Lomography just launched an Instax Wide camera with a 90mm 𝒇8-22 coated glass lens for under $300: Lomo’Instant Wide Glass.
I’m very happy that Fujifilm allowed its film format to grow far beyond its in-house cameras, with many options available for advanced photographers, including the MiNT InstantKon rangefinder, back for large format cameras, and even a gingerbread camera with the help of the Jollylook manual processor (analog.cafe/r/building-the…, unfortunately just 1 of 1 for now).
However, quality glass options for Instax film are not cheap. InstantKon currently sells for $900, NONS SLRs (which accept a variety of vintage lenses with Instax Square) are $500, and backs for medium and large format cameras (while relatively affordable) still require the said pricey cameras.
Lomo’Instant Wide Glass, on the other hand, is $279. Though this camera comes short of full manual controls, “the world’s sharpest instant camera” comes with a 90mm (35mm equiv.) 𝒇8-22 coated glass lens with a 0.3m/1’ close focus (zone focusing), 8–1/250s leaf shutter with Bulb and a fixed 1/30s option, +1/-1EV exposure compensation control, multiple exposure control, flash & remote flash (PC), and wireless shutter trigger.
Jagglé launched the Berlinova daylight table-top enlarger for black-and-white prints without a darkroom (on Kickstarter).
Darkroom printing on the go or in small apartments has been difficult or practically impossible until recently. To turn a negative into a photograph, you need a dark space, a sizeable enlarger, and multiple trays for chemical baths.
Jagglé Berlinova enlarger makes the job easy with its portable, light-tight construction and clever cassette holder that keeps the paper and accepts chemicals. The built-in high-CRI LED battery-powered USB-C-chargeable light is calibrated for proper exposures, and a bespoke fixed 50mm 𝒇4.0 Tessar lens makes perfectly focused projections on 10x15cm/4x6” paper (which may be upgradable to 13x18cm/5x7” if the project reaches a stretch goal).
I briefly covered this project in last month’s Community Letter (analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…), where you can refer for a bit more detail on how this works and to learn about its author, Wicher.
There are still a few Early Bird packs of the enlarger (with lens & paper cassette) available on Kickstarter for the 4x6” enlarger at €275 (~$300), which will continue to sell for €285 while the project is live:
Wicher is seeking €80,000 (~$87K) in total funding to produce Berlinova enlargers at an injection moulding facility for the highest quality and durability.
Lomomatic 110 Bellagio is a new premium film camera from Lomography that features a brass exterior and “the sharpest, most creative pocket-sized camera on earth” underneath.
This is a follow-up to this March’s Lomomatic 110 release (covered here: analog.cafe/comments/0jn2).
Lomography has been championing the tiny 110 format for years, and Lomomatic has become its flagship camera. Lomomatic is relatively affordable and comes with a multi-coated glass lens, which, according to the company, is the sharpest lens for the format — including even the vintage offerings.
This new premium brass edition features a 23mm Minitar CX multi-coated glass lens, automatic exposure control, adjustable ISO, flash, and multiple/long-exposure shooting modes. Note that brass trim is limited to certain parts of the camera — see photos on the website:
The brass Bellagio Lomomatic 110 camera is listed at $189, but there are a few versions of this camera at the shop (shop.lomography.com/us/cam…) with prices starting at $99.
Polaroid just made a new special-edition film available at their store: Reclaimed Green.
You may remember last year’s Reclaimed Blue release (analog.cafe/r/polaroid-rec…), which sold out quickly as it was the first emulsion of its kind.
Unlike the Duochrome editions, which are essentially black-and-white films with added dye, Reclaimed Blue is a colour film capable of rendering whites (Duochromes use colour dyes which cover whites of the black-and-white positives, yielding darker images).
Reclaimed Green is nearly identical to Reclaimed Blue in the way it works (including its ability to produce whites), only with a yellow dye added to the formula, which turns it green. However, the resulting effect is lighter than that of Duochrome Green (see analog.cafe/r/polaroid-gre…).
