Journal

Where the pieces in the shop came from, and who kept them. Plus notes on how to buy one and keep it working.

Chrome Hasselblad 500C medium-format camera seen from the front left, with black leatherette, waist-level viewfinder raised and a Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 lens
Hasselblad 500C: the camera Schirra took into orbit
A medium-format camera an astronaut suggested himself, three accounts of how it was changed, and the twelve Hasselblads left on the Moon. Read more...
Chrome Contax II rangefinder camera with black leatherette, a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 1:2 f=5cm lens, seen from the front left on a dark glossy surface, 1936
Capa's Contax II: what happened to the D-Day film
A photographer, Contax cameras on Omaha Beach, and a darkroom story that three accounts tell with three different frame counts. Read more...
Original Olympus Pen half-frame camera from 1959, front view: silver top plate engraved OLYMPUS-PEN, gray leatherette body, and a D.Zuiko 1:3.5 f=2.8 cm lens
Olympus Pen: the half-frame camera that Olympus doubted
A junior designer, a price target of 6,000 yen, and a sales forecast of 1.5 million cameras that made a planning meeting laugh. Read more...
Casio F-91W digital watch, 2023 production, front view with a black resin case, blue dial ring and the time 15:53 on the display
The Casio F-91W, and why Casio never changed it
A trademark application in 2025, a watch released in June 1989, and the question of why Casio never changed it. Read more...
Black Minolta Maxxum 7000 SLR from 1985, seen from the front left, with the AF 35-70mm zoom lens and hood on a white background
What happened to Minolta, and the camera that outlived it
A company statement in January 2006, a $127.5 million patent fight before it, and the 1985 autofocus camera whose lens mount Sony carried on. Read more...
John Glenn's Ansco Autoset camera from Friendship 7, 1962, on its pistol grip and held in a silver spacesuit glove, with a spacecraft lit in blue behind it
John Glenn's camera: the drugstore Minolta that went into orbit
A camera bought after a haircut in Cocoa Beach, turned upside down by NASA, and the first color photographs of Earth taken by a human hand. Read more...
Black Nikon F3 seen from the front with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens and a burgundy strap, the thin red vertical line on the grip to the left of the lens
Nikon F3: Giugiaro, the red line, and the camera Nikon restarted
A nearly finished camera set aside in 1976, an Italian car designer, and a thin red line on the grip that Nikon kept for decades. Read more...
Rolleiflex 3.5F twin-lens reflex camera in black, seen from the front with the viewing hood closed, Planar 75mm f/3.5 taking lens below the viewing lens
Vivian Maier's Rolleiflex, and the rolls she never developed
A nanny with a Rolleiflex at her chest, a box of negatives sold at auction in 2007, and 2,000 rolls of film she never developed. Read more...
Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera, the folding instant camera introduced in 1972
Polaroid SX-70: the folding camera and the 10,000 tulips
A folding camera, a print that developed in daylight, and ten thousand tulips flown in because the film was not quite ready. Read more...
Three closed metal roller shutters in a row on a plain building front
Contax: why the Zeiss camera brand ended in 2005
Zeiss lenses, a Porsche-styled SLR, a titanium compact and a digital first. Then, on April 12, 2005, a statement of a few paragraphs. Read more...
Distant view of the Gemini-Titan 3 rocket lifting off from Cape Kennedy, 23 March 1965
The Speedmaster, and the eleven tests NASA set
Eleven tests written for spacecraft hardware, three chronographs, and one survivor that was on sale in ordinary shops. Read more...
Welke 35mm filmcamera moet ik kopen? De ultieme gids! - Unseend
Which 35mm camera should you buy
Four honest answers, depending on what you actually want to do with it. Read more...
Canon AE-1: Een analoge legende die je foto's betovert - Unseend
The Canon AE-1, and the noise it makes
It sold in millions, it still works, and it has one fault you can hear before you buy. Read more...
De Olympus Trip 35: Een icoon van analoge fotografie - Unseend
The Olympus Trip 35, and the cell that runs it
No battery, two shutter speeds, and one part that decides whether it is a camera or an ornament. Read more...
Ontdek de Tijdloze Schoonheid van Mechanische SLR Camera's voor Vintage Fotografie - Unseend
Why a mechanical SLR still works
A camera whose shutter is run by springs does not care that the battery is flat, or that it is 2026. Read more...
De Canon A-1: Vintage vibes voor de moderne creatieveling - Unseend
The Canon A-1, and why it is not an AE-1
The clever one of the family. More modes, one more thing to go wrong, and the same noise. Read more...