The Camera Notes
Keeping notes is essential to the orderly mind and camera collection.
I have never had a great memory
and it is getting worse as I age.
I developed the habit years
ago of keeping notebooks. I
have one for house repairs, a couple
for travel planning, and several for
subects of interest that I research. And so you can imagine that I have notebooks for my camera collecting. I page number them and at the end of each I create indicies for my camera notebooks to that point. That way I can go back to any subject I want to review.
When the spirit moves me to post in my blogs these books are the basis of those posts. I should post more often but that distracts me from my photography and collecting. There is just not time for everything. However I do hope you find these scratchings to be of interest.
The Camera Notes are strictly about the tecnichal aspects of cameras. If you are interested in my thoughts generally on art and photography then check out the Joy of Light on the top menu. Very little about cameras there: just photography.
FX Black
When I was writing about the Canon FX in my book, “The Collectors Guide to the Fabulous “F” Series” at Pg. 67, I pointed out that there were some black FX’s but that they were very rare. That was about a year ago. Since then I have found more information about them and the serial numbers for 16 that are known to exist.
Model 7 Framelines
The Model 7, 7s and 7sZ were the last of Canon’s rangefinder cameras and they had the most sophisticated of all of the viewfinders. They kept the fixed 1:1 magnification of the Canon P and they retained the frame lines but created a system to dial in only the frame lines the user wanted be it 35mm, 50mm, 85 or 100mm or 135mm.
I Was Wrong
I have had a cell phone since the days before they had cameras, the days when we used them to make phone calls. And when cameras in cell phones did arrive I was sure they were beneath any serious photographer.
The Rangefinder
With my engineering background I have always understood in general terms how a rangefinder worked so I have never really paid attention to this subject. But when a friend posed the question I realized that I did not know in detail how they worked and I did not know how the three-mode optical viewfinder worked. And I had never gone into it on this website.
A Little Confusing
Last week I was reading “Canon Photography” by Jacob Deschin. This book, published in 1957 was one of the factors in the acceptance of Canon cameras in the American market. When it was published Canon was struggling to break into the US market and it was critical that they be reviewed and written about in the popular photographic press.
Fabulous F Series
Back in January I was writing a post about an “F” Series camera and I started thinking about a book on the “F” Series. Now it is finished and available on Amazon Kindle and as a hard cover book.
Autofocus
In this post we examine the history of Auto Focus cameras and particularly those of Canon.
Contrast Detection Autofocus
Contrast Detection AutofocusFlynn Marr 3 August 2024The AL-1 was Canon's first foray into a 35mm interchangeable single lens reflex...
A Mountain Morning
A Mountain MorningFlynn Marr 19 April 2024Photography is like so many other activities thatyou ignore for a few weeks and you lose youredge. You have to work at it if you expect tokeep creating...
How do you start a Camera Collection?
How do you Start a Camera Collection?The Canon AE-1 was the first of the Canon "A" Series and an amazing camera in its day.I had an e-mail this week from Chris in the Eastern US who was looking at my website and thinking about beginning a camera collection. He asked...