Polaroid Reclaimed Green 600 is available at the web store for $16.99 ($3 cheaper than the regular colour film): polaroid.pxf.io/an3RPZ [affiliate].
You can learn a bit more about this film from the excellent In An Instant channel on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=5sSpVp….
Jonathan Paragas, or @KingJvpes, recently published a video about his incredible experience finding a Leica M3 at a thrift store for $30.
Jonathan is a San Francisco/Bay Area photographer who’s got over 175K subscribers on YouTube thanks to his popular film camera thrifting videos and content about analogue photography. Of course, there’s more to his fame than just the subjects he picks.
In his recent video, @KingJvpes is seen shaking with excitement after finding a Leica M3 at a thrift store for $30 — a camera that sells for over a thousand dollars on eBay. Though the video had a lot of extra content, I was most impressed with Jonathan’s honesty (he didn’t try to make himself look cool or cut his emotional reaction to such a find from the reel) and his commitment to do the right thing.
Gear theft is a big issue, particularly in the Bay Area (from what I gather online). Which is why Jonathan spent considerable effort to see if his Leica find was lost or stolen before adding it to his collection permanently. But after months of scouring the internet, he determined that it isn’t (besides, why sell it at a thrift store if it could fetch a lot more on eBay?)
Buyer’s remorse about the modern film cameras is beginning to cut through the hype.
I’d like to preface this by saying that there’s nothing wrong with being excited about new products. I take a positive approach to most products I review because I love film photography, I understand production constraints in 2024, and I do not expect perfection.
However, it must be difficult to be critical of a relatively expensive gadget that one gets and has limited time to play with. This is also fine. I am not happy about being attacked over not accepting that modern tools are somehow better in every way than their vintage counterparts (that happened, and it’s the Internet, so no surprise either).
But as time passes, the novelty wears and criticisms surface. Whether it’s Lok’s dissatisfaction with the build quality and design of the new Pentax 17 (youtube.com/watch?v=gwnlnE…) or @theinstantcameraguy’s complaints about Polaroid’s slow software fix cycle for critical bugs for I-2 (see: analog.cafe/comments/z0ow).
The truth about those tools is probably somewhere in the middle, and it will depend greatly on individual experience and expectations. But no matter what our collective opinion is about those new tools, it is nonetheless remarkable that there’s such a strong demand for film and film cameras in 2024. I sincerely hope that the manufacturers take note and remember that the user experience matters the most, whereas the hype always fades.
Brief film camera-related updates from Polaroid, Lomography, and Dua Lipa.
I just got an email from Polaroid showing off their two new colours for the Now Generation 2 instant cameras: Purple and Vintage White. I reviewed this camera in (regular) white here: analog.cafe/r/polaroid-now….
Lomography is discounting their Diana Mini cameras by 25% as they sell the last of their stock: shop.lomography.com/us/dia…. Diana Mini is a classic plastic camera with interchangeable formats (square and half); I reviewed it here: analog.cafe/r/diana-mini-7…
According to Kosmo Foto, Dua Lipa, a pop star who also shoots film, is selling a waterproof, reusable plastic camera that can be submerged up to 3m/10’. The camera can be found at usshop.dualipa.com/ for $40, and the header image appears to be shot on that exact camera.
Stephen has more details about the camera and the history of artist swag in his article about Dua Lipa’s camera: kosmofoto.com/2024/09/dua-…
All items include free shipping to the US and Canada. All film cameras are film-tested. Many were the ones I reviewed on this blog, so you know they got a proper exercise. Samples are available with each camera/lens.
Everything, except for film, has a 30-day warranty. The shop has glowing reviews and a five-star rating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ve got a few film-tested cameras with free shipping to the US and Canada for 20% OFF: filmbase.etsy.com
Konica Recorder — a half-frame, pocketable point-and-shoot camera with a very wide & sharp lens.
Olympus PEN FV with H.Zuiko Auto-S 1:2 lens — the only half-frame SLR ever produced with an incredibly fast lens.
Olympus XA2 RED — a classic tiny full-frame camera in a rare red colour with a matching, working A11 flash.
