Enter the Minuta Stereo (preproduction model)

It was an early, sleepy Monday morning, the first of February, 2021, and the year was off to a frustrating start, when I opened my email to find a note from Dominick Oczkowski, creator of the Minuta Stereo camera. I knew something of Oczkowski already, thanks to a podcast or something I saw on Twitter …

My LomoMod Experience…

When Lomography announced their LomoMod No.1 cardboard DIY camera with fancy Sutton, liquid-filled lens, I wasn’t even tempted. Sure, I read the announcement, looked at the pictures and all, but I wasn’t even tempted. But then, days later, one of my Twitter buddies mentioned it, talked about buying it just to play with the lens …

Agfa Optima Sensor 535, unboxing and overview

During my mad rush for a compact rangefinder, I went on a hunt for an Agfa Optima Sensor 1535, one of the more unique- and interesting-looking, and one of the last, compact rangefinders out there. They’re fairly rare, and usually in the $100+ range, so when I spotted one on Etsy for $50, I jumped …

Unboxing Photoscouting

I don’t remember where I came across PhotoCorps and PhotoScouting. PhotoCorps is a grant funded community photography workshop/training/community thing, started by Chris Glass, and based in Cincinnati, and PhotoScouting is a sort of workshop: “21 exercises to make more intentional photographs, explore neighborhoods and connect with people.” Now, even though I’m ~1000 miles away, I probably need …

Unboxing ‘Dreamwalking – the Forest’

Isabel Curdes‘ Dreamwalking – the Forest is the finest, most precious zine I’ve seen. In fact, it’s really probably a travesty to call this thing a zine: completely handmade, stab-bound, and printed on fine Kozo paper, it oozes quality and attention to detail, and is a far cry from xeroxes at Kinkos. https://youtu.be/uMUNtM_HLE0

Enter the ActionSampler

I’d seen Lomography’s ActionSampler camera before, but was never particularly tempted by it. Then I got Nathan Pearce‘s set of zines and saw the interesting work he does with it, so I started looking. After a little bit of hunting and hesitating, I found a brand new, second version, mislabeled as the “Cyber Sampler” for …

Lomography Color Negative F²/400 in 120 – two rolls/two cameras

Back in 2010, Lomography bought a jumbo roll color stock from a mysterious Italian film manufacturer, then stuck the film into cold storage in the Czech Republic for 7 years before slicing it up and releasing Lomography Color Negative F²/400 in 35mm back in 2017. Well, earlier this year, they sent me an invitation to preorder …