Camerosity Mike Eckman

In the 68 previous episodes of the Camerosity Podcast, we've had the pleasure of talking to a wide variety of fascinating guests.  We've had collectors, historians, former Kodak employees, camera repair technicians, and a variety of other bloggers and other assorted people in the industry.  Each of those people were fascinating guests, but each had a special niche where their skill and experience fit in and not every listener of this might would have known who they were.
In this episode however, our special guest is Mike Butkus, someone whose name should ring a bell to anyone who has ever picked up an old camera and searched for information on it online.  It is impossible to collect cameras and never have stumbled upon the massive collection of cameras manuals at Mike's site.  His site has over 6000 high resolution scans of manuals for film and digital cameras, flashes, exposure meters, and much more, available for everyone to view and download for free.  Mike's site is not only big, but it has been around for over a quarter of a century, making it one of the oldest still operating film and digital photography sites out there.
Be sure to check out Episode 69 where Anthony, Paul, Theo and Mike are joined by returning callers Ray Nason, Howard Sandler, and first time callers Brian Zeman and Jordan Berube.
In addition to hearing Mike's origin story and getting a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes at the world's largest depot of camera manuals, we venture into a wide variety of other topics, such as tips and tricks to selling a large camera collection, what is everyone's favorite 6 x 9 camera, and how heavy is a Koni-Omegaflex M TLR.
Theo shares a story about a camera he bought, then returned, and may one day buy again, Mike gets yelled at by a site reader for mistaking a 2¼ x 3¼ camera for a 6 x 9 camera, and Howard asks why old folding Kodaks aren't valued by collectors.
Donate to Mike Butkus: For the past 25 years, Mike Butkus has run his camera manual website by himself.  He buys all of the manuals he scans with his own money, he pays the hosting and domain registration fees with his own money, and he does all the scanning in his free time.  All of this on a site with no ads.  If you have ever found any useful information on his site, we encourage you to send him a couple bucks through PayPal.
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/butkus
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you've been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
We had originally planned on doing a "Cameras of the 1970s" episode for number 69, but with the availability of Mike Butkus, we bumped it by one episode, so for Episode 70, we are definitely getting our disco balls out and putting our bell bottoms on and will be going over the best, the worst, and everything in between from everyone's favorite film camera decade.
We will record Episode 70 on Monday, April 29th at 7pm Central Daylight Time (-5 UTC), 8pm Eastern Daylight Time (-4 UTC), and Tuesday at 10am Australian Eastern Standard Time (+10 UTC). We look forward to hearing from you!
In This Episode
2024 is the Year of Solar Eclipses, New Jersey Earthquakes, 17 Year Cicadas, and a US Election / Mike Has a Yashica Dental-Eye
Mike Butkus's Origin Story / First Scans Were Made

For this, the 68th episode of the World's Number One Open Source Film Photography Podcast, the gang invited our friend and film photographer Johnny Martyr to share with us his love of Leicas.  As is the case any time the topic of cameras made by everyone's favorite Wetzlar based company is mentioned, the Force™ beckons our own resident Leica Master, Dan Tamarkin, who also joins us on our first ever April Fool's Day episode!
What is real and what is fake?!  Are Johnny and Dan really here or did Mike just find a really convincing AI voice generator?!  NO ONE KNOWS!
Helping Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike differentiate between reality and imagination, are returning callers Bob Rotoloni, Mark Faulkner, Patrick Casey, Raymond Nason, and first time callers Alan Peres, and Brock's Garage!
Starting off the episode, Johnny talks a bit about his business, shooting film and digital with his wife and what kinds of customers would hire a film photographer.  Of all the reasons someone might want a professional photographer, there is one type of gig that people tend to favor film more, but what is it?  Johnny also talks about how when he first got started, his customers struggled to differentiate his film shots from his wife's digital shots, so he sought out ways to come up with his own style.
For the second episode in a row, Leica R SLRs have captivated the Camerosity Crew, and Paul, Mike, and Dan discuss all of Leicas different SLRs, and what they like about each one.  Mike recently shot three different Leica SLRs and clearly loved one over the others, but which one was it?
Have you ever struggled loading film into bottom loading Leica screw mount (and similar) cameras?  Does trimming the leader to the necessary length cause you heartache and slow you down too much?  If so, Johnny has found a new type of take up spool that works in most screw mount Leicas (and copies) that greatly simplifies loading film into these cameras without having to trim the leader.  Enter Ausgeknipst, a small German company who 3D printed a new design that both Johnny and Mike have tested.
Finally, Mike shares his thoughts on a camera he thought would make a good April Fool's Discussion because of how well it "fooled" the community upon its release, but strangely, he ended up liking it way more than he thought he would.  But what was it?
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you've been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
For our next episode, rather than discuss a certain brand or type of camera, we thought it would be fun to discuss an entire decade worth of cameras, and what better decade to start in, but the 1970s!  Get out your hair picks, put on your bell bottoms, and spin up some Kiss records and call in to share with us your favorite 1970s cameras!
We will record Episode 69 on Monday, April 15th at 7pm Central Daylight Time (-5 UTC), 8pm Eastern Daylight Time (-4 UTC), and Tuesday at 10am Australian Eastern Standard Time (+10 UTC). We look forward to hearing from you!
In This Episode
Johnny uses a converted 1930 Leica Model C converted to a III / Mostly uses the Leica M6 TTLs for most shooting in low light
Shooting the Leica M6 With and Without a Meter / Paul does not like the Leica M3
Johnny and Mike met over a Konica III

