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I discovered a new world 2008

Mattias — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:15:30 +0000

The last year was a big one for my photography, I discovered a new world in 2008. I’m talking of manual lenses and old cameras, but also my own views and skills in photography.

The start of this blog
24th July – Installation and first post (modest) on Retrocamera.net as an international version of my swedish blog. At the end of the year – 21st December – I reached 4500 unique visitors on my article “5 reasons I love manual lenses”

Retrocamera article

Winning a contest
21st – 27th July I participated in a contest in Sweden which I won. One picture a day from nature, for seven days. Partly using manual gear. I was very proud of this, since the competition was some photographers I respect.

Set with the 7 images I won with

Circle of lenses
I started cheap last spring trying Pentacon 29mm/2.8 on and ended testing Yashica ML 50mm/1.4 on the same spot in the woods. I have reached a collection of lenses I like, except for long telephoto.

With Pentacon 29mm in march 2008

With Yashica ML 50mm/1.4 december 2008

1000 posts on YashicaForum.com
During the year two brands in particular caught my attention, Asahi (Takumar) and Yashica. Asahi/Takumar/Pentax sites exists, but I wondered why there was no YashicaForum.com so I decided to start it. Before new year we reached over 1000 posts and 77 members.

YashicaForum

What does 2009 have in mind?
Well, looks like I will participate in at least two exhibitions, of which one is my own. Me, me and myself ;)

Have a good year 2009!

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Swap photographygear with eachother!

Mattias — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:25 +0000

On DIYPhotography.net a new projects has started, where you pair up with a friend and temporarily exchange a piece of gear and then write a review about it. I will try to participate, I like these kinds of projects – it reminds me of the previous $50-dollar film camera project arranged by EpicEdit which was very fun :)

Something New

One thing that comes to mind, would anyone be interested in a long term group where we send cheap M42-lenses round to eachother for testing? I guess it would have to be a closed group where you exchange adresses and place trust in eachother. Well, the idea just popped in my mind…

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MFlenses – learn more about manual cameras and lenses

Mattias — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:46:19 +0000

In the latest moths I have discovered a new world. A world where I can buy good camera equipment for almost nothing. I want to reveal a major source of inspiration for this interest, where I also find a great part of the information I need – I’m talking about the forum at www.mflenses.com. This forum and Google is my main tools when I sift through ebay in search for that special item.

MFlenses

Knowledge, inspiration, passion. The other day a user sent me a Yashica-lens for free from UK, for me to test. Now thats incredibly generous and shows the good spirit on the forum, I think. Another volunteered to help me with shipping from ebay.co.uk (some sellers refuse to ship overseas). I have also been offered a shipment of wine from italy and other things. People help each other, share information and tip, creates a network…

I think the members’ ages vary widely (many older). There are users from all over the world – Russia, Australia, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, Germany, Engand, Ireland, Thailand, Japan, Austria and so on… Skills in the english language vary, which is good because you don’t have to be afraid to make a mistake. Language and political beliefs are different, yet you can share and discuss the the interest we have in common – manual photographic equipment. The forum holds a friendly spirit, even if culture clashes happen (would be strange otherwise).

Sure, some of us are probably mental ;) With whole rooms full of camera equipment. But that’s case with all collectors. For myself, I like the gear in itself, but in the end I want to use it to take pictures. A lot of people in this forum, including me, probably has a touch of the condition “ebayitis”. A kind of new category of images that has developed on the forum, is where you take pictures with camera and coffee as motif. Take your rangefinders to town, shoot images, take a break with coffee and take a picture of the camera together with the coffee (and some dessert perhaps) :)

Coffee and camera

MFLenses is actually more then a forum. Members publish galleries based on lenses, tests are made, there is a watcher for prices on old lenses (write the name of you lens and get an idea of what it will cost). The user I see on other places on the Internet too (flickr.com, forum.manualfocus.org, www.rangefinderforum.com) – our interest draws us to the same websites. If you want some tip on flickr-groups to join, check out the linksection “Flickr-groups for Retro-people”.

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Flickr-groups for Retro people

Mattias — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:00:57 +0000

In our links section there are now a collection of links to Flickr-groups that can interest us Retrofolk. Have a look in the category Flickr groups.

Groups on flickr

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