All Comments Search
New search tools and recommendations live on Analog.Cafe!
This blog hosts over 630 long-form articles and thousands of notes like this one. Some are reviews, others are essays, guides, apps, community, or editorials. You could always use the search function on Analog.Cafe (analog.cafe/search), but it wasn’t custom-built for this blog — it’s a Google bolt-on service that works OK, but it can’t distinguish various types of content, and it would often surface unhelpful pages.
This weekend, I built a new search engine and a recommendation tool that should help you get more out of this website:
You can now refine your article searches by limiting your results to specific sections (film, cameras, guides, books, apps, essays, etc.) and perform separate comment and long-form article searches.
You can also like & reply to comments right in the search results.
This new search engine also now powers relevant recommendations below each article and comments like this one.
I hope these new tools help you find the right stuff and discover new reads about your favourite films and film cameras. Let me know if you see any bugs or have ideas on how to improve things.
I’m also curious if you find updates like this one helpful. Do you?
v3.21.38
In this month’s “Anniversary Edition” letter to the blog supporters (analog.cafe/r/anniversary-…), I highlighted the fact that Analog.Cafe has been ad-free for the past seven years.
This is possible thanks to the Analog.Cafe GOLD members (a $5/mo subscription with special perks).
Analog.Cafe also earns money from affiliate referrals, which typically lead to eBay, Amazon, and others. This is a common practice online; however, Amazon doesn’t always have the best prices on film, and film cameras on eBay can become a risky purchase (see analog.cafe/r/the-vintage-…). Which is why I’m happy to replace some of those links with the ones from Polaroid and Freestyle Photo.
Polaroid.com is the best place to buy film and cameras made by the company. They often stock items that aren’t sold anywhere else and usually have prices that are as good or better than the competition.
Freestyle Photo specializes in all things analog, including film, paper, chemistry, and darkroom equipment. They are the largest distributor in North America.
Here are some products I reviewed that are sold at Freestyle:
Canon AE-1 analog.cafe/r/canon-ae-1-o…
Canon AE-1 Program analog.cafe/r/canon-ae-1-p…
Portra 400 analog.cafe/r/kodak-portra…
CineStill 800T analog.cafe/r/cinestill-80…
FilmBase, an Etsy shop where Analog.Cafe sells cameras and merch is closed until August 1st.
I’m taking a short trip to see my folks on the other side of the continent. Probably gonna be still online but won’t be able to dispatch anything.
I’m taking my Canon A-1, which I’m super excited to shoot with the 2.8 24mm FD lens. Maybe an odd combo but I think it’ll work great.
v3.21.23
This release fixes an issue that crashed the web app for GOLD subscribers when visiting pages with tables of contents. Thank you, Liam and David, for reporting the issue, and sorry for the trouble!
I will be adding automated tests to make sure this particular problem doesn’t occur in the future.
v3.21.14
The last 13 #website updates were focused on content and messaging around GOLD memberships. I’ve also added links to contact me in more places so it’s easier to get help in case something isn’t working.
Meanwhile, many small changes to numerous articles are being pushed this week. Some of them are typo corrections and updated links. But most notable are the new tables of contents blocks.
I’ve seen Google digest my tables of contents and display parts of them in the results. I’ve also noticed that TOC links are getting used by the readers. I’m happy that many of you find them helpful.
I am working on adding more TOCs but the process is manual so it’ll take time to complete.
Hi Analog.Cafe readers! I’ve just shipped an update to the website, which should improve your reading and navigation. Here’s what’s new in version `3.21.1`:
• Serif title fonts (for legibility),
• Tables of contents in long articles,
• Better contrast in the dark mode,
• “Scroll up” buttons next to article headers,
• Optimized HTML (for faster page loads),
• And a “Refresh” button on the homepage.
I’ve been updating this website’s design and the digital “guts” every couple of months (or days) since 2017. Since web design isn’t typically part of a conversation when talking about film cameras, I usually kept those updates behind the curtain.
However, web design is a big part of how we communicate, so I’d like to try sharing this journey of blog-building with you under the #website tag.
If you’re having any issues using this website or have suggestions, I’d love to hear them! You can share them publically by adding #website to your comment here or privately via email: analog.cafe/about#contact
