Small cameras in retro style. Modern cameras in retro style. Modern possibilities of retro cameras

From October last year and at least until the summer, on Fridays and Saturdays, the SPHERE Museum has an exhibition of old cameras and retro photographic equipment.
One of the main advantages of the exhibition is interactivity. You can gently touch everything, they will tell you about everything in detail and additionally pay attention to interesting details.

General impression after leaving the exhibition: It's great that small European-style museums are slowly appearing in Moscow, where you are welcome.

If you want to understand a little how photographers worked 100 years ago, what they could see when they covered themselves with a black rag and how photographs were printed at home quite recently, then you go straight to the exhibition —>

We begin our inspection of the exposition from the camera obscura. In turn, two or three people climb inside, and the rest act as models.

Inside, it looks like this (it was photographed in complete darkness, in fact, it can be seen a little more clearly). No lenses or sharpness settings, just a hole in the box. The inverted image is simply projected onto the opposite wall of the box.

There are wonderful examples

You can gently touch and ask

Medium format camera Salyut (Soviet copy of Hasselblad 1600F). This was used by Yuri Gagarin.
Wide-angle lens MIR-3 65 mm, f/3.5

One of the Soviet large-format "boxes".
The lens is wide-angle, but in this format it is 300mm f/4.5

And here's what you can see from the back. On the skids, the screen rides back and forth to adjust the sharpness.
If you completely close yourself with a black canvas, then you can more accurately tune in

Here, on the tour, they tell what a boom the distribution of photography has made for criminologists, government agencies that issue documents, visas, etc.
Presented are the original passports of the Russian Empire, the end of the 19th century. There are no photos in them. A simple verbal portrait is given.

A wonderful document: this is what a French visa looked like in 1914. There is a photo, but there are no requirements for it. The lady was simply photographed against the background of the garden and the house.

A Soviet passport that appeared in the late 1920s, there is a place for a photo in the lower right corner: Space for a photo card (optional)

The workhorse of the photojournalists of the 1930s.
With the outbreak of the war, cameras were confiscated from the population, and compact Leicas were issued to photo correspondents.
With Leica and a notepad,
And even with a machine gun
Through fire and cold we have passed.
Leonid Utyosov sang with verses by Konstantin Simonov

This once highly fashionable and prestigious camera should probably not be introduced.

A real photo gun! It didn't just exist in cartoons.
Camera + 300 mm lens + special handle with stock.

The simplest plastic camera Shkolnik. Small, but shoots on medium format film.

Such a camera was and is in every seventh Soviet family. It was inexpensive and sold well. The volume of its release exceeded 20 million pieces.
Smena-8M is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most massive camera in the world.

In the foreground with a yellow filter is a very interesting and rare German camera from Robot.
In addition to the fact that he shoots 3 frames per second and rolls the film himself ....

... you can shoot at it secretly, at an angle of 90 degrees, when the photographer himself looks straight ahead, but actually looks sideways through the side eye.
The toggle switch on top allows you to switch the camera to normal shooting mode.
He was successful with the paparazzi.

small spy camera

It doesn't even have a viewfinder. Factory stamp too.

A special accessory that allows you to hide this camera under your clothes, and only the button can be displayed outside. In the photo (and in life) it is hard to see that in fact the button consists of two parts that move apart at the time of shooting. Different buttons were made for different tasks.

The smallest one is not a camera, but a lighter.

When photographing with an accordion, you need to sight when looking from above through the lens and the mirror above the lens.

Photosensitive materials are inserted here

And so the "accordion" develops

They also show the glass plates on which the shooting was made.

Trunk photojournalist 1930s

Pretty weighty wardrobe trunk FKD 18x24. Interestingly, the camera was produced in the USSR from 1931, right up to 1987 (!).

The camera is on a tripod, please note: at the bottom right is the “telephoto” (large zoom lens) for this camera, and on the left is the glass on which the photograph was taken.
Of course, no mechanics. The photographer simply manually removed the cap from the lens and then closed it, independently controlling the shutter speed.

