“I long so much to make beautiful things. But beautiful things require effort and disappointment and perseverance.”
-Vincent Van Gogh
Classic Camera Review: Minolta XE-1
Tag: Film Photography
Classic Camera Review: Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation”.
-Herman Melville
Classic Camera Review: Minolta XG-M
“We are all youthful barbarians, and only our new toys bring us excitement. That has been the sole purpose of our flights. This one flies higher, that one faster. But now we will make ourselves at home. We will forget the machine, the tool. It is no longer complex; it does what it is supposed to do, unnoticed. And through this tool we find again the old nature, the nature of the gardener, the navigator, the poet.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Classic Camera Review: Olympus XA
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
-Mark Twain
Thoughts on Snobbery
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
― Leonard Cohen
Classic Camera Review: Contax 139 Quartz
“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.”
-Steve McCurry
Classic Camera Review: Nikon FM10
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
Classic Camera Review: Canon A-1
“I mean, Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes that everyone liked…They left that to the Bee Gees.”
Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers), Wayne’s World
Legacy Lens Review: Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 AF
“I sing my heart out to the wide open spaces
I sing my heart out to the infinite sea
I sing my vision to the sky-high mountains
I sing my song to the free.”
-Pete Townshend
Classic Camera Review: Pentax P30t
“Handsome is as handsome does.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
From the B-Side: The Motor Drive
“I have a thing for tools.”
-Tim Allen
Legacy Lens Review: Nikkor-O 35mm f2 Pre-Ai
“Old age hath yet his honour and his toil.”
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
Classic Camera Review: Canon EOS Elan 7E
“Eos rose from her bed, where she lay by haughty Tithonos, to carry her light to men and to immortals.”
-Homer, Iliad 11. 1 ff (trans. Lattimore)
Classic Camera Review: Minolta X-7A
“Every artist was first an amateur.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Classic Camera Review: Olympus OM-2n
“The smaller the creature, the bolder its spirit.”
― Suzy Kassem
Legacy Lens Review: Pentax Super-Takumar 105mm f2.8
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finally! A Pentax 6×7
“Welcome, Lord Vader. This is an unexpected pleasure.”
-Moff Jerjerrod, Star Wars Episode VI, Return of the Jedi
Classic Camera Review: Pentax Spotmatic ES II
“After all, the thing that looks most ordinary might be the thing that leads you to victory.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
From the B-Side: Gray, Black and White Cards
“Best analytical skill is to find the simplest solution.”
― Sonal Takalkar
Classic Camera Review: Nikon N90s
“If you get stuck, draw with a different pen. Change your tools; it may free your thinking.”
– Paul Arden
Classic Camera Review: Rolleiflex MX-EVS
“I had rescued the moment by using my camera and in that way had found how to stop time and hold it. No one could take that image away from me because I owned it.”
― Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
From the B-Side: Extension Tubes
“Express gratitude for the greatness of small things.”
-Richie Norton
Classic Camera Review: Pentax Spotmatic F
“Only when your eye, heart and soul shine brighter than the sun, you realize how ordinary it is to love the beautiful, and how beautiful it is to love the ordinary.”
― Marius Vieth
Legacy Lens Review: Olympus Zuiko 65-200mm F/4
“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.”
-Yousuf Karsh
Legacy Lens Review: Minolta MC Rokkor-PF 55mm f1.7
“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”
-Joan Miró