I Dream of Cameras

Latest Episodes:

Episode 45 • The Revenge of Marie Nikondo Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

She's back! Everyone's favorite collection-culler returns, and this time she's out for blood! Jeff is contemplating a major purge, but those pesky ol' emotions keeps holding him back. Can Gabe/Marie help him see the righteous path and release his gear to the limitless legions of camera-craving Tessas? Tune in and find out! But first...

a manageable mailbag!

John-Michael Mendizza was the one who gave us the Pentax 6x7 grips - thanks, J-M!

Gabe had a mishap... his cherished M6 is in the shop with a failing meter :(

And now the main event: Gabe assumes the role of Marie Nikondo, cruelly coercing Jeff to cull his colossal camera caboodle. Among the items discussed (and feel free to make an offer, gang):

Bell & Howell / Canon Dial 35 (with case)

Bolex H16 Reflex 16mm movie camera (with case and accessories)

10mm f1.6 Kern-Paillard Switar

17.5mm-70mm f2.4 SOM Berthiot Pan-Cinor (with case, viewfinder and filters)

25mm f1.8 SOM Berthiot Lytar

75mm f2.8 Kern-Paillard Yvar

Canon Color Demi (red)

Canon Color Demi (blue; with cap and case)

Canon Color Demi (white; with case)

Canon 110 ED 20 (with case)

Canon AE-1 with 55mm f1.2 FD and 50mm f1.4 FD

Canon Dial Rapid

Kodak Bantam Special

Kodak No. 2 Folding Autographic Brownie

Konica Acom-1 with 50mm f1.7 Hexanon AR

Leica M3 (single-stroke)

40mm f1.4 Voigtländer Nokton Classic (with shade)

50mm f1.1 7Artisans (chrome)

50mm f2 Dual Range Summicron (with goggles and two cases)

90mm f2 APO-Summicron-M (with box, case and caps)

Minox B (with case and chain)

Minox BL (metric scale; with case and chain)

Nikon F (with Photomic T Finder, Prism Finder and Action Finder)

50mm f1.4 Nikkor-S Auto

55mm f3.5 Micro-Nikkor

Nikon Speed Magny

Nikonos III with 28mm f3.5 UW-Nikkor (with caps)

and that’s just the beginning! more to come in our next episode!

Episode 44 • Eyerolls and Rolleis Nov 04, 2022

Show notes

After a dive into our prodigious mailbag, bulging with talk of the newly reissued Leica M6, we essay a sweeping survey of the mighty marque known as Rollei. Gabe has nine Rolleiflex TLRs; Jeff has a Rollei 35 and a Rolleiflex SL350. Tune in — it's a gas, gas, gas!

we skipped Episode № 43, deal with it

quite a prodigious mailbag! featuring:

much talk of the newly reissued 2022 Leica M6, which is NOT a limited edition - worth noting: there’s a center dot between the two LED arrows in the viewfinder (à la the M6 TTL); no plastic shields under the strap lugs (‘cause the paint is hardier); the red dot says "Leitz" not "Leica"; it doesn't come in chrome; the only available finder is the .72; and the cost is $5,700. Who is this for?

how ‘bout those high-end metal cassettes for bulk loading (e.g. FILCA and IXMOO, Shirley-Wellard, etc.) - are they any good?

Jim Melcher made a video about stainless-steel reels

Gabe’s Leica assignment / adventure, courtesy of the Leica Store Los Angeles

Our Rollei show! Gabe has a slew of Rollei TLRs:

1938 Rolleicord 2b with Zeiss 3.5 lens

1939 Rolleicord 2c with Zeiss Triotar lens

1945 Rolleiflex Automat Model 2 which used to belong to renowned photographer Phil Stern

1954 Rolleicord 5 with Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 3.5

1958 Rolleiflex 3.5C Planar

1958 Rolleiflex 3.5F Planar (his favorite)

1959 Rolleiflex 2.8E2 with Zeiss Triotar lens (his other favorite)

... Jeff has a 1959 Rolleiflex 3.5E … and Gabe also has:

1959 Rolleiflex 3.5C

1960 Rolleiflex 2.8F

…and they all have different personalities! - they handle differently, and the hand-ground lenses render differently

how TLRs change your relationship to the subject when shooting portraits

next! in non-TLR news, Jeff loves his little Rollei 35 SE

worth checking out: Zeno Felkl's Rollei 35 Project book

and the mighty (and mighty hard to find) Rolleiflex SL350 is one of Jeff's favorite SLRs - the 50mm Planar is sublime

The other Jeff Greenstein stole a quarter billion in a tax fraud scheme, so we will henceforth refer to him as "tax fraud felon"

Episode 42½ • Cheap Camera Challenge (A Bonus Episode) Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

Gabe has a cold, so we’re bringing you this unaired Sunny 16 segment from April 2021: Jeff and Gabe suggest excellent cameras you can find for under $30… in April 2021. Discussed:

Minolta SRT series

Minolta Maxxum series

Minolta AL-F rangefinder

Konica Autoreflex TC a.k.a. Acom-1 (which Jeff has actually purchased since this segment was recorded!)

Smena 8M

Mamiya/Sekor 500TL, 1000TL, 528TL

Olympus Trip S

Yashica TL Electro-X

Yashica Electro 35

Pentax ME, MX, ME Super

Canon FT, TL, and the very strange EX EE

Unsexy SLRs: Miranda Sensorex, Chinon, Ricoh

Olympus Pen EE-3 - the ultimate half-a-cookie camera

Pentax Auto 110

Canon 110 ED 20

Episode 42 • In a World Oct 14, 2022

Show notes

Find the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything in I Dream of Cameras 42. New cameras, old cameras, new old cameras, old new cameras, and ways to hack eBay — it’s all here!

best wishes to Graeme, who’s stepping away from Sunny 16 for a bit

our prodigious mailbag

Jeff’s 90mm Summicron ASPH is still available - message him and snap it up!

The new CubePan from Chroma Camera looks intriguing

Gabe’s trying to leave the house with only one camera… and a spare in the car

the rumored Leica M6 reissue is for real… but only 500 pieces?

Gabe wants to trade his chrome Leica M6TTL for a black M6 - hit him up!

the late John Foster literally wrote the book on Olympus half-frame cameras, and on October 20 his personal collection is up for auction - stock up on those half-a-cookies!

Film prices are too high, but now Kodak’s seeking more film technicians - will it help?

What’s more interesting to you, a brand-new 2022 film camera or a good vintage one? and what does this bode for the future of new film cameras?

Gabe recounts his visit in San Clemente with Trev and Phil from The Darkroom and Juan from Beers and Cameras…

…which spurred a fixation with high-end compact point-and-shoots like the Minolta TC-1 - compare and contrast with the Yashica T4

Jeff’s recent developing mishaps with CineStill Df96 - it drops stone dead after 16 rolls

also, his frustration with bulk loading has reached a fever pitch: even with cassettes salvaged from a one-hour-lab, the felt light traps can be leaky! rescue us, Ethan Moses!

Differences between the Hasselblad XPan and the XPan II

fantastic eBay tip! here’s how to find the start date of a Buy It Now auction, to assess how open the seller might be to an offer: tinyurl.com/auctionstarttime

we encourage people to contribute to the Sunny 16 Presents channel - if we can do it, so can you!

now go out with one camera and one roll of film and just shoot! or use a half-frame camera so you don’t censor yourself so much - allow yourself to play and experiment…

and print your stuff! give prints as gifts! ’tis the season!