And TV again. Adjust the sharpness using the wheel

Stereo camera and faded sample photo

And then we were taken to the red room, where they showed how photographs were printed by hand quite recently (and in some houses still)

The whole magical process of the appearance of a picture on photographic paper can be seen in the video:

The museum is located in the basement of a residential building.

A museum where even simple ads are written with soul is beautiful by definition!

This is how the courtyard and the entrance to the museum look like (next to the second entrance).

Finally, we must say the following:
Of course, the museum will not show anything fundamentally new to sophisticated photo collectors and amateur photographers. But if you want to turn old equipment in your hands, look into old cameras and be present (or feel nostalgia) when manually printing photos, then you definitely need to go there!
Well, for little novice amateur photographers there is just a holiday! Everything is very intelligibly and interestingly explained for little "why".

Useful information:
Museum official website: http://www.smuseum.ru/
The museum is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 12:00 to 19:00 (Sunday will be connected soon)
Tours start: 12.00, 13.30, 15.00, 16.30, 18.00.

Address:
st. Ivana Franko, d. 22, bldg. one.
Metro Kuntsevskaya
()

Tune your internet to our wave!

This month, Nikon introduced the new Nikon 1 V3, a professional camera with a retro body. Our material is about this and other cameras with modern filling and retro look.

The Model 1 V3 is marketed as a camera "for serious photographers who want to travel light and who place high demands on speed, power and reliability." This claim is based on an impressive baseline: the camera is equipped with an 18.4-megapixel CX-format CMOS sensor (13.2x8.8 mm), which produces superb images with a high degree of detail even in low light conditions. The effective sensitivity range is ISO 160-12800.

Anchors & Anvils

Enthusiasts at Anchors & Anvils are doing a very useful job: looking for old film camera bodies, restoring some of the mechanisms and adding modern stuffing. The body of the camera is also undergoing a major revision: in the case of the latest brainchild of the company, this metal and walnut.

The quite compact, elegant Nikon Df camera in a retro case has attracted the attention of photographers of all levels and stripes for a long time. The pentaprism as an optic, the abundance of purely mechanical settings such as shutter speed and exposure, the PASM dial makes the Nikon Df a truly welcome addition to the collection. Actually, in addition to this, the internal filling, on the contrary, is very modern. By and large, it differs little from one of the company's flagships - Nikon D4. Luxurious retro design does not prevent the body from being waterproof and shockproof - in general, chic, not a camera.

Fuji X-E2

The specs of the camera are very impressive: ultra-fast autofocus, a 16-megapixel APS-C format (23.6 x 15.6mm) X-Trans CMOS II sensor with built-in phase detection autofocus sensors, and an EXR II processor - a class of mirrorless cameras did not damage the performance of Fuji at all X-E2. She can shoot video, of course, in Full HD and even has a Wi-Fi module. All this is neatly packaged in a very stylish case, the appearance of which refers to the most successful models of the company at the end of the 20th century.

Fuji X-T1


Another retro model from Fuji. In fact, the Fuji X-T1 is a very recent release and boasts some of the most advanced features, but the look of the camera is the most retro; this corresponds not only to the soft, slightly angular contours of the case, but also to its very texture. By the way, the body of the Fuji X-T1 is made of magnesium alloy, so the camera has both dust and moisture protection.

Nikon has announced a new type of digital SLR camera called Df, designed exclusively for photography. The device has a Nikon-style design for 35mm film cameras and technical innovations inherent in the latest professional models.

The Df is based on the same 16.2-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor (full frame, 36.0 x 23.9 mm) and the same EXPEED 3 image processor as the Nikon D4 professional camera. ISO range is 100-12800 ISO, expandable to 204800. This results in highly detailed images with minimal noise even in low light conditions.

The camera turn-on time is approximately 0.14 seconds and the shutter lag is only 0.052 seconds. High-speed continuous shooting in FX and DX formats at up to 5.5 frames per second is possible.

The novelty uses a highly reliable shutter mechanism, tested for 150,000 cycles at the fastest shutter speed of 1/4000 s and flash synchronization up to 1/200 s. The sensor self-cleaning module reduces the accumulation of dust in front of the photosensor.