Mamiya U — a mint-condition camera with a very sharp lens and a very unusual design. This is THE ONLY CAMERA you’ll ever find with the original working shutter button.
Also, there is a 250mm (~375mm equivalent) super-telephoto lens for Olympus PEN and a 150mm (~210mm equivalent).
All of these cameras and lenses were tested extensively with film, they were the subjects of my reviews on Analog.Cafe. Please read the detailed descriptions for each with my notes from the real-world tests.
Rollei 35AF, the world’s newest premium point-and-shoot film camera, should be ready for sale by the “end of September.”
If you spent any time on the internet this week, you must’ve seen reviews, brags, and complaints about the new Pentax 17 half-frame film camera. The fanfare was so loud, it drowned other photography releases, like Fujifilm’s newest Wide camera.
The hype over Pentax 17 is admittedly deserved. It’s the first film camera made in decades by a major manufacturer. However, Ricoh/Pentax aren’t the only trailblazers this year. Last week, I reviewed the first colour film by a major film manufacturer (not Kodak/Fuji), Phoenix 200: analog.cafe/r/harman-phoen…. And today, we’ve got a date, a few more photos, and some finalized technical details of the first premium compact point-and-shoot camera: Rollei 35AF.
Rollei 35AF is built from the ground up by a well-known Hong Kong manufacturer, MiNT, who’s been selling instant film cameras for about a decade. Gary Ho, MiNT’s founder describes this project as one of the most challenging things he’s done. Whereas the images of the product and the images it’s taken are truly impressive.
Rollei35 has opened the presale waitlist here: rollei35af.com/
We now know what the new Pentax half-frame film camera looks like! It’s the first 35mm film camera from a major manufacturer in over a decade.
PentaxRumors.com recently shared a photo of a camera that Ricoh Imaging has been teasing since early 2023 (analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…).
The photo doesn’t show the manual film advance Pentax leaned on in almost every teaser of the camera (analog.cafe/comments/8ub8). But there’s a lot that we can learn from it already.
The viewfinder confirms that it will be a half-frame camera, and the built-in flash is a nice touch. Many vintage half-frame cameras (analog.cafe/search?for=hal…) did not have a built-in flash, making them difficult to use in subdued light.
I’m happy to see a DOF calculator for better zone-focusing accuracy (you can brush up on it here: analog.cafe/r/how-to-zone-…).
The 25mm 𝒇3.5 lens is an approximately 35mm full-frame equivalent, so we can expect a wide angle of view and easy zone focusing with a larger DOF.
𝒇3.5 is a good max aperture for a camera like this; recall the new Ektar H35N, which is 𝒇8 (analog.cafe/r/kodak-ektar-…) — which is one of the widest-apertured half-frame cameras made in recent years.
Last week, Lomography released two new designs of their Lomo’Instant Automat Camera featuring artwork by renowned Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt.
The artist-branded Automat cameras, including collaborations with William Klein, Vivian Ho, Suntur, Jarb, Opbeni, el Nil, Park Song Lee, Gongkan, and others, sell for $199, but base model of the same camera is available on sale for $169 on their website: shop.lomography.com/us/ins…
These cameras use the popular Fujifilm Instax Mini film with a 60mm f/8-22 lens that can be zone-focused between 0.6m, 1-2m, and infinity. (You can learn about zone-focusing here: analog.cafe/r/how-to-zone-…). These cameras have a shutter that fires automatically between 8s and 1/250s. The cameras use 2 x CR2 batteries plus CR1632 for the remote.
An Australian film lab, Film Never Die, has just launched a Kickstarter project for their film camera design, Nana.
The camera was on presale on their website since October last year (I briefly wrote about it here: analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…). It then listed a 31mm 𝒇9 fixed-aperture lens, motorized film advance, and a metal body.
The Kickstarter version now offers a 31mm 𝒇11 single-element fixed-aperture lens with a top shutter speed of 1/125s. It’s a “focus-free” camera (similar to Kodak Ektar H35N analog.cafe/r/kodak-ektar-…). FND says they’re working on a side-in lens element (presumably for sharper close-ups), but it’s unclear whether that’s going to be done in time for the product launch.