Episode 41 • Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion Oct 01, 2022

Show notes

See? 41! The centerpiece of this episode is Gabe’s recap of his adventures at New York Fashion Week, but there’s also our newly engorged mailbag, Jeff’s latest impulse buy, new products from Leica and Polaroid, and an epic rant about the latter. We are the goon squad and we're coming to town, beep-beep!

the newly engorged mailbag

A blockbuster recap of Gabe’s New York Fashion Week adventures: shooting the Canon R5, the Leica Q and the Widelux F7 portrait sessions with Raven-Symoné and Kal Penn and many, many trips to B&H

Jeff’s Atlanta recap: snagged a 35mm f2.8 PC-Nikkor tilt-shift lens at KEH rediscovered old negatives from childhood and found some old pamphlets from Kodak: Recovering Silver from Photographic Materials, how to make pinhole cameras

Jeff’s impulse buy: the Canon Sure Shot Owl Date

Looks like Leica is reissuing and maybe updating the original M6!

we regret to inform you that Polaroid is at it again: Polaroid Music - in the An Impossible Project documentary, Florian Kaps asks, "what is the smell of Facebook?" - these are crazy people!!

we are feeble on Twitter - do you care?

new listeners: check out our dazzling array of merch, the best of any podcast on the planet

shoot us a review on iTunes, babies - it helps people find us

thank-yous and goodnights

Episode 40 • This Is 40 Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

A signal show in which we finally step out of the shadow of Sunny 16 Presents and get our own podcast feed! Now you can search for I Dream of Cameras wherever you pluck your podcasts. In addition, we empty the mailbag at light speed, discuss Gabe’s preparations to shoot New York Fashion Week, talk of recent impulse buys, compare the Widelux and the XPan, carp at absurd public photography restrictions, muse upon the mystery of camera serial numbers, praise the babyish plastic developing reels, and reflect on what if anything we have learned after 40 episodes.

thanks to the lords of Sunny 16, we now have our own podcast feed!

a lightning round to empty our prodigious mailbag - limit one sentence per email!

Gabe’s about to leave for New York Fashion Week - here's the final list of cameras he's bringing: Leica Q Canon R5 Leica M10 Widelux F7 Rolleiflex 2.8F Yashica T4

Gabe's kit for a portrait shoot with Kal Penn: the R5, the Q and the M10

to fund Gabe’s recent impulse buy of the Canon R5, he actually sold some stuff: a Contax T2 to Eoin Macken and a bunch of other gear (Hasselblad 503cx, Minolta Autocord, Leica R6.2) to our friends at LA Film Camera

on the same trip, Jeff failed to unload a mint-in-box 90mm f2 Summicron ASPH with caps, case and original papers - any takers?

Jeff’s about to make another trip to Atlanta and KEH — last time, he looked at a ton of cool stuff (thanks Sam) and came away with a 35mm Nikkor for his SP rangefinder

this time he has his eye on a 35mm f2.8 PC-Nikkor tilt-shift lens to use with the XPan

Jeff’s recent impulse buy: a Konica Acom-1 a.k.a. Autoreflex TC - what is “automatic” exposure, and why do we judge those who use it?

the difference between shooting the Widelux (serendipitous) and the XPan (deliberate)

no cameras allowed at the Malibu Chili Cookoff, and no cameras on tripods in LA's public parks! wtf?

serial numbers - do you find them interesting? Jeff sure does!

Jeff used the Paterson System 4 with its babyish plastic developing reels.. and he loved it!

forty episodes in, what have we learned?

Episode 39 • Laverne & Shirley Go to Fashion Week Aug 31, 2022

Show notes

A blockbuster XL episode in which our friends Chris Chu and Rafael Hernandez help Gabe decide which cameras to bring to New York Fashion Week. Also, yet another dive into our prodigious mailbag, and HUGE NEWS about the podcast — and we don’t just mean our signature yogurt flavor at Menchie’s!

announcing the launch of our own podcast feed for Episode 40

the prodigious mailbag re-grew like a sliced planarian! topics include:

the film shortage

the photographer’s Proust Questionnaire

If you had to cut your collection down to ten cameras…?

dreams of I Dream of Cameras

a great camera-bag story

a new thriller featuring a film photographer: Exposure 36

the Nikonos in the Vietnam War

do you insure your cameras?

moving film from camera to camera

Chris and Rafael give Gabe sage advice, then Jeff chimes in like a moron

as you get psyched for our 40th episode, why not try our signature Menchie’s frozen yogurt flavor, I Dream of Cookies and Cream?

