Classic Camera Reviews

If you’re a baby boomer (and even if you’re not) you might remember the ads in the comic books, science and handyman magazines that touted “Secret Spy Cameras. Fits in the palm of your hand…” And if you’re like me, you mailed off your allowance or lawn mowing money so you could take secret photos of your family and friends. The camera you received was barely...

This is the final installment of our Top 20 Cameras of All Time created by contributor Jason Schneider. To say the least this series has stirred controversy and compliments, the former from those who have decried the lack of their picks on the list and the latter from those who praise the scholarly and consummate effort of the task. You can read all the comments from fellow...

We took a break from the Top 20 Countdown last month to bring you all the great news from this year's PMA Show. In this issue we'll continue to count down the next five; be sure to pick up next month's issue for the Top Five and our completion of this amazing work by classic camera expert par excellence Jason Schneider. As we continue this series be sure to weigh...

Beware: heresy is about to be spoken. It is that you might care to take one of the most sublimely constructed and complex of all mechanical cameras, and butcher it.

The sacrificial victim is a Linhof Technika 70, which entered production (as far as I know) in the early 1960s: certainly...

"You don't actually use that thing, do you?" This was a question one reader asked me when he saw a picture of my Kowa/SIX in one of my books or magazine articles (I forget which, now). And the answer is that yes, I do, and increasingly often at that.
The...

There's an old saying: If something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is. But sometimes you get lucky.

I couldn't resist the Pentacon sixTL that I saw in FotoSkoda in Prague. I won't say that FotoSkoda is the best camera store in the world, because there are too many other contenders, including many Shutterbug advertisers. It is...

Bewildering numbers of folding Retinas were built in Germany at the old Nagel-Werke in Stuttgart, an early Kodak acquisition. The first Type 117 Retina I appeared in 1933, and the last folders were the IB/IIC/IIIC, made from 1957-58 to 1960. Retinettes are...