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They say you should not mix business with pleasure, but this is precisely what our plan is all about.  Recently we fell in love with the magical world of mechanical cameras, the small spark of passion quickly turned into wildfire - and before we knew it, we were surrounded by cameras, lenses, photo magazines, bags, and rolls of film. Quickly we figured out not only that film is still alive, but that it never died, and passion for film is greater than ever. Like in any religion, and film is certainly a religion in itself, there is a promise to every follower - when you capture those very special moments in time and record it on film, you have earned the right to call yourself a ‘moment collector’. That moment captured on film, becomes immortal - what more can a mortal ask for.  The convenience of taking photos with a smartphone, the speed of the process and the quality of the result is something that film pioneers could have only dreamed about, but old fashioned mechanical cameras, and old fashion celluloid film help us to capture the moments in unmistakable ways. Unfortunately iconic mechanical cameras are disappearing fast - the only way to make them available for the next generation of artists is to preserve them, restore them, collect them and catalog them. Creating a Vintage camera boutique in the heart of Sydney is going to be a long term project, but today we are inviting you to visit us and check out our humble offering. If you see a camera that you like, we would be happy to help you; but what we really want is for you to go into your cupboard, dust off that vintage camera you already have, buy a few rolls of film and rejoin the movement.  Check out our website here: www.vintagecamera.com.au

If you haven't shot with film in a while then you'll be surprised and possibly overwhelmed with todays offerings - not sure which film is right for you? Send us an email and we will be happy to assist. Our ultimate goal is to offer you the best deal possible deal on film - not only will we match any Australian retailers price advertised, but this month we will ship film free of charge. Go to: https://www.vintagecamera.com.au/film/

Why has this ‘Girls camera’ from the 90’s come back into trend?

During the 80’s and 90’s, the camera market was flooded with cheap, plastic compact cameras. While these compact cameras proved to be extremely convenient, they were never treated as serious cameras; Contax wanted to do something different. Using the combination of both European-influenced styling and design, as well as Japanese technological ingenuity, Contax wanted to create a luxury compact camera to rule them all.  The outline for this camera was simple: to be able to fit into a purse or jacket pocket, but be built like a tank, be a no-nonsense automatic camera, and take photos that would rival even the most professional camera set ups. The camera would be known as the Contax T2. >From a distance, like any other compact camera - it is unassuming; but as soon as you get up close and personal you realise how fantastic this little camera is. For starters, Contax didn’t muck around when it came to its lens. Nestled inside the camera body until you need it is a Zeiss Sonnar 38mm f2.8, and as we know, Zeiss are some of the best lens makers around.

The layout of the camera is super simple: Exposure compensation, Shutter count, Self timer, Focus wheel, Aperture adjustment and Shutter button - but 99% of the time the only thing that you need to touch is the shutter button, being an automatic camera. The design of the camera, unlike many compact cameras from the era, is surprisingly not outdated, and wouldn’t feel out of place amongst your modern tech. In fact, the matte titanium finish of the camera reminds me of the current line up of apple products - maybe they took some styling queues from Contax?  Even though this camera was released over 30 years ago, over the past few years it has come back into the limelight and is at the centre stage of compact film cameras. With film shooting coming back into fashion, many celebrities have also hopped onto the bandwagon; with two in particular being extremely vocal about their Contax T2’s: Chris Hemsworth and Kendall Jenner - two names I’m sure would be very difficult not to know.  Chris Hemsworth is seen here posting this artsy shot of him and his brother on his instagram, with a classic tongue-in-cheek aussie caption about shooting on film - the photo taken with his Contax T2.  image: https://www.instagram.com/p/BkeuVAPlEPM/?hl=en Check out this video of Kendall Jenner on The Tonight Show which has 6.8 million views where she talks about shooting on film, and shows Fallon her Contax T2. image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PRFAh602kU With celebrity and influencer backing, an almost ageless European design style, and a Japanese build - it is easy to see why the Contax T2 is back in trend, and a perfect addition to a photographer that loves shooting on film anywhere they go.  On offer today is a Contax T2 set in fantastic condition - unlike all the other beaten up, heavily used T2's you see on the market, this set would be perfect to give as a gift to a film shooter in your life (if you don't keep it for yourself that is). K7732 - Contax T2 w/ Zeiss lens   Contax T2 - Titanium  35mm compact film camera Autofocus  Zeiss Sonnar 38mm f2.8 lens Original case and straps Original presentation box and manual Overall condition: 9.8/10

