us his motivation on why he incorporated medium format into his business and why he chose this specific camera.

Episode 78 was light on guests as Paul, Theo, and Mike were also joined by returning callers AJ Gentile and Miles Libak, but we made up for it with a nice discussion of GAS!  The conversation eventually moved from 6x6 folders to 4.5x6 folders and Mike gave his recommendation on one of the best Japanese 4.5x6 folding rangefinder cameras, the Konica Pearl IV.  In addition, Mike also recommended an unlikely 6x9 folding camera as a value champion that still punches above its weight with a great lens.

Paul shares some recent cameras he's dug out of his crypt and Theo talks about his recent adventures with a Nikon S2 and Olympus Pen FT and how he accidentally redscaled some film without knowing it.  We briefly discuss the merits of prism based viewfinders and what would happen if you purposely loaded black and white film backwards.

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.

Episode 79 will be all about medium format SLRs.  If you're interested in Bronica, Mamiya, Kowa, Norita, Praktisix, (but hot Hasselblad) SLRs, this is the episode for you!  We will record on Monday, October 14th at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

In This Episode

• Only Three Hosts / AJ Working on His New Blog / Paul is Still Doing Long Trips for Cameras

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/

Johnny Martyr - https://johnnymartyr.wordpress.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/

In what is a record for the longest time between recording and release, Episode 77 is finally here!  Recorded more than 2 weeks ago, in this episode we follow up Episode 76 with a second episode about "stuff we know".  Before they were podcast superstars, Theo, Mike, and Paul have blogs and we wanted to share some behind the scenes secrets of the wonderful world of blogging.

Joining us are fellow bloggers, Peggy Marsh, Alex Luyckx, Eric Jason, Dan Cuny, and Jim Grey who tell us their origin stories, what their process is for how they choose what to write about, and what's next for their blogs.  Joining us are non bloggers, A.J. Gentile and Will Pinkham who get inspired and consider making their own blog!

As a group, we also discuss the state of blogging, has the luster of long form reviews been replaced by byte sized content from TikTok and Instagram Reels?  Alex discusses his experiences with Adox Scala and black and white reversal developers, Dan Cuny talks about his collection of vintage film negatives that he scans and posts online, and Paul reveals a guy he found in China that can modify standard Hasselblad backs, turning them into Hasselblad XPan sized panoramic backs.

Because of a combination of regular delays along with a laptop crash which required this episode to be edited from beginning to end twice, Episode 78 has already been recorded before Episode 77 was ready for release.  Paul, Theo, and Mike had an intimate discussion with Johnny Martyr, A.J. Gentile, and Miles Libak about shooting medium format, Mike's favorite Japanese 4.5x6 folding camera, and how the process of professionally shooting film in the digital age has changed from before.

Episode 79 will be all about medium format SLRs.  If you're interested in Bronica, Mamiya, Kowa, Norita, Praktisix, (but hot Hasselblad) SLRs, this is the episode for you!  We will record on Monday, October 14th at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

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.

In This Episode

• How Blogging Relates to This Podcast / A Private Blogger Facebook Chat Has Improve All Our Sites

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/

Peggy Marsh - Camera Go Camera - https://cameragocamera.com/

Alex Luyckx - https://www.alexluyckx.com/blog/

Eric Jason - Aperture Preview - https://www.aperturepreview.com/

Dan Cuny - https://www.dancuny.com/camera-collecting-blog

Jim Grey - Down the Road - https://blog.jimgrey.net/

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/

For most episodes of this show, we rely on experts to come and talk to us about a specific topic.  We value the experiences and knowledges of people who know a lot about a brand or a style of camera to teach us something that we didn't already know.  For Episode 76 however, we decided to go with something the Camerosity hosts are already experts on, which is buying and selling cameras.

You don't get to have the experiences between the four hosts without access to a great deal of hardware, so we thought for this episode we would share some stories of how we all got to where we are at today.  In addition to our personal experiences, Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike share their best tips and tricks not only for buying cameras but also when it comes time to sell something.

Joining us on this episode are returning callers, Mark Faulkner, Mike Litwin, Will Pinkham, and first time caller Cody Yoder.  We cover the basics of buying and selling on eBay but also ways in which we've accumulated gear through estate sales, Facebook Marketplace, and through good old human interaction.  Paul shares his thoughts on the state of buying and selling, Mike discusses one of his favorite eBay sellers and why he doesn't buy from them anymore, and Anthony shares his story for how he met one of the most eccentric camera collectors in Florida.

