film camera

PowerShovel Demekin Fisheye

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The PowerShovel Demekin Fisheye is a tiny, fisheye lens-equipped camera designed by PowerShovel, Ltd. for the 110 film cartridge. PowerShovel, also known as SuperHeadz was founded in the year 2000 by Hideki Omori after he successfully introduced plastic Russian cameras to Japan. Such cameras were cheaply made and often technically flawed but, much like the Lomography movement that swept through the Western world at roughly the same time, these “toy cameras” gained popularity in Japan through the interesting and unusual effects that their plastic lenses and light leaks often had on images.

Spartus Spartaflex

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The Spartus Spartaflex is a medium format twin lens reflex manufactured by the Spartus Camera Corporation of Chicago. Although I found a print ad from the 1940s pricing this camera outfit at an incredulous $47.91 (well over $800 in today’s money), the Spartaflex is by no means a serious answer to the high-quality German TLRs (such as the Rolleicord IId) that had been dominating the market since the late ’20s.

Yashica FX-3 Super 2000

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The Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 is a variant of the very popular Yashica FX-3 which was introduced in 1979. With its mostly plastic body weighing in at only one pound, many photographers favored the FX-3 for its lightweight, compact design coupled with its ability to mount a wide range of exceptional optics including a superb lineup of legendary Carl Zeiss T* lenses.

Nikon Nikkormat FT3

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In terms of serious cameras, this is my genesis: the Nikon Nikkormat FT3. My father bought this beautiful camera as a young man in Hong Kong and gave it to me when I began getting serious about photography in college. I’ve spent many hours shooting with this camera and have even lugged it overseas on assignment to various developing countries as my backup and film body. It’s been a sturdy and dependable friend for many years now and has taught me many things about photography, the most important of which is patience.

Yashica T4 Super D

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The Yashica T4 Super D is one of the last models of the T* series of compact cameras made by Kyocera (who owned Yashica at the time) in partnership with renowned German lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss AG. All cameras in this series used high quality Carl Zeiss Tessar lenses with the legendary T* coating which meant superb image quality in a small package. The Yashica T4 and its variants were also sold as the Yashica T5 and the Kyocera T Proof.