Every Article We’ve Ever Written – by Date

Tahbes Synchro and Synchrona – an In-Depth Look at the Machines of an Obscure Dutch Camera Company

 2200 1237 James Tocchio

Europe in 1945 was not a great place for manufacturing, yet it was there and in that moment in history during which a small, Dutch company…

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A Camera Like Clockwork – Zeiss Ikon Contina Ic Camera Review

 2200 1237 James Tocchio

Zeiss Ikon’s Contina Ic is everything I love about vintage cameras. Functionally elegant, mechanically sophisticated, simple; it’s the kind of camera that works, sounds, and feels…

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Five Favorite Photos – Gordon Parks

 1226 1600 Josh Solomon

To describe Gordon Parks as a great photographer is like calling a computer a good calculator. It simply isn’t enough. Many instead prefer to call Parks…

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Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 16mm F/1.4R WR is a Low Light Master with Just a Few Flaws – Lens Review

 2200 1238 Chris Cushing

Consumer bias is a tricky thing. Once you’ve bought something, you don’t want to admit you’ve made the wrong choice, and just as often you’d like…

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The Value of Self-Editing, and Picking Your One Favorite Photograph

 2200 1238 James Tocchio

Do you have any idea how many photos you’ve taken in your lifetime? For most of us, the answer is probably “I can’t count that high.”…

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This Technical Reference Manual on Film Cameras is Beautiful – CP Book Club

 2200 1237 James Tocchio

Vetro Editions specializes in what they call “paper-made-cultural-artefacts.” What this means is they make really pretty books. Their latest book is no exception, and it’s an…

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Five Amazing Film Cameras for Travel – Part 2

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

Got a trip coming up? That’s fantastic. And of course you’re bringing a film camera, right? If you’re undecided, check out this post from last year in which…

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The Underdog Nikkor-S 50mm F/1.4 F Mount Lens, and Why it’s My Favorite Lens

 2200 1238 Josh Solomon

I know what you’re thinking; “Do we really need another 50mm lens review?” I don’t blame you. A quick glance through our archive shows write-ups on…

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Featured Photophile No. 013 – Kristian Pankulych

 1545 1024 James Tocchio

Featured Photophile, our recurring series showcasing talented amateur photographers, is back with more photo inspiration for you. Today’s FP features a young photographer whose well-honed eye…

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The Minolta a7 is the Perfect Film SLR for Shooters Who Want it All

 2200 1238 James Tocchio

James reviews a Minolta AF SLR that’s so damn good it feels like launching into DOOM and instantly typing IDDQD.

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Five Favorite Photos – Josef Koudelka

 1200 800 Chris Cushing

Five Favorite Photos is a feature in which one of the writers here at CP picks a well-known photographer and takes on the near-impossible task of…

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We Shoot Polaroid Originals Duochrome Pink and Blue – Instant Film Profile

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

Polaroid Originals recently brought back two fan-favorite films from the days of Impossible Project; Duochrome Pink and Duochrome Blue. These instant films use the same chemistry…

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Leica’s Worst Summicron 50mm F/2 is one of the Best (and Priciest) Legacy Fifties Around – Summicron V3 Lens Review

 2000 1125 Josh Solomon

Longtime readers of the site will know that I’m far from a Leica fanboy. I generally prefer Japanese manufacturers and often champion their products’ value over…

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We Shoot the Kiev 60 TTL, a Medium Format Monster from the Soviet Union

 1970 1108 Jeb Inge

“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” How many times have we heard the tired cliché? Often it’s uttered in reaction to some unwanted change. And…

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Everything You Need to Know about Reflex, a Brand New 35mm Film Camera – Plus We Talk With its Founder Laurence Von Thomas

 1296 478 James Tocchio

Laurence Von Thomas smiles from a FaceTime window on my computer screen, his excitement masking the weariness he’s surely feeling just days before the launch of…

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3,000 Miles with the Vinta Co. S-Series Travel Bag

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

I’ve spent the past week in what could rightly be described as a forced march through the least forgiving terrain on the globe; a torturously hot…

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Five Favorite Photos – Garry Winogrand