Panorama shots with a 1970s Widelux

I am not a photographer. Not even a hobbyist. The last time I played with film was forty years ago. My gear consisted of one Zenith TTL camera, a bunch of plastic containers, some chemicals, and a makeshift dark room. When I was a teenager, photography was a real profession. Mum and dad would dress up nicely and take us kids to the 'studio' of the best (and only!) photographer in town. A serious family affair. And every Slavic village had its own gospodin Kern, Schmidt or Laszlo; a non-Slavic master photographer from pre-socialist Austro-Hungarian era. In the 50s and 60s you wouldn't see a hobbyist walking around town with a camera around their neck; that was not just too bourgeois, but plainly too dangerous - one could be easily perceived as either a spy or pervert - or both. Luckily for photography and photographers, the 70s brought the long awaited change. Socialism went out of fashion, replaced by Levi's, trips to Italy and glossy Nikon magazines. Cool kids played basketball and nerds joined photo and radio clubs.  There are number of reasons why vintage cameras are back in fashion: attraction to fine mechanical engineering, the coolness of capturing photons in a unique, magic way; the artistry of creative expression and investment potential of a historical artefact no longer in production, disappearing fast. To a sophisticated photographer - all of the above and much more. I got drawn into film thanks to Bobby’s enthusiasm. The idea of creating a 'special place' in our office devoted to fine vintage cameras sounded like an interesting project. After all, the similarities between vintage watches and vintage cameras are too obvious. Making those fine cameras available for sale as well as preserving them for Bobby’s' generation and beyond sounds simply irresistible.  Taking the Widelux for a stroll to Dee Why beach was my first film camera 'event' in forty years. Widelux is panorama camera - it captures the scene in wide angle. Manufactured in the 1970s, it is a heavy and gutsy camera. A kind of conversation starter that will make strangers walk to you wanting to find out 'what the hell this that?'. The trick with Widelux is to take it easy. Composition is everything. Zero randomness. A standard film roll would allow you 21 shots, but taking more than 1 photo per hour means that you are rushing. There are a couple of technical 'must get it right' points: keeping the camera absolutely horizontal so watching the spirit levelling 'bubble' is essential. Not easy! Paying attention to light requires some basic understanding of shutter speed and aperture and will make the difference between properly exposed and overexposed shots. And the third thing is to keep your fingers out of the frame - which means holding the camera body literally as far from swinging lens as possible.  Here are two bad shots: the first one ‘capturing’ the finger and second showing good horizontal alignment, but with undesirable vertical tilt.

Yet once you take your first shots, Widelux slowly becomes a friendly machine.  Setting expectations means being prepared that the first role will go to waste. A professional photographer told me once that one printable shot in one hundred is a good result; so this is really what one should aim for. Like with any panorama camera: be prepared for long beach walks and hill climbs. My first experience with Widelux was definitely 'different than anticipated' in a hard to explain way, but I simply can't wait to take it for another beach trip, hopefully this weekend. Taking a shot or two, then waiting for a few days to see the end result is relaxingly stoic. Film photography is not a cheap hobby. With a ratio of one in one hundred for a single printable photo, it could end up costing anywhere between $30-$100. However, that does not mean that you should print every single shot taken; and sharing every photo is simply senseless. Time is precious!  I'll be brave enough to share two 'good' photos from the single Widelux roll of film. Shoot away!

For a Widelux tutorial check YouTube videos. A final word of warning: inserting the film is not very intuitive, and rewinding it back is really hard work. Have fun.

1976 selfie.

