Author name: Ibraar Hussain

Casual snapper from London My Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibraar

Contax G2 – The Finest Camera Ever to See my Minds Eye

By / / Advanced Compact, Rangefinders (Changeable Lens) / 34 Comments

Back in 2005 I had just started getting back into shooting Film and had bought a Minolta Dynax 5 to accompany my Konica Minolta 7D DSLR.
What I then wanted was a Leica – almost everyone starts off wanting a Leica, very much like when one starts of being interested in Wrist watches wanting a Rolex. I never did get one though – I was on Amazon’s website and when I typed “Rangefinder camera” an advert for an open box Contax G2 with 45mm Carl Zeiss Planar lens came up for an expensive £550. I had never heard of Contax and had no idea what a G2 was but after a short read on the Web I took a punt and received it in a couple of days.

Eastman Kodak 5222 Double-X with a Contax RTS II

By / / Photos & Projects / 24 Comments

I’ve been shooting Film for a relatively long time but I’m quite cautious when shooting it, I have my comfort zone where I have my preferred Film and stick to it – reluctant to try anything else or explore.

My go-to Colour was Kodak Ektachrome e100vs and when that was discontinued (I still have two precious rolls in the freezer for that next exotic trip abroad where I’ll shoot it carefully) I was bewildered and grudgingly had to use the various Fujichromes until Kodak released the regular Ektachrome, which though not perfect almost had the ‘look’ I like.

Durst Automatica – Overcoming Scale Focus Fears with an Italian Beauty

By / / Scale Focus / 12 Comments

My photographic journey took a new route recently. I had been scared of scale focus and viewfinder cameras for years – I mean how would one shoot people and portraits with a shallow depth of field without being able to critically adjust the focus on their eyes? Guessing exact distance isn’t something I’ve ever been confident with. And zone focusing isn’t anything I had ever tried before in anger though I knew how to set distance on a lens it seemed far easier to use something like a manual rangefinder or SLR for what I like to photograph – especially as my main interest is travel and with travel there’s people.

Olympus Pen F – The Walk to Paradise Garden and W. Eugene Smith.

By / / SLRs / 28 Comments

William Eugene Smith, better known as W Eugene Smith is one of The Greats.

One of the greatest photographers of all time, a Magnum photographer famous mostly for his reportage work during and after the second world war. (If you’re unfamiliar, I’ve added some links below). Now this isn’t an essay on W Eugene Smith, I’m not an expert nor am I an art historian of any sort – I just know a few things about him and have been admiring his work for years. His work is very moving and very dark – Don McCullin in many ways reminds me of him – it seems as if the darkness in their soul was made manifest in much of the photographic work that they made – as if the darkroom was where their soul, as a disembodied entity, under the red glow of the safe light, was absorbed into and made it’s way into the photographic enlarger and immortalised onto the gelatine and silver print.

Fujifilm Professional TX-2 – Seeing Panoramic

By / / Photos & Projects, Rangefinders (Changeable Lens) / 23 Comments

The Fujifilm Professional TX-2 (its sister Hasselblad XPan I/II or the older Fuji TX)  is one of those cameras which you lust after, and when you get it, open the packaging and have it in your hands at last, you marvel at the build quality, the heft and solidity, the beauty of the workmanship and the lens as you handle the jewel like thing and attach it to the body. You then oooh and aaaah as you lift it and put it to your eye and are blown away by the clear bright finder which is very wide and large indeed! You then want to go out and shoot with it so you insert the batteries and then the film – which is as easy to load as a point and shoot

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