It would be interesting to see this one get picked. Lego already has licensing with Kodak, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to see sample rolls of film included. But any set selected to become a product gets tweaked by Lego designers. So I’d love to see an updated shutter mechanism that operates with a simple button press at a fixed speed. Or even some clever way to fine adjust the focus (worm gears?). But this would definitely be a day-one buy for me.
Analog Sparks has announced the winners of their 2024 International Film Photography Awards 🎉!
In its second running year, the competition received over a thousand submissions in eight categories: Architecture, Fine Art, Human, Lifestyle, Nature, Photojournalism, Technique, Zines, and Photobooks. Each submission was judged based on originality, creativity, excellence of execution, and overall impact.
This year’s awards winners will be featured at the Analog Sparks Best of Show Exhibitions in the House of Lucie Galleries in Ostuni, Athens, and Budapest. Cash prizes, up to $2000, were also awarded.
I’m attaching a few more winner photos to this thread below.
The next competition round will open this October, so you have a few days to prepare your work! I’ll post it here once I know the exact date, rules, and entry fees.
As someone who’s recently resigned from a well-paid gig to pursue a creative career, I can feel the sentiment clearly. It’s difficult to do hard things, like being an independent artist.
But,
Bruce will be broke in a year; I’ve got about six months. A person next to me on a train doing something they do not love is already broke. So what?
There are plenty of stats available online showing growth in photographic markets. Of course, this doesn’t make the pursuit any easier, but neither do sentimental writeups that rely on the words of a single person who lives a life different from most of us.
My point is that it’s always been difficult. The greats can and do fail, and the odds have not changed for anyone.
Whether it’s a hobby or a career ambition, photography is still worth a try. It’s in demand. People still want to see photographs, in fact, more than ever.
I love Alan’s openness and positive attitude towards cheap new cameras, which often undeservingly get flack just because they’re made of plastic. Diana Mini (analog.cafe/r/diana-mini-7…) was an excellent example of such a camera, and Super Sampler was another one that was my entry into the film photography world (analog.cafe/r/lomography-s…). There are others like the Ektar H35N (analog.cafe/r/kodak-ektar-…), which feature a glass and an aspherical element.
FND aimed to make a premium version of a cheap new camera with a metal casing and a quirky autofocus mechanism. Unfortunately, the focusing system did not work out, and the quality of the Nana lens does not appear any more impressive than of the cheap plastic “toy” cameras mentioned above. Worse yet, according to Alan and FND’s blogs, there seems to have been an attempt to circumvent Kickstarter’s TOS with a significant (allegedly ~AU$20,000) “self-pledge” to force the project into fruition. This is a big no-no.
FND is offering refunds to anyone who wishes to withdraw from the project. I’m curious to hear user feedback once Nana, which is admittedly a pretty camera, is in the hands of its backers.
I’ve dedicated a large portion of this article to explaining why sending a camera to the shop isn’t always feasible. I’ve also cautioned the reader against forcing any components into movement. I’ve since added edits to clarify those points.
That said, slow shutter speeds can have various causes, including oil vapour on the blades (which is addressed in another portion of the article, analog.cafe/r/home-film-ca…) and various kinds of oil contamination. Proper re-lubrication may solve these problems, but this procedure is costly, and it comes with additional risks of wear and, as you said, improper lubrication.
I reached the above conclusions based on my experience and extensive research. Following your concerns, I’ve asked around and received similar responses (like this mas.to/@sandehalynch@masto… and this bsky.app/profile/an.empty.…) from people who repaired numerous shutters, including the brands you mentioned.
I repair cameras professionally and I think you should consult with a repair shop for their advice on this article. I do not have time to review it all myself, but there is obviously bad advice in it, for example the advice to use cameras with slow shutters or simply try tripping the shutter many times; if the shutter is slow, there is additional friction somewhere, and if that’s the case, then you’re wearing the parts out much faster than you think. You’re grinding bits of metal off with every cock and release. How do I know? Because I’ve seen enough shutters (and other mechanisms) full of metal dust, and grease loaded full of grit, carving grooves into parts. The service manuals for the great shutters e.g. Compur, Prontor, Copal, all emphasize that the life of an improperly lubricated shutter is expected to be 10x less cycles. The best advice for any old machine is to have a qualified expert examine and service it as needed. Most people wouldn’t even treat a lawn mower the way you’re suggesting to treat a camera!