A super rare lens just sold at auction for $340,000

https://www.leitz-auction.com/auction/de/onlinekatalog

When you think iconic and famous camera lenses ones that might come to mind would be the Nikon 50mm f1.4 or the Leica 35mm f2 Summicron - each respected and loved by many, granted none of these lenses break the $5,000 dollar mark let alone over $340,000, but one Zeiss lens just did that at the 38th Leitz Photographic auction, whilst still remaining relatively unknown.

image: www.leitz-auction.com

In the mid 60’s, NASA commissioned Carl Zeiss’s optical facility to develop a ‘super fast’ lens to use on the Apollo missions. For those of you unfamiliar with this terminology, a ‘fast’ lens is one that lets in the most light possible with a wide open aperture.  The lens would solve a very specific problem for NASA;  its intended purpose was to counteract the issue of having to take photos of the incredibly dark shadow areas of the moon. It wasn’t as easy as just putting a super high ASA/ISO (light sensitivity) film into the camera, because without enough light passing through to the film, it would just be super grainy blackness even with high sensitivity.   Zeiss went to extreme lengths to produce the specialised lens for NASA. Zeiss were not unfamiliar with the idea of a lens like this, since 1874 the basic design of the lens (a double-gauss lens) existed. Zeiss themselves began research and development on this type of lens long before WWII but during, they created a lens similar to the one which would be used by NASA for night time weapons guidance.  But they pulled all the stops for NASA (pardon the pun) and they created a lens which would become one of the fastest lenses ever made - the Planar 50mm f0.7. While just looking at the number f0.7 (a measurement of the amount of light passing through the lens) might seem insignificant, to put it in perspective; an f1.4 lens is considered to be a very ‘fast’ lens for night time shooting, the Zeiss 50mm f0.7 lets in an incredible four times the amount of light. Zeiss made 6 lenses for NASA for their Apollo missions, they then made 4 more lenses, one for themself (which can be seen in their museum) and 3 for one of the most prolific filmmakers of the time - Stanley Kubrick.

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdchffDosvY&ab

In 1974 Stanley Kubrick was facing the same problem that NASA was: he needed more light for the candlelit scenes in ‘Barry Lyndon’, and standard lenses wouldn’t cut it. He researched high and low for the perfect lens; when he discovered that Zeiss had made super fast lenses for NASA, he begged both NASA and Zeiss to let him use the lenses, eventually they budged and sold him three. His problems wouldn’t stop there. Because of the super specialised design of the lens, it needed to be a tiny 4mm away from the film when it was being exposed, which wouldn’t allow any room for the standard rotating shutter mechanism inside the cinema camera. So Kubrick contacted a camera and lens technician to modify the camera to be able to take the lens. They ripped out and redesigned the whole internal shutter mechanism just to fit this specific lens. Without the standard mirror-reflecting shutter for the viewfinder it meant they couldn’t monitor the frame when shooting, so they strapped on a closed circuit tv camera to the cinema camera which would emulate the frame and provide distance measurement for the operators.

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8_VLXmrgss

Because of how wide the aperture was at f0.7 the depth of field for the image was razor thin and the actors had to deliver all of their scenes moving perfectly parallel to the camera or they wouldn’t be in focus, which was a very daunting task. Even then, after all that, it still wasn’t bright enough. They brought in three wick candles that burnt much brighter than regular ones and then over-developed the film to brighten the image. The end result is one of the most iconic pieces of cinematography not only for its visuals but technical achievement. Barry Lydon won the Academy Award and the BAFTA for cinematography in 1976 and ever since, the Zeiss Planar 50mm f0.7 has become a thing of legend amongst camera enthusiasts and cinema fans. It's no wonder when one of the ‘holy grails’ of fast lenses was auctioned off on Saturday it stirred up a lot of interest, selling for an astonishing $340,000 AUD. It might seem like a lot, but even newly manufactured ‘fast’ lenses are some of the most expensive lenses on the market for new cameras, with Leica’s Noctilux f0.95 selling for an eye watering $18,300 at their Sydney boutique.

image: https://leica-store.com.au/products/11602

It's obvious Zeiss make fantastic lenses and are regarded highly, far and wide because of that. *** On today's offer A 20th anniversary Contax G1 kit which comes with three Zeiss lenses - a 28mm f2.8 Biogon, a 45mm f2 Planar and a 90mm f2.8 Sonnar, all very beautiful lenses. If you are on the fence whether film photography is for you, this set will make you fall in love with how easy and rewarding it can be. When it was originally released this camera earned its reputation as the 'distinguished man's' luxury travel camera, and it's easy to see why. The finish and build quality for such a compact camera will take you back.