Episode 38 • A Prodigious…! Aug 13, 2022

Show notes

We always encourage the teeming millions to converse with us via eye dream of cam rahs at gee male dot calm, and in this episode, we attempt to empty our long-ignored and prodigious… mailbag! Topics include:

travel cameras

backup cameras

how many cameras do you have loaded simultaneously? (and how to keep track of same)

budget alternatives to the gold-plated cameras we all covet

exercising your cameras

Cameras London

the Hasselblad 500 series

the Minolta Weathermatic 35

the Nikonos V

the Olympus OM-1 and OM-2 series

McKeown’s Price Guide

the sublime beauty of Kodak Panatomic-X

and our delightful new “half a cookie” swag

Episode 37 • This Is the Day of the XPanding Man Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE recapping Jeff’s absurd acquisition of a Hasselblad XPan, and more importantly, his trip to England and Wales to meet all four hosts of the Sunny 16 Podcast!

In our last episode, Chris Chu talked Jeff out of getting a Hasselblad XPan, so how did he end up impulsively buying one on his first day in London?

A magical trip to Camera City, the very same place where Jeff found his sacred Alpa 11si ten years ago... and what should be on the shelf but an XPan?

And now, the circuit of the Sunnies…

Drinks with Ade at the Camera Museum in London

A side trip to the Photographer’s Gallery and their incredible film wall

Darkroom work with Rachel at her studio at Northern Lights in Liverpool

Touring Anglesey and Portmeirion, Wales with Clare

Browsing vintage cameras with Graeme at the Cameras London stall at Portobello Road

An underdiscussed aspect of the XPan: the standard 45mm f/4 lens is incredible!

In other news… where’s all the film? And why’s the film we have so expensive?

Gabe has set up an on-deck circle of underused cameras…

…and has been snapping up photography books

Thought experiment: if the boys had to cut their collections down to only ten cameras, which would they choose?

Next episode, we tackle the prodigious mailbag!

Episode 36 • Make It Wit Chu Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

Jeff is on location! Gabe’s just back from the frozen north! And they still manage to find time for a rollicking conversation with photographer and YouTuber Chris Chu. Tune in for the fascinating result — we did indeed rollick!

Gabe’s adventure at Downtown Camera in Toronto with Jessica Devic

which camera(s!) Jeff decided to bring on his trip to Atlanta and the UK: Rollei 35 SE and Minox LX

Polaroid’s new Green Duochrome is great!

a moderate dip into our moldering mailbag, with more talk of travel cameras and bulk-loading Ektachrome

Our rollicking interview with Chris Chu:

his abrupt decision to abandon a computer science degree in San Francisco to pursue his crazy dream of a photography career in Los Angeles

his journey into film photography, starting with the Canon P

and then into medium format with the Pentax 645, the Mamiya RB67 Pro SD and the Mamiya RZ67

Chris tries to convince Jeff to get a Big Ugly Box medium-format camera

his favorite film stocks Portra 160 and Ektar 100

shooting color when you're color-blind

what fueled his growing camera-collecting addiction

...but why no 35mm SLRs?

what he likes about the rangefinder shooting experience

zone focusing: setting a hyperfocal distance and training yourself to use it

camera bags — and how many cameras do you carry at once?

half-frame cameras: the half-a-cookie debate is reignited!

why own the same camera (Leica M6) in both chrome and black?

he's flirting with the Leica M-A - Jeff tries to save him by pitching the M3, M2 and CL

how do you refrain from getting that next camera? — he doesn’t! he just bought a Hasselblad 501CM!

Gabe shows off his 500ELM, an impulse buy at B&H Photo — it’s the Leica M5 of the Hasselblad line

Jeff implores Chris to talk him out of the Hasselblad XPan… and he does! whaddya need it for? you have the Widelux!

if you have to give away all but one of your cameras, which would you keep? the RZ67!

Chris on YouTube and Instagram and his website

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