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It’s a rumble in the electric jungle! Last month I pitted Olympus and Nikon against each other with their small-format mechanical options, the Olympus OM-1n and the Nikon FM. This month I decided to test the automatic versions of these compact cameras, the Olympus OM-2n and Nikon FE. Like their mechanical cousins, both cameras were built during the rise in the use of electronics in cameras that came in the late 1970s. Now here we have a significant difference in metering as both use a different system, and in this case, both cameras have functioning meters. Again this isn’t to tell you which camera isRead More →

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These days you probably would walk past this building without a second glance, a little bit out of the way of the downtown and overlooked by many but this building once was the centre of the town of Milton. When Milton saw incorporation as a town in 1858, the need to construct a town hall began. As a building, it served many purposes once it saw completion in 1865 as a market hall and local police station. The land it sits on was donated by Joseph Martin (one of Jasper’s sons) and once had a beautiful bell and cupola, both of which have been removed.Read More →

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While Ortho 80 Plus might appear to be a new film, it isn’t a new film. I’m surprised I missed reviewing the film earlier in this series. I skipped over a film I had shot in the past for a good two years. And thinking back that doesn’t surprise me; the film never made much of an impact. But also the film was, until recently, only available in 4×5. But I also only shot a single box of the stuff back in 2014. The results were excellent, and it was the first time shooting an ultra-low ISO film and one that had no set filmRead More →

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From the big cities to the small towns across Canada there is always some form of war trophy usually near the town’s cenotaph. Some little, other’s big, not to mention various pieces of material donated or captured during one of the many significant conflicts that Canadain troops fought and gave their lives. Milton’s gun is one of three guns designated for the town and the only one that arrived in town; it’s unknown what happened to the pair of machine guns. This particular piece of artillery is an FK16, a 7.7cm field gun that came to Milton in surprisingly excellent condition. Captured by Canadian troopsRead More →

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Last year I joined a group of talented film photographer to produce a group project ‘zine organised by my good friend and fellow film photographer Dan Novak. The goal of the project was to shoot using a lens rated at 135mm on a 35mm camera. I ended up working with my Nikkor 135/2.8 (the review of that lens comes out in a few weeks). And while 2020 has been a bit of a gong show, Dan decided to launch a follow-up project this time using Twin Lens Reflex cameras. After the success of the first project, a tonne of people jumped on board, myself included.Read More →

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One thing that I like about Milton is the fact we have a downtown, not just a city centre but a downtown, that historic core when the town sprung up from. Today there are a couple of pubs, restaurants, shops, and churches. But it wasn’t always so, the downtown of Milton used to have plenty of industry. From the original mills built by the Martin family, the PL Robertson factory. And take, for example, this building here, if you travelled back to 1892 Milton you may not recognize the place. It was built as the Winn Shoe Company, it also served as the Model KnittingRead More →

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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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Some of my earliest adventures exploring abandoned buildings were taken here in Milton, small farmhouses mostly. But what would have been amazing to check out was the Milton Pressed Brick Company. Formed in 1877 as one of the early large scale industrial setups in Milton. Milton Pressed Brick by the name not only baked their bricks, but they also pressed them. Which in the world of brick production produced a higher-quality product. By 1901 it was said that the company was producing some of the best bricks. The plant continued operation until 1974 and at the peak employed some 200 people. Yet today there’s littleRead More →

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Okay, so things are weird right now, nothing seems right, days, time, rules all have no meaning anymore. But there is one thing that has kept me going, and that is my photography. When I learned that there would be an FP4Party is June, I felt pleased. Sadly the party never came into being, but that didn’t stop me from having a party for one. I had to come up with some sort of idea of what I would do for the party. Thankfully I had a couple of rolls of Ilford FP4+ in medium format hanging around from a project that never got offRead More →

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Like most history, there is always a bit of legend mixed in with fact and a fair amount of embellishment. That statement is even true when it comes to PL Robertson. If you live in Canada you know well the socket or square head screw, it’s standard across all provinces and all trades. Peter L. Robertson would often tell the story of how, as a screw salesman, a slotted screwdriver slipped during a demonstration and sliced his arm. Being both a salesman and an inventor, Robertson decided to invent a safer head for the standard screw. Although the more likely story is that Robertson sawRead More →