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Kodak is releasing a ’70s-inspired metal film case in six colours

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Well, if you’re gonna go retro with some old film cameras, might as well have matching cases for your rolls of film, too, right? That’s what the folks at RETO Production Ltd (RetoPro) thought. RetoPro is also the company that brought us the RETO3D triple-lens point & shoot film camera last year.

Now they’ve reinvented an old classic, the Kodak metal film canisters. And they’ve managed to license it under the Kodak brand, too. There’s not much to them – just a metal tin with a plastic insert to keep your rolls from falling over – and they’re more of a fashion statement than anything else, but they’re one that’s quite useful if you shoot film.

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Why I used one camera, one lens, one film for five months

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Photography is close to impossible to do without a camera, so why do so many of us both love and hate the equipment side of things? For me the hate comes down to distraction – and a little bit of the love as well.

I currently have a paired back collection of cameras and lenses – but anytime I dual-wield, or really carry anything other than one camera with one lens, distraction creeps in.

I start to question what I am going to use for the shot, rather than adapting to the situation. I’ll frame with a 50mm, then maybe try a 35mm, maybe even regret not having a 90mm – by the time I have done that, I’ve missed the shot. 

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Make your own automatic 35mm film scanner using an Arduino Nano and Python

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Getting started with Arduino Nano and Python is easy thanks to extensive online documentation and an increasing DIY culture. 

Waiting whilst flatbed scanners scan a colour negative film is nothing to be excited about. This process and the subsequent colour precorrection can take anywhere from an hour to two. Tools available today, such as Negative Lab Pro, make it easy to achieve great colour negative conversions. So fastening the scanning process using a camera makes more sense than ever before. However, the software to automate this process so far did not exist. Until today!

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The Cameradactyl Mongoose lets you scan a 36 shot roll of film in less than a minute

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Ethan Moses over at Cameradactyl has created a new cool toy. It’s called the Mongoose and it’s a 35mm film digitiser that utilises your DSLR and some kind of backlight. And it does it really quickly. How quickly? Well, around 40 seconds is the claim – which seems backed up by the demonstrations shown in the videos. It’s currently running on Kickstarter, where it’s already ploughed through its $30,000 goal and there are still 26 days to go.

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This Milky Way timelapse was shot entirely on 35mm film over two and a half hours

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Shooting timelapse, even timelapse of the Milky Way has become pretty common these days. With the high ISO performance that most cameras have now and the number of fast f/1.4 wide-angle primes available, it’s a lot easier than it used to be (if you can find a dark sky). But what if you want to really challenge yourself to make something that’s… a little different?

That’s what Australian photographer Jason De Freitas did recently when he not only photographed the Milky Way with a 35mm film camera, but photographed it repeatedly, every minute for two and a half hours to produce this pretty amazing timelapse.

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Ilford stays operational during coronavirus pandemic and encourages you to “stockpile rolls”

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While many companies have closed their doors during the coronavirus pandemic, Ilford has decided to keep providing you with film. In a recent statement, the company has announced that its factory is staying operational. But there’s more: it seems that they couldn’t resist mocking panic-buyers of toilet paper. Among other things, the statement encourages you to stockpile rolls, but “those that go into a camera.”

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How to “scan” your film shots with the Nikon ES-2 digitizer and your camera

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The Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter was announced way back in August 2017, along with the Nikon D850. It looks like somebody finally bought the $140 plastic tube, though, because a sort-of review and how-to has been posted to DPReview.

The D850 came with a feature specifically designed for use with the ES-2, and so does the new Nikon D780, which is what’s used in the video. Although you don’t have to use one of these two cameras. You can use it with any camera, as long as you have a macro lens.

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Here are some gift ideas to make film photographers happy for holidays

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Christmas is coming, and so is buying gifts for your loved ones. In case you have film photographers among your friends and family, Noah of Analog Resurgence has some great gift ideas. In this video, he doesn’t only give you ideas about what to buy. He also offers lots of useful advice on how and where to find these gifts and make a film photographer in your life happy this Christmas.

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