The camera, as already mentioned, is designed exclusively for photography: the developers have gone beyond the traditional boundaries of the modern digital SLR market, equipping the novelty with a unique retractable metering linkage lever that allows you to attach even vintage NIKKOR lenses without AI. When shooting in A (aperture-priority) or M (manual) mode, the Df camera allows exposure to be metered wide open (as with AI lenses).

The device features highly sensitive autofocus using a 39-point Multi-CAM 4800 AF system. Sensitivity down to -1 EV, compatibility with lenses up to f/8, and a choice of four AF-area modes (including 3D tracking) ensure fast and accurate coverage of the entire frame, even in low light conditions.

The camera's image sensor and its 2016-pixel RGB sensor provide accurate data to the Scene Recognition System, which optimizes exposure, autofocus, and white balance just before the shutter button is pressed for crisp images.

The Df model is equipped with a glass pentaprism viewfinder that provides near 100% frame coverage and 0.7x magnification. There is a display with a diagonal of 3.2 inches, a slot for SD / SDHC / SDXC cards, HDMI and USB interfaces. Dimensions are 144x110x67 mm, weight - 760 g.

The retro Df camera will go on sale in late November for $2,750 without a lens or $3,000 with a 50mm F1.8 lens.

Cameras

The first models of cameras appeared in Russia in the middle of the 19th century. Before the revolution, only a few factories were engaged in their production, however, photographic life was not boring. The process of creating images and improving the functional characteristics of devices were the main topics for fans of the new hobby and inventors. In the 30s of the XX century, mass production of cameras was launched in the USSR, and by 1960, Soviet citizens had more than sixty models of devices and their modifications at their disposal.

Here are just a few of them:

• folding - Smena, EFTE (ARFO), Photocor No. 1, Reporter, Tourist;
• small format - FED (a replica of the German camera Leica II), Kyiv, Zorkiy, Zenit, Yunost, Sport;
• medium format - Sputnik, Neva, Moscow, Salyut, Junkor, Iskra.

It is worth noting that Soviet cameras were of the highest quality. Although they were not spared from some shortcomings, nevertheless, they could compete with similar foreign-made equipment.

Until now, vintage instruments are very popular not only among collectors and antique dealers, but also among ordinary people who are fond of photography. And this is despite the abundance of modern gadgets, their functionality and affordability. The USSR set prices for cameras in the same way as for any other goods: guided by the decision of the State Committee. In other words, the cost of similar things and items in all stores in the city was the same. But the market economy introduced other rules, and entrepreneurs began their pricing policy.

Today, an old camera can be purchased for 500 and 100,000 rubles, everything will depend on the place where you plan to make a purchase, the seller’s ambitions, technical condition, age and completeness of the device. If you want to buy a rare device for creating photos without overpaying, then auctions should be avoided, as well as suspicious sites that sell antiques. In order not to run into scammers, contact only trusted salons, and even better - use the services of the Antique Salon "Antiquity Shop". In our assortment you will find old cameras of rare models.

The exclusivity of the devices lies not only in their age, but also in the fact that they are all in working condition. Time did not spoil their appearance and did not deprive them of their original functions thanks to caring owners who are used to keeping objects dear to their hearts in perfect condition. If you are a collector, a photographer (amateur or professional) or just looking for an original gift, take a look at our catalog of vintage cameras. We are sure that on its pages you will find exactly what you have been looking for for many years.

Olympus PEN E-P5

This is the fourth digital camera from the PEN series released by Olympus. It was about her that was discussed at the beginning of the material.

PEN is a very old series, which, in fact, glorified Olympus in the distant 60s of the last century. PEN cameras were incredibly (at the time) compact and could take 72 frames on standard 35mm film. In 2009, the company updated this series with the E-P1 model, the innovation of which, on the one hand, was that it repeated the design of old cameras, and on the other hand, it used the latest Micro 4/3 format, was just as compact, but along with so interchangeable lenses came to her. This is how a whole class of "system" mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses appeared.

The advantages of this technology are obvious: the amateur photographer gets a camera two or three times lighter than a "DSLR", but with almost the same characteristics and with the ability to select a lens for different shooting conditions. The only problem was that the first system cameras did not differ in the quality of the resulting image, and serious photographers began to treat them as expensive and useless toys.

