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Random Camera BlogCinemaThe Holga 120 Pan As you might be aware, I have been making panoramic images on film for quite a while, and some of my earliest efforts were made using toy cameras such as the Holga 135 Pan and 35mm adapter for a…

Random Camera BlogCinemaHARMAN PHOENIX 125 - One roll review I was recently given a couple of rolls of Harman Phoenix 125 color film to evaluate - one roll of 120, and 1 of 35mm.

Random Camera BlogCinemaI have a plan... a Domiplan Back to the Beginning and fixing a Meyer-Optik Domiplan lens My very first SLR was an Exa 1A with a Meyer-Optik 50mmf/2.8 Domiplan lens.

Random Camera BlogCinemaIt's Holga Week! It’s Holga Week, from October 1-7, and it’s a good time to shoot with that plastic-fantastic camera. I’ve used Holgas since about 2002, and over time, I have figured out that it does not pay to…

Random Camera BlogCinemaThe Ultra-Wide and Slim travels Back in August, I drove a 15ft U-Haul truck from Tucson, AZ back to Asheville, NC. I've already posted on the trip here.

Random Camera BlogCinemaSome Old Fujicolor Press 800 Every once in a while, I find a gem among expired films. When it comes to color emulsions, it's almost always a guessing game, unless I know the history of the film - how it was stored, and when it…

Random Camera BlogCinemaPentax Class of 1975 Pentax introduced the K-mount fifty-one years ago, and these three SLRs were the first K-mount bodies. The Pentax KM - a fully manual SLR with the ability to operate without a battery for the meter.

Random Camera BlogCinemaA quick trip to Tucson and back I’m back from Tucson, AZ. On Saturday Aug. 22, Adrienne and I flew out to Tucson to help our daughter move from there to Asheville NC.

Random Camera BlogCinemaWorking on projects Ann Arbor, MI. 2001. Kodak HIE film. I so loved that film.The longer you are creative in any endeavor, the more wisdom (maybe) you accumulate.

Random Camera BlogCinemaLomo Color 100 and a Pentax 6x7 Last October, I spent a week in Arizona, staying in Tucson, and making day trips to explore other areas. Bisbee, Arizona was on my bucket list, and I was not disappointed.

Random Camera BlogCinemaMore Svema 100 love Over the past decade, I’ve shot a fair number of rolls of the Film Photography Project’s Svema 100 film.

Random Camera BlogCinemaSeven Years The movers arrived 2 days later - during a downpour, no less. The yard has changed a lot since then!Yesterday marked the 7th anniversary of our move from Ann Arbor, MI to Weaverville, NC.

Random Camera BlogCinemaLast Roll From my Kodak Vigilant Six-20 A few years ago, I acquired a Kodak Vigilant Six-20. I respooled 120 onto 620 spools, and over the course of 3 years shot 3 rolls with it. The results were always quite good.

Random Camera BlogCinemaThe Summer of ’76 The official logo for the 1976 bicentennialI’ve seen this a lot in recent social media - “Was the American Bicentennial a big deal in 1976?” The writers of such posts are being intellectually lazy…

Random Camera BlogCinemaMorning in the Garden Let me preface this post with a few details about using a Nikon D80. “Why?” You ask. The D80 shares the same CCD sensor as the Nikon D200, a 10 MP DSLR.

Random Camera BlogCinemaWell, it’s the Solstice! AuTrain Bay, June, 2008. Summer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is pretty nice.Summer Solstice, that is. The longest day of the year, daylight-wise. Still, it’s a special day.

Random Camera BlogCinemaKONO! Color 400 Film Several months ago I stopped by my local camera store, Ball Photo, in Asheville. I purchased some different color films since they were there on the shelf, and of course, they were something that I’d…

Random Camera BlogCinemaAn old Kodak folder lens on 4x5 Last November, I acquired an Intrepid 4x5 camera from my fellow photographer, Russ Young. I’ve already written about my re-acquaintance with large format back in April.

Random Camera BlogCinemaEktapan To the Max! The best 400 ISO film?It’s been a while since I’ve used Kodak’s T-Max 400 (now also known as Kodak Ektapan 400) in 35mm.

Random Camera BlogCinemaBelow the Firmament and the Heavens What is meant by that? Basically, the "firmament" is the sky with its weather, and the "heavens" is the space above the earth - or "outer space.

Random Camera BlogCinemaArgus. Fine American Cameras by Kelley, Norwood, Reitsma, and Sterritt I first became aware of Argus cameras back around 2000. I believe that I purchased an Argus 75 at a thrift shop in Cheboygan, MI around that time.

Random Camera BlogCinemaA Pentax P3 SLR Over the past year, I’ve rekindled my love for Pentax K-mount cameras and other brands that use the K-mount, introduced by Pentax in 1975.

Random Camera BlogCinemaUltrafine Liminality Film A little over a month ago, I saw an announcement from Ultrafine Online about a film stock that they were releasing.

Random Camera BlogCinemaHenry David Thoreau and 50 years ago today On PBS - watch it!A few nights ago, I watched the new short series from Ken Burns on PBS -- Henry David Thoreau.

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

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About

The small bracket on top of every camera, from a phone rig to an ARRI.

The hot shoe is where the flash goes, and the microphone, and the monitor, and whatever the next decade bolts on. Every camera has one and nobody photographs it. This magazine is named after it because that is where the whole business meets: the body, the glass, the light, the sound, and the person holding it.

I shot news in Gothenburg for nine years and documentary for hire after that, then stopped taking assignments to write about the tools. Since 2021 I live in Tokyo, ten minutes from the used-camera shops of Shinjuku, which is not an accident: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Ricoh and Sigma make almost everything worth pointing at a subject, and their own press writes about it first, in Japanese. So this magazine reads it there, and in German, French, Italian and Spanish, and in English from the reviewers who actually put a card in the slot — around eighty sources and thirty channels, counted and plotted so you can see what is moving.

Bodies and lenses, cinema cameras and drones, film and the darkroom, firmware and the software that finishes the picture, the rumours before the launch and the reviews after it, and the photographers and shows the rest of it is for. I test what I write about on a job before a word goes down. I shoot film on Sundays and do not think that makes me interesting.

A story here is a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link to whoever reported it. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the photographer or the maker. A story written in Japanese appears in Japanese, as its author set it down; the link goes to the original.

— Mara Lindqvist, Tokyo