Tag Archives: camera

Lancaster Instantograph

For Christmas, my father-in-law-to-be gave me a Victorian mahogany and brass view camera. It’s an Instantograph, manufactured by J Lancaster & Son of Birmingham. Despite its name, there’s nothing instant about this camera! The Instantograph was first introduced in 1882 and evolved through various design iterations until the last ones were made some time in the earlyContinue reading “Lancaster Instantograph”

Angle of view on various formats

I’ve probably discussed before the way that different size “sensors” (or pieces of film) need different focal length lenses to achieve the same angle of view. For instance, it is well known that a 50mm lens on an APS-C crop-sensor DSLR behaves a bit like a 75mm lens on a 35mm full-frame camera. I’ve extendedContinue reading “Angle of view on various formats”

Canon T90

Released 1986 My Canon FD-mount cameras are probably my most-used film cameras. Quite often on outings I’ll take the AE-1 Program and the FTb and load each with a different type of film. Sometimes, the FTb’s crude metering isn’t quite up to the job in challenging situations so I wanted an FD body with slightlyContinue reading “Canon T90”

Canon EOS 600D

Released 2011 I bought the 600D to replace the 450D. There was nothing wrong with the 450D but Canon sensors of that age are not great for astrophotography. The 600D offers photography at up to ISO 12800. The noise doesn’t matter since the images will be stacked later on. I own two 600D bodies, the other of whichContinue reading “Canon EOS 600D”

Mamiya C220

Released 1968 I bought this TLR for the purpose of shooting infrared. Sure, I’ve got lots of other cameras that can do that, but with an infrared filter over the lens you can’t see anything in the viewfinder. With a TLR, the viewfinder uses a separate lens and you can still see what you’re doing without havingContinue reading “Mamiya C220”

Using a microphone to test your shutter speed

I shoot a lot with my vintage cameras. Many date from the 1950s and have probably never been serviced. I’ve no idea how accurate the shutter speeds on them are. For the mostpart, they are probably acceptably accurate, since they seem to produce reasonably well-exposed negatives. Except for my newest lens, a Horseman 65mm f/5.6Continue reading “Using a microphone to test your shutter speed”

Horseman 6×9 lenses

In theory, the Horseman 6×9 cameras such as the 970, 980, 985, VH and VH-R can take normal large format lenses – obviously with the caveat that the smaller film format means the angle of view is narrower for a given focal length. However, these Horseman 6×9 cameras have small lens boards and can’t accommodateContinue reading “Horseman 6×9 lenses”

Pictures of cameras

This week, the Photo Challenge was a surprise to me, because Paul set it. It’s a nice feeling, because I get to participate like everyone else. The Challenge was called the 5 Minute Photoshoot: What I want you to do, is find a location (any location, it doesn’t matter. It could be your front room,Continue reading “Pictures of cameras”