The folks over at TAP and DYE have released something really special for the film photographer out there. They’re called the Tap and Dye LEGACY Shooters Film pouch and it’s a special case designed to specifically hold your rolls of film. The pouch adheres to many of the standards and overall identity of TAP and DYE; and with that said it sports Martexin waxed canvas and oil dyed leather accents. Five rolls of 120 film or 35mm film can be crammed into here.
No, this isn’t the Sony a7, but the Minolta a7 is perhaps one of the best film Alpha mount cameras that you can still get your hands on used. While the Minolta a9 is considered the flagship, there are features built into the Minolta a7 that can make it much more appealing. For starters, it’s much lighter. And there is also a built in data back that lets you change a whole lot of parameters in a very simple way.
If you’re a fan of the Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art lens, then you’re bound to fall head over heels for the Sigma 135mm f1.8 DG HSM Art lens. When it comes to portrait lenses, photographers are typically tied to the 85mm and 135mm focal lengths: and so that makes this latest decision even harder. Both are good. In fact, both are fantastic. But with the new Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art lens, you get what seems like a smaller and lighter lens though surely longer. Plus it has weather sealing and a classic quality about it with just a bit less contrast than many of the other Sigma Art lenses.
A while back, Lomography LomoChrome Purple was released in 120 and 35mm formats. But earlier this year, the company updated the formula to make it more stable. With it came the major improvement of making it easier to shoot with. The current LomoChrome Purple formula allows a photographer to get great results whether they’re shooting at ISO 400 or ISO 100. Lomography states that you can rate it at either setting, as opposed to the older formula which needed a lot of light to create the best images. This new emulsion is available only in 35mm though; however it provides finer grain and still very nice colors.
Medium Format and film rangefinders in particular seem like such a perfect package for going about and shooting landscape photos, right? Or if not, maybe you’ll want to tote along your Leica! But before you do that, you should note that that’s probably a really bad idea if you want to do things right. With digital, this can be easier because getting details in the highlights or shadows is as simple as moving a slider. If you’ve got burning and dodging skills that can be used in the darkroom, then you’ll also not really have a problem when it comes to printmaking. However, if you’re trying your hardest to get it right in camera, then you’re going to be working with a tripod, ND filters, and Graduated NDs.
Men like their gadgets, and that includes cameras, tech, and related items. This fact is not lost on the industry so as we eek closer to Fathers Day more and more deals of note have begun to pop up. Here are some that stood out to us in the crowd:
Compact film cameras are a big thing more so now than they have ever been before. But one of the biggest problems with lots of them has to do with the fact that the electronics in them breakdown after a really long time. In a case like that, it’s sometimes just best to use an all mechanical camera with much better reliability.
Far from Las Vegas, David Egan’s night photography documents Nevada’s roadside motels and gas stations.
Photographer David Egan captures the neon glow of Nevada at night in his series I always hoped for better. “Journeying throughout the entire state of Nevada allows me a level of satisfaction that I rarely achieve,” Egan says of the project, which he says was inspired by a “fascination with elements of the past.”
Travel photography is an interesting segment of the photography world, it is a project that requires versatility from a photographers kit while at the same time requiring the footprint of that kit to remain as minimal as possible to reduce added fees and weight. As such, many travel photographers, or photographers who will be traveling often reexamine their kits looking for any way to add versatility while reducing their footprint and weight.
Kodak T-Max helps make these buildings almost look like scenes from the Twilight Zone.