Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Sometimes, you come across a DIY film camera that’s just beautiful in its simplicity. The LIMES 120 is one such camera. Made from an old Hasselblad medium format film back, it shoots 120 roll film and sports either an Industar 110mm f/4.5 lens and a tea can, or a pinhole.
Created by photographer Daniele Sandri, a comparison of the camera was recently posted to the Branco Ottico website to show off each of the two lenses.
There hasn’t been a lot of information about the Fujifilm GFX 100S yet, but some photos have been discovered on Instagram. They were actually posted to Instagram back in October 2018 by gao3366, but nobody seems to have noticed them until they were sent to Fuji Rumors.
The four images were posted as a single Instagram post, so you’ll have to flick through them in the embed, but they show the GFX 100S from the front, top, rear and side views, being held in a hand to give you a sense of overall scale.
Hasselblad has expanded their XCD lens system for three new lenses and a teleconverter ahead of Photokina 2018. The latest additions to the X-system are the XCD 2,8/135, the XCD 4/21 and the XCD 1,9/80 – the latter being Hasselblad’s fastest lens ever with the aperture of f/1.9.
After plenty of rumors about the affordable and compact Fujifilm GFX 50R and the 100MP GFX 100S, now it’s official: Fujifilm has launched the GFX 50R for preorders and announced the development of the GFX 100S. The GFX 50R retails for $4,500, which isn’t exactly a pocket change, but it’s still $1,350 cheaper than the Fujifilm GFX 50S.
Dora Goodman is a creator of beautiful handcrafted and customised analogue film cameras. She’s always had an obsession with handmade objects, and cameras afford her many options to pursue that. She loves to design and build her own cameras from scratch. And for the last two years, Dora’s been working on an Open Source modular camera design that others can build for themselves.
Sometimes, we see something that we want to make a photograph of. But we don’t just want to grab a quick snap and go on our merry way. We instantly have a vision in our heads. We know how we want that final image to look. But we can’t. We don’t have our gear with us, or it’s the wrong type of weather or time of year. Whatever.
That’s how photographer Nick Carver felt when he stumbled across this liquor store while visiting his future in-laws in Santa Barbara. Instantly he fell in love with it and knew he had to photograph it. He’s been waiting a long time to do it, but he finally has, and he documented his process of shooting it on super wide 6×17 medium format film.
Everybody seems to be getting into film photography these days. New photographers are discovering it for the first time, and many who made the switch from film to digital are now adding it back into the mix. But the film choices today aren’t quite the same as they were in film’s heyday. In this video, Jay P Morgan compares a whole bunch of 120 medium format colour and black & white films from Ilford, Kodak, Fujifilm and CineStill.
Building your own camera can be a whole lot of fun. Lucus Landers has been building them for a little while now. His latest creation is the Landers AL6, a 6×6 medium format camera. People have made 6×6 medium format cameras before, but this one’s not your typical DIY project that anybody can do at home. It was made using a mix of techniques including 3D printing, sand casting, welding and milling.
While many of us may not have the resources to craft something like this ourselves, it’s still interesting to see how it’s done. Fortunately for us, Lucus recorded videos showing the entire construction of the camera from start to finish. It’s a 9 part playlist, and it really is fascinating to watch.
It’s Fujifilm’s turn to make their new announcements this week, and they’ve got some that GFX medium format shooters are going to enjoy. First up, there’s the new Fujifilm GF 250mm F4 R LM OIS WR lens. It has a field of view equivalent to just under a 200mm lens on a 35mm body. So suitable for both longer distance outdoor portraits, as well as shooting closer wildlife.
But to help with the wildlife side of things, there’s also the new GF 1.4X TC WR teleconverter. Priced at an eye watering $849, it’s not exactly cheap, but if you shoot medium format digital, the word “cheap” probably isn’t in your vocabulary. Fuji haven’t forgotten macro shooters in the new announcement, though, offering both new 18mm and 45mm extension tubes.
Regular DIYP readers will know that I’ve been researching 3D printing recently. My goal is to see how one might be able to help me with my photography and video tasks. Primarily to keep things organised. There’s SD card cases, battery covers, lens cap clips, charging station doohickies and all kinds of goodies on sites like Thingiverse. But I also want to have some fun, too.
One photographic collection over on Thingiverse that’s particularly cool belongs to user Schlem. He’s created a whole bunch 3D printed pinhole cameras. Most of them are medium format but there are one or two large format ones, too. One of them is even stereoscopic. He’s put all the models up so you can download and print your own, and the results coming from some of these cameras are just amazing.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page
