By:
On:
In: Optical Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

If you know me and my photography, you know that I’m a sucker for a good ultra-wide angle lens. The problem is that these lenses can often cost a fair amount of money and often have several issues that go along with that wide focal length. Probably the best lens of this class (ultra-wide zoom) is the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G which I reviewed last month. Sadly no other company has a similar lens to that beautiful Nikkor glass. However, while I was building up my Maxxum kit, I happened across this lens. While it is the odd duck in my Maxxum kit, all my lensesRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

You’re probably wondering why I’m reviewing a Nikkormat EL when I’ve reviewed a Nikon FE. The reason is simple; the Nikkormat EL is the FE’s foundation, the original Nikon electronic semi-automatic camera. This means that to understand where the FE comes from, I needed to try out an EL. That was my first mistake; the second mistake was shooting a second roll through the Nikkormat EL. I don’t think this mistake is a bad thing. The camera worked perfectly in both rolls; the mistake was that now I want a Nikkormat EL. It’s an easy-to-use camera, especially if you’ve used an FE or FE2, andRead More →

By:
On:
In: Optical Review Blogs
With: 3 Comments

If there is one lens that completely changed my outlook on photography, this is that lens. I know I usually don’t say that gear can make you a better photographer, and I’m not saying that this lens made me a better photographer. But it did help me realise and execute my vision. I use these two photos as an example of that, in the first photo, shot in 2005 on a K-M Z2 digital camera at the widest angle I knew exactly what I wanted to capture. That grand scale of the Hearn generating station, but I couldn’t with the gear I had. So whenRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

Am I crazy for reviewing a camera that you can have for a song? Maybe? But I’m out here to talk about a camera that many will pass over due to age and the slow autofocus speeds. But when it comes to cameras in the history of photography, the F-401 fits in a strange little niche often forgotten next to the more advanced cameras of the day and, of course, the almighty F90/N90(x/s). And while I have given away the F90, and it gets far more use with its new owner, when I saw the F-401 offered up for free, I jumped on the camera.Read More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

Much of my early years of photography were taken up with the Minolta system. From my initial gateway camera, the Hi-Matic 7s to my first SLR the SR-T 102. The next step in my journey would be some level of automation, and for that, in stepped the X-7a. A gift from a church member who was no longer using the camera gifted me the camera and a single lens. But having a set of Minolta SR lenses already, I had an excellent selection of optics. And the camera would be my first experience with a motor drive, go through some of my earliest explorations andRead More →

By:
On:
In: Optical Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

If you’re deep into the Minolta/Sony A-Mount system, you probably know this lens better as the Secret Handshake; in fact, that’s how my friend (fellow photographer and brother-in-arms) James introduced the lens to me. The nickname, given erroneously, is one of the first instances I’ve heard of an Internet rumour going ‘viral’ when it was shared that Minolta sold these lenses at cost when it was initially introduced with the first Maxxum cameras in the mid-1980s. This rumour is not true; at an initial price of 350$ USD (that’s 1,073.55$ CAD in 2021), honestly, that doesn’t sound like at cost to me. But ultimately, itRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

Suppose a singular camera relaunched the love of film photography and sparked the inspiration of hundreds if not thousands of photographers. That camera is the LOMO LC-A. While this particular camera is not an LC-A, it is, in the proper fashion of the original LC-A, a direct successor and continuation on the inspiration given by that fateful day in 1991, but more on that later. The LC-A+ is Lomography’s answer to providing the classic look that gave the latter days of the Soviet Bloc rich saturated colours and heavy contrast. First released in 2006 after the closure of the original LOMO production lines for theRead More →

By:
On:
In: Optical Review Blogs
With: 2 Comments

I’ve quickly learned over the three previous reviews of Olympus lenses that there is a certain polarization when it comes to Zuiko glass. In most cases, Zuiko glass is well received by those who use the OM system. But only some lenses and those are usually the ones that fetch the highest price on the used market. And then there’s this lens. Now I’m only recently starting to make more use of zoom lenses, and I have the Minolta Maxxum system to thank for it, so if this review seems clunky, it’s because this is the first zoom lens I’ve reviewed in this series. TheRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 3 Comments

Oddly enough this is not the first Praktica SLR that I’ve had in my collection, one of my earliest SLRs that I never actually got around to using was a Praktica Super TL that ended up going into one of the early giveaways for the Film Photography Podcast in their first season along with a LOMO Lubitel 2. So when the LTL showed up at my doorstep, I decided to give the cameras another go. The LTL is, given its age, a bit of an anachronism. By the 1970s, most camera makers west of the iron curtain and Japan used open aperture TTL metering. Yet,Read More →

By:
On:
In: Optical Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

When it comes to 50mm lenses I’m a sucker for a fast fifty, and while I initially got the 50/1.8 (don’t worry, I will get that lens on the review table but not until next year). I couldn’t turn down the excellent price tag on the chrome nosed 50/1.4 when I was at Burlington Camera one day. While in some circles the early version (which I’m reviewing today) gets a bit of a bad rap due to the coating on the lens. But honestly, the coating just looks cool when hit with light and viewed at the right angle. Most will go for the newerRead More →