My very first camera was a half-frame film job. My parents bought it for me when I went on a school trip to Belgium, Holland and France, and it was what got me started on photography. I was 11 years old, the year was 1959 and the camera was a very basic, plastic VP Twin. And I still have it.
I've two Rollei 35s; a base 35 with a lovely Tessar and a 35S with the magnificent Sonnar. They are my favorite pocket cameras. I can't wait to fondle the 35AF.
Surprised there was no mention of the newly released Lomomatic 110. It is probably the best 110 camera ever made because electronics has solved some of the limitations of old time 110 cameras. Best thing is - it is affordable and will help bring a younger audience into film. I hope it is a hit for them.
I am on the waiting list for the MiNT Rollei 35AF. I am hoping, really HOPING that MiNT does it justice. That the build is of good quality and the lens is above good. It'll be released this summer. I can hardly wait to feel and see it.
I would love your input on vintage lens for videography. I bet there's so much content you could deliver on that topic and widen your target audience. I would be very interested in that content myself. I appreciate your work, thank you!
I have a Konica Auto-Reflex from 1965 in my camera collection. It has a switch to change from full frame to half frame. It's a neat camera, but I've never used it.😮
Well, it is a surprise. Sporting a format which died more than 20 years ago. It bumps heads in the current market with used 110 cameras of yore, some of which are technically far superior and most of which are half the size and vastly cheaper. It is an 110 camera marketed by Lomo, built in ???, Mongolia(?), which shows what you get when the executives of a marketing company can do if they all go out and get totally smashed. And for a bonus, those who use it are a captive market for Lomo film (get it???), and they will enjoy paying three times as much per processed exposure as using normal 35mm film.
The Kodak H35N (the latest version) half-frame camera is not half bad, the lens is slightly better than expected. And it can be "modded" to shoot in two apertures (not just the fixed one) and it accepts filters.
Thank you, Nigel, for the good news! For me, the two new cameras - Rollei and Pentax - are the most interesting. Since the Pentax camera is designed for young people, it should be cheap. But if Pentax tries to set too high a price, it will fail. I hope they won't make such a mistake.
I suspect Pentax are being influenced most by their own domestic market - rich young Japanese kids who want an easy to use on-trend film camera. But the elephant in the room is how much relevance the cheapness of half frame really is regarding the film, when the camera itself is going to cost over £500. Perhaps the biggest influence going half-frame is that it duplicates the portrait format they're familiar with using camera phones? Like you, I'm a bit dubious and nervous that if they've got their marketing wrong. new film cameras will be destined to remain either cheap plastic semi-disposables, or prohibitively expensive toys for fashionistas. Get that price point and quality balance wrong, and they could kill the new resurgence of quality film cameras dead.
Thanks for the update on the new film cameras. I would mind paying for a new medium film camera that has basic features. It seems as though Fujifilm should have at least one on the market as they make and sell film. Maybe Fujifilm could make one that is compatible with the great GF lenses they make. Just some thoughts.
I have heard that Pentax may have more 35mm film cameras in development. I hope this one sells well enough that they continue with those plans. The zone focus does not excite me much, not such if I would be interested in one. The 8mm had me interested until you stated the price!
Is there a fully manual 35mm camera with an EVF or a live view screen that shows the user "exactly" what he or she is about to commit to a frame of expensive 35mm film?
I can’t say I am excited about the Kodak and Mint cameras as the price point is ridiculous. I am buzzing for the Pentax, although I am disappointed it is not full frame. 72 frames is rather a lot to shoot. I can see the film sitting in my camera for months. Quality will also be reduced and the camera is designed to shoot all photos in portrait orientation. I hope they price it reasonably. Around £100-£200 would be a fair price.
Kodak's Super 8 cameras are planned for sales in "limited editions" at nearly $6k a piece. What he means is that Kodak will probably acquire 100 units total from their Chinese manufactures because that's the minimum order available. The majority of those will sit in a warehouse until someone decides they need the floor space, after which the remainder will end up in a dumpster. If this is the "future of film", then folks, the end is now upon us.
The key issue with all of these is going to be PRICE. And I suspect that outside of the niche top-end market, this is going to limit their wider appeal. There are still too many really excellent used film cameras out there which are far more capable for these to become mainstream products.
@@hansemannluchter643 Not so sure - film prices comparative to the 70s and 80s *aren't* any more expensive now than then, are they? But the price of a new film camera is matching or exceeding the price for a new camera back then - when a film camera (especially a decent one from a good manufacturer) could be a week or month (or more!) worth of salary. But when there are so many used ones available, I wonder how that's going to shape up? If this Pentax costs circa £500, thats the price for purchase and processing for around 25 rolls of 36 exp film. On a half frame, that's a around 1800 shots! Someone is going to have to be burning a serious amount of film for any half frame saving to start making any real sense. Is anyone buying a 'fun' camera at £500 really going to be taking enough pictures to worry about that, I wonder?
Sorry for the off topic question, but since it's a channel dedicated to vintage lenses and cameras i've been meaning to ask: is cosmicar mc 28 2.8 lens a good choice for a pentax film camera? I will inspect it on arrival before accepting the package, but it looked good on photos and the price was about 55 USD for a lens with both caps. I've read that it's basically a Pentax-A 28 2.8 with a different name printed on it but the price was significantly lower than any of the pentax 28 2.8 and 3.5 options, the second option was cosina made vivitar 28 2.8 but i went with cosmicar.. did i just buy a dud or will it be ok for film shooting?
I think the Kodak Super 8 is targeted to the professional rental market. Indi filmmakers looking for a different medium might rent it for a few days to include the 8mm aesthetics, or if someone want to include a Super 8 clip in their story for some reason.
what vintage old lens (28mm-50mm) would you roceomend that has the highest CONTRAST for black and white photography pls? for Leica M10R camera. thank you very much
I saw a video from Pentax themselves a while ago and it gave the impression they were reverse engineering one of their old cameras. Is the new camera a version of an old one? I wasn't aware they'd ever made a half frame but then I don't know much about Pentax.
No Pentax haven’t made half frame before but the did have the Pentax 110 for 110 cartridge film back in the day which at 13mm x 17mm was a quarter of what we now call ‘full frame’. This first Pentax half frame is not based on any previous Pentax and the recent Pentax video says intended to test if they can bring together the technology to get it successfully to market as an appealing, entry level, easy to use film camera aimed at young people used to using phones as cameras and wanting the film experience and some tactile feel without buying and old film camera that may be unreliable. If that’s successful then they may look at further upmarket with my traditional SLR.
The "new Rollei" camera has nothing to do with the Rollei 35, and it certainly is not an update. The only connection to Rollei is that Mint paid someone to paint the "Rollei" name on the front of its proposed camera. Given Mint's reputation for camera production (or modification), it's likely to be an underwhelming product with an excessive price tag. Mint has been very shy about the actual specs and details of the planned camera, except for incorporating a "LIDAR" auto-focus system. This is just using a laser projection/reflection technology to measure focus distance. It offers two primary features. It makes the product much more expensive. And, it is subject to all the shortcomings and subject limitations suffered by the very inexpensive, conventional, active infrared ranging systems used on the vast majority of cheap Point-n-Shoot cameras for the last forty years. Not the "Great White Hope" of film photography.
@@sclogse1 You could just buy one, couldn't you? For the going rate, ignoring it isn't a film-camera. I have a 1950's Zeiss Ikon Contax 2a, mint condition, cost me €35...
