There are small cameras, and then there are small cameras. When designing cameras, there are certain constraints that you must work within. In the realm of 35mm cameras, you do have to make sure there’s enough room to fit the cartridge, and there have been some small 35mm cameras that I have reviewed. The one I think of is the RETO Ultra-Wide & Slim, and in the 35mm world, the smallest I’ve worked with is the Pentax MX (smaller than even the Olympus OM-1 and Nikon FM). But once you start to scale down the size of the film, you can bring the size ofRead More →

Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 is a film that has achieved cult status and is almost universally loved by film photographers. Personally, I see the value in Acros and appreciate what it can do, but it never became a staple in my photography. It offers fine-grain, incredible sharpness and tonality. It also has a long reciprocity making it perfect for long exposure. A capable portrait film that provides amazing skin tones, but is also versatile to use in other applications like landscape, astrophotography, and architecture. But then Acros 100 went away; Fuji discontinued Acros 100 in 2018, citing the inability to source the needed raw materials.Read More →

When it comes to places I’ve photographed in my local area, the city of Brampton isn’t one I often visit for photography. Now, to be clear, I have made several trips to Brampton for photography, but mostly around Sheridan’s Davis Campus. But the historic downtown I’ve only visited twice, the first time was for a PYPS Winter Weekend and the second time to test out a new-to-me Olympus OM-1n. So when I was putting together a plan for this year’s 12 Months on Film, I wanted to include places I’d been only once or twice, and Brampton, though it didn’t make the initial cut, endedRead More →

Do I really need to do another D-76 clone review? The answer is yes, yes I do. So during the end of production of Kodak chemicals by Sino Promise the fine folks at Adox Photo went out and purchased the rights to some of the names of Kodak chemicals, including D-76 (although you can still get Kodak D-76 now produced in the USA) as part of their efforts to ensure that the supply of these chemicals continue. And so in 2023 Adox D-76 hit the market, the one thing that sets Adox’s version apart is that it has a longer shelf life thanks to aRead More →

I love winter. Well, a specific type of winter, the winter we had this past winter. And while we’re all here now, looking forward to spring, I wanted to look back at the winter that was, because I had a lot of fun this year. So what made this winter better than, say, the past two that we had? Well, first off, we got snow early, back in November 2025, which was awesome. And sure, we did lose all of it over the rest of the month and into December. But we did get some back in December, only to lose it again. But weRead More →

A fixed-lens rangefinder is good, but the gold standard for photography was an SLR. I had used SLRs before, including the beat-up K1000 in my high school darkroom and a fellow student’s parent’s SLR. And now that I had been bitten by the photography bug, I was on the hunt for one. The effort did have a false start; I got a Zenit B at a garage sale and failed miserably with that camera. I ended up trading it for another K1000 because the other guy wanted the Helios-44-2 lens attached. But then I happened across the Minolta SR-T 102. Since I already had aRead More →

While it has taken me a while to come to like Ilford HP5+ the one thing that this film stock can take is punishment. And I’ve done a fair bit of pushing on HP5+ in the past with some excellent success. Last year it was pushing it to ASA-1600 and developing in Fujifilm SPD with some of the best results I’ve seen. I have also seen some excellent results back on the slower end of things. So I have high hopes for this roll. Film Specs Manufacturer: Ilford Photo Name: Ilford HP5+ Type: Panchromatic B&W, Cubic Grained Film Base: Acetate Film Speed: ASA-400, Tested Latitude:Read More →

I can’t recall when I first saw the historic city of Galt, Ontario. It was probably on a trip to see the outlet shops at the old Southworks location (now the Gaslight district), but I did do a bit of Urban Exploration in that same area several years later. Today, Galt is a part of the modern city of Cambridge, one of four historic settlements that merged in the 1970s. Galt was among the largest, and the historic core remains one of the best to visit if you’re a fan of historic architecture. When I first thought about taking a closer look at Galt, itRead More →

If there was a symbol of Hamilton’s rise, fall, and rebirth, that symbol downtown would be the Lister Block. It also was one of the jewels of the Hamilton Urban Exploration scene and could make for a fun night of exploration, which, depending on access, would see an easy group including the Lyric Theatre, Tivoli, Royal Connaught and then Lister Block. After getting out, I grabbed slices from National Pizza. But those days are long gone, Lister and Connaught being restored, Lyric long gone, and Tivoli is sealed demolished. Among all the places I explored, Lister Block is one that I was around when itRead More →

Alright, I said I wasn’t going to get one of these, well, specifically an autofocus version of the Nikkor 20mm lens. The Minolta one solidified my enjoyment of the 20mm focal length, and I was passively looking for a manual focus lens, either AI or AI-S, because then it would work on all my cameras without fail. But I also don’t turn up my nose to a lens when offered. And well, here we are, the 20mm f/2.8D. I do like my wide-angle choices, and the 20mm offers up a nice in-between when 24mm isn’t wide enough and 14mm is too wide. And I don’tRead More →