If you want to learn or discover a new technique, build on your skills, or be inspired to have a go at a bit of DIY or camera modification, then you’re in the right place.
As with everywhere else on 35mmc, none of the content here will tell you what you should do, but instead what me and the various other authors who have written for 35mmc have done for ourselves. Nothing here is written in stone, but instead is laid out in a way that I hope inspires you to have a go at something you might not have tried before.
Below you will find a list of the articles in this section separated into categories. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, or indeed feel like you have something you would like to add, then please feel free to get in touch. You can find out more about how to write for 35mmc here
Tutorials & Guides
Contents
In this section, some of the basics, and indeed some more complicated topics are covered. Here you will find tutorials, that will hopefully guide you through some experimentation of your own. You will also find guides around some of the more theoretical subjects within photography.
- Making, Measuring and Testing the “Optimal” Pinhole: Pinhole Adventures Part 3 – by Sroyon
- Making and Using a Cardboard Camera: Pinhole Adventures Part 2 – by Sroyon
- How to Get Started Developing Black & White Film for £25 (or Less) – by Sroyon Mukherjee
- How I Successfully Developed 60+ Year Old C22 and B&W Film – by Sina Farhat
- Monkeying Around with Focal Length and Perspective – by Sroyon Mukherjee
- Polyphenol Developer Alternatives – A World full of Options – By Daniel Keating
- Digitising Negatives and Slides – A Primer – By Bob Janes
- The Impact of Air Bubbles in the Optics of Old Lenses – By Jordi Fradera
- Dodge, Burn and Other Heresies – Darkroom Technique Part 5 – by Sroyon Mukherjee
- Split Grade Printing – Darkroom Technique Part 4 – by Sroyon Mukherjee
- Cat-and-Mouse with Exposure and Contrast – Darkroom Technique Part 3 – by Sroyon Mukherjee
- Knowing Little, Aiming High – Darkroom Technique Part 2 – By Sroyon Mukherjee
- How to Build a Darkroom for £100 or Less – Darkroom Technique Part 1 – by Sroyon Mukherjee
- Understanding Shutter Speed, Aperture, Film Speed (ISO) & The Relationship Between Them
- A Tour of my Darkroom and some notes for setting up yours – By Dan Castelli
- Scanning from the emulsion; getting the most out of a flatbed scanner – By David Narbecki
- Tetenal Colortec C-41 Developing Kit – By Parallax Photographic
- A little introduction to 35mm for Pinhole photography – Guest post by Alex Yates
- Tips and a DIY tool for film loading using a 35mm Paterson Tank System – guest post by Guy
- A few Tips & Tricks for shooting a 35mm point & shoot camera in low light
- Loading a 120 film camera with a pair of 3D printed 35mm film adapters
- Basic Optics For Photographers In 9 Diagrams – by Aukje
- Overexposure latitude or: how to cheat your way to perfect film photography
- Metering for Film, Understanding the Basics of Exposure – By JK Lockwood
- Understanding lens terminology – Part 2 – Bokeh
- Understanding Lens Terminology – Part 1 – Sharpness, Contrast, 3d Pop and Flare
- A Quick Guide to a Rangefinder’s Effective Base Length (EBL)
- How to Recode / Edit the DX barcode on 35mm Film Canisters
- How to Adapt a 675za Hearing aid Battery for use as a px625 replacement
- How to Home Brew Redscale Film
- Modification of Olympus mju-ii to retain flash settings
- Scale/Zone Focusing – A Tutorial
Lens adapting, Mods and DIY
There is a lot of fun to be had modifying a lens or camera, in this section you will find a articles from authors who have taken things apart, hacked, broken, jimmyed, stuck and welded with varying levels of success.
You will also find articles about the simple act of mounting lenses on cameras they weren’t originally intended for.
This section does come with a couple of health warnings! The authors who might encourage you to attempt such things found within this section shall not be held responsible for the physical pain you cause yourself by jabbing your hand with a screwdriver, electrocuting yourself with a flash capacitor, or indeed the mental anguish you might cause yourself by irreparable breaking your pride and joy.
In short, tinker at your own risk… but do ticker, it’s a lot of fun!
