Photography & Film

OneStep 2 Instant Camera introduced by Polaroid Originals

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As of September 13th 2017, The Impossible Project is called Polaroid Originals. Apparently the company’s largest shareholder acquired the Polaroid brand and corresponding intellectual property. That seems fitting since the 2008 founded company practically saved Polaroid instant photography.

After Polaroid stopped producing instant film, The Impossible Project stepped up to produce new film material. They acquired a legacy Polaroid factory and developed new instant film materials for vintage Polaroid camera models. In addition to the Impossible Instant Lab (allowing Polaroid instant photos to be produced from digital images with a hardware exposure unit and a corresponding smartphone app), the company introduced a newly designed Impossible I-1 camera in 2016. In September 2017, the rebranded company introduced the Polaroid OneStep 2 instant film camera.

Polaroid Originals OneStep 2

New OneStep Instant Camera Model

Building on the unique original OneStep design by Polaroid, Polaroid Originals created a simple, easy-to-use camera with integrated flash and rechargeable battery. Apart from modern build quality and lens improvements, the battery is the biggest change for most users. Before, the battery was included in every cartridge of instant film, a factor making instant film cartridges more expensive, apart from environmental implications.

Polaroid Originals now offers film cartridges for vintage 600 series, SX-70 series, Spectra series as well as for 8×10 and the newly introduced I-Type cameras. A cartridge of 8 color or black and white instant photos for the I-1 or OneStep 2 costs around 16€ (compared to 18-20 € for vintage Polaroid camera models). That isn’t cheap. Still Polaroid offers a very unique photography experience, that is very much worth the money.

Over the past years, I experimented with every product the Impossible Project came up with and followed the company’s development from their early days on Kickstarter. I am very happy that it turned out to be a sustainable business and am glad that the legacy of Edwin Land lives on in Polaroid Originals.

The I-1 Analog Instant Camera by The Impossible Project

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I-1 Analog Instant Camera

In April 2016 The Impossible Project announced their first analog instant camera for Polaroid instant film. The company has been around for a few years and basically saved Polaroid instant film from getting extinct. They started out by repairing and selling used Polaroid cameras and old film material and eventually bought an old Polaroid factory and started to produce their own instant film. As you may know, I followed the company quite closely and tried out their Impossible Instant Lab among many other things to create Polaroid images from digital photographs. I also keep using my Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera with the Impossible SX-70 film and am quite satisfied with the quality of the film material they provide.

They worked on creating their own instant camera for many years, so here it finally is. The I-1 Analog Instant Camera will be available from May 10 2016 for $ 299 and looks like a very decent package. It allows for Impossible 600 film cartridges to be used (Impossible’s Polaroid 600 replacement film), features a LED ring flash and can be connected to a smartphone app via bluetooth. Not being to modest, The Impossible Project’s CEO Oskar Smolokowski calls it “The Original Instant Camera. Reinvented.”.

I am not sure wether I would buy one, since I am quite happy with my Polaroid SX-70. Still, I am curious about the features of the smartphone app and can’t wait to find out, wether this will be enough to convince me to buy an I-1 Analog Instant Camera. Nevertheless, I am quite happy that the camera is finally here, since it hopefully will provide further foundation for Polaroid instant film being around for a bright future.

Kodak launches a new Super 8 8mm film camera

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Kodak Super 8

Kodak Super 8

In January 2016 Kodak announced a new Super 8 8mm film camera at CES in Las Vegas. To say the least, this is a surprise and I am enthusiastic about it. They say there’s kind of an analog film renaissance and that’s why there is a market for it. As you may know, I spent quite some time over the past few years to revive a Leicina 8mm film camera.

“On the heels of celebrating 50 years of manufacturing Super 8 film, Kodak is launching an initiative aimed at putting Super 8 cameras into the hands of a new generation of filmmakers as well as meeting the needs of top directors, indie filmmakers and others who appreciate the art and craft of filmmaking.”

Source: “Kodak Launches Super 8 Filmmaking Revival Initiative at CES 2016” kodak.com

The company is citing prominent filmmakers and Hollywood professionals as supporters of theirs efforts, such as Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino (who filmed his last movie “The Hateful Eight” in glorious 70mm), Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, Robert Richardson, Patty Jenkins, Shannon McIntosh, Jem Cohen and many others.

Although there’s not much to show yet as the camera will be released in late 2016, some facts are quite interesting. It will be an all analog film camera with an electronic viewfinder and an additional mic input for digital audio recording. That’s quite an upgrade from recording audio on cassette tapes.

The product website shows off the specs, naming a fixed 6mm 1:1.2 Ricoh c-mount lens and an optional 8-38 mm lens. The camera presented at CES 2016 looks far more edgy than the animations on the website, but I am sure everything will work out. The Super 8 camera is expected to be priced between $ 400 – 800.

 

8mm film development & scanning

In addition Kodak will provide 8mm film cartridges and offer development and scanning as a service. Considering the effort and costs to develop and digitise 8mm film theses days, this is quite a promise and I can’t wait for more details on the program. Apparently the development and scanning service will also be available to anyone buying 8mm catridges from Kodak in the future.

