I started out Keppler’s Vault 54 of Modern’s Top 47 cameras of 1969 by saying photographers love lists, and boy, was I right! That summary of some of the best cameras of the year turned out to be one of my best performing posts of the year, and while I’m …
It’s no secret that in the early 20th century, Zeiss was a name associated with some of the world’s best lenses. With the work done by Paul Rudolph and many other opticians, lenses like the Planar and Tessar in 1896 and 1902 respectively, became two of the most successful and …
It doesn’t take long to be a camera collector to have come across one of those oval gold foil PASSED stickers on many Japanese optical products. While it was common practice by many original owners of Japanese camera or lens owners to remove this sticker, many still remain in various …
My current digital camera is a Fujifilm X-T20 and when I am out shooting, I can change the simulated ISO setting as high as 12,800 in standard mode and 51,200 in “extended” mode meaning that no matter how slow of a lens I mount to it, I can shoot the …
I love prototypes. Getting a chance to see concepts for the next great thing which for one reason or another never materialized is infinitely interesting to me. On this site, I showed you a prototype Kodak TLR that had one of the most ambitious feature sets I’ve ever seen and …
There was a time when LIFE Magazine was one of the most highly respected news publications in the world. Originally started as a humor magazine in 1883, the magazine published humorous articles until an ownership change in 1936. In that year, Henry Luce, owner of Time Magazine bought the publication …
One thing I’ve noticed that’s true about people who love old cameras, is that they also love lists. Specially lists of the “best” of stuff. Articles such as 8 Great Vintage Street Photography Cameras, Five Best Medium Format Cameras for Beginners, and 24 Great Vintage Cameras You Can Still Buy …
The first consumer camera made by Hasselblad was the 1600 F that first went on sale in 1948. Due to the high price and some significant growing pains of the design, especially in the shutter, not many were sold. It would not be until the release of the 1000 F …
Earlier this week, I posted my take on the Zeiss-Ikon Contarex “Bullseye”. Feedback to that article has been very good with most people who’ve handled it before, agreed with my assessment that while it was a pretty camera with an amazing Rube-Goldberg-like complexity, it wasn’t a very good user. Sometimes, …
For the first 50 editions of my Keppler’s Vault series, I’ve brought to you articles from the late 1940s through the late 1960s from a variety of publications on topics that I thought were interesting enough to share. So with this, the 51st edition of Keppler’s Vault, you might think …
Today marks the 65th Anniversary of the release of Kodak Tri-X black and white film, in 35mm, 120, and 620 roll film formats. Tri-X was a film that at the time of it’s release was one of the fastest black and white emulsions ever made, and allowed photographers to take …
In an age of never-ending comparisons, “which product is best for me”, “should I buy product A over product B”, and “top 10 products to buy for blah blah blah”, consumers are constantly in search for the best of everything. For photographers, gear is often the product to which we …
