Unfortunately, FilmBase (a five-star-rated Etsy shop that sells much of the gear tested on Analog.Cafe) will no longer offer shipping outside the US and Canada.
Here’s why:
Sometime last year, I noticed that Canada Post began to blanket-reject all shipments to the EU that included film cameras. Their reason had always been the same: “There’s a battery in a package.”
I’m well aware of the postal service’s rules. It’s not difficult for me to comply: nearly half of the cameras I use don’t need a battery, and the remainder use consumer cells that I always ask the buyer to get on their own. None of the packages I’ve sent ever had a battery.
However, Canada Post’s “system” consistently and incorrectly assumes that there’s a battery. Marking that there isn’t one does nothing to dissuade their machines.
What ended up happening is that I receive a returned package at my home a week later and am forced to explain to the customer why the delay. Then, I have to use a significantly more expensive shipping provider (UPS or DHL) which charges at least $150 per package — unacceptable for my and the customers’ wallets.
This makes me sad.
But the good news is that shipping is still fast and free to all US states and anywhere in Canada (at least in the southern provinces).
Thank you, everybody, for your support and understanding.
Flash photography can be indispensable and has a variety of creative applications. I took the time to learn how to use it with all my cameras and wrote a well-received guide on it here: analog.cafe/r/a-simple-gui….
I typically avoid it (flash) because it introduces more gear, a look that isn’t always personally desirable, and a bright burst of light that can be startling/distracting.
Do I detect a certain snobishness about your comments about flash photography? The MG-1, like a lot of budget rangefinders, has leaf shutter in the lens so you have flash sync at all speeds. You can find the manual for this camera, here:- butkus.org/chinon/yashica/…
It appears that Lomography has discontinued their Diana Mini camera. Their Monday morning (PST) email says there’s still some stock left, but they won’t be making it again (as I understood the message; I’ve contacted Lomography for clarification and will update this comment once I hear back).
Diana Mini is a plastic toy camera that can switch between a square and half-frame aspect ratios on 35mm film. It uses a 24mm lens with two apertures (f/8 and f/11) with a single shutter speed of 1/60s. It uses zone focusing with the closest distance of two feet/60cm.
I understand. Could you tell me what may’ve gone wrong and have you developed this exact film using the recipe? The results were confirmed for P3200 specifically, I’ve certainly seen better results with slower emulsions.
I have been meaning to respond to your original post. I was saddened to see how badly your negatives came out, and even more sad to see that you believed and others “confirmed” that this is normal! It is not! Proper Caffenol recipes produce negatives of the HIGHEST quality, indistinguishable from negatives developed in Kodak D76 or similar. Not grainy, not dark and murky. Clear, fine grain, great tonality and contrast. It makes me cringe to see all the people online saying you get poor quality negatives from Caffenol. I have been shooting since the 1990s on dozens of film stocks and with dozens of developers. I have been using nothing but Caffenol for the last few years since I realized its advantages. The only drawback is development time is a bit longer than commercial developers.
FYI: This month’s Community Letter will be published on Thursday instead of the usual Tuesday. I’m off to the islands for a mini vacation where I’ll be testing some cameras and not thinking about work.
Community Letters are the monthly overviews of the latest news, events, and stories from the film photography internet. They are emailed and published on the blog every last Tuesday.
My response to “photography isn’t real”¹ takes² in the context of generative AI:
I am not convinced.
A photograph is a direct effect of photons hitting film and altering its physics. A photograph is a photograph even if it’s never been seen or even developed. It exists on the surface of film as a latent image, and only after some processing can it become an image. We may choose to alter it in various ways, but the material we work with exists because of the photons that landed on film.
An “AI-generated” image (ex., something made with DALL·E) is a direct effect of millions of images/creative works/photographs which were copied without consent to train machine learning models. It exists on servers in large warehouses somewhere, and only after a short *prompt* can it become an image. We may choose to alter it in various ways, but the material we work with exists because of the images copied without consent to train machine learning models.
This is very helpful and well written, Thank you! I recently got a hand me down camera bag with 6 rolls of Ektachrome 200 in one of the pockets, did you stop up your ISO at all when shooting or stay at 200? Thanks again!
Wonderful review! The Ricoh Caddy is becoming one of my more sought-after half frame cameras. Wide-angle half frames are a bit more rare, but this one also has a selenium cell and manual controls. Sounds like a hidden gem! (a bit hard to find on ebay though)
I review lots of lovely gear on the blog, but unfortunately, I can not keep it all.
