Classic Camera Revival

In this episode, the gang sits down to discuss the art of Bulk Loading 35mm film. From the equipment to the techniques and the pros and cons, James, Bill, and John all share their own experiences and knowledge on the subject while Alex who has tried and disliked the process sits down and learns where he went wrong and the causes of his own frustrations.

While we are all unabashedly Nikon fans here at CCR, that doesn't mean we don't shoot other camera systems. And while we've done a bunch of deep dives on the Nikon F series, what about the other F? We're of course talking about the Canon F-1, F-1n and New F-1 because all are different, two are close, one of a radically different name. So stay tuned and join, Bill, John, Ori, and Jess as they dig into Canon's answer to the Nikon F!

If you've been around the photography community long enough certain names pop up again and again. Among them is Bill Manning, photographer, podcaster, and a great dude who is joining Alex and Bill today in the hot seat. We've been wanting to have Bill on the show since last December when Bill and Alex joining the end of year roundtable over on the Studio C-41 Video Podcast. The trio sit down to discuss photography, travel, podcasting, constant learning, and much more!

Today Bill, James, and Alex sit down with Gary Clennan from Alberta. Gary is a long time photographer, a good dude who also is a self-taught camera technician under the name LensMedic YYC. Gary has worked on a few of our cameras and provides a valuable service to Canada as the number of techs who are willing to work with film cameras is fluctuating. Gary talks about gear, repair, teaching, training, travel, and beer!

The whole gang is back together around the round table (virtually)! Back earlier in the year John was clearing out some of his boxes of strange M42 lenses and came across four 'fourth party' lenses and decided that they would make excellent fodder for a future CCR episode and handed them out through random draw to everyone. And today the episode finally hits the air! But we're not only talking about bad (but not all so bad) lenses, we're also digging into our photography book library to talk about some of our favourite books on our shelves.

James Lee sits down with former East Coaster, turned West Coast Portrait Photographer, Justen Rosenberg! Justin is primarily a portrait photographer, who also shoots corporate and commercial work with a bit of landscape thrown in for good measure. Ten Year's Sober, but he doesn't see that as a crutch but rather helps show duality within his photography, that he can be both happy and sad at the same times. But it is not only in his photography that it helps; it helps him as a human also. It isn't embarrassing, and he is open with this to help his own healing and help others who are going through the same journey as others have been with him in the past to help him out. While his corporate work is heavily structured, his portrait work is incredibly experimental and helps the models open up and feel comfortable. But he's not about only looking good and making pretty photos. There's always something more. More is a little nebulous and hard to define. But it isn't the mechanical hitting the seven 'must-have' shots; it's about getting the subject more than understanding the gear. It's about the subject, building a rapport with them rather than you (the photographer) and what you want. You have to take the ego, your ego, out of the equation. Of course, that is harder than it looks, especially when someone is willing and offering to pay for your work. And it has been a journey since then, from landscapes to horrible portraits, more and more whatever the day brings. Into shows and moved into a bit of a dark end of society. Then drugs entered into the picture, which resulted in moving to California to enter rehab; which after the rehab learned, Justin knew his way around the camera and welcomed him into the non-profit ad agency attached to the clinic, which leads him to get sober and being brought on to run the photography side of the agency. Today his style is highly experimental, with plenty of films and digital with even a mix of instant work. And the film doesn't slow him down; it actually speeds him up in the sense that he can shoot a handful of rolls and end up with only forty-odd photos to go through, which is faster to edit rather than the thousands of digital images. The two things that Justin does suggest to aspiring commercial or folks looking to get into any photography as a source of income first is to learn the business; second, learn how to be a good person and talk to people.

By the end of the episode, both James and Justin realised that they are, in fact, the same person.

No matter how you describe him, Merlin is a film photographer that gets around, he is in touch with all different aspects of the community as a whole, kind of like Kevin Bacon and today he's joining Bill, James, and Chrissie on today's episode! While he doesn't describe himself as a photographer, he feels more like an archivist, he loves using film to archive the people and places that are important to him. While traditional film is a medium he uses, his film of choice is instant and it is the community that he feels the most connected to, especially the Instant Film Society. Merlin is a west coast native but has spent the recent years here in Toronto but is now heading back out to BC. In addition to his own work, he is part of the team behind Northern Film Collective. And has recently gotten into running a series of live interviews through Instagram with a range of different photographers. Grab a coffee, this is going to be a long episode.

These cameras go by many names, Alpha, Dynax and of course, we in North American call them Maxxum. They are the first commercially successful autofocus SLRs; they changed the came, they set the trend. Today James and Alex are again joined by Marwan of Silvergrain Classics, who isn't only a Leica user. He also uses Minolta Dynax (in his case) and joins us to share his wealth of knowledge as we go from the 7000 to the 7 and almost everything in between. Plus, with the return of Marwan, Silvergrain Classics has a special offer for all our listeners; if you order a subscription or individual issue of the Silvergrain Classics Magazine, use the code CCR21 at check out for 10% off your order. Also, the first three people to email us (classiccamerarevival[at]gmail[dot]com) with your name, address, and a little note about CCR, you will receive a free copy of the latest edition of Slivergrain Classics!

On today's show, we have the amazing Becca who is the driving force behind the Northern Film Collective. She started shooting back in HS, starting with disposable cameras also dabbled with digital but found film far more fulfilling. Since starting she has focused mainly on 35mm until recently when she started working with medium format. The medium format kit she ended up getting is a Bronica SQ-Ai a solid workhorse camera. And her Canon T90 remains a long time favourite and an interesting beast within the FD system. Back in 2019, she launched an online community, the Northern Film Collective, which was launched to highlight Canadian film based photographers. And recently they published their first anthology piece earlier this year. And don't worry if you missed out on volume one, this summer they will be opening up for submissions for Volume 2.

It's been a long time coming, but we've finally reached this amazing milestone of 100 (numbered) episode. In today's episode, John, Bill, James, and Alex sit down to discuss some of our older pieces of equipment in our collections! Such as James' Kodak Autographic No. 1a and Alex's Kodak Hawk-Eye Model C. Bill discusses the awesome and hardly changed in the 100 years it has been around Kodak D-76 developer. Alex also talks about the Lomography Achromat lens, a modern SLR lens based on a lens design from 1839! John also brings us up to speed on a small project to bring modern Rasberry Pi technology into a darkroom multi-function timer device. And for the first time, we hear from you, our listeners, who speak on their favourite cameras! If there's one thing for sure, we're behind by a century.