In addition to buying and selling, Cody tells us a story about how he literally walked into a garage full of Hasselblads, Theo gives us an update on what it was like shooting and developing film while on vacation in Vietnam and Paul answers a question for how he decides how much to offer a seller when buying a large collection.

For the next episode, we are sticking with topics we know well and will dedicate Episode 77 entirely to blogging.  This podcast wouldn't exist if Mike had never started mikeeckman.com and met Anthony, Paul, and Theo through his site, so if you've ever been interested into the behind the scenes of researching and reviewing cameras for a website, this is the episode for you.  In addition to Mike and Theo's thoughts, we are going to solicit some of your other favorite bloggers and get their thoughts as well.  Episode 77 will be recorded on Monday, September 16th at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

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.

In This Episode

• How is the eBay Camera Selling Market Going? / Paul Buys Cameras from Cody Yoder

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/

Mike's Guide to Buying and Selling Cameras on eBay - https://mikeeckman.com/2019/04/gas-attack-buying-cameras-on-ebay/

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

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

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

A brand of camera that we've talked quite a bit about on this show is Pentax, but in every episode where this brand came up, the same book and author gets brought up as a great resource for screw mount Pentax and Takumar lenses, which is "The Ultimate/Definitive Asahi Pentax Collector's Guide 1952-1977" by Gerjan van Oosten.  While this is a great book to read, this is a podcast, so we like to talk to people, so for Episode 75, rather than continue to talk about a book, we went straight to the source and got the book's author, Gerjan van Oosten to join us!

For this episode, we were missing Theo, but joining Anthony, Paul, Mike, and Gerjan are returning callers Patrick Casey and Wannes Scheipers.  Gerjan discusses some of his least favorite Takumar lenses, backwards compatibility of Takumar lenses, what's so special about the 8-element Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 lenses, why the Spotmatic doesn't actually have a spot meter, what Honeywell had to do with Pentax, export market cameras like the Asahiflex H2 and Asahi Pentar, and a fun discussion about a prototype camera called the Pentax Metalica.

In addition to Pentax camera and lens GAS, we get into discussions about why so many early SLRs had 58mm lenses, a little bit of Nikon history, Anthony's recent habit of breaking into churches, shooting the Horseman Convertible, and Mike's thoughts on the Leica M5.

Gerjan covers his book and that there's three editions of the camera, all with significant changes from the earlier versions.  Only the latest 2023 edition is currently for sale direct from him, so if you're interested in buying this excellent book straight from him, he sells them direct on eBay at the following link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335212596808

We had a lot of fun recording this episode, but we will be taking a break from new shows for a little while.  Although we have some ideas for future shows, nothing is planned at the moment, nor do we know when the next episode will be recorded, so 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.

In This Episode

• Introducing Gerjan van Oosten / Pentax ES II

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

Gerjan van Oosten - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1088887718612334

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

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

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

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

As the world's first, number one, and only open source film photography podcast, we take pride in that in each episode you all get to influence the discussions we have.  For Episode 74, we decided to take it a step farther and dedicate the entire episode to two broad topics that listeners of this show have suggested to us.  The first is to cover the confusing and wide array of third party lenses and the second to go over some tips and tricks for home film development.  Never ones to disappoint our listeners, the gang took your suggestions to heart and turned both into a whole episode...mostly!

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike was a full house of returning callers A.J. Gentile, Dan Cuny, Dan Hausman, Mario Piper, Michael Wescott (Wes) Loder, Miles Libak, Ray Nason, Robert Coates, Will Pinkham, and Mark (sorry, Mark, we didn't get your last name!)

We quickly jump into a lens discussion first clarifying what exactly is considered a Third Party Lens maker?  From there the wormhole quickly opens as we bounce around with discussions regarding Asanuma, Vivitar, Kiron, and what Mike calls the "German B-List Lens Makers" like Steinheil, A.Schacht, Staeble, Enna-Werk, and many others. Wes jumps in and pivots the discussion to the vast array of lenses available for the Akarette/Akarelle and Lordomat systems, and then Mike quickly gets back on track professing his love for the Wirgin Edixa.