 2000 1317 Jeb Inge

Five Favorite Photos is a new feature where one of the writers here at CP picks a well-known photographer and takes on the near-impossible task of…

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Five Photography Products We Want to See Rise From The Dead

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

It’s Halloween, All Hallows’ Eve, that ghoulish night of the year dedicated to remembering the dead. It’s also the night of the year in which the…

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A Week Away with the Contax T – a Perfect Travel and Street Rangefinder Camera

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

Three film cameras; ten rolls of film. That’s what I packed for a recent week away. Among these cameras was the Contax T, an unbelievably compact…

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We Review the Polaroid Originals OneStep 2 Instant Camera

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

The OneStep 2, the new instant camera from recently formed Polaroid Originals, has arrived. We wrote about the importance of this back when the big announcement…

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Pentax Spotmatic Camera Review – One of the Longest-Lived Mechanical Cameras Ever Made

 2000 1125 Chris Cushing

Volkswagen produced the Beetle in one form or another for more than six decades. Six decades of building one of the most simple, spartan family cars…

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Zeiss Ikon ZM 35mm Rangefinder Review – Everything a Rangefinder Should Be

 2000 1125 Dustin Vaughn-Luma

A few months ago, I sang the praises of the Zeiss C Biogon 35/2.8 M mount lens. In that earlier review, I spoke to my wife’s…

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Nikon Approaches its High Water Mark with the N90s – Camera Review

 2000 1125 Jeb Inge

There was a time when Nikon was the undisputed ruler of the camera kingdom. The length of that dominance spans decades during which the brand produced…

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Jupiter-12 35mm F/2.8 Lens Review – Playing Russian Roulette with a Zeiss Copy

 2000 1119 Josh Solomon

There is perhaps no more controversial, polarizing, and confusing subject in vintage photography than Russian lenses. For as many articles and forum threads that lionize the…

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Everything You Need to Know About the Yashica Y35 DigiFilm Camera Kickstarter and Why It’s Absolutely Terrible

 2228 769 James Tocchio

Opinion After months of teasing, the Yashica Kickstarter Campaign has finally landed. And what a massive (though not entirely unexpected) disappointment it is. The Hong Kong…

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How to Cheat at Film Photography – Simple Tips for Making Better Photos

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

Film photography can be hard. The learning curve is often steep, and blasting through twenty rolls of film as we learn the ropes can be a…

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Rollei 6008 Professional Medium Format SLR Camera Review

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

In 1976, Rollei released the SLX, a fully electronic medium format SLR to compete with Hasselblad’s famous machines. With a built-in light meter, automatic motor advance,…

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Kodachrome Retrospective – Kodak’s Most Famous Film

 1800 1012 James Tocchio

A retrospective look at Kodak’s most famous film. Paul Simon wrote a song about it, and movies have been made about it. What’s so special about Kodakchrome?

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Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 Lens Review – A Case for Legacy Telephoto Primes

 2000 1125 Chris Cushing

It’s no surprise that every world-class camera company has each produced at least a few brilliant prime lenses that legacy shooters claw over one another to…

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We Pick Our Desert Island Film with Special Guest Mike Padua of Shoot Film Co.

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

In our Desert Island Cameras series, the CP staff and some special guests each pick our single favorite camera from a given brand. Today we’re doing…

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Holga Medium Format Camera Review – Still Worth It, or Total Cliché?

 2000 1125 Josh Solomon

A too-familiar plastic camera appeared in my friend’s hands after rummaging through his junk box. “I wasted too many rolls of film with this,” he said.…

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Five Great Soviet Cameras – Guest Post by Colonel Troskovoynicovsky

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

Greetings, Western imperialist sow. I am Colonel Troskovoynicovsky writing from within the great Soviet Republic. Your days are numbered, but be joyful temporarily, for while we…

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We Review Lomography’s Daguerreotype Achromat 64mm f/2.9 Art Lens, and It’s a Weird One

 2000 1125 Jeb Inge

“Who the hell actually buys this thing?” That’s what I’m asking myself as I struggle through my first day shooting Lomography’s Achromat lens. I silently curse…

