All posts by Alan D

New Adventures in the Third Dimension- Reto3D Review

If Kickstarter in 2018 kept us hanging on high end gear like the Reflex SLR, then 2019 has turned out to be decidedly more lo-fi. Hot on the heals of the Meh ! Yashica MF-1, arrived my Reto3D camera. It promises 3D photos via the wiggle technique. But is it more Lo-fi dross or does it add something to the world of film based 3D photography. And why bother ?

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A Brief History of Photography By Objects – 10 – Engraving Of a Device For showing Drawings Mid 1800’s

Our object seems to have little to do with photography at first glance. It predates photography’s first public demonstrations, but would move photography from two dimensions into the third. And the tech behind it is still in use today in 3D movies. But its early years were a bit like a 50’s 3D B Movie – A Tale of Monstrous rivalry and experimentation.

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Plastic Meltdown – A Yashica MF-1 Group Test Comparison

So The new MF-1 has landed and turned out to be as expected not much more than a re-loadable disposable. It wasn’t awful at that job but how does it compare to some alternatives ? Time to turn out the plastic & single use cameras and fight it out !!!

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The New Yashica MF-2 Edges closer

As deliveries of the Kickstarter backed MF-1 finish, the new Yashica seem to confirms that they will be going to launch their next kickstarter {Novella]. This is the MF-2, a camera that is confusingly is not based on the original Yashica MF-2 but the later Kyocera era Yashica MF-2 Super.

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The Flaming CrossHair of Low EV – Olympus View Zoom 80 Review

Canny de Camera strode across the land wielding his His Holy Olympus with the its cross hair of holy fire shooting Demons and Family portraits with easy. Welcome to the surreal experience of the View Zoom 80 (the Accura View Zoom 80 in the US) a 35mm zoom compact camera with a flaming red cross in the viewfinder. You’ll feel at home if you’re a fan of 70’s Italian Horror movies, 90’s FPS or religious things. But is it any good ?

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Reloading in the Disposable World – The New Yashica MF-1 Review

So I’ve been playing around with the new Yashica MF-1 “art” camera for a few days and have started to get a grasp of this plastic 35mm fixed everything camera. But is it indeed a tweaked single use camera as many speculate and more importantly is it any good ?

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A Very British Mistake – The Kodak Brownie Cresta 3 Review

Weirdly this camera sums up a lot of the UK’s current political & economic situation. A rehashed plastic version of a 1950’s British number pushed out by a global corporation that misses the zeitgeist and lags behind it’s European counterparts. But hey it’s British made and we might be able to sell it to the Yanks.,,,

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August KickStarter Madness – First Thoughts on RETO3D And More

This week has been like Christmas for a film shooter & Kickstarter addict like myself. Just before the weekend the Yashica MF-1 arrived and on Monday the postie left 2 new packages for me. First up the RETO3D 3D film cameras, a 21st Century take on the Nimslo. The second box was a slightly late Ars Imago Lab Box.

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Houston We Have a Problem – The New Yashica MF-1 – First Thoughts

How bad could it be ? I mean the Y35 wasn’t that awful….

When the new start up version of Yashica launched the Y35 Digi-film camera, the knives were rapidly out before it even launched and many thought it would be sayonara once more.

But they came back promising both film and film cameras and this morning a package arrived from Hong Kong containing both. I’m rapidly wishing they hadn’t come back on the basis of the camera…

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Resurrection Blues- The Yashica MF-2 Super Review

As I sit and type this the first Film Camera to bear the Yashica name in over a decade is winging its way to me from Hong Kong. Whether the New MF-1 is any good or more likely not remains to be seen. But the new Yashica are also hinting at 2 new cameras. In the long term a 35mm version of the Yashica-44 TLR but perhaps more imminent is the MF-2. Turns out the MF-2 is based on the 1980’s MF-2 Super a fixed focus flash cam.

So you know, I decided to test the original.

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