- The Impact of Air Bubbles in the Optics of Old Lenses – By Jordi Fradera
- Schneider 45mm f/2.8 Xenar to Leica M mount Conversion – By Ellis Ley
- Russian Slide Projector lens modification – By Stuart Jenkins
- Panomicron Oxygen review – A 3D Printed Hasselblad Xpan Alternative
- Non-Destructive Hacking the Ricoh R1 for Full-Frame Wide-Angle Photography – By Howard Hurd
- MS-Optics converted Nikon L35 35mm f/2.8 Sonnar – 35mm Lens conversion – Part 2
- Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim – Modifying & Shooting – by Charles Higham
- Modification of Pentax PC35AF to kill the beeping
- Modification of Pentax Espio Mini to retain flash settings
- Modification of Olympus mju-ii to retain flash settings – Part 2
- Modification of Olympus mju-ii to retain flash settings
- Modding a Halina Anastigmat f/3.5 45mm – by Tobias Eriksson
- Modding a 28mm Canon Demi C lens for M39 mount – by Tobias Eriksson
- A Mamiya 67 instant camera, or: Creating the Maminstax – By Victor Doroshenko
- Sony A7Rii – Making it work for me – Take Perfect. Spoil it. Be happy – by Aivaras
- The Road to Making a Pinhole Modified 35mm Compact Canon Camera – by Duncan Waldron
- Loading a 120 film camera with a pair of 3D printed 35mm film adapters
- My Leica M3 Titan Reverse Panda & Leica M4-P Super-Rat – CameraWorks-UK Custom Cameras
- Leica M-Mount Modified Yashica Electro 45mm f/1.7 lens
- Jupiter-8 – fluked success at modification – Finding my Perfect Classic Sonnar – PT6
- How I Shot A Micro-Budget Feature Film for less than £4000 with Vintage Lenses and a Sony A7s – By Brenden Singh
- How to Home Brew Redscale Film
- How to Adapt a 675za Hearing aid Battery for use as a px625 replacement
- How to Recode / Edit the DX barcode on 35mm Film Canisters
- Hasselblad Xpan with a 35mm F2.8 PC Nikkor – A Users’ Review. Cal Stewart
- Hacking Nikon L35AF ‘Pikaichi’ lens into the body of an Industar 50-2- by Charles Higham
- Hacking the Contax T2 for low light street shooting – by Ric Capucho
- Hacking a 35mm viewfinder out of a Canon AF7 – Guest post by Frank Lehnen
- Flash switch hack for the Olympus AF-10 super
- Tips and a DIY tool for film loading using a 35mm Paterson Tank System – guest post by Guy
- FauXPAN, Just Another DIY 35mm Panorama Camera – By Freeman Lin
- DIY Leica M6 remote shutter release – Guest post by Guy
- Why & how I made a DIY 35mm mini-Viewfinder – Guest post by Eddy
- Creating the (my) perfect camera – Guest Post By James Fox-Davies
- CAMERADACTYL Brancopan 35mm Panoramic Camera: A Preview with Pictures – By Ethan
- Building a custom Olympus 35RC – “Project Deco” – Guest post by Steve Lloyd
- Artefacts of a Laboratory – Adapting an enlarging lens to a Sony DSLR – By Jordi Fradera
- Adjusting a Leica M3 to focus closer than 1 metre
- Adding Manual Shutter Speeds to the Yashica Electro 35 Series Cameras – by BY CAMERADACTYL (Ethan)
- A Paxette Pinhole Conversion and a walk in the Countryside – By Rock
- A path from, and back to, a Yashica 40mm f/1.7 lens – by Anders Bjørn Jensen
- A Little Bricolage, or: How I Recovered Two Old Lenses – By Jordi Fradera
- 3D Printed Yashica T4 lens conversion
- A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1.5 – (Still) Choosing the lens
- A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
- 35mm Accessory Viewfinder for the Budget Conscious / The Wonders of 3D Printing
- How to: 28mm & finder for your Leica on a pensioner’s budget – by Geoff Radnor
That Time I shot with a…
This is a series of posts where authors document some of the especially weird and wonderful kit they have hacked together.
