The Sears 35|RF (not to be confused with the Sears 35rf) is a black only, Sears-branded clone of the Ricoh 500 G. This is the camera that started it all, it being the superlative 40mm f/2.8 Rikenon.
Author Archives: James Cockroft
Helmut Newton – ‘Pages from the Glossies’
I have a modest photobook collection, something in the neighborhood of 150 volumes, give or take, and not counting theory books or zines. I’ve tried to be rather democratic in my collecting, picking up books from professionals and amateurs, masters and novices, documentarians and artists, but upon reading Anil Mistry’s review of Pages from the …
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Decisive Moment? We don’t need no stinking decisive moments! (A Minolta Freedom Action Zoom 90 review)
Dear God, stop me before I buy another 90s point and shoot. Sure, I know many people find excellent, amazing, unbelievably stupendous cameras for half of nothing at various thrift stores, but I don’t,* and the Minolta Freedom Action Zoom 90 (aka the Freedom Zoom Traveler, Riva Zoom 90, and Freedom Zoom 90) is no …
Lee Friedlander – ‘The American Monument’
For The American Monument, Lee Friedlander turned his attention to public monuments, photographed in situ (sometimes more situ than in), with all of our forgetting, misremembering, and disregard fully on display. Thousands of negatives, shot over a 12 year period, were edited down to 213, presented singly, or in groups of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 9, and …
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Happy 5th Anniversary, Hanabibti!
5 years? Really? 1…2…3…4… yep. 5 years, already! Alhamdulillah! All thanks and praise be to God for uniting me with my darling, adorable wife, and may He grant us another 55 years together, ameen.
1970s Ricoh Compacts, part 3: the Ricoh 500 ME
The Ricoh 500 ME is the last of the line, with all of the advancements of previous models, and all of the bells and whistles Ricoh could cram into it, while still being pretty much the same fixed lens, shutter priority rangefinder that started the line.
Andrew Bellamy – ‘Analogue Photography’
Andrew Bellamy’s Analogue Photography: Reference Manual for Shooting Film is exactly what the title says: a film photography reference manual. It reminds me a good deal of the first photography-related book I bought—Technical Manual of Basic Photography, TM 1-219, July 1, 1941, a manual published by the War Department for the Army Air Forces—crossed with a …