Jonathan Paragas, or @KingJvpes, recently published a video about his incredible experience finding a Leica M3 at a thrift store for $30.
Jonathan is a San Francisco/Bay Area photographer who’s got over 175K subscribers on YouTube thanks to his popular film camera thrifting videos and content about analogue photography. Of course, there’s more to his fame than just the subjects he picks.
In his recent video, @KingJvpes is seen shaking with excitement after finding a Leica M3 at a thrift store for $30 — a camera that sells for over a thousand dollars on eBay. Though the video had a lot of extra content, I was most impressed with Jonathan’s honesty (he didn’t try to make himself look cool or cut his emotional reaction to such a find from the reel) and his commitment to do the right thing.
Gear theft is a big issue, particularly in the Bay Area (from what I gather online). Which is why Jonathan spent considerable effort to see if his Leica find was lost or stolen before adding it to his collection permanently. But after months of scouring the internet, he determined that it isn’t (besides, why sell it at a thrift store if it could fetch a lot more on eBay?)
A new hand-held large format camera is “coming soon.”
I saw a video this week on YouTube about a 4x5 film camera explicitly designed to be carried and used without a tripod. It uses a mirror and a ground glass for top-down focusing and weighs “just over 2kg.”
This 3D-printed camera also comes with a unique focusing screen mask designed to host a mobile phone for immediately capturing the ground glass output on your digital device. While that may seem unusual and unnecessary at first, from what I understand, it’s a genuinely novel feature that lets you capture the world (inc. video) through the 178mm (50mm eqiv.) large format lens — which gives you an advantage of the incredible depth of field in a wide-angle. If you’ve ever tried to capture the view through a viewfinder of a regular film camera, you’ll know it’s nearly impossible to do it well. But a large ground-glass plane can make it happen.
Truly an incredible camera. But in retrospect, I think I’d be OK with just the T5 — it’s so much lighter! And the weight really adds up with every mile. 😅
Chemvert is a new stand-alone, subscription-free scanning software for macOS, compatible with all major scanners and digital camera RAW formats.
This weekend, I got to try Chemlooks’ 163MB software demo with my Nikon Coolscan TIFF scans.
The most impressive part of this app is that, unlike NLP, it doesn’t need any Adobe product to work. It is entirely stand-alone, and it’s possible to complete the inversion and do the most necessary adjustments right there.
Chemvert costs $89.99 as a one-time payment and “includes all minor updates and at least two major updates,” as specified by Tim, one of the app creators in our email exchange. This is an excellent alternative for those wishing to ditch Adobe and the monthly payments that come with it.
The software is new and built by a small team in Australia. I enjoyed its ability to complete most tasks I needed, various inversion engines, and the ability to analyze the entire roll. However, I hope that future updates will address the slight delay before each adjustment is previewed or applied. From what I can tell, Tim and Brent are hard at work on it; the Windows version is promised to be launched soon after.
You can try Chemvert to see if it’s right for you or purchase a full copy here: chemlooks.com/chemvert/
The demo version leaves a watermark and has a limited trial period (30 days). Plenty of time to evaluate the software and perhaps send feedback to its creators to help improve it.
True. It’s tough to beat vintage prices, especially if the cameras are built exceptionally well and aren’t likely to break.
Premium point-and-shoots are tricky. They can be more expensive than the 35AF and may break suddenly without a warranty. But these cameras are exquisite tools with features and build quality we may never reach again.
But there’s a segment somewhere in the middle of folks excited enough about this camera and able to afford it. I also hope it’s large enough to fund further research and development for cameras like the 35AF.
“Homemade CineStill,” I like the sound of that! I’m considering trying something similar at home by pre-stripping the remjet as an experiment. I’ll post about it if I end up doing it. Cheers,
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