Show Notes
It has been a couple of weeks but the gang finally got back together to devote an entire episode to one of our favorite, and longest lived camera brands, the Ihagee Exakta. If you are familiar with the Exakta name, you probably know them as a maker of high end, but very quirky 35mm SLRs, however there were far more Exaktas produced in the 20th century using three different forms of film and nine different lens mounts. In Episode 98, the Camerosity Podcast hosts do their best to try and corral all those models and history into a single episode. Joining Anthony, Stephen, Paul, and Mike are returning and first time callers Daniel from Chicago, Eric Lorenz, Fernando Villava, Howard Sandler, Ira Cohen, Michael Boudreau, Mike Toppo, Pat Casey, and Phil Clark. We were unable to find an expert who could speak intelligently on the history and wide range of Exakta models made, so Mike did his best to cover the history, starting with how the company formed, and we go (mostly) in chronological order from the first 127 Vest Pocket Exaktas, the Night Exaktas, the early Kine Exaktas, into the Varex models, the redesigned VX1000 and Elbaflex models, and into the weeds with uncommon cameras like the Exakta Real, Exakta Twin TL, and some other Japanese and Chinese made models. In addition to the Ihagee Exakta, we also dedicate a bit of time to the Exakta's little brother, the Exa, covering that models strengths and weaknesses. We attempt to explain how the shutter on early Exas work, and Mike tells a story of a hard to find "System Exa" that's not even made by Ihagee at all. Many questions were asked with varying levels of good answers, including how many lens mounts can be found on an Exakta camera, how many different companies produced Exakta cameras, what is the best introduction to the Exakta lineup, and whether or not Exaktas are good for shooting or just for collecting. We even spend some time on the infamous Exaka with 400mm Kilfitt lens found in the Hollywood classic movie, Rear Window. And just to round it all off, we spend the end of the episode on the Topcon SLRs which use the Exakta mount, including whether all lenses are fully compatible between the two company's models. As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining! The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance. The last several episodes of the show have been wonderfully exciting and informational. We've had a huge number of guests, many of whom are first time callers who joined a long list of people who have contributed to this show. And while all the hosts enjoy chatting with all of you, we haven't had an episode to ourselves in a while, so for Episode 99, we are not taking any callers. We want to spend this time to get caught up on what we've been doing, share with you some of the private discussions we have behind closed doors, but mostly, we're looking for an episode that's easier to edit. Don't worry though, for the next, next episode, we hit triple digits, episode number 100. It gives me chills just typing that here. We will be looking for something special for our centennial episode and once we know what that is, and what date we are recording it, we will be sure to let you all know! Until then, Episode 99 will be recorded sometime in early Oc
More from Camerosity
After a six week break, the Camerosity crew are back with another episode, but unlike most, we decided not to send out invites and instead just got everyone together and hit the record button. As it turned out, we hit record so fast, we forgot to make an intro! On this, the 113th episode of the Camerosity Podcast, what we lacked in callers we more than made up for in massive amounts of GAS! Who would have thought that keeping five camera collecting lunatics away from each other for a month and a half and we would get ourselves into so much trouble?! We start the show with a brief summary of what each of us have been up to and Mike dominates this section complaining about being without power for over 10 days in mid August due to a massive storm called a derecho which decimated the area he lives in. We quickly get to more interesting discussions, recapping recent pickups both through Japanese auctions and more traditional channels including Theo's beautiful new black chrome Leicaflex SL2 and Anthony's "bucket list" Rolleiflex SL66.