- That time I shot with a Mamiya Press lens strapped to a Sony A7Rii – By Martin Ellard
- That time I shot with a Leica and gaffa tape as a “lens” – By John Scott
- That time I shot Instax film in a Mamiya 6, upside-down – By Gilbert Townshend
- That time I shot homemade red scale in a pinhole-modified Zorki 4 – By Alex Purcell
- That time I shot freelensing with a Camedia D-435 and an Olympus OM 50mm – by Charles Higham
- That Time I Shot an 18-55mm APS-C Digital Lens on a 35mm Pentax Film Camera
- That time I shot a Toyo 4×5 with a Fuji XE3 stuck to the back – By Martin Norton
- That time I shot a Noritar 80mm f/2 medium format lens on a Pentax 35mm film camera – By Aivaras
- That Time I Shot a Instamatic Lens on a Fuji XE-1 – by Tobias Eriksson
- That time I shot 35mm film in a Rolleicord – by Teemu Matilainen
- That time I made the Sonblad – The Poor Man’s Hasselblad CFV II – by Simon Forster
- That time I adapted lenses to (rather than from) a Chaika – by Tobias Eriksson
Repairs & Cleaning
With the same health risks as above, here you can find a few articles detailing repair and cleaning work undertaken on various cameras. Obviously, this list is far from the definitive guide to how to fix every camera under the sun, but some of what can be found does transfer to other models of camera.
- Specialist Film Camera Repair & Modification Companies
- How I Removed a Cracked, Stuck-On Lens Filter – By Frank H. Wu
- Three simple, non-invasive things to try to repair dead or erratic Nikon L35AF – Guest post by Eddy
- (Mis)adventures with a Minolta Himatic 7s – By Matt Evans
- Minolta 28mm f/2.8 M-Rokkor – Shooting and Repairing – by Victor Doroshenko
- It’s Dead Jim – A Dissection of an Old Rangefinder Camera – By Bob Janes
- Inside the Mind of Minolta – an Investigation of the Internals of Minolta’s SRT 303 – By Bob Janes
- How to Calibrate a Canon P Rangefinder (in my case, for use with Soviet lenses) – by Cameradactyl (Ethan)
- Function and Repair of Hasselblad Film Backs (A12 and others) – By Arild Edvard Båsmo
- Fixing a detached rewind lever on a Petri Color 35
- Cleaning the dust out of a Konica Big Mini Lens
- A Couple of Bodged Fixes for a Pentax PC35AF – By Seb Copley
- Adjusting the rangefinder of the Fed4 – Guest post by Howard hurd
- A slightly troubled tale of replacing vintage camera leather – by Christopher James
- A quick fix to a Ricoh GR1s viewfinder surround.
Buyers Guides
Unlike a lot of buyers guides you might find online, in this section you won’t find articles telling you which is the best camera for x, y or z. Here you will find some slightly more experiential guides to choosing what bit of kit might be right for you. There are no hard and fast rules about what camera is best for anyone, but hopefully something in the following articles might give you some clues.
- Worried about the price of film? Some thoughts on bulk loading (and my process) – By Daniel Sigg
- Which Film Camera Should I Buy? A Guide to Anyone Asking This Question
- Thinking about spending a stack of cash on a film camera? Read this first!
- What is a Rangefinder Camera, and is one right for you?
- How to Choose the Best Camera for Street Photography – Guest post by Digby Fullam of Streethunters.net
- Don’t Believe the hype – A tight-fisted photographer’s approach to compact cameras – By Tony Smith
- 9 Reasons you shouldn’t own a thread mount Leica – Guest post by Dominik Mrzyk
- 7 Reasons you should own a Thread Mount Leica
- The 35mmc (growing) Guide to the 35mm Advanced Compact Camera
Camera History
There are many websites online that contain a lot of historical detail and information about cameras, traditionally 35mmc hasn’t been one of those sites, preferring to focus on the cameras now rather than where they came from. That said, over the years, a few articles that touch on the history of kit have come to the surface. You can find those articles here:
- Zeiss Jena 5cm Sonnars – The Magic of the Prewar Uncoated Sonnar – By Brian Sweeney
- Voigtländer Vito BL Review – Compact Excellence – by Andrew Morang
- A National Geographic Find – by Chris Page
- A brief history of Reid & Sigrist – Guest post by Wilson Laidlaw
- Functionalist camera design, the Agfa 1035 and the Plaubel Makina 67
- Cosina CT-1 and its Lengthy Legacy – By Ben O’Keeffe
- The Genius of Barnack, a Leica iiia & how rangefinders found a home on 35mmc
- Always the Sun – In Admiration of the Selenium Cell Compact Camera – By Chris Pattison
- 5 Frames with a No.2 Kodak Hawkeye Folding Camera Model C – By Jochen Utecht
Manuals & Downloads
The best place on the internet for camera manuals is and likely always will be Butkus.org. But over the years, I have found need to upload a couple of digital versions of manuals he doesn’t have. You can find them here:
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