Camerosity Mike Eckman
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The Camerosity Podcast is a film photography podcast that covers collecting, using, repairing, and the history of classic film and digital cameras. We love all kinds of cameras, and often talk about specific brands or formats of cameras with an emphasis on the history and stories these cameras have.
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Episode 66: Ask Us Anything
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 -
Episode 65: The One with All the Europeans
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 -
Episode 64: Rollei Rollei Rollei
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 -
Episode 63: Mount Olympus
In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the home of the Twelve Olympian Gods, Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena, and others looked upon the mortals of the world and accepted their worship. In modern times, Mount Olympus is also home to the Camerosity Podcast where Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike gaze down upon their followers, accepting tributes and praise.
No, just kidding, none of us are that egomaniacal, no, the real Mount Olympus is in modern day Greece on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia near the Aegean Sea. It was the inspiration for a small Japanese company formed on October 12, 1919 as K.K. Takachiho Seisakusho, or Takachiho Works Co., Ltd. in English. The company would originally make microscopes, one of which was branded the "Olympus". A series of cameras would come next with the same name, and in 1949, the entire company would then become known as the Olympus Corporation.
In the years since, Olympus has created some of the best lenses and cameras the Japanese photo industry ever produced. In the time doing this show, we've mentioned a variety of Olympus cameras here and there, but we had never dedicated an entire episode to them, until now.
Tune in to Episode 63 where Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike are joined by returning callers A.J. Gentile, Howard Sandler, Mark Faulkner, Matt Murray, Patrick Casey, Patrick Rapps, Robert Coates, Tim Peters, and first time callers Josh Barker, Stephen Strangway, and Tony Plescia discuss their favorite Olympus models, some tips and tricks to using them, and a little bit of history.
The episode barely gets started before we go down the academia route and debate what the plural form of "Olympus" is, but then we get to other questions such as why half frame was so popular in Japan, when did Olympus become a point and shoot company, and what are some tips and tricks to get an Olympus OM-2 or OM-4 cheaply at a thrift shop.
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.
We will return with Episode 64 which will be dedicated to Rollei. We will discuss all of the early Franke & Heidecke Rolleiflex and Rolleicord TLRs, plus their later SLRs, point and shoots, and maybe even an interchangeable lens rangefinder, digital camera or two. We will record on a special night, on Thursday, January 25th at 7pm Central Standard Time, 8pm Eastern Standard Time. We look forward to hearing from you!
In This Episode
What Is the Plurality of Olympus? / Was Olympus Famous for Their Lenses First?
Olympus's Early History / Zuiko Lenses Made for Other People / Zuiko Leica Thread Mount 40mm f/2.8
Olympus Pen and Trip 35 / The Pen Re-Started Half Frame Popularity in the 1960s
Why Was Half Frame 35mm So Popular in Japan? / Maitani Designed to Pen to Be Inexpensive Yet Still Capable of Great Photos
Half Frame Was Single Frame Before the Pen / What Is Everyone's Favorite Pen? / Olympus Pen EE and D Series
Zuiko Lenses and The Letter Code Indicates How Many Elements / The Original OM-1 Was Called the M-1
Olympus FTL Was the First Full Frame Olympus SLR / No One Knows Who Made the FTL
Anthony Loves the Pen F and FT / The Pen F SLR is a Marvel of Miniaturization
Olympus Ace, Ace-E, and Tower 19 Rangefinders / Anthony's Olymp -
Episode 62: Camerosity Live!
In the spirit of the earliest episodes of this show, as the last days of 2023 were winding down, the Camerosity gang found themselves with nothing to do on a Friday night and thought, "Hey! Lets do a Live show!"
Podbean, the service that hosts and distributes this show has a feature called Live Streams in which you can create a live podcast, where it goes out as you record. Everything is done on the fly, no editing, just people talking about whatever. We thought this might be a fun experiment to get the four of us together one last time in 2023 and see what a live Camerosity show might be like...
Unfortunately, we couldn't make it work. Apparently, Podbean has some requirements for more than one person to be able to talk during a live stream, and while it probably wouldn't have been too difficult to figure out, we just decided to go back to Zoom and record a quick episode as we usually do, except we'd keep the "live" spirit and do little to no editing.
Episode 62 was not planned, we went into it with no idea of what we'd talk about, or for how long. We stuck to our guns and left in all the pauses, uuummmmsss, and all the talking over each other heard in live recordings. There are no guests, no show notes, no Instagram roll calls of all the cameras we talk about, just roughly two hours of raw audio of us chatting. As I type this, I haven't even listened to the whole show myself, so I guess I should apologize now...
We will be back with regular episodes in January and as always, we want to hear from you! The topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by our listeners! 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.
We will record Episode 63 on Monday, January 8, 2024 at 7pm Central Standard Time, 8pm Eastern Standard Time, and 12 Noon on Jan 9th in Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Our topic of discussion will more than likely be Olympus cameras, so get out your OM-series SLRs and Olympus Sixes and stay tuned!