There's the old saying "If you're going to shoot the king, don't miss..."
In a recent episode of a rival podcast, shots were fired at the Camerosity crew, especially Mike for a perceived slight given by us.  War was declared and many casualties were sure to ensue.  Would the world's first and only open source photography podcast respond?  Of course we would!
In this, the 67th episode of the Camerosity Podcast, Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike have some good natured fun at the expense of Jeff Greenstein and Gabe Sachs of the I Dream of Cameras podcast.  Throughout the episode we make repeated jabs at them, some obvious, some very subtle, can you spot them all?

Of course, this IS the number one open source film photography podcast, so we did eventually get on track with the exciting return of Mr. Rick Oleson, which we haven't seen since way back in Episode 2.  Rick is a master repair technician, who most recently became well known in the film community for a line of improved Bright Screens which can be adapted to a wide variety of medium format SLR and TLR cameras.
Joining Rick and the Gang are returning callers, A.J Gentile, Eric Jason, Ray Nason, and Tim Peters.  During the show we spend a great deal of time learning about Rick and his history repairing cameras and how he got into making the Bright Screens.  If you thought you knew everything there was to know about focusing screens, you really need to listen to this episode as Rick puts on his cap and gown and schools us on how focusing screens work, why the Bright Screens are better than the stock screens, why you cannot simply cut down his screens to 35mm, and why focusing screens in the auto focus era were brighter than in the past.  We talk about Fresnel patterns and the advancements made throughout the 20th century to make your viewfinders brighter, and how to install a new screen in large format cameras.
In addition to everything you didn't know you needed to know about focusing screens, Rick raves about a strange camera called the Continental TXL which he was amazed both at how simple it is, yet how good it is.  Paul and Mike talk more about the upcoming Cincinnati camera show and how Mike is bringing over 13 boxes of cameras to sell and Paul has at least another 10 or so more.  Mike talks about a recent trade with a UK camera blogger, and Rick talks about restoring a classic Mercedes Benz 450SL.
This was definitely an odd episode, produced during the stress of an ongoing war with another podcast, yet we managed to squeeze in a huge amount of information you won't find on any other podcast out there!  Even if learning more about focusing screens doesn't sound like a great way to spend 90+ minutes, you'd be surprised at how interesting it all is.
Meet Paul and Mike: If you are in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, March 23rd, come to the Ohio Camera Swap at the Hilton Garden Inn Cincinnati/West Chester and say hi to Paul and Mike.  While you're there, maybe you can buy something from us!
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you've been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
The next episode of the Camerosity Podcast will be recorded on April 1st, aka April Fool's Day, so if you thought episode 67 had a lot of silliness, wait unt

