I Dream of Cameras Jeff Greenstein and Gabe Sachs

One of the Best Photography Podcasts To Listen To In 2024 (per Amateur Photographer magazine) returns to bask in some praise for a change! In this blockbuster XL episode, we run down our travels in Europe and Canada, recap recent celebrity photo shoots, exult over exotic gear acquisitions, and dive to the bottom of our Prodigious and Informative Mailbag™! Tune in to see what the fuss is about!

* THE BIGGEST NEWS: our smash hit podcast earned global acclaim, as Amateur Photographer named us one of the best photography podcasts of 2024! Thanks, Jess Miller!
* you’d be wise to consult Lina Bessonova’s invaluable hand check guide before traveling
* Jeff once again experienced sudden XPan battery death after less than a month (= 30 rolls), so mock his spreadsheet at your peril
* a Czech photographer picked on Jeff for daring to do portraits with a pano camera - also, he failed to make the cut for Brooklyn Film Camera’s photo show - the shame!
* finding film in far-flung locations is HARD, so stock up
* Jeff recounts an extremely bad experience with a Rome photo lab
* not to be out-traveled, Gabe went to Canada with his Leica M10 and Noctilux - what’s more, he:
* …visited Leitz Road in Midland, Ontario so his lens could see its birthplace
* …hung out with Jessica Devic at Youthful Vengeance Coffee in Toronto - she’s a tremendous photographer, check her out
* …toured Memento Film Lab in Toronto
* …shot Claire Hinkley with the peerless Olympus 35 RC and monstrous Mamiya C330
* …and had a Fred Coury rock ’n’ roll idyll at the Rainbow and Whisky a Go Go with Taime Downe of Faster Pussycat
* Jeff harpooned a long-sought white whale you’ve never heard of: the Petri Color 35 Custom
* Gabe bonded with a TSA agent at Toronto Airport who turned out to be a film shooter
* behold the B&H Lego set!
* check out the Half Frame List of half-cookie cameras in current production
* we’ll be at the Bruce Gilden and Vivian Maier shows at Fotografiska in August
* and finally, our Prodigious and Informative Mailbag™, featuring plenty of fierce clapback about the Pentax 17

Two glasses of white wine reduces Jeff to drunkenly raving about travel cameras, airport hand-check injustices and (predictably) his usual cast of bêtes noires. Meanwhile, stone-cold-sober Gabe offers sharp, reasoned takes on the new Pentax 17 and the cameras of 1955. Tune in to Episode № 74 (not 75) for all the mayhem!

* Jeff recorded this episode from Rome after imbibing two glasses of cheap white wine, which is why he keeps calling it Episode 75
* Why the two cameras Jeff picked for his extended European trip — Olympus XA4 and Hasselblad XPan — have been ideal
* Lisbon Airport is the worst — they abjectly refused to hand-check Jeff’s film!
* Jeff had 18 rolls developed at Ars Imago in Rome, and here’s what he learned: Kodak Portra 160 needs tons of light
* Gabe unexpectedly presents: Cameras in Focus 1955!
* Miranda T
* Canon IIs2
* A $200,000 Leica accessory the Leica UW underwater housing
* Olympus Wide
* Gabe visited our lovely friends at LA Film Camera and you should too
* The boys drop some Strong Opinions™ about the new Pentax 17 half-frame film camera
* Gabe considered trading his Rolleiflex 2.8F for a Plaubel Makina and finally opted not to…
* …but because he’s Gabe, he stumbled across a garage sale in Pacific Palisades and came away with all this for only $200:
* Olympus 35RC
* Topcon RE Super with three lenses
* Leica V-Lux 3
* Gabe revisits his chronic bouts of which-camera-to-bring anxiety
* We drop a small I Dream of Pizzas travel tip: the best pizza Jeff’s girlfriend has ever had was at Ai Marmi in Rome
* A dip into our paltry yet Prodigious Mailbag™
* Gabe reacts to the NY Times article about film shooters trashing their negatives
* And Jeff offers one more shout for the RitchieCam, an iPhone app that can emulate the XPan

“I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it will be behind me.”

— Max Reger, German composer (1873–1916), responding to a savage review

Jeff’s in Lisbon at the start of a month-long European trip; Gabe’s in LA developing his own film for the first time in years. But what’s obsessing them the most? Their first rotten review! Tune in for all the merriment and NO PRAISE!

Jeff’s choice of cameras and film for a month-long European trip:

the Hasselblad XPan with both the 45mm and 90mm lenses

the mighty Olympus XA4 macro

24 rolls of Kodak Portra 400 and Portra 160

Gabe’s eBay misadventure in pursuit of the Pentax 50mm 1.7: 

the “as-is” Pentax ME Super and S1 turned out to be nonfunctional, the lens was dented…

…but he did get a Watson bulk loader!

He lent his Canon EOS 3 to Martin Starr… so he had to buy a replacement: the EOS Elan 7NE. Which was perfect — even better than our beloved Rebel 2000!

