Scanner crisis

Scanner crisis

I always knew that my Canoscan 9900F scanner is not the best on the market and being a flat-bedded scanner it is not able to compete with professional solution. Still, I thought it is decent enough and I can reach satisfactory results with a tiny bit of creativity in the scanning methods and post-processing. I was wrong!

Fed 5 the Ultimate Post-apocalyptic Camera

Fed 5

The Fed 5 is one of the most feature packed Soviet rangefinder which does not require a battery. It is virtually undestroyable, I bet it is going to stay operational way after man kind extinct and the cockroaches rule the world. Since it has no battery an EMP blast cannot ruin it. A nuclear winter could not make any difference neither as the kit lens (Industar-61L/D) is already rumored to be slightly radioactive.

The fact is that the lens is actually is not more radioactive than a potato (not from Chernobyl). It contains a rare-earth element called Lanthanum  which  indeed has a radioactive isotope but that is very rare and not used for the glass in this lens. Do these properties make the Fed the Ultimate Post-apocalyptic Camera (UPAC)? Who knows, but I hope nobody will need to prove that I was wrong or right about this.

Anyway, I hope I have managed to catch your attention with this little intro, if you want to read my personal experience with the Fed and/or want to be a bit entertained, click more!

Exakta to EOS adapter

Exakta to EOS adapter with Canon lens cap on the back

This post is a response to a comment asking me about my Exakta to Canon EOS adapter which I am using for my Trioplan 100mm lens.

Graffiti Girona

City attack (Girona, Catalonia) 2008, Ricoh Gr Digital

A nice graffiti collection of a city could serve as a basis of various sociological studies. A big enough collection of such paintings could reflect the mental state of the city (or even a bigger region) dealing with actual problems such as political or cultural issues.  At the same time graffiti could be inspired by pop culture and used  solely for decorative purposes which also can hold significant value.

Pajtás

Gamma Pajtás Hungarian Box Camera

Pajtás is a simple box camera made in Hungary in the 50′s/60′s and as you would suggest this was not a high-end piece of technology even at those times.

Normally I seek for perfection in photography and related equipment and I try to write about cameras here which are capable to produce respectable results or at least represent fine craftsmanship. The Pajtás is far from prefect in any of the aspects of build and image quality, therefore it was not particularly exciting for me until now.  So why do I yet write about this camera and most importantly why should you read this review, knowing that I will probably conclude that this camera is crappy but lovely at the same time?