Links
The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.
If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Discord, or Instagram pages.
The Official Camerosity Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerositypodcast
Camerosity Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/camerosity_podcast/
Theo Panagopoulos - https://www.photothinking.com/
Paul Rybolt - https://www.ebay.com/usr/paulkris and https://www.etsy.com/shop/Camerasandpictures
Anthony Rue - https://www.instagram.com/kino_pravda/ and https://www.facebook.com/VoltaGNV/ -
Episode 61: Pointing and Shooting
It took us a couple of tries. but the Camerosity crew finally managed to put together an episode dedicated to the best selling, widely used, and most accessible type of camera ever, the point and shoot.
The great thing about the point and shoot segment, is that apart from being easy enough to literally "point and shoot", there was a lot of flexibility in design, features, ergonomics, and usability, with many camera makers free to do something different from established norms, adding things like solar panels, dedicated panoramic modes, and even speech capability to otherwise mundane cameras.
In Episode 61, Paul, Theo, and Mike chatted with Andrew Smith. Matt Murray, Tim Peters, Kyle Lu, AJ Gentile, and first time caller Rafael Espinosa to share with us their favorite point and shoot models, how they like to use them, and their own tips and tricks to getting the most from these cameras.
Addressing the biggest debate right at the top of the show, we discuss what exactly is a point a shoot. Not everyone agrees where this era exactly begins and ends as something as simple as the 1888 Kodak could technically be considered a point and shoot as you literally press the button and Kodak does the rest, but we decide to cap it to simple auto exposure models from the 1960s and on.
We talk about replacing rotted light seals, battery compatibility, which models are more likely to fail than others, underwater point and shoots, disposable point and shoots, and some premium point and shoots. Will this episode give you GAS like some of our others? I guess that depends on what style of photography you prefer, but you'll never know for sure if you don't listen in!
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.
This will be our last episode of 2023 as the guys and I will take a short break before coming back in January. We may have something special planned for the week after Christmas, but as always, we need to flesh out ideas and make sure that if we do record something it is worth listening to, but even if we don't manage to get something out, we will be sure to return in January with Episode 62. As always, stay tuned and keep a look out for the show announcement!
In This Episode
We define what a Point and Shoot is / Theo suggests it might be a box camera
Kodak made simple cameras to sell more film / Point and Shoots are perfect for the zoo
Andrew’s first was a Ricoh TF500 / Canon QL17 GIII
Old P&S cameras often need foam replacement
Yashica Electros are also a good option / Olympus XA
The Mamiya 7 is the best camera in the world, even as a P&S
The Fuji GA645 is a true medium format P&S
Fuji has a DX type coding for medium format films
Matt Loves Cameras loves the Contax T3, his has only one tooth!
Canon SureShot/Autoshot P&S are a great range of cameras / Canon A1 / Aqua Snappy 6 / Prima / Nikon Action Touch
Matt’s Fuji Natura has a fast lens but only with fast film
The Canon SureShot Series Are All Great
Fuji TW-3 / Solar Powered Canon del Sol / Nikon Lite Touch Zoom 140
Autofocus technology was important for zoom lens advancement
Mike Raves About the Olympus IS Range / Canon MC Inspired by the Olympus XA
Paul loves the Samsung AF Slim /
Customer Reviews
Tim is a good addition
I’ve been listening and I thought that Tim guy from the fan episode was a good addition to the podcast. Keep up the great work!
In a world of new latest a greatest! How refreshing!
Mike,
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed listening to you and the gang in your podcast. I am a pro photographer and have been one for over 30 years. In the last several years I’ve enjoyed adapting old manual focus lenses to my Fuji mirrorless cameras. I like looking at old film cameras but don’t really have the urge to shoot film anymore. I make my living with digital but I still like to slow down and play with old manual lenses. I do a lot of traveling for my job and spend a lot of time in the car. You are doing a fantastic job with this podcast and even though I don’t have the want to go out and shoot film with old cameras, I’m still very interested in them. I enjoy listening to your podcast and I like the fact that you all stick to talking about old cameras and lenses and don’t get too of in the weeds of other like some other podcast have done.
Some of the lenses I have a adapted to digital or Canon FD, Minolta MD, Pentax A, & SMC Takumar, X-Fujinon mount, Yashica ML, Carl Zeiss Jena Biortar 58mm f2.0, Konica AR, Topcor, Olympus OM, Nikon F, M42 of all flavors and M39. I’m always keeping my eye open for all cameras and lenses. Recently for $20.00, I found a Zeiss Ikon Contarex with a 50 F2 at a thrift store and the meter even works. I like it but not enough to keep it. Sure wish I could’ve doubt the lands though.
Well enough about me, I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy listening to your podcast. Keep up the great work as I know you love what you do.
Great job!
Greg