Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
3D printed cameras are a lot of fun, and something I was planning to make a bunch of this year before we were told we weren’t allowed to go out and play. But despite most of us not being able to get out to shoot our cameras right now, it hasn’t stopped people developing new ones.
You might remember Dora Goodman, creator of the Goodman One 3D printed medium format camera. Well, now she’s back with the Scura, a new open-source 3D printed curved panoramic pinhole camera.
I’ve always loved the concept of instant film like Polaroids or Fuji Instax, but never it’s really interested me enough to buy into it. But then I discovered the NONS SL42, which might finally win me over. It’s an M42 mount SLR that uses Fuji Instax Mini instant film to let you create instant prints with real lenses. It’s currently funding through Kickstarter, and it’s an intriguing looking bit of kit.
Understandably, I was very excited to hear the news of Fujifilm bringing back NEOPAN 100 ACROS in the form of ACROS II earlier this year. So, when a second announcement came with details of a November 22nd Japanese release date, I started making calls to see if I could buy some. I got lucky and $190 dollars and a week later, I received my shipment; a brick each of 35mm and 120 ACROS II.
Meike has announced a new 35mm T2.2 cinema lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. As a cine lens, it’s full manual focus and aperture control, with a wide aperture of T2.2 (stopping down to T22) and a fairly short minimum focus distance of only 42cm. The lens is constructed of 10 elements in 8 groups and offers a field of view equivalent of a 70mm lens on a full-frame camera.
Fujifilm’s recently released Acros II starts shipping in Japan this month, but it looks like it’s possibly being manufactured by Ilford, and not Fujifilm themselves. The big clue comes via the Twitter feed of eto_silversalt who posted photos of Fuji’s new Acros II box in 120 format roll film, which clearly bears the mark “Made in UK”.
Well, the only commercial film manufacturer in the UK is Ilford. We’re not suggesting it’s any kind of rebranded Ilford film, something which Ilford categorically denies they do, but it is certainly possible that they might be manufacturing Acros II for Fuji. And it’s not like the two companies haven’t worked together before.
Fujifilm Acros 100 was pronounced pretty much dead in March of last year, during what appears to have been a mass cull of their film over the last few years. But then, just a few short months after its demise, the announcement came that Fujifilm was going to reintroduce some of their black and white films, due to an overwhelming demand from film photographers.
In June of this year, Fujifilm announced that the first black and white film to come back was going to be Fujifilm Across 100II. Technically, it’s not a rerelease, but a new version, to get around the availability (or a lack thereof) of raw materials in the original. Now, it’s set for release later this month.
Sony has launched the newest addition to its line of prime lenses: the Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. This fast lens is lightweight and compact, which makes it a nice addition to your travel kit. Also, compared to some other 35mm lenses from Sony, it’s pretty affordable. So let’s dive in and learn more about Sony’s newest lens.
The focal length of your lens affects your portraits, both in terms of subject distortion and the subject-background relationship. In this video, Julia Trotti demonstrates how this looks. She uses five prime lenses from 24mm to 135mm, so you can see just how much the change in focal length can change the final look of your image.
Well, this is kinda cool. It appears that Fujifilm isn’t doing everything they can to forget film exists, after all. It was mentioned last July that Fuji might be planning to bring back some black & white film, and now they’ve just gone and made it official.
They’re starting with Neopan ACROS 100II. Technically, this isn’t a reintroduction. It’s a new formula, which Fuji says gets around the issue of raw material availability in the old ACROS 100 formula.
When you’re taking travel photos, you might want to carry as little gear as possible. It’s great to grab just your camera and one lens so you can walk around the destination without too much baggage. But when limiting yourself to a single lens, which lens should it be? For Julia Trotti, it’s a 35mm f/1.4. In this video, she gives you five reasons why this can be the only travel lens you’ll need.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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