Holga lens for Canon EOS cameras from Holgamods

Randy from Holgamods continues to kick ass: he’s now selling a Holga lens mounted on a body cap for use on Canon EOS cameras (Rebel XT, 20D, 30D, etc.). US $34.95, order here.

I’ve ordered cameras from Holgamods before and recommend him strongly. If you want a Holga and don’t want to modify it yourself, this is the place to go. (I have no relationship with Randy other than being a satisfied customer.)

New book: Timescapes Japan – A Pinhole Journey

A book of Edward Levinson‘s pinhole photographs will be published June, 2006. The book is titled "Timescapes Japan – A Pinhole Journey" and contains images of Japan as seen through the eyes of Edward Levinson and his pinhole cameras. Selected black and white photographs from three series of work from 1993 to recent work with brief text in English and Japanese.

The featured photographs are from Levinson’s "Healing Landscapes", "Sacred Japan", and "Japanese Cityscapes" series.

The book is being published by Nippon Camera Publishing Co. and will sell for 3,000 yen (tentative price about $30 US)

For more information, see Edward Levinson’s website.

Via Pinhole Visions

Abandoned After Dark night photography show, Alameda, CA, US

Abandoned After Dark show flyer

Joe Reifer writes:

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, check it out! Featuring the work of fetching ("Tickets" – lower left), broken obelisk ("Time Machine" – lower right), lensflare ("Countdown Quonset" – upper right), and yours truly, guacamole airlines ("Third Floor Looking Out" – upper left).

The show is from 7–31 July, 2006, at Lucky Ju Ju Pinball Gallery, 713 Santa Clara Ave Alameda, CA, US. Opening reception on Friday, 7 July, 2006, 7–10pm.

The Birds and the Bees group show, AKL, NZ

The Birds and the Bees portrays a breadth of interpretations, as the photographers attach human states of being such as joy, sorrow, growth and death to this well-known phrase

Karen Crisp photographs exotic and invasive plants, investigating the unsettling qualities that can be present in these environments.

Paul Pachter portrays the immediate landscape of his garden of 20 years, expressing aspects of his personal history.

Isabella Pachter collects images of preserved and mounted animals and nature scenes to create collages that comment on the portrayal of nature in the west.

Kellie Gray explores the nature of existence and questions our individual realities using digital stills captured from hours of video tape.

Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography 2006 [blogged previously], this exhibition features a range of photographic approaches, encompassing ‘pure’ large format photography, pinhole photography, manipulated and re-photographed images, and digital stills capture.

Dates: 7–24 June, 2006
Opening reception: Tuesday, 6 June, 2006, 7:00pm

The show is at Artstation, 1 Ponsonby Rd, Newton, Auckland, New Zealand

Via Pinhole Visions

DIY high capacity panoramic pinhole camera

John from Team Droid has great instructions, with step-by-step photos, for how to build a 30-shot 120 foamcore pinhole camera (phew!). He writes:

It all started on a long plane flight in the beginning of 2006. I was doodling in my Moleskine notebook and musing about pinhole cameras when and idea struck me. What if I made a camera that was panoramic and high capacity at the same time. I had been shooting with my 6×9 medium format pinhole (120 film) for a few weeks and was happy with the images but wished I could get more than eight shots a roll and have a wider field of view. What I thought was if I moved the pinhole closer to the film plane and rotated to aspect 90 