The Camerosity Podcast goes full Reddit with our first ever Ask Me Anything, or more appropriately, Ask Us Anything.  Over the week prior to the recording, the guys solicited questions from our listeners through our official Facebook and Instagram sites and our Discord server.  The questions could truly be anything, so while we expected to get a lot of camera and photography related questions, nothing was off the table.
Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo and Mike on this one were returning callers A.J. Gentile, Mark Faulkner, Miles Libak, Patrick Rapps, Ray Nason, and Stephen Strangways where we field questions submitted by our listeners and by the live guests on the show.
If you've ever wanted to know what Anthony's favorite Elvis Presley movie is, or why Paul Rybolt had at one time one of the most notorious mugshots, or what each of our wives think of our collections, this is an episode you won't want to miss.  In addition to these compelling questions, we also hit the hard topics like what kinds of camera ephemera we have, what alternatives to eBay are there for buying and selling cameras, and what kinds of things besides cameras do we collect.
As you might imagine, this was not a typical Camerosity Podcast episode.  This one was light on GAS, but heavy on discussions you won't hear anywhere else!
Meet Paul and Mike: If you are in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, March 23rd, come to the Ohio Camera Swap at the Hilton Garden Inn Cincinnati/West Chester and say hi to Paul and Mike.  While you're there, maybe you can buy something from us!
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you've been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
For our next episode, we expect to have the return of Rick Oleson.  For those of you who have been collecting cameras for a long time, you've almost certainly run across Rick's name either by his excellent repair website or through one of his very popular SLR and TLR Bright Screens.  Rick was one of this show's earliest guests, last appearing in Episode 2, so it will be great to hear what he's been up to lately.
We will record Episode 67 on Monday, March 18th at 7pm Central Daylight Time (-5 UTC), 8pm Eastern Daylight Time (-4 UTC), and Tuesday at 11am Australian Eastern Daylight Time (+11 UTC). We look forward to hearing from you!
In This Episode
Mike Had Failed GAS and Couldn't Buy a Meopta Opema / Theo GASsed a Telka III
Cameras Engraved with Names and Social Security Numbers / Brinks Security Markers
Patrick is Shooting a Keystone F8 Aircraft Camera
Mike, Paul, and Ray Will Be At the Cincinnati Camera Show on March 23rd / Paul's eBay Story
Why Would the Lord 4D Have a Film Cutter? / What Would it be Used for?
Will There Ever Be Camerosity Merch or a Patreon Page?
What Does Anthony Think Was Elvis Presley's Best Movie?
Tracking Movies Using Letterboxd / Mike Recommends 'The Bear'
What Photography Ephemera Does Everyone Collect, and What is Our Favorite? / Mike Has a Kodak Lamp
Making Lamp Shades Using Old Film Slides and Kodachrome Film
If Not eBay, What Alternatives Are There for Buying and Selling Cameras? / Yahoo.jp / ZenMarket / Fred Miranda
Most Collectible Cameras Are No Longer Owned by Their Original Owners
What's the Deal with Paul's Prison Mugshot?
What Store

For regular listeners of this show, the gang usually records each episode during the evening for listeners in the United States.  For those of you on Theo's side of the planet, it is either late morning or midday the next day, but this time slot is not good for listeners in Europe or Africa.  While we've had some graveyard shifters call us, we like to sometimes have episodes at an hour which is more time-zone friendly to our listeners in those areas of the world.
It has been longer than we'd care to admit, but for this the 65th episode of the Camerosity Podcast, the gang invites our European friends for nearly 2 hours of non-stop Camerosity discussion!  Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike are returning callers Alan Duncan, Brian MacDomhnaill, Frederico Quaglino, John-Michael Mendizza, Tim Peters, Wannes Scheipers and first time callers Adrian Cullen, Jeremy Scott, John Kelly, Stuart Pratt, and from Prague, Czech Republic, Tadeas Plachy.
The conversations in this episode ranged all the way from Arsenic to Zeiss, hear about some of the groups favorite cameras from the Hungary, Italy, France, Czechoslovakia, England, Austria, and even Germany!  For those of you with access, what can Uranium and Mercury do for your film photography.  Who is still shooting Kodak Ektachrome IR film, and what is everyone's favorite method for removing Remjet?  When you invite such a wide variety of people from so many countries, you're bound to come up with some interesting conversation and boy did we ever!
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you!  Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are new to shooting and are interested in having an episode dedicated to people new to the hobby, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com.  We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
Our next episode is going to be a little different.  It will be our first ever Camerosity AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode.  All episodes of the show have an open discussion format, but for this one we are soliciting questions on ANY TOPIC for Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike.  Want to know something about either Theo or Mike's blogs, or any stories about Paul's days owning his own camera story, or Anthony's tips and tricks about underwater cave diving or running your own coffee shop?  Literally no topic is off the table (except politics).  Like all episodes, we encourage people to join us, but if you have a question you'd like to be read on air, please submit them to us through Facebook, Instagram, or Discord before the show airs.
We will record Episode 66 on Monday, March 4th at 7pm Central Standard Time (-6 UTC), 8pm Eastern Standard Time (-5 UTC), and Tuesday at Noon Australian Eastern Daylight Time (+11 UTC).  We look forward to hearing from you!
In This Episode
Tadeas Hates Flexarets / Meopta Opema
Soviet Countries were Allocated Camera Types for Manufacturing
Paul has a Fokaflex / Meopta Enlargers are well respected
The Czech press agency bought Nikon Fs in 1970 and 80s
Tadeas loves his Nikon FM2 / Canon 25mm LTM Lenses / Minolta SRT-101 and Prakticas / Zeiss-Ikon Taxona and Tenax II
35mm Cassette Shapes Have Changed / East Europe 35mm Reloads Used Paper Wrapped Film
Kodak Ektachrome Infrared Film / Full Spectrum and IR Digital Cameras / Shooting IR in a Movie Theater / Sony CyberShot DSC-F828
Using Expired Film and Cinema Films / Removing Remjet
Uranium to Increase Contrast on Prints / Mercury to Incre

