This is the Konica FP, an SLR produced between 1963 and 1966 in Japan. It marked the first time that Konica used Copal Square shutter. The shutter design, metal blades and quick operation was touted as being highly reliable as it avoided many of the environmental pitfalls that could befall cloth curtains. The square shutter was used by many other manufacturers including Canon, Leica, and Minolta. This camera was picked up on an excursion to the Frederick/Hagerstown area of Maryland. I visited the first Washington Monument (image at left) and hit up a couple of antiques malls in the course of ..read more

This is the Canon EOS Rebel XTi an 10.1-megapixel DSLR made by Canon in 2006. It was marketed as the EOS Digital Rebel XT in the Americas, EOS 400D in Europe, and EOS Kiss Digital X in its home country of Japan. The Rebel XTi is of standard DSLR design language and the main thing to note is that it is significantly more compact and lighter than its predecessor. The change in size makes the camera easier to hold, but at the expense of being unbalanced with larger lenses. Make Canon Model EOS Digital Rebel XT Year 2006 Format Digital (CF card – Type I or II) Sensor APS-C (10.1 MP ..read more

This is the Kamera-Werkståtten Praktica FX, a waist level finder SLR produced in Dresden, Germany between 1952 and 1954. Just shy of 30,000 cameras were produced. This particular camera came with a Carl Zeiss Jena eye-level finder, but the camera looks quite bulky with it attached and I prefer not to use it. The build quality of the FX is similar to that of many other East German-produced cameras. That is to say it’s functional, but not refined. The shutter fires with a pronounced “thunk” and the components making up the rest of the controls feel like they are several generations removed from ..read more

I picked up an Optique & Précision de Levallois (OPL) Foca PF3 a while back, and there was undeveloped Kodak Tri-X in it. The images seem to date from the 1970s and were taken at what appears to be an outdoor kids activity fair. Sample images on Kodak Tri-X from the 1970’s, cold-stand developed in Kodak HC-110 for 30 minutes, scanned with an Epson v550. The post Found Film: Foca Edition appeared first on thegashaus ..read more

This is the Petri Penta v6 made by Kuribayashi of Japan between 1965 and 1970. This particular camera was earlier in the production run,  indicated by the all-metal film advance lever. In my experience, Petri cameras fall into the “cursed” camera category, along with Mirandas. They are, however, less diabolical in nature as they typically just don’t work. Unlike Mirandas, which fool you by working perfectly when testing, then find myriad ways of breaking in the course of shooting actual film. So engrained is my distrust of Petris and Mirandas that when I was shooting the roll shown below ..read more

This is the Leica Digilux Zoom digital camera, manufactured in 1999 by Fujifilm Co. of Japan. The Digilux Zoom is a slightly modified version of the Fuji MX-1700z. Fuji MX-1700z Interestingly, this is literally the Porsche of digital cameras. The aesthetics were designed by Ferdinand Porsche for Fuji. Porsche has many other non-automotive patents to his name, including a laptop (USD480395S1), bicycle frame (US4230332A), and watch (USD284356S). Make Leica Model Digilux Zoom Year 1999 Format Digital (Smartmedia card) Sensor 1/2.3″ CCD (1.5 MP) ISO ~125 Lens Fixed   f3 ..read more

This is the Viscawide-16, manufactured in 1961 by Japanese company Taiyokoki (shown as Taiyokoki Co. Ltd on the Viscawide, it was also known as Taiyokoki Optical Co. Ltd). It is a panoramic camera that takes pictures on 16mm film in special film canisters. The Viscawide-16 has a rectangular shape with the shutter release on the side of the camera. There is a swing lens with 120 degrees of motion producing negatives with dimensions of 10x49mm. The frame counter is manually reset by use of a recessed button on the top plate of the camera in the bottom right corner. Directly above the reset butto ..read more

This is the Minolta Weathermatic Dual from the late 1980’s, a waterproof 35mm autofocus camera in stylish yellow and black colors. It has a dual lens system (f3.5 35mm, f5.6 50mm) activated with a button on top of the camera. There is also an underwater macro mode turned on with a button on the back of the body. The Weathermatic Dual uses an infrared autofocus system, which I found to be spotty particularly when reflective surfaces such as glass were involved. The Weathermatic Dual 35 is one in a line of three Weathermatic cameras from Minolta others being the Weathermatic-A and Vectis Weather ..read more

This is the Canon 1Ds Mark II from 2004, a 16.7mp full frame digital camera and the second iteration of Canon’s first full-frame DSLR. It’s hard to believe that this camera is 18 years old as of writing this article. I fully expected to shoot with it a bit then put it away, but had a complete blast wandering around Brookside Gardens with it. Canon’s logo as it has appeared since 1956. The Mark II is a large and heavy camera, especially compared to the Sony A7II kit I just picked up, but is by no means unwieldy. In fact I felt very much like a photographer with this beast in my hands. It has al ..read more

This is the DeJUR Amsco Dual Professional light meter circa 1948. It is a dual-mode (incident and reflecting) selenium meter with styling that matches the time period in which it was made. This particular unit still responds to light and is still useable, though it’s readings seem slightly low. The manual for the meter can be found here. The post DeJUR Dual Professional Exposure Meter appeared first on thegashaus ..read more