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It’s a rumble in the mechanical jungle! Last year I pitted my Nikon F5 against the Minolta Maxxum 9, and I had a lot of fun doing that review, not to prove which camera is better but to show the difference between the two top dog professional cameras. And I have been waiting for a chance to repeat the format for some other cameras. So why not take out two iconic small-format SLRs that came out in the 1970s, sadly I had very view from that era, at least until recently when I got a pair of them. Today we’re going to compare the OlympusRead More →

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In the automotive world, especially in the world of hotrods, there’s a term ‘sleeper’. A sleeper is a car that doesn’t look like a performance automobile, but under the hood is. For many years my dad babied a 1983 Caprice Classic, installed a new engine, new exhaust, fuel injector, all to complement the Impala SS suspension and close-ratio police steer box that came with the car. The Caprice spent many years as a sleeper until he started working on some exterior detailing. Why do I mention a car on a lens review? Well, it’s because the lens I’m covering today is a sleeper, it doesn’tRead More →

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When it comes to Olympus cameras, especially the OM-System, I sadly lack in my experience. Thankfully I’ve had the chance to run with both the original OM-1 and the advanced OM-4. Meaning there are only a couple of these amazing cameras that I have yet to have any experience with. In a reoccurrence of GAS, I happened upon a trade where I swapped a Pentax for a beautiful OM-2n. And after hearing all the good things about these cameras from two friends, Bill and Leslie, I knew I had a winning SLR. And while the OM-2n isn’t a primary camera in my daily use, IRead More →

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Way make in the early days of my film photography journey and having a lot of influence from the Film Photography Podcast I dove deep into the wonderful world of Polaroid photography. Now it wasn’t that I didn’t know about Polaroid, I had shot the format before but only the Type-600 integral stock. But through the FPP I learned about pack film, which if you know the song is where the phrase ‘shake it like a polaroid picture’ has its origins. After making a donation to the FPP I ended up receiving a Polaroid ColorPack II camera right from Michael Raso’s personal collection. The ColorPackRead More →

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If there is one lens that lives on my XE-7 so much so that I feel it’s fixed to the camera, it is the Rokkor-X 45/2. This lens is a beautiful piece of glass that honestly, I wouldn’t want to replace with a 35mm focal length for my Minolta kit. It’s the lens that went through all of a trip to Disney World and Universal without being taken off the camera despite bringing a 135mm lens with which did more on the digital a6000 then on the XE-7. And while it looks a little silly strapped onto the beast that is the XE-7, as aRead More →

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If you’ve ever seen the TV show Madmen, you’ll probably have your 21st Century, post MeToo era sensibilities challenged with the sheer amount of sexism that was and is still rampant today. Now if you’re a little confused, let me introduce you to the Nikon EM. Designed to fill in the entry-level gap in the Nikon SLR line, the EM was primarily marketed towards women. The reason is that as a camera, it is basic, set for semi-automatic aperture priority, and that is the only mode available. It also is small, compact, and lightweight. But don’t let that stop you, the EM is an excellentRead More →

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I first saw this lens mounted on the front of a Nikon F3 with an MD-4 motor drive attached and I can honestly say it would be the first time I ever saw f/1.4 glass. Most of my past 50mm lenses were either f/1.7 or f/1.8. And while it’s not too much difference between the two apertures, there is plenty different between the two lenses. The AI-S Nikkor 50/1.4 carries forward the tradition of the fast Nikon 50 Nikon would be the first camera company to introduce such a lens back in 1950. And while optically, the formula has changed, the AI-S version is theRead More →

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When it comes to some cameras on the market, you have to wonder what the company or the designers were thinking when they decided that such a camera would be a good idea. One such camera is the Nikkorex line, well at least the fixed lens versions. Nikon had a good reputation among camera manufacturers; they had their successful rangefinders. They hit it big time with the Nikon F. But then decided to try and enter the consumer market. And like many camera companies at the time they decided to do this by producing a fixed lens SLR with a leaf shutter. To be honest,Read More →

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Next to the Minolta HiMatic 7s which got me first into photography, the Nikon F80 is the one that brought me back into the wonderful world of film and introduced me to the magic of Nikon AF lenses and Nikkor glass in general. I received this camera as a gift and immediately found myself very much attached to the system. You might say that the F80 is the camera that caused me to invest in the Nikon SLR system and switch from Minolta. From the F80 I got the D70s, D300 and my current main SLR the Nikon F5. And while many of the lensesRead More →

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The first SLR camera I owned, a Minolta SR-T 102, came with the non-X version of this lens. Aside from a Kiron zoom lens, the Rokkor PF 50/1.7, was the lens that lived on that camera. And when I got the newer version, I made sure that even though I gave up my Minolta bodies, I kept a lot of my good Rokkor glass. And I’m glad I did, while these days I use the 45/2 pancake more, I make sure never to let this general-purpose, everyday use, fast prime that will never let you down. Lens Specifications Make: Minolta Model: MC Rokkor-X PF 1:1.7Read More →