For this, the 64th episode of the Camerosity Podcast, the gang finally devotes our full attention to one of the most popular brands of cameras ever made.  A camera brand that was so popular, they named the entire company after it, the Rolleiflex!
Originally founded by two ex Voigtländer employees who had an idea on how to build a better soldier's camera, a new company called Franke & Heidecke was created, and from there, a whole legacy of twin lens, and eventual single lens reflexes was born.

Joining Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike are returning callers Bill Smith, John Roberts, Marc Gordon, Patrick Casey, Rafael Espinosa, Tim Peters, and first time callers Dean Robinson and Steve "Johnny Appleseed" Lederman.
In this episode, we will cover the early history of the company, how Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke first got started, the early and later Rolleiflex and Rolleicord TLRs.  We also cover their transition into both medium format and 35mm SLRs, the compact Rollei 35, the Cosina made Rollei 35 RF, and a few other Rollei models.
We ask the tough questions like what is the difference between a Rolleiflex and Rolleicord, are the triplet lenses really that much worse than the Tessars, are German Rolleis better than Singapore Rolleis, and what are everyone's favorite models.  In addition to Rollei GAS, we briefly discuss a strange Japanese Rollei copy, why people tend to blend in better using cameras with waist level vs eye level viewfinders, the confusing transition from Voigtländer, Zeiss-Ikon to Rollei, and whether or not Vivian Maier was creepy.
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you!  Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are new to shooting and are interested in having an episode dedicated to people new to the hobby, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com.  We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
For our next episode, we are finally going across the pond for another European time zone friendly episode.  If you are a fan of the show but are asleep or otherwise unable to join us for our regular recordings, this is the episode for you!  We will record Episode 65 on Monday, February 12th at Noon Central Standard Time (-6 UTC), 1pm Eastern Standard Time (-5 UTC), 6pm Greenwich Mean Time (+0 UTC), 7pm Central European Time (+1 UTC), and 5am Tuesday morning Australian Eastern Daylight Time (+11 UTC).  We look forward to hearing from you!
In This Episode
Rollei Almost Didn't Exist / Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke Originally Worked for Voigtländer
The Original Idea for the Rolleiflex Was to Be an Improved Vest Pocket Camera
Franke & Heidecke Heidscop / Rolleidoscop
The Rolleiflex First Went on Sale in 1929 / It Is Difficult to Tell Every Rollei Apart
Early Rolleiflexes Were Designed for 117 Film / Some Were Modified to Use 620 Film
Differences Between Rolleiflex and Rolleicords / Dim Viewfinders
Was the 1950s the "Golden Era of Rollei"? / Triplet Lenses Can Sometimes Be Very Sharp
Mike's First Attempt at Repairing a Rolleiflex Old Standard
Rolleiflex T and Rolleimagic / TLRs with Interchangeable Lenses / Bay Filter Mounts
Japanese Rollei Copy, the Rollekonter / Meopta Flexaret TLRs
Rolleiflexes Are Precision Machines That Require Regular Service and Cleaning
Honeywell Distributed Rolleiflexes in the US For a While
Heinrich Peesel / Rollei 35 / Rolleiflex SLRs / Ifbaflex SLR
Rolleiflex SL66 Medium Format SLR / Rolleiflex SL26 Instamatic / Rollei