Today, I’ve updated FilmBase (my Etsy shop) with some of the nicest gear that came across my desk:
The most prized camera in this lot is the only Mamiya U with a fully intact shutter button. Though you may find this strangely designed ‘80s chic camera elsewhere, it never comes with its beautiful yet brittle yellow button. This is the rarest camera I’ve ever owned.
A pancake lens for Olympus PEN film cameras is very convenient. It turns an already small half-frame SLR into a pocketable one. It comes with genuine lens caps that are difficult and often expensive to find.
In case Bob won’t have a chance to answer this, I’ve had pretty decent results with Tiffen Yellow (analog.cafe/r/developing-c…) — which appears slightly redder than the images here. However, that may be due to the exposure differences.
In general, denser yellow filters should give you more “pink” tones, whereas thin filters (like 85C) will give you a more deep, “meaty” reds.
How many photos can you get out of your 35mm film?
Typically, you’d expect 36 frames. But that’s just an estimate: depending on how you load your camera and its width, you may get anywhere between 34 and 42 frames out of a 36exp. roll.
Cameras with motorized film transport usually wind/“burn” a few frames to ensure it’s loaded securely. Wide cameras will require you to stretch a long leader out of the canister, which will cost you more frames than shorter, manually loaded cameras like the Rollei 35S (analog.cafe/r/rollei-35s-c…).
Manufacturers don’t want complaints about missing frames, thus 36exp. is a safe estimate on their side.
But then there’s the 27exp., which you may see on new films like Amber T800 (analog.cafe/r/amber-t800-f…). Though it sounds almost as long as 36exp., it’s virtually the same length as 24exp. film with (maybe) a little extra, or about 33% less film than 36exp.
12exp. films may also be sold at a store near you. There’s a lot less film here but it can be useful to test lenses and cameras on film. This makes sense if you develop your own film at home.
Chad had recently posted on Mastodon (mastodon.art/@ChadHillPhot…) about rolls of 8exp., which sold for as much as a typical 36exp. film — now that’s a bad deal!
One more thing to watch out for: the labs will typically charge you same price, regardless of how many frames your roll of film has.
I’ve added new spaces on Analog.Cafe, where I’ll be organizing some of my thoughts on film photography.
You’ll probably notice #editorial🔥 the most since it’s where I write about product launches and share announcements like this. Comments under this tag may end up in your RSS feed, Community Letters¹, or you may hear about them from me on Mastodon and Bluesky.
A #video🍿 tag lists all the comments with a YouTube link. I’ve added a whole bunch of these, including this epic trilogy of Kodak factory tours: analog.cafe/comments/tnq0.
This week, Polaroid updated their “world’s smallest instant camera.”
Polaroid Go Gen 2 focuses on improving the exposures with the aperture range of 𝒇9-42, up from the previous version’s 𝒇12-56 on its plastic lens. Its max shutter speed has also got faster: 1/300s.
Perhaps most importantly, Polaroid updated the autoexposure system on the Go:
“Our team redesigned the light sensor’s positioning and field-of-view, so whatever you’re pointing at is exactly what the camera is picking up. And if you’re pointing at a wider scene, your camera’s wider metering coverage will have it literally looking at the bigger picture.”
The cameras are made with 30% recycled materials.
You can pick one up via the affiliate link (where I may make a small commission at no cost to you) directly from Polaroid: polaroid.prf.hn/l/y8QGWpn
Fujifilm’s new Instax Mini 99 is a fully analogue instant film camera that uses LEDs for in-camera special effects.
We’ve seen instant film printers with tiny digital sensors before from Fujifilm, Leica (analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…) and others. Though these cameras have their advantages like special in-camera effects, many film photographers just want a camera that shoots film.
Well, it appears that Fujifilm has just delivered the analogue process we crave *with* special in-camera effects. All that at an affordable price point ($200) in a package that looks nice.
The new Instax Mini 99 is an updated version of the Instax Mini 90 (analog.cafe/r/instax-mini-…) with novel exposure and focus controls.
The camera also features physical vignetting control (a mask in front of the lens). But the most interesting in-camera effect is the in-house LEDs that project colours onto film to simulate warm/cool tones, light leaks, and various colour casts.
There’s no digital processing of any kind in this camera!
Instax Mini 99 is expected to arrive in stores in mid-April.
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