Japanese Cameras and Lenses

The Essentials – A Guide to the Best of Nikon’s Camera Systems
2400 1350 Josh Solomon

We answer emails about recommending cameras and lenses every day, so we thought it might be helpful if we published brief guides to the most popular camera brands. These guides are not meant to be…

read more

We Review Maitani’s Masterpiece, the Olympus XA Rangefinder Camera
5316 2991 Josh Solomon

Hype can kill. We’re no strangers to the phenomenon here. We’ve tested plenty of popular cameras that have failed to support the weight of expectation and popular opinion, and it’s always disappointing to shoot a…

read more

Our Favorite Fanboys Swap Camera Systems – Nikon F3 Versus Canon F-1
2400 1350 Chris Cushing

As objective as we are when reviewing unfamiliar cameras, our biases show when it comes to the cameras that remain with us permanently. My FD mount Canons have always been my benchmark, the cameras I…

read more

What’s an ‘Apollo’ Nikon F and Why It Matters
2400 1350 James Tocchio

James explains what makes the special Nikon F “Apollo” so special (or not so special), with examination of why it matters (or doesn’t).

read more

The Olympus O-Product is a Beautiful and Unusual Point-and-Shoot Film Camera
2400 1350 James Tocchio

Holding and shooting the Olympus O-Product, I get the feeling its designer didn’t give a damn about what other camera companies were creating. A little research confirms my intuition. In a 1989 interview in Popular…

read more

The Nikon FM is All the 35mm Film Camera You Really Need
2200 1237 Josh Solomon

My eyes drifted from one storefront to the next, my stomach grumbling in the late spring heat. For days I’d been craving a taco, a dish so common in my home city that they may…

read more

Nikon F – The Camera That Changed Everything
2200 1238 Josh Solomon

If there’s one camera that’s been a constant presence throughout my years as a photographer and writer, it’s the Nikon F. Nearly every research trail or trip to the camera show somehow ends with the…

read more

Diving Deep with Nikonos – A Brief History of Nikon’s Underwater Cameras
2200 1238 James Tocchio

I watched with helpless horror as my camera fell, seemingly in slow-motion, fumbled from the uppermost point of a rough stone jetty. It tumbled and bounced from rock to rock on a plummeting course to…

read more

The Mamiya Press Camera – With Great Weight Comes Great Versatility
2200 1238 Chris Cushing

I like things to be small, light, and simple, and these preferences apply equally to nearly any product. My favorite car since the close of the Second World War is the original Golf GTI, and…

read more

Carl Zeiss G Mount 28mm F/2.8 Biogon Lens Review
2200 1238 James Tocchio

We review the Contax G mount 28mm Biogon for the Contax G series rangefinder film cameras and adaptable mirrorless digital cameras.

read more

Nikon FM3a Review – A Nearly Perfect SLR
2200 1238 James Tocchio

I don’t think there is such thing as a perfect camera. Beyond the quirks of design that cause even the best of cameras to annoy, there’s personal preference to account. Some people like large cameras,…

read more

Canon FD 24-35mm f/3.5L – Earning the Red Ring
2200 1237 Chris Cushing

My preference for shooting vintage Canons can make reducing the weight of my camera bag a real struggle. My preferred camera, the F-1, tips the scales at 820g bare. The A-1, though substantially lighter, is…

read more

Minoltina P Camera Review – A Mostly Forgotten Full Frame Compact from Minolta
2200 1238 James Tocchio

Editorial discretion at Casual Photophile dictates that we don’t write about every camera ever made, and the cameras that we do write about don’t necessarily need to be “the best.” Our only requirement of the…

read more

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 on the planet. And the Beetle outlasted every single…

read more