The camera is designed to be light and compact (110mm x 62mm x 38mm) and 300g with film. The company has also shared photos demonstrating the Nana lens outperforming their previous “reusable” (presumably plastic lens) film camera — though it’s the same image they shared last year, attributed to a 𝒇9 lens design.
Kickstarter pledges that include the camera are between AU$225 to AU$275 (or $150-$180 in USD).
Polaroid has just announced a “new” limited-edition design for their SX-70 colour film.
The packaging is a throwback to the original packaging by Paul Giambarba (1928-2023) that drove so much of the Polaroid aesthetic in its heyday thanks to its genius simplicity, vivid colours, and memorable geometric art.
However, the packs are not a 1:1 reproduction of the earlier masterpiece. They’re a bit of a mix of the old (graphics, including the logotype) and the new (lowercase bubbly “polaroid” font). Unfortunately, the new packs still contain just eight frames instead of the original 10.
(While Polaroid could probably fit ten shots in their new battery-less I-Type film packs, the SX-70 and 600 packs for vintage cameras simply can’t, as the new materials produce slightly thicker frames.)
I review lots of lovely gear on the blog, but unfortunately, I can not keep it all.
Today, I’ve updated FilmBase (my Etsy shop) with some of the nicest gear that came across my desk:
The most prized camera in this lot is the only Mamiya U with a fully intact shutter button. Though you may find this strangely designed ‘80s chic camera elsewhere, it never comes with its beautiful yet brittle yellow button. This is the rarest camera I’ve ever owned.
A pancake lens for Olympus PEN film cameras is very convenient. It turns an already small half-frame SLR into a pocketable one. It comes with genuine lens caps that are difficult and often expensive to find.
I’ve added new spaces on Analog.Cafe, where I’ll be organizing some of my thoughts on film photography.
You’ll probably notice #editorial the most since it’s where I write about product launches and share announcements like this. Comments under this tag may end up in your RSS feed, Community Letters¹, or you may hear about them from me on Mastodon and Bluesky.
A #video tag lists all the comments with a YouTube link. I’ve added a whole bunch of these, including this epic trilogy of Kodak factory tours: analog.cafe/comments/tnq0.
This week, Polaroid updated their “world’s smallest instant camera.”
Polaroid Go Gen 2 focuses on improving the exposures with the aperture range of 𝒇9-42, up from the previous version’s 𝒇12-56 on its plastic lens. Its max shutter speed has also got faster: 1/300s.
Perhaps most importantly, Polaroid updated the autoexposure system on the Go:
“Our team redesigned the light sensor’s positioning and field-of-view, so whatever you’re pointing at is exactly what the camera is picking up. And if you’re pointing at a wider scene, your camera’s wider metering coverage will have it literally looking at the bigger picture.”
The cameras are made with 30% recycled materials.
You can pick one up via the affiliate link (where I may make a small commission at no cost to you) directly from Polaroid: polaroid.prf.hn/l/y8QGWpn
Fujifilm’s new Instax Mini 99 is a fully analogue instant film camera that uses LEDs for in-camera special effects.
We’ve seen instant film printers with tiny digital sensors before from Fujifilm, Leica (analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…) and others. Though these cameras have their advantages like special in-camera effects, many film photographers just want a camera that shoots film.
Well, it appears that Fujifilm has just delivered the analogue process we crave *with* special in-camera effects. All that at an affordable price point ($200) in a package that looks nice.
The new Instax Mini 99 is an updated version of the Instax Mini 90 (analog.cafe/r/instax-mini-…) with novel exposure and focus controls.
The camera also features physical vignetting control (a mask in front of the lens). But the most interesting in-camera effect is the in-house LEDs that project colours onto film to simulate warm/cool tones, light leaks, and various colour casts.
There’s no digital processing of any kind in this camera!
Instax Mini 99 is expected to arrive in stores in mid-April.
YouTube Video