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How to clean a focus screen…

Olympus OM-1

How to clean a focus screen: – One of those things that comes up endlessly on forums for classic cameras is ‘How do I clean a focus screen?’ to save my fingers and to try and antidote a lot of bad advice out there I am creating a handy article that I can now link…

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Film is expensive, or is it?

The price of film

Film is expensive: – The increasing cost of film is often much complained about on film photography forums with people endlessly binding on about how it’s daft to keep shooting when film costs are so exorbitant. Devotees of the art (craft, science, technology – pic your preferred nomenclature) seem to be constantly complaining about the…

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Minolta MD Rokkor 45mm f2 Lens Repair Guide

Minolta MD Rokkor 45mm f2

A step by step repair and servicing guide for the much loved Minolta MD Rokkor 45mm f2. The MD Rokkor 45mm f2 lens was, believe it or not, a low cost budget lens that Minolta primarily fitted to the budget XG series of cameras. The lens has now become something of a hyped up item…

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New Pentax Film Camera Project – In through the out door

New Pentax Film Camera?

Pentax Film Camera Project :- Over the past 12 months there has been a flurry of speculation that Pentax would soon bring to market a new 35mm film camera.Much of this has been provoked by some interviews with people at Pentax who are working on their film project. There are tons of speculative reports on…

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Being There……Picture This

Global Warming Protestor

One of the things that drives me mad with many photographers online, and in the flesh very often, is their push for ever more expensive gear but a complete lack of actually GOING somewhere or DOING something with it.  Now I can’t say I am completely devoid of ‘gearhead’ syndrome (also known as Collectivitis and Gear…

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Nikon F-301 Review – Third Times a Charm

Nikon F-301 35mm SLR Camera

Nikon F-301 Review:- One of the most underrated 35mm film SLRs in todays world has to be the Nikon F-301. I suppose that is to be expected considering it had a very short production life and was generally hated in its day by the Nikonista fraternity.Launched in 1985 and withdrawn around 1987 the Nikon F-301…

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Canon AE-1 Review – Look Out! There’s a Monster Coming!

Screaming woman and Canon AE-1

This Canon AE-1 review was originally titled ‘Why I Hate the Canon AE-1’ – But I decided against it. There are so many reasons I actually do hate the AE-1 it would be hard to know where to start or finish and it might have ended up like one of those horror TV shows that…

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Nikon 50mm Repair Guide f1.8 AiS

Mount the lens

A step by step Nikon 50mm Repair Guide f1.8 AiS with notes on managing the Series E version of the lens. Copyright 2022 High5Cameras, Free to use, copy and distribute so long as no charge is made for use, distribution or access and authorship and web address is freely acknowledged. The Nikon 50mm f1.8 AiS…

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The Last of Us – Minolta XD Series – XD, XD7 and XD11

Minolta XD7 35mm SLR Camera

On the 1st September 1914, a small grey bird fell from its perch at Cincinatti Zoo…… The mid 1970s saw a rash of camera developments.  While these produced amazing technological marvels the headlong rush to ever more sophistication while keeping the price down meant compromises. The first casualty of any price war is almost always…

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Pentax MX – The sense of an ending

Pentax MX 35mm SLR

Endings are strange things. It’s often hard to see where the ending of anything is until years after the event.  Rome wasn’t built in a day they say but it didn’t fall in a day either.  It’s only on reflection, after the passage of time, that you can put a pin in a calendar and…

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