Lens manufacturer Viltrox has added an autofocus 50mm f2 to its Air Series of optics, described by the manufacturer as ‘compact, lightweight and versatile.’ It cov...
Matthew Bigwood's Posts
28 March, 2025
AstrHori 28mm f/13 Macro 2:1 probe lens review
I should start by saying that this AstrHori 28mm f/13 Macro 2:1 probe lens is probably the most unusual and specialist lens I’ve used in my 40-year photography career. Th...
2 December, 2024
Polaroid Punk – a One Shot Story
This picture came about following my admiration of the renowned photojournalist David Burnett, whose career has covered seven decades and included coverage of the Vietnam War an...
Lister Petter, a manufacturer of diesel engines, was based in Dursley, Gloucestershire, on a site more than a mile in length and at its height employing thousands of people. The...
6 March, 2023
Sony DSC-R1 Review – A Surprisingly Usable Vintage Digital Camera – By Matthew Bigwood
The Sony DSC-R1 is one of many cameras on a list of ‘I would have liked this when it was new, but I couldn’t justify or afford it’, but I did manage to track down one on eBay la...
3 May, 2022
Olympus iS-300 Bridge Camera Mini Review – 7 frames with a 1990s ‘Grandpa Chic’ Camera – Matthew Bigwood
During one of my regular charity shop forays I spotted a boxed Olympus iS-300 bridge camera – a fixed-lens 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) dating from the late 1990s. It’s solidly...
Last autumn a friend sent me a message to say he was moving house and clearing out the final bits of his late father’s camera collection. He said he had a box full of ‘mostly ju...
On the eastern banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, north of Sharpness Dock, can be found the enigmatic Purton Ships Graveyard. From 1909 until the 1960s various ships,...