The Camerosity Podcast is a film photography podcast that covers collecting, using, repairing, and the history of classic film and digital cameras. We love all kinds of cameras, and often talk about specific brands or formats of cameras with an emphasis on the history and stories these cameras have.
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The Camerosity Podcast is a film photography podcast that covers collecting, using, repairing, and the history of classic film and digital cameras. We love all kinds of cameras, and often talk about specific brands or formats of cameras with an emphasis on the history and stories these cameras have.
In Episode 92 of the Camerosity Podcast, we needed to promote every caller to "host status" to tackle the topic of the Italian camera industry. While a huge number of cameras were made in Germany, Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union, many were made in other countries like Italy, France, England, and Czechoslovakia yet far less is talked about these countries.
We attempt to do some justice to cameras from this boot shaped peninsula, spreading some (very expensive) GAS for models like the Rectaflex, Ducati Sogno, and Gamma II. In an episode where everyone was a host, Mike, Theo, AJ Gentile, Miles Libak, Robert Rotoloni and Will Pinkham share our thoughts on a variety of models.
Mike's best reference is an out of print book called Made in Italy: Apparecchi Fotografici Italiani by Marco Antonetto and Mario Malavolti. This 1983 book is the best reference any of us have found covering the Italian camera industry. Featuring images and short descriptions for over 150 Italian cameras, this book, plus our assessment of a few models we're familiar with, prove that the Italian camera industry is far deeper than many realize.
In addition to a whole lot of Italian GAS, we go over the many different film sizes and formats used by Bencini cameras, Robert spends some time with his favorite Italian subminiature camera, the Gami 16, Mike struggles to explain how the metering system on the Durst Automatica works, he spends a great deal of time professing his love for the Ducati Sogno, and shares with us the wild operation of the very interesting Industria Scientifica Ottica Super Duplex 120, a strange stereo camera that shoots 24mm x 24mm stereo pairs on 120 format roll film.
In addition to talking about Italian cameras, we get side tracked and talk about the new upcoming Yashica FX-D digital camera and Mike shares his thoughts on these "so-called" hybrid film and digital cameras and where he thinks the film industry will be in 50 years. Will Pinkham asks about new 3D printed cameras like the Superflex and the Alfie Tych.
As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you! Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show. We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!
The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.
For our next episode, we are recording at a special time to allow for our European and South African listeners to join us. We don't have a specific topic selected for this show as these "Euro Time Zone Friendly" episodes generally are open to anything, so if you've always wanted to join us, but couldn't because we recorded in the middle of the night, this is your chance to call in! We will record Episode 93 on Monday, June 2nd at 1pm Central Daylight Time, 2pm Eastern Daylight Time, 7pm British Summer Time, 8pm Central European Summer Time, and at 4am Tuesday, June 3rd Australian Eastern Standard Time.
In This Episode
Italian Camera Book / Italy's Camera History is Deeper Than You'd Think
Bencini Comet III / Bencini Koroll II and Koroll S / 127 Size Images on 120
Italy's Camera Industry is Similar to France's
Ferrania Also Released Cameras / Ferrania Rondine / The Ferrania Condor is Not a Leica Copy
The Rectaflex Was Very Pretty and Innovative / Rectaflex Lichtenstein
Mike Apologizes for the Expensive GAS From This Episode
Theo Loves His Closter Camera
Durst Made Four Cameras, the Duca, Automatica
Camerosity
The Camerosity Podcast is a film photography podcast that covers collecting, using, repairing, and the history of classic film and digital cameras. We love all kinds of cameras, and often talk about specific brands or formats of cameras with an emphasis on the history and stories these cameras have.