Pete's Photographic Blog

Soviet look-a-leica I was born in 1961 and therefore grew up through the period of the space race and the cold war.  Admittedly the cold war wasn't of great interest to a nine year old but the race to the moon was fascinating.  I still have the newspaper cuttings from Apollo 8 and 11.  Obviously it was easier to discover facts about the US projects than it was to get information about what the USSR were doing but that made the USSR just that bit more interesting and mysterious,  Since then I've always had a bit of a fascination about items made in the USSR.  Indeed my first SLR was a Zenith B back in the mid seventies.  Therefore fuelled by good reviews on the internet I was determined to get a Zorki 4K.  I got my example on Ebay for just over £30.  Let's see what it can do. The Zorki 4K is a Soviet made fully manual 35mm camera.  Its production run was between 1972 and 1978 with around half a million made by the KMZ factory at Krasn...

I had read a lot about the Olympus 35 SP rangefinder camera and almost all of it was extremely positive.  So when the chance to get one arose I didn't hesitate.  Some users say that it is as good as a Leica.  I've never had the chance to use a Leica so I won't be able to compare but let's see what this camera has got going for it. The Olympus 35 SP was produced between 1969 and 1972 with probably around a quarter of a million produced.  The camera itself uses 35mm film.  It has a Zuiko 42mm f1.7 7 element lens which has a reputation of being extremely sharp.  It has fully automatic or metered manual exposure modes.  And it is the only rangefinder camera with centre weighted and spot metering.  It does use a battery for the meter but all the photo taking operations are mechanical so it can be used without a battery. My favourite digital camera is my Fuji X100S.  So purely on appearance the Olympus is off to a good start.  Surely ...

I have a confession to make.  I have worked for Kodak Ltd in the UK since 1979.  Therefore I need to declare my interest when I review any Kodak products.  The purchase of this camera was driven by my interest in Kodak's history.  The camera was manufactured in Stuttgart, Germany at about the same time that I was born.  Therefore double interest.  I picked this fully working example up on Ebay for £25. The Kodak Retina range of 35mm cameras are well known in photography.  They were produced between the mid-thirties right up until the end of the sixties.  There is plenty of information on the whole series on the internet and they are relatively easy to pick up at a reasonable price.  The model that I am looking at here is a Kodak Retina Automatic III. The camera comes in a good looking hard leather case with silver chrome trim and red velvet and plastic lining.  The top of the case cannot be separated from base but the whole c...

"David Bailey.  Who's he?"  Anyone over a 'certain' age from the UK will remember that television advert.  The Olympus Trip 35 was a small, cheapish camera that could be used by professionals because it had a Zuiko lens, "as used on the Olympus OM-1, one of the best cameras in the world".  When I was shooting film in the eighties the Trip never appealed to me.  I bought a Canon Sureshot instead.  However while trawling through the local charity shops I came across an example for £10 and couldn't resist it. The camera was in fairly good shape but did have a dent in the base plate where it had probably been dropped.  A good test for the Trip is to cover the lens, therefore also covering the light meter, and depress the shutter button.  If there isn't enough light a red indicator magically rises in the viewfinder.  On my example this didn't happen immediately.  After a few rapid depressions of the shutter release the red indicator ...