Film Photography News

Just the good stuff, according to us.

Ninety years ago, at the 1925 Leipzig Spring Fair in Germany, a camera was launched that was destined to change the face of photography. This was a time when it was still common for glass plates to be used in cameras, and those that took roll film were thought of as miniatures. So imagine the culture shock when a still photography camera was produced to take 35mm movie film.

The unique Reflex 1 camera launched on Kickstarter this morning with a grandiose claim of being the first update on a manual 35mm SLR system in over 25 years. Given the growing fascination with film photography these days, we expect this interesting project to garner a lot of attention.

OK, before anyone gets too excited, we should note that this rare World War II Japanese “machine gun camera” did not shoot live rounds, or even dummy bullets. Rather, it was a camera mounted in a rifle-like housing used to capture images of whatever fell within the oversized sight on the device.

The best imaging products of 2009 were voted on at the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) General Assembly held from April 2-4, 2009 in Budapest.

Last fall we ran a piece suggesting that instant film photography was making a comeback. And based upon recent data from Amazon, it seems as though that is definitely the case. According to a report released this week, the top selling item in Amazon’s camera category over the holidays was Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Instant Film Twin Pack, which sells for $15 for 20 sheets of film.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your roll of film when you send it off to a lab, you should watch the fascinating the short video below from The Slanted Lens. In the video, Jay P. Morgan of the Slanted Lens tours Richard Photo Lab in Valencia, CA to see how color and black-and-white film gets processed.