Camera History Archives

22 April, 2022

Kodak Retina 118 – More Than a Camera – By Lisa Murphy

By Lisa Murphy

As a professional archivist, understanding the context and provenance of archival material is hugely important. When I look at my camera collecting, I have applied a similar cri...

17 August, 2020

Always the Sun – In Admiration of the Selenium Cell Compact Camera – By Chris Pattison

By Chris Pattison

As I write this, a heavy shower has just passed and the sun is beaming down once again. Photons are showering the solar array on my roof and switching our power supply back to f...

29 April, 2020

Zeiss Jena 5cm Sonnars – The Magic of the Prewar Uncoated Sonnar – By Brian Sweeney

By Brian Sweeney

Interchangeable lens 35mm rangefinder cameras became popular almost 90 years ago when Leitz introduced the Leica II and Zeiss debuted the Contax I. Both companies brought out fu...

11 October, 2019

Cosina CT-1 and its Lengthy Legacy – By Ben O’Keeffe

By Ben O'Keeffe

On an undisclosed date in September, 1979, Cosina released the CT-1 to little fanfare. After all, it was hardly a game changer. The CT-1 is a 35mm SLR with a Copal Square shutte...

25 July, 2019

5 Frames with a No.2 Kodak Hawkeye Folding Camera Model C – By Jochen Utecht

By Jochen Utecht

Recently I stumbled across a very old brown leather bag on the flea market in the German School in Beijing. It turned out it housed an equally old camera. On the back of the cam...

5 April, 2019

Voigtländer Vito BL Review – Compact Excellence – by Andrew Morang

By Kodachromeguy

Reading 35mmc can be dangerous to the pocketbook and can lead to GAS (no, not flatulence, but gear acquisition syndrome). I read several glowing articles here about Voigtländer ...

1 April, 2018

Functionalist camera design, the Agfa 1035 and the Plaubel Makina 67

By Hamish Gill

The Agfa xx35 series of cameras (in this case the 1035) and the Plaubel Makina 67 are both wonderful examples of what what appears to be German functionalist industrial design. ...

26 February, 2018

A National Geographic Find – by Chris Page

By pagespics

Holidays often provide the opportunity to explore new areas for Street Photography. However, for this break, I traveled to the far reaches of Pelorus Sounds in New Zealand. Beau...

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