The Yashica Mat 124G, an embodiment of mid-20th-century camera engineering, greeted me with its robust, yet elegant, presence. The utilitarian design, devoid of modern frills, conveyed a sense of purpose. This camera deserves to be out there, not on the shelf for some decorative purpose. Yashica Mat 124G A few months ago I won this […]
Category: Film camera reviews
Read EMULSIVE film camera reviews right here. You’ll find film cameras that use all formats of photographic film from, 110 to 35mm, medium and large format. Reviews include the Hasselblad 500CM, Pentax 67, Mamiya Press, Ricoh GR1s, Leica M cameras and Olympus MJU.
“Faux” Panoramic Camera Mods with the Ansco Pix Panorama
Panoramas: a great format for (in my opinion) most photography. Dramatic landscape? Make it panoramic. Artsy architectural photo? Panoramic. Wanna make that softball game look a little more like Ben-Hur? Panoramic of course. Weddings? Well… never mind. So as a panoramic enthusiast, and someone who enjoys shooting film, I’ve had my eye on several panoramic […]
Review: Kodak Pocket Instamatic 10 + Lomography Tiger CN200 film
I recently picked up a Kodak Pocket Instamatic 10, it’s a 110-format film camera that produces tiny negatives. Since then, I’ve been obsessed with it. What made me fall in love with this pocket 110 camera was its uncommon visual appearance of it — it immediately attracted me. The second thing was the simplicity of […]
Camera review: Loving Lomography’s New LomoApparat 21mm wide-angle camera
I want to start off by thanking Lomography Philippines for lending me the LomoApparat after some dramatic pleading. I don’t know about you, but it’s always exciting when Lomography announces a new product. Even with avid, long time film shooters like us who have been exposed to a wide variety of tools – dirt cheap to […]
Camera review: The Exakta TL 1000
I have a number of Exakta RTL 1000 cameras, having something of a “thing” for the underdog. Coming across a reference to an Exakta TL 1000 (no “R”), I initially assumed it was a typo, but further investigation showed that indeed there was an Exakta TL 1000 and its sibling the TL 500. Let’s get […]
Opinion: Why did Zeiss stop making cameras?
There are far too many cameras made by Zeiss from the last century, which is to be expected with a history that goes back over 110 years. While they have recently released their first digital camera, the ZX1, this a little story about why Zeiss stopped producing film cameras. First off, I myself, am not […]
Mini-review: The Canon A-1 in Thailand
It used to be that one of the delights of visiting the UK occasionally was to fetch the things that one could not get abroad. Yet for the last decade, this notion has become outdated. Consumer technology, new motorcycle designs, fashionable recipes, and other trends often originate in South-East Asia, and in Thailand in particular. […]
Rheinmetall Weltax + Meyer-Optik Trioplan f/3.5 75mm + Lomography Redscale and Kodak Portra 160… A review (kind of)
The Weltax is a nice little 6×6 folding camera, introduced in 1938 by Welta Kamerawerke, which became VEB Welta after WWII and later still…
Enter the Leica M4: Upgrading my Barnack Leica
I had been planning to upgrade from my Leica IIIf for a while; it’s a great camera but it makes taking photos a complicated process. First, cut the film so that it fits the camera, place it on the spool, insert it, wind it, only then select the shutter speed and realise a few shots […]
A creative machine: The Konica C35 EFP
I was 22 and we were eating at my grandfather’s. I knew he had a camera when he was younger, so I asked him “Do you still have it?” After his “Do not break it” speech he told me where to find it. I ran immediately upstairs to what used to be my father’s room, […]
Crash! Bang! Rollop! What a Picture! A review and test of the Lipca Rollop II TLR
A year or two back I was given a box of old cameras, four in total. These included a Voigtlander Vito B. a couple of Soviet-era rangefinders, and a Lipca Rollop TLR. I tested the Vito B with a roll of film not long after receiving it, but not a single shot was even close […]
The Canon AL-1: Do opposites attract?
Everybody knows the AE-1 and AE-1 Program. Maybe that’s because Canon produced so many of them. In reviews of this camera, they mention it was one of the products that opened the world of SLR to an average consumer. Nowadays young photographers may keep warm memories of their parents’ (or grandparents’) cameras when they are […]
Camera review: The LEGO VIP Rewards Vintage Camera + build video
It’s not a Leica, but if you’re a film photographer, you’re probably going to Like-uh-it a lot. If you like LEGO, you’ll likely be quite partial to it, too. Yes, it’s the (limited edition?) LEGO VIP Rewards Vintage Camera. This article reviews the camera in full with a start-to-finish video of the build (condensed to […]
Mini-review: The RETO Ultra Wide & Slim – Experiences and a change in attitude to P&S cameras
Traditionally I have avoided the point and shoot class of camera because I wanted to be able to make my own exposure decisions. I either shoot Manual, or in Aperture Priority modes with one finger on the exposure compensation button. Most of my cameras date from the 20th century and most of those are entirely manual. In […]
The Contax RX: My search for the perfect camera
I started out writing a 5 Frames article for this excellent website but my typing ran away a little and I ended up realising it had turned into a mini-review of my latest 35mm acquisition, the Contax RX. I thought that rather than crop the article down, I would publish the long version in its […]
Camera Review: Pentax ME Super (featuring Portra 400 and the SMC-M series lenses) – By Trevor Hong
I used to hate electronic cameras because people keep saying “they might break”. That was until I stumbled across the Pentax ME Super. Actually, I had the chance to use the original ME version that my boss handed down to me and I absolutely fell in love with Pentax 35mm — the ME Super is […]
EMULSIVE’S most popular film stock reviews of 2021
With just 2 days left until the end of 2021, here’s a quick look back at the most popular film stock reviews on EMULSIVE this year as decided by you! ~ EM
Semflex Studio: the tele-TLR with a French accent
The world of Twin-Lens Reflex cameras seems to be endless and has plenty of surprises, but few manufacturers have offered TLRs with long focal length lenses permanently attached to the camera. Interestingly, the Tele-Rolleiflex was not the first to be released, as a rather unusual French camera predated it on the market by a few […]
Caveat emptor, buyer beware: Restoring a Flexaret IV
If you have had a look at my article on the Goldilocks of camera designs you will have realised that I am a bit of a fan of the Twin Lens Reflex (TLR), a type I have used for around half of my 60 or so years in photography. Unfortunately, in my declining years I […]
Shooting 4×5 in 2021: Affordable Czechnology with Fomapan 200 Creative
Like many commodities affected by the COVID pandemic, photographic film prices have soared to unprecedented heights. I acutely remember 25 sheet boxes of ILFORD Delta 100 Professional 4×5 film selling for $45 at my local camera store in 2019, only to see that price rise almost 70% to $65 in September 2021 — before tax. […]