We cover the Voigtländer Zoomar and the rash of very good Chinese lens makers like TTArtisan, 7Artisans, Light Lens Labs, and the obscure Japanese lens maker MS-Optics.

For home development, we cover a whole host of hacks from doubling up on rolls of 120 on a single spool, how Mike pushes HC-110 to the absolute limit when developing black and white and Anthony chimes in with his suggestions for how to make shooting a Minox camera the most affordable way possible.  We get into other things like tips for flatbed scanning and what everyone thinks about digitizing.  It was certainly a live discussion, but I should probably stop typing here and encourage you to listen to the episode.

For the next episode, we are revisiting one of our favorite brands of camera, Pentax!  Although we have dedicated multiple whole episodes to Pentax, this time we have Pentax historian Gerjan van Oosten who authored "The Ultimate Asahi Pentax Screw Mount Guide 1952 - 1977" which I consider to be one of the most definitive Pentax resources ever written.  The amount of info that Gerjan has about Pentax, Takumars, and everything relating to screw mounts is far more than we can ever hope to capture in a single episode, but we will certainly try!  To accommodate Gerjan's European time zone, Episode 75 will be recorded on Monday, August 5th at the special time of 2pm Central Daylight Time, 3pm Eastern Daylight Time, and 9pm Central European Time.

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.

In This Episode

• Clarification on the Ricoh Singlex and the Nikon F Mount / Recommendations for PASM Manual Focus Cameras

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

Dan Cuny - https://www.dancuny.com/camera-collecting-blog

Wes Loder - https://wesloderandnikon.blogspot.com/

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

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

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

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

For the second episode in a row, we promised to deliver a thrilling discussion about two brands of Japanese cameras that have more in common than you might think.  Fuji and Ricoh both started making products for the photography industry right before the war, but originally started out in different industries, for Fuji, it was celluloid plastics and Ricoh (then called Riken) it was as a chemicals research company.  Each took a path making lenses and cameras, but in both instances photography was never each company's main focus.  Both Fuji and Ricoh invested heavily in the photocopier industry in the later part of the 20th century, and both successfully made the jump into the digital camera world.  Both companies continue to make new cameras today, Fuji with their excellent lineup of X-Series digital mirrorless, and Ricoh with their GR point and shoots and their ownership of the Pentax brand.

In this episode, Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike are joined by Paul's personal Fuji rep, Bob Grzesiak, returning callers Brad Swain, Howard Sandler, Mark Faulkner, Miles Libak, and first time caller, Dan Cuny.

We extensively cover many of Fuji's medium format cameras from the Texas Leica, their variety of 4.5x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9, and even their lone 6x17 model, plus the company's mid century rangefinders, the extremely compact and very quirky Fujica Mini, their entry into SLRs with the Fujicarex, the Fuji ST-series, and the unloved Fuji AX-series.  For Ricoh, time is spent on their Auto-Half series and Hi-Color 35, along with some of Ricoh's screw mount SLRs and Mike's favorite Ricoh, the Anscomark M interchangeable lens rangefinder camera.

In addition, we get to hear which of these two companies used to throw the best parties for camera dealers, a little bit of history regarding the Fuji Finepix S-Series DSLRs, a bit about the Ricoh GR-series, plus a strange digital camera that had not only interchangeable lenses, but also interchangeable sensors, plus some bonus discussion about Mamiya Prismat "bastard cameras" like the original Ricoh Singlex with the "sorta" Nikon F-mount, and a strange Tower branded camera made by Mamiya with an Ihagee Exakta lens mount and a Canon lens.

This proved to be a very lively discussion, covering a huge amount of different camera models from two brands that don't get discussed nearly as often as others.  If you find that your collection is thin on cameras by either of these manufacturers, this is the episode that will surely flare up a case of GAS.  Get ready to open your wallet!

For the next episode, we will be exploring the world of third party lens makers like Vivitar, Sigma, Tamron, Spiratone and many others, plus we hope to revisit a topic that started in a thread on the Camerosity Podcast Facebook group regarding home processing.  Episode 74 will be recorded on Monday, July 22nd at 7pm Central Daylight Time and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

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.

In This Episode

• Fuji and Ricoh Have Remarkably Similar Histories / Roico 127 Camera

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

Mark Faulkner - https://thegashaus.com/

Dan Cuny - https://www.dancuny.com/camera-collecting-blog

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

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

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

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