A lot of time has passed since then. Today, Micro 4/3 format cameras have caught up and are already in some places superior to SLRs of the lower and middle price levels. At the same time, they can boast of an interesting design, which received a proper response in the hearts of amateur photographers and connoisseurs of stylish things.

So, the Olympus PEN E-P5 has a 16 MP sensor, a 5-axis stabilizer with the ability to take correct panoramic photos, shoots at up to 9 frames per second, takes HDR pictures and looks exactly like it was made in 1960. The swivel touch display allows you to shoot from various uncomfortable positions - even from below, even from above, even from around the corner, and the stabilizer allows you to get a stable image behind the display screen and in the picture even at the strongest zoom using a telephoto lens. The E-P5 also has built-in Wi-Fi for transferring images directly to a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

As for the retro design, in addition to the aesthetic component, convenience and high-quality materials (metal, leather), it allows you to use the camera with maximum convenience: all controls are in place, the hand grips the body comfortably, the camera is fully balanced, and taking pictures with it is a pleasure .

However, in 2013 it's not enough to just release a camera with a stylish design and hope for success. Therefore, Olympus PEN E-P5 not only knows how to beautifully photograph and shoot videos in Full HD, but also has a whole bunch of different chips. The camera has a lot of art filters that imitate, like Instagram, many different styles of photography, but, unlike Instagram, they do it very high quality and in full size - pictures can be sent directly from the camera to large-format printing and hung in huge frames on wall. Moreover, in any of these filters, you can make a collage of several shots (a feature also similar to Instagram, but more advanced - there are many more variations and effects) and save it, while each of the frames will remain in its original form and high resolution format RAW.

Using a dedicated app for iPhone and Android, you can take pictures remotely and immediately save them to your smartphone's memory. You can even send a picture to several smartphones at once - the camera can work as a media server with the ability to manually select which pictures will be available to your friends and which not.

Fujifilm X-M1

Another oldest Japanese company, Fujifilm, released at the beginning of 2013 a camera no less worthy than the Olympus PEN E-P5 - X-M1. This is also not the first Fujifilm model in retro design, the X series already has 9 models in different price categories. The first camera in the series was the Fujifilm X100, which was released in 2010.

The just-announced and most interesting Fujifilm X-M1 camera to date also has a 16 megapixel sensor - though of a different standard and slightly larger than the Olympus PEN E-P5. It uses Fujifilm's own CMOS APS-C sensor, similar in characteristics to those used in mid-range models from Canon and Nikon. In many ways, the X-M1 is similar to the E-P5: interchangeable lenses, Full HD video recording, built-in Wi-Fi… Unlike older Fujifilm models, this camera is easier to use: there are many automatic modes, there are art filters that simulate various views film, and the controls are intuitive in a way that Fujifilm has never before been able to boast.

What sets the Fujifilm X-M1 apart is the design, which nods to the company's glorious past yet looks quite modern, like the latest version of the Porsche 911. While the X-M1 isn't the Porsche Carrera of digital cameras, it's definitely the Porsche Boxter. . A small, compact and incredibly stylish camera with a very decent performance and history, the Fujifilm X-M1 in light brown leather will look like an expensive accessory in your hands, which also knows how to photograph well.

Pentax MX-1

Quite from another opera Pentax MX-1 is a camera for amateurs, but advanced lovers. This is the first experience of Pentax, also a very respected and old Japanese company, in the field of retro design. But here, unlike Olympus and Fujifilm, there is a fixed, although very good 5x zoom lens, a simpler 12 MP sensor, no flash or microphone jack (although both are built in), and there are also not enough controls for full manual shooting. However, handheld RAW shooting, Full HD movie shooting, real metal and leather, excellent image quality and beautiful design are available. Plus half the price than Olympus and Fujifilm.

Cameras in retro design are becoming a real trend. If in the year before last and last year they evoked a skeptical smile from professionals and an enchanted smile from girls passing by, this year retro cameras have grown a lot both in terms of quality and technology. With their help, you get really great photos and videos, it’s convenient and easy to shoot with them, and they will raise your image to such a height that even the most advanced “DSLR” never dreamed of.

Filmed by Ruslan Shebukov