For some brief summary of the specs and features, take a look at this video recorded at CES 2016.

8mm film – Considering costs for using 8mm film

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As you might remember, I started experimenting with my LEICINA SPECIAL Super8 camera and finally made it to send in the first cartridge of Super8 8mm film material for development. I used Kodak Tri-X black & white Reversal Film and chose Wittner Cinetec in Germany as a service provider. About 2 weeks after sending my material I received the developed film. 

8mm - developed 8mm film material - 1
8mm – developed 8mm film material – 1

Costs to shot, develop and digitise 8mm film

A 50ft (15m, around 3.5 minutes at 25 fps) cartridge costs 25€ to develop including shipping costs. Considering the 22€ to 40€ for the material, it basically sums up to 13.42 € to 18.58 € per minute. Additional costs might come up for digitisation of the film for digital post processing.

A few month ago, I already compiled a list of service providers for digitising my 8mm film. I will either go with retrofilms.de or schmalfilm-archiv.de. Booth offer frame-by-frame scanning as single image files with a resolution of 2K. Looking at their price list, I expect this to set me back another 0.60 € per meter of material and additional costs of up to 7.50 € for a 120m film spool plus 6.90 € for shipping.

8mm - developed 8mm film material - 2
8mm – developed 8mm film material – 2

In the worst case of just digitising one spool, this might add up to 23.40 €. For lets say 8 15m film spools (resulting in 120m of material) it would add up to 86,40 € and 10.80 € per spool. This would add up to 20.10 € to 25.26 € per minute with one spool and 16.50 € to 21.66 € per minute with 8 spools all costs considered. That’s not cheap.

I am not sure how much filmed material is usually produced for 1 minute of finally used material in an amateur film setting. At a relation of 1 to 8, a 3,5 minute amateur 8mm movie might add up needing 28 minutes of raw material resulting in costs of 462.00 € to 606.48 € depending on the used film just to get the shot material developed and digitised. That’s 132.00 € to 173.28 € per minute. Not cheap at all.

Leica Q Reviews

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Leica Q

leicagraph:

THE NEW LEICA Q – THE UNVEILING OF LEICA INNOVATION

by JAY CASSARIO

The Leica Q is the newest compact camera manufactured by Leica in Wetzlar, Germany. It comes with a fixed Summilux 1.4/28mm lens, a full frame 24mp sensor and a built-in electronic viewfinder. I just tried it for a few minutes at the local Leica store in Hamburg, but as far as I can tell, it’s awesome.

I really like the feel and build quality of the camera. I never was a fan of an optical viewfinder, but this one seriously makes up for previous shortcomings. It is bright, responsive and feels almost natural. The lens seems to be one of the best I have every tried in terms of handling and the macro mode surely comes in handy. This is in fact something all Leica M lenses cannot match. I can not say much about the optical qualities of the lens since I only tried it in the store. But as far as the reviews go, it just might be an awesome piece of glass.

For a more detailed look in addition to Jay’s, check out some of the reviews:

The Leica Q Real World Camera Review – Steve Huff Photo (with video)

Leica Q Hands-On and Video Interview – The Luminous Landscape (with video)

Leica Q First Impressions Review – DPREVIEW

Premiere And Review: The 2015 Leica Q (Typ 116) – Ming Thein

Leica Q Hands-On Field Test – TheCameraStoreTV (video)

Review of the Leica Q with bigheadtaco – Eric Kim (video)

The Leica Q: First Impression and Preview – bigheadtaco (video)

Leica Q (Typ 116) Camera Review – Kristin Dowling

Leica Q (Typ 116 Review: A Fill-Frame Mini M – RED DOT FORUM

Hands On With The Leica Q: The Faster, Brighter, Better Future of Leica Cameras – 500px

I am sure, there are many more…

Leica – ‘100′

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Leica – ‘100′

The Leica ‘’100’ film won the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Lions festival, created by F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi & Stink São Paulo, showing off infamous photographs.

More information: Cannes Lions Archive

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

THIS Visits: The Impossible Project – Recreating Instant Film

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Some insights in how “The Impossible Project” came to be…

Conceived at the closing party of the last Polaroid factory, The Impossible Project completely re-invented the process of creating instant film specifically for Polaroid cameras. A daunting task for sure, but one that they’ve been at since 2008.

More about my experiences with their products and my Polaroid SX-70 camera can be found in previous posts.

Impossible Instant Lab app
Impossible Instant Lab app

LEICA M-P CORRESPONDENT // Leica M // Photography – Leica Camera AG

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LEICA M-P CORRESPONDENT // Leica M // Photography – Leica Camera AG

“This collector’s piece in the style of legendary reportage cameras, the Leica M-P ‘Correspondent’, was created in a collaboration with the artist Lenny Kravitz.”

leica-lenny-kravits-1
leica-lenny-kravits-2

Source: LEICA M-P ‘CORRESPONDENT’

There will be just 125 sets available, containing a custom Leica M-P (240), a Summicron-M 35mm f/2 and a Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 lens (and a briefcase), all finished by hand of course and priced at $24,500.

This is quite ridiculously priced with a $ 13,500 premium compared to regular retail price of the standard model. Anyway, it is unique for sure.