Nikon Series E Zoom 70~150mm 1:3.5 The Series E lenses from Nikon often get a bad rap, and while many are not the best, there’s nothing wrong with them. And for John the 70-150mm zoom lenses makes for a great budget tele-zoom. While it does suffer from zoom creep with the push/pull design there’s nothing wrong with these optics. And while the f/3.5 isn’t the fastest in the group that is a constant f/3.5 no matter where you are on the focal lengths. Lens Specs: Make: Nikon Model: Nikon Series E Zoom 70~150mm 1:3.5 Focal Length: 70-150mm Aperture Range: f/3.5-f/32, 7 Blades Optics: 12 ElementsRead More →

William Lyon MacKenzie, not to be confused with William Lyon MacKenzie King (remember that for later), is more myth and legend that man. Cloaked in a persona often of his own making, MacKenzie was at the heart of the Upper Canada Rebellion, his push towards radical reform and public speaking skills caused many to flock to his cause. His use of twisting the facts, overblowing situations and the ability to turn men against each other and himself forced the issue in 1837. But much of what we know of MacKenzie is often more myth than fact, which has like much of Canadian history of theRead More →

One of the biggest things in film photography these days is taking old ‘dead stock’ and respooling it for regular photographic use, and the most recent addition to these boutique films is Street Candy ATM 400. As the name suggests, the film is aimed at street photographers (or those who identify as street photographers), and ATM means this is a former film used in surveillance cameras on Automated Teller Machines. And since most modern ATMs use digital technology to fill the need for security surveillance. While originally available only in Europe it’s been recently brought into North America through the Film Photography Project. It certainlyRead More →

Back when I was starting to work on my 1867 project a friend and fellow reenactor pointed me towards a facebook group called Friends of the Welland Canal. The facebook group is a joint effort between local residents and a group known as the Welland Canal Advocate (WCA). Over the Victoria Day long weekend, Heather and I took the opportunity to attend one of the monthly WCA hikes that took us through a section of the first and second canals that run through St. Catherine’s Centennial Gardens. That said when the canals were in operation, the area was actually in a separate community known asRead More →

Out of all the historical figures I have come across in my research one of the more interesting is Sir Allan Napier MacNab. MacNab is one figure whom I already had some knowledge of considering I have visited his former home many times in Hamilton. However, I had no idea how influential he was on pre-confederation history and his lasting impact on Canada today. Born in Newark, Upper Canada, today Niagara-On-The-Lake on the 19th of February 1798, his father an officer in the Queen’s Ranger who came to Upper Canada with Sir John Graves Simcoe. When the unit saw disbandment, the MacNab’s moved to theRead More →

When it comes to 160-Speed film, to mee it seems like a bit of an odd duck, 100, 125, are pretty standard, but 160 I’ve only seen colour films rated that way. But enter Silberra Pan160, a touch faster than it’s 100-Speed Cousin, but not as fast as the 200-Speed. It must be a Russian thing moving from the GOST scale. Either way, I like Pan160, probably a little more than Pan100. It’s sharp, but grainy, fantastic contrast, and responds well to contrast filters, especially a pale yellow. And while there’s still plenty of supply issues to us here in North American, and the 120Read More →

Out of all the Doors Open Events run across Ontario my favourite and longest attended is Doors Open Hamilton. The city knows how to do the event right with lots of buildings both public and private buying into the event and specifically allowing and even welcoming photography. My first taste of doors open had been back in 2007 and I pretty much have attended almost all of the Hamilton events missing only a few in the past decade and a bit. Plus being on the weekend closest to my birthday it has also become somewhat of a Birthday Tradition. This year I had an awesomeRead More →

The air certainly had a chill to it and if you didn’t know the date you might have laughed if I said it was the end of April. But it certainly didn’t feel like the end of April, it felt like the fall. I should have gone back up to the condo and gotten a sweater but I decided to soldier on. Despite the fact, the official Spring Toronto Film Shooters meetup was the next day I decided to scrap my initial plan for the day which was shooting solo in Elora and headed into the city for an informal TFS meetup in the beachRead More →

If there is a single figure in the lead up to the Upper Canada Rebellion, the opposite of William Lyon MacKenzie, a Tory among Tories, that figure is Sir John Beverly Robinson. There is no better example of a loyalist and the perfect man to head up the Family Compact and pull the strings of the Provincial Government for many years. While having no love of power, he was a man of strict ideals, and for that, he took the role seriously and refused to allow anyone to deviate from his moral compass. John’s family’s legacy traced back to the Robinsons who were among theRead More →

Certainly an odd-ball in the 600-Series line up from Polaroid. The Impulse is actually my favourite format for the 600-Series cameras from Polaroid, with the grey plastic and rubberized grips. It’s almost as if Polaroid wanted to try out the style that would eventually go into the Polaroid Spectra line of cameras before actually building it. Gone is the typical clam-shell design that is iconic of the 600-Series cameras. The Impulse is a fixed focus, point-and-shoot with a pop-up flash. They also released two sub-variants of the Impulse, the Portrait (which has a selectable focus via an auxiliary lens) and the AF which features Polaroid’sRead More →