Whenever you get a bunch of camera collectors together to talk about rangefinders and SLRs, the focus of the conversation almost always centers around those models with interchangeable lenses. Thread mount Leicas, Contax rangefinders, Nikon F-series and Zeiss-Ikon Contarexes almost always dominate the discussion. While certainly worthwhile cameras to talk about, lens swappable cameras overshadow their fixed lens counter parts, and for Episode 112, the Camerosity crew decided to take a deep dive into those rangefinder and SLR models where the lens can't be removed. Joining Anthony, Paul, Stephen, Theo and Mike are regular and first time callers A.J. Gentile, Aaron in Idaho, Basile from Montreal, Ben Ryerson, Fernando Villava, Greg Harp, Howard Sandler, Marty Olsen, Ron Gee, Sarah Davis, Vlad Kern, and Wayne Scheipers. We start off the episode asking if anyone who listened to Episode 111 was inspired to buy anything from a Japanese auction, but then we hand over the virtual mic to Vlad Kern who had a crazy eBay story regarding an extremely rare Smena camera he ended up selling, buying back, and then having to sell a second time. In addition, we were joined by Sarah Davis who came back on to check in with how her repair business has been going. Since her first appearance on the show in Episode 108, several Camerosity listeners have reported being very happy with her repair services. When we finally got on topic, we shared our love for a large number of mostly fixed lens rangefinders including the Minolta Hi-Matic 7, Yashica Electro series, the Mamiya Super Deluxe, Konica III, and even though we primarily stayed with 35mm cameras, we discussed Fuji's lineup of excellent 6x4.5, 6x7, and 6x9 rangefinders including the popular "Texas Leica". In addition to covering GAS, Anthony asked the question if any fixed lens rangefinders ever had telephoto lenses, and Mike gave a quick lesson on what exactly the Yashia Electro's "Pad of Death" is and what it sounds like. For fixed lens SLRs, we covered models by Mamiya, Zeiss-Ikon, Nikon, Canon, and a few others. Mike shared one of his favorites, the strange Fujica ST-F with the Ihagee Exa style shutter and in body flash. It wouldn't be a Camerosity show if we didn't get off topic, and our listeners were quick to ask questions about adapting Soviet lenses, what the difference is between an Industar and a Jupiter, whether or not Zeiss lenses for Contax SLRs are better than Yashica lenses, and whether the Vectis APS SLR was responsible for Minolta going out of business. As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining! The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance. We don't yet have a topic for the next episode, but rest assured whatever it is, it will likely involve a bunch of adults irresponsibly spending their money on half century or older cameras! When we know what we plan on talking about, we will be sure to update you through the usual channels, but we will record Episode 113 on Monday, August 10th at 7pm Central Daylight Time, 8pm Eastern Daylight Time, and 6pm Canada Saskatchewan Time. For more time zones, please consult the World Time Buddy calculator and plug in your time. Make sure you set your calendars and look out for the show announcement at the usual loc
We're back in time for both the 111th Episode and the belated 5th Anniversary of the Camerosity Podcast! Even though we forgot about our own anniversary, we commemorated the occasion with a topic from the Discord suggestion box, buying cameras from Japanese auctions! If at first, this seems like a dry topic, then clearly you aren't the target audience for this show as any option for more GAS is always welcome here! Joining Anthony, Paul, Stephen, Theo, and Mike are a combination of regular callers and a couple newbies, A.J. Gentile, Bryan Hewitt, NP from Discord, Greg Harp, Heath from Maryland, Ira Cohen, Jeremy Scott, Jody Oliver, Marty Olsen, Nick Marshall, Ron Gee, and Will Pinkham! For those who have only experienced buying cameras through eBay, the first thing you should know about buying on Japanese auction sites is that if you are not in Japan, you need to use a proxy and while there are many out there, they're not all the same. Starting off the show, we attempt to explain the differences between the most popular options, what's similar about them and more importantly, what's different. On the show were a large number of people who have experience with these types of proxy sites, so the various callers shared their experiences, both good and bad, with them, detailing what they liked and where things can go wrong. In our attempt to explain how all these proxies work, we did a pretty poor job of promoting them, and by the end of the show, we may have turned people off from ever wanting to use one! But hey, the more information you have, the better you are able to make a decision. While a majority of the show stayed on topic, we did get to some recent GAS near the end, including Mike's white whale and pickups from A.J., Greg, Will, and a purchase that Stephen made during the