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

Nikon is known for many things; among them is its insane level of detail regarding its macro lenses, or micro lenses in Nikon parlance. For those who aren’t in the know, macro photography is photographing small objects and reproducing them at life-size. Nikon produced its first macro lens in 1956 for the rangefinder or S-Series of cameras, a 55mm f/3.5; this got carried into the F-Mount in 1961, the Micro-Nikkor 1:3.5 f=5.5cm. This lens was improved through its lifetime, eventually becoming the legendary AI-S Micro-Nikkor 55mm 1:2.8, then got an AF make-over and eventually was superseded by this lens, the Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8. First introducedRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 7 Comments

You don’t often hear professional system camera in the same sentence as Pentax. But Pentax cameras have had their place in professional photography since the ESII, it is only that Pentax hasn’t always marketed cameras towards the professional market demographic. The Pentax MZ-S would be the last 35mm SLR to fit into that marketing segment and be the last camera to be developed under the original Asahi Optical Co. name (it was officially changed to Pentax in 2002). My review of the Pentax MZ-S is a long time coming, it was first promised in 2022 but the timely CCR 10th Anniversary and the visit ofRead More →

By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 0 Comments

I guess you could say that this post comes out from a short I released on YouTube last month about why photo walks are important and that you should go on photo walks. When the average person hears the term ‘photo walk’ they tend to think of a group usually medium or large. And I’ll admit, large groups of strangers can be a bit iffy. But a photo walk doesn’t have to be in a group, you don’t even have to have another person with you. My good friend and fellow photographer, Michael Hurley, goes on solo photo walks all the time. In fact, he’sRead More →

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

There’s no denying it; this lens is a monster. I have some big and heavy lenses in my tool kit, and while this one is undoubtedly smaller than my 70-200/2.8G, it is the largest and heaviest of my manual focus kit. It is also often overlooked compared to later versions of the lens, which means that it’s an excellent, affordable lens, no matter what other people say about the number of aperture blades. The lens itself comes from a long lineage, released in 1977. Designed initially by Saburo Murakami and released in 1964, the Auto Nikkor-P 300mm 1:4.5 used a five-element design but struggled withRead More →

By:
On:
In: Photography
With: 0 Comments

Back in May the fine folks at Harman Technologies, the parent company of Ilford Photo and Harman Photo announced their newest film stock, Kentmere 200. The Kentmere line of film is designed to be a more budget friendly film stock, lower silver content than the main line of film stocks. Now I did not like this film when I first ran them through reviews, I did like Kentmere 100 more than Kentmere 400. But now I like both, so I was notably excited when Kentmere 200 was released. This puts the Kentmere line in the same range of the other budget friendly films, Fomapan. NowRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1812:Revisited
With: 0 Comments

Lieutenant-General George Prevost, Governor-General of British North America, was displeased with his subordinate, Major-General Sir Isaac Brock. General Brock had disobeyed his orders, and instead of sticking to defence, he had gone on an offence and captured both Mackinac Island and Detroit from the Americans. President James Madison was unhappy with the results of the first months of the war, especially the surrender with little to no fight by the defenders. But what got Prevost was that Brock had received high praise for his actions and a knighthood. And with news that the Orders-In-Council were being repealed and the main complaint and the source ofRead More →

By:
On:
In: Frugal Film Project
With: 1 Comment

Well it’s the end of the old year and the start of a new one. Which means it’s time to look back at last year’s favourite shots from the Frugal Film Project and look ahead at what I’m doing this year for the project. It’s hard to believe that I’m going into my third year of the project, but I feel I’m hitting the groove and not feeling that I need to do more each month. I’m also glad that I can still continue to run the project and I have some interesting ideas for this year and a camera that breaks the theme fromRead More →

By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 4 Comments

Developing your film at home is both rewarding and frustrating at the same time and to add on an extra layer of complexity there is a lot of developers out there that you can use, especially in the black & white field. While certainly not as much as there used to be, there is still an excellent selection of developers to suit almost every person’s need, without having to dive deep into building your developers from base chemicals. Ultimately every photographer has a different taste but if you’re starting out with home development the choices may seem a little overwhelming so I’ll be breaking downRead More →

By:
On:
In: Between Darkness & Light
With: 1 Comment

The local explorer scene called it George’s Funhouse; I’m not sure why or who George is or was, but one thing is for sure, the American Enka company in Lowland, TN, was a lot of fun. While INAAP was a much larger space to explore, it had nothing on the Lowland plant in terms of the amount left and the variety of items left. Lowland offered up everything in a smaller but much more densely packed location, as someone who loved the ample empty space, along with some exciting things to see and read. The American Enka Company traces itself back to the Netherlands andRead More →

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

Last year, when Foma announced the release of a new film, I’ll admit, I was immediately interested. What drew me into the film is that it was an orthochromatic film and not sensitive to the red end of the visual spectrum. I’ve worked with these films, notably Ilford Ortho+ and Rollei Ortho 25 plus. The trouble with these is that they are slower films, rated at ASA-80 (or ASA-40) and ASA-25, respectively. I’m not one to shy away from slower films, but it can get rather dull and grey here in Ontario during specific points in the year. So, having an Ortho option rated atRead More →