"Will This Work??" Ektar 25 edition.

I remember shooting Ektar 25, long ago, in the before times. It was an ultra-fine-grained, saturated film with a vanishingly low ISO of 25- so you'd shoot it outdoors, on a sunny day, or you wouldn't shoot it at all. But if you had a lot of light, or if you were used to shooting Kodachrome anyway, Ektar 25 was the way to go. Kodak's new Ektar 100 (available in store) is a spiritual successor, but I still mourn Ektar 25's brief run.


That's why I was pleased to see this old roll walk through the door, squashed into the bottom corner of a neglected camera bag. It's been a while, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to load it up see if it would still capture a decent picture.


Why the question? Well first of all, it's obviously not had an easy life: the box is smashed and watermarked, and it had apparently been stored in a hot attic for at least the last few years. And second of all, this film is older than some of you:

Still worth a try, though. And the results?

New for rent: The Litepanels MicroPro Hybrid

The MicroPro Hybrid is a brand-new LED continuous lighting unit from Litepanels. Designed to run for hours off a set of common AA batteries, this compact unit is a cord-free, hands-free lighting solution that's designed for ease of use and portability.


Great for still or motion photography, the MicroPro Hybrid is now available for daily rentals. Read on for details!

The Great Chinon Chimera

You're looking at the Chinon CE-4s, a humble 35mm SLR with handsome-but-undistinguished styling and a solid-but-plasticky build. In its stock incarnation, it's a functional and reliable 35mm SLR with a flexible Pentax K mount and aperture-priority auto exposure. No, there's nothing at all unusual about the Chinon CE-4s.


Until someone makes it mad.

Three brand-new Samyang/Rokinon lenses you may want to consider

We've brought in a selection of unique Samyang/Rokinon lenses. These are very good quality Korean manual focus lenses, built of metal and high-quality plastic, with smooth focusing mechanisms and aspherical elements. Compact and well-made, they can help fill gaps in your lens lineup at a surprisingly affordable price.

What to do if your camera needs repair

As you're probably aware, we sell the vast majority of our used equipment with a warranty. We do this because we believe that you should be able to rely on any equipment that you buy, old or new, to do the job it's supposed to do.

That's why we do our best to test all the equipment we receive, and provide both a return period and a repair warranty on most of our gear. 

What resolution differences mean, with examples.

Digital cameras are marketed with such a heavy emphasis on resolution and megapixels that I thought it might be educational to see what the difference in resolution actually looks like.

With this in mind, we pulled together a collection of Nikon cameras spanning more than ten years, and we shot a few examples. Read on for samples.

New This Week: June 15-20th, 2009

We've been lucky this week to find two pristine classic Nikon cameras: a late-model F Photomic, and a very nice example of the great F2.

Our Nikon F Photomic is a 1971 model, built 12 years into the F's remarkably long production run. Solid and versatile, the F was the de facto professional standard for years- until it was succeeded in 1972 by the F2. Our example is in excellent cosmetic shape, with a fully tested and accurate shutter and meter. It's priced at $349.

The Nikon F2 was a conservative evolution of the F, but managed to improve upon it in nearly every way. More heavily built, with a wider range of shutter speeds, and an even more extensive system of accessories, the F2 is still one of Nikon's finest and most usable SLRs. Our example is in great shape, cosmetically and mechanically, and includes a 50mm f2 Nikkor lens in similar shape. It's available now for $379.
This 35mm f2 Super-Takumar lens is another new arrival. Heavily built, with a huge front element, this lens looks great and takes lovely pictures. Like any M42 screw-mount lens, this 35mm f2 Super-Takumar can be used on the original Pentax Spotmatic and S-series cameras, as well as on any K-mount or EOS-mount camera- film or digital- with an inexpensive adapter (not included). This is an uncommon lens, and likely won't stick around too long. Available now for $249.
Finally, my favourite "toy" camera to come along in some time, the Golden Half is back in stock. Tiny and remarkably solid, the Golden Half is a plastic half-frame camera with fixed focus, adjustable aperture, and a side-mounted flash shoe. It's a lot smaller than you'd think, and a whole lot of fun to use. Half-frame shooting means that you double the number of pictures you can take per roll, saving on film and creating cool diptychs when you print the images together:

The Golden Half is in stock at $69, including a roll of colour film.

Check our website at www.camera-traders.com or stop into the store to see more of our inventory!