show! As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining! The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance. The recording for the next show is just a couple days away, but for Episode 112, we are going to discuss fixed lens rangefinders and SLRs. While collectors and users often get the most excited over interchangeable lens cameras, there were a huge number of excellent fixed lens cameras and since many don't get a lot of love, we hope to change that on the next show. We will record Episode 112 on Monday, July 20th at 7pm Central Daylight Time, 8pm Eastern Daylight Time, and 6pm Canada Saskatchewan Time. For more time zones, please consult the World Time Buddy calculator and plug in your time. Make sure you set your calendars and look out for the show announcement at the usual locations and be prepared to join us! In This Episode
We have returned with the tiniest episode we've ever done, covering 110 Pocket Instamatic and other 16mm subminiature cameras. This was a topic which the Camerosity crew had no idea would be so popular, but our loyal listeners came through and delivered a full show of giant opinions about cameras which make tiny negatives! On this episode, Anthony, Paul, Stephen, Theo and Mike were joined by A.J. Gentile, Edward Michelet, Eric Schneck, Fernando from Germany, Greg Harp, Ira Cohen, Pat Casey, and Will Pinkham where everyone spoke about their favorite Pocket Instamatic and 16mm subminiature cameras. We started things off with a bit of history and moved into one of the most consistently popular 110 cameras, the full system Pentax Auto 110 SLR. We talk about other premium 110 cameras like the two Minolta 110 SLRs and the Canon ED, along with a really neat German camera called the Agfamatic 6008 Makro Pocket, a camera that was so awesome, it inspired Theo to buy one while the show was recording. We talk about challenges with the format, including its extremely small size, the lack of a pressure plate, and how 110 opened the door to the ill fated Kodak Disc format which in turn, brought us T-Grain film still used today with film stocks like Kodak TMax. We cover a wide variety of other cameras, including some interesting 16mm cameras made by Minox, Yashica, and KMZ in the Soviet Union and even a few bizarro ones like the Tasco binocular camera and the Voltron Star Shooter 110. It wouldn't be a Camerosity Podcast episode without us getting off topic, and for this episode, our diversion ended up being all about camera batteries! As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining! The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance. The next episode is coming soon, and as of this writing, we don't yet have a topic, but I am sure it will be something to stretch your GAS budget even farther than before. We will record Episode 111 on Monday, June 29th at 7pm Central Daylight Time, 8pm Eastern Daylight Time, and 6pm Canada Saskatchewan Time. For more time zones, please consult the World Time Buddy calculator and plug in your time. Make sure you set your calendars and look out for the show announcement at the usual locations and be prepared to join us! In This Episode
Way back in the early days of the Camerosity Podcast, we did a show with Canon historian and author Peter Kitchingman, and recently as the gang looked back at what topics were worth revisiting we decided to come back to Canon rangefinders. But what expert would we get this time? As it turned out, Peter was available and willing to come back so we decided to retread this bountiful topic and deliver a "Part Deux" to Canon rangefinders. Joining Peter and the regular hosts were Greg Harp, another excellent resource for these cameras who has a great deal of knowledge, plus listeners A.J. Gentile, Ben Ryerson, Ira Cohen, Jeremy Scott, Joan, John Roberts, Norris Liu, William Smith, and Will Pinkham. We start off with some brief history and then get into some of the earliest Canon rangefinders like the original Canon and the slightly later Canon J and JII. Moving onto the historically significant S, SII, and IIBs and eventually covering the II, III, and IV series. We move along to the back loaders like the V, VI, P, and 7 series, covering various lenses, including the 0.95 Dream lens, a very rare original Canon mount wide angle lens, and others. Greg and Peter even share a bit of knowledge about Canon's X-Ray cameras which they made during and after the war. Although a majority of you probably wanted to hear the most about the interchangeable lens models, we give some love to the fixed lens Canonet models like the trigger wind Canonet, the Canonet QL17 G-III, and even some of the more economically priced models. Unusual to a Camerosity episode, we largely stayed on topic for this only only slightly veering into one Argus lens (blame Mike for that), but we answer a bunch of questions such as why is having different magnification ratios for the rangefinder useful, why is having separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows better, and what role did Nippon Kogaku play in Canon's history. As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!