More eBaying: Gabe also got the Nikon 85mm f1.4D

and he got his beloved Leica M3 repaired by our trusty dusty camera repair guy! whom he interviewed! and who may finally be unmasked in an upcoming episode!

Jeff was on the cusp of buying an Olympus OM-3 when his cherished 12” Retina MacBook dropped dead… hence no OM-3

Gabe went shooting with the Elan and his Rolleiflex and processed the film himself — it’s a new era!

In Lisbon, Jeff visited Vintage Dream Cameras and took a hard, hard look at a Snoopy 110 camera and a rare Leica IIIc with sharkskin leatherette

We got a terrible review!

Gabe compared Rolleiflex TLRs with Dave Tada, but it turns out there are lots of differences between the 2.8E and the 2.8E2! Also, Dave’s has an RZ67 finder!

Our friend Oliver’s exotic Chinese Pearl River SLR

Jeff experienced sudden XPan battery death

We empty out our Prodigious Mailbag™ 

Some notes on our composer Fred Coury: his former band Cinderella’s Night Songs was released on this day in 1986; also, Fred just won his 6th Emmy!

A transformational live-on-locational supersensational IDOCstravaganza! First we go to a Los Angeles Photography Club Cameras and Coffee meetup in Koreatown to talk to folks about their cameras and dogs. Then we SPAN THE GLOBE to interview Jo Geier, proprietor of Mint and Rare, a phenomenal camera shop in Vienna, Austria. You won’t want to miss this one, so TOON IN!

Consulting Producer Tucker Sachs, the real brains behind I Dream of Cameras, has long lurked in the shadows with a bone and a chew toy, but in this episode he finally steps into the light. Also discussed: photo books, photo contests, photo walks and photo acquisitions, along with every syllable of your deathless prose from the Prodigious Mailbag™. It’s a doggie-dog world!

* Daido Moriyama’s ’71 NY is an incredible photo book shot on an Olympus Pen W
* Gabe had a blast at the latest Beers and Cameras feat. Joe Stitt
* Spotted: a Fujica ST 801
* check out Walker Evans' subway photo book, shot with a Contax II: Many Are Called
* Jeff entered an Epson pano competition - any favorite photo contests?
* Gabe really should get a Nikon SP, but in the meantime he finally snagged an ugly black-paint Nikon F from KEH
* our new cult favorite film: FPP Color 125
* bulk-loading and its discontents
* Gabe scored a slew of point-and-shoots at a yard sale for a total of $28:
* Olympus Infinity II
* Fuji Discovery
* Pentax IQ Zoom
* Olympus Infinity Jr.
* Polaroid announced an upgrade to their B&W 600 film - kudos!
* The IDOC gang are planning a Polaroid-peel-apart-film-shooting festival
* check out Sissi Lu's reels and IG live shots
* Jeff is performing at the Ruskin Theatre in Santa Monica on Mother's Day (click See a Show and then look for Library Girl)
* The Prodigious Mailbag™ features the Osmond brothers doing Crazy Horses
* Hank Haddock’s ISO 3200 stickers (designed by Suné Horn) will help you avoid arguments at airport security - find them at tinyurl.com/savemyfilm
* do you make photo books, and if so how?
* and finally, Consulting Producer Tucker Sachs puts in an appearance

He wouldn’t…. Now that the long-raging and ill-advisedly-ignited Vivian Maier debate has finally died down, Jeff wouldn’t throw gasoline on those embers by expressing a Strong Opinion about some recent Viv-related news, would he? Well, you’ll just have to tune in to find out. Also discussed: the boys swap cities, Gabe in New York and Jeff in Los Angeles; recent shooting adventures with a slew of cameras both old and new; and the proper way to express your love of our smash hit podcast: through lavish gifts!

* we had a tremendous response to the last episode — clearly 69 is something people really enjoy
* heh heh heh, the folks at Camerosity took the bait — haven’t y’all read The Mouse That Roared?
* Gabe’s adventures in New York shooting his Rolleiflex and Leica M10 with Sissi Lu (shoutout: Katz’s Deli) and Chris Chu (shoutout: Salt’s Cure), plus drive-bys at B&H and picturehouse + the small darkroom
* Jeff sold his Robot Royal 24, but shipping to South Korea was twice as much as what the UPS website originally quoted, so he realized a net profit of $3.32
* however, he still wanted a square-format 35mm, so bring on the Mamiya Sketch… which is delightful and quirky!
* shooting the Canonflex R2000
* shooting the Pentax MF with FPP Color 125 (see Jeff’s article in Casual Photophile)
* a hearty thanks to super-listener Jeffry Pittman, who sent us a Baby Rollei, a Hermes 3000 typewriter, and lots of film
* iPhone iOS 17.4 now includes podcast transcripts so you may enjoy our soaring rhetorical flourishes
* Jeff mildly reacts to some recent Vivian Maier news
* Gabe’s planning an all-medium-format film shoot with the Pentax 6x7, the Mamiya RZ67, and the Hasselblad 501CM
* a passing mention of new friend Peter Kagan, about whom you will hear more
* a bold voyage into our Prodigious Mailbag™
* and finally, a fond farewell to the great Joe Flaherty