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Hawkesmill Camera Straps – Possibly the Most Luxurious Straps on the Planet

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

What can we possibly say about a camera strap? After all, if it keeps your camera off the ground, it’s doing its job. Where’s the angle?…

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Basic Composition Techniques for Better Photos

 2000 1125 Chris Cushing

There are a lot of guides about how to make better photos. For the most part, they cover the same ground. While these tips are valid,…

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Why Polaroid Originals and the New One Step 2 Matter

 2048 1131 James Tocchio

It’s been a long time since an announcement from Polaroid has lit the photography world on fire. But that’s what happened Wednesday when the long-dormant inventor…

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Polaroid Spectra Pro / Minolta Instant Pro – The Most Creative Polaroid Cameras Around

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

In 1990, Minolta and Polaroid both released an improved version of the Spectra camera called the Instant Pro and Spectra Pro, respectively. These cameras were essentially…

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Fujifilm XF 23mm F/2 WR Lens Review – The Fuji X Series’ Best Kit Lens?

 2000 1125 Chris Cushing

Lens names seldom roll off the tongue. Most sport an alphabet soup of millimeters and f-numbers, and while these tell us most of what we need…

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Remember the 80s – Camera Edition

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

If you’re too young or too old, you may not think of the 1980s as the best decade ever. But you’re wrong. We had time-traveling, stainless-steel…

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Help us do more for you – A brief message to our readers

 2000 1000 James Tocchio

I’ll keep this as brief as possible, and then we’ll be right back to our regularly scheduled programming. We love cameras and photography, and since 2014 we’ve…

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Nikon Nikkor H C 50mm F/2 LTM Lens Review – A Leica Alternative That’s More Than Just a Copy

 2200 1238 Josh Solomon

In my Leica M2 review, I mentioned a certain lens, a Nikkor-H.C. 5cm f/2 in Leica Thread Mount. The lens sparked a mini-revolt in the comments…

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The Leicaflex SL2 Could be the Best Leica SLR Ever Made

 2200 1238 James Tocchio

The Leicaflex SL2 combines the exceptional quality of Leica cameras with technical capabilities that matched its contemporaries, and adds a dash of rarity.

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Fujifilm Provia 100F Slide Film Profile

 2000 1125 Josh Solomon

Many people will tell you that there’s nothing as scary in film photography as shooting slide film. It’s harsh, unforgiving, and only for experts. With every…

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Canon F-1 vs FTb – Should You Go Pro?

 2400 1350 Chris Cushing

In 1971, a shooter looking for the best Canon camera had two choices: the top level F-1, and its little brother, the FTb QL. I own…

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Seizing the Means of Production with the Soviet Zenit-E 35mm Film Camera

 2000 1125 Jeb Inge

I spent the better part of a recent Saturday traveling and photographing a number of towns in central Virginia. In the town of Orange it was…

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Fujifilm Superia 1600 / Natura 1600 – Everything You Need to Know About This Super Fast Color Film

 2000 1125 James Tocchio

Over the past few years, color film has never managed to grab me the way shooting black-and-white film does. I enjoy the depth of black and…

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Lomo’Instant Wide Instant Camera Review

 5456 3069 Josh Solomon

Few things in this world are as fun as an instant camera. Just try holding back a smile while watching a camera spit out a white…

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Carl Zeiss 45mm F/2 Planar in Contax G Mount Review – an Almost Perfect Legacy Lens

 4000 2250 James Tocchio

The Carl Zeiss Contax G Mount Planar 45mm F/2 prime lens is, without bluster, amazing. It’s helped me make some of my favorite images in years.…

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The Canon P is A Beautiful, Functional 35mm Rangefinder Worth Shooting Today

 1833 1031 Chris Cushing

What adjectives describe a modern Canon camera? Rugged? Purposeful, maybe? I’ll bet beautiful seldom comes to mind. That’s not a knock. Canon today produces cameras that…

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Yashica T2 Review – A Charmingly Imperfect Point-and-shoot

 2000 1125 Jeb Inge

The long history of photography has always bent toward convenience. In hundreds of years of cameras, the world has gone from minutes-long exposures and staged Civil…

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