K7649 - Contax G1 20th Anniversary Special Edition  Contax G series - the only Autofocus rangefinder ever made  Titanium cladded Contax G1 body 35 mm rangefinder camera Contax G Mount  Mechanical shutter - up to 1/2000  Auto exposure assistance Automatic winding up to 2fps Zeiss Biogon 28mm F2.8, Zeiss Sonnar 90mm F2.8, Zeiss Planar 45mm F2 with lens hoods and lens caps Contax TLA140 Flash Wooden anniversary presentation box Comes as a set with original wooden 20th anniversary presentation box and instruction manuals. Overall condition: 9.8/10

Widelux: A Space Odyssey

The 60’s was the golden age of space. As man crept closer to venturing out into the unknown, people began to contemplate our place among the stars and what the future of space travel would look like; it was a question that many people, far and wide pondered. Probably one of the most influential pieces of media from the time (apart from the moon landing itself) was a film which has now been cherished and loved by many for over 50 years; not only for its visual spectacle, but its technical achievements too. Of course this movie is none other than 2001: A Space Odyssey. While being one of the most influential film directors of all time, Stanley Kubrick was also a prolific photographer whose images spanned almost his entire life. He also prided himself on his knowledge of cameras, so it was an obvious choice when shooting with super wide angle lenses on Super Panavision 70mm film cameras for production the of 2001, to take set photos on the Panon Widelux.

A Widelux pictured next to a photo taken by Kubrick (featured in the book - 'Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures') of the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Why the Widelux?  Because of the Widelux’s swivelling lens design moving across the film to capture a large field of view, instead of creating a normal ‘flat’ perspective, it creates a unique ‘bowing’ effect on the vertical lines in the image - without heavy distortion. The result: it gives the same look and feel as the wide angle shots from the cinema lenses being used on the film, but in a ‘compact’ format. To do this on a regular 35mm format camera you would need an enormous fish eye lens or super expensive and impractical anamorphic lenses and even then, the image quality wouldn’t be the same. But with the Widelux, Kubrick could take photos on the same colour negative film as the Panavision cinema cameras, with almost the same frame sizing and resolution he would get from the 65mm motion picture film, and then develop and inspect the image much quicker than developing motion picture film reels - and if you know anything about filmmaking, time is the most valuable currency.

I consider myself somewhat a movie buff and will take any opportunity I can to watch a film in the cinema rather than at home, even going to the lengths of waiting years for a cinematic release of an old film. Possibly one of my most anticipated was Kubrick’s 2001, regarded as a ‘masterpiece’ by many. So when Hayden Orpheum theatre announced they were doing a 70mm film screening of the film last Saturday, I jumped at the chance.  In anticipation I had spent the day shooting on the Panon Widelux F6B, because what better camera to use before seeing 2001 than the same one Kubrick used while directing the movie - here are some of the images that came out of the camera.

-a shot of Sydney's two greatest monuments usually extremely difficult to get, made easy with the Widelux F6B listed below.

By the time I had wrapped up for the day, nearing the start of the screening of 2001; I decided to go, camera in hand.  While sitting in the theatre waiting for the film to start, one moviegoer had curiosity get the better of him and asked me about the Widelux - still perched around my neck. “I collect vintage cameras but I’ve never seen anything like that, what is that?”. I told him the brief history about NASA modifying one for the Gemini missions, Kubrick using it to shoot set photos on 2001, how the PANON factory burnt down which led to their demise and that it shoots in a wide angle ‘scope’ similar to that shown in 2001. I could see the excitement in his eyes as he was processing all of this, the same excitement I felt when learning about the rich history of this camera. “Wow, I think you’ve just started my new obsession”. He chuckled.  And I think that perfectly sums up a camera like this; not only is it eye-catching, an absolute joy to shoot on and a unique and rare camera (with an awesome story); but you won’t know you need one until you learn its story and pick one up for the first time. After that - there’s not turning back.  - Michael On todays offer:

K7735 - Widelux F6B  Widelux F6B - Manufactured circa 1970 35 mm - wide format Fixed 26mm Lux Lens f2.8 - f11 Mechanical shutter - up to 1/250 1 of 2000 made Comes with original box, papers and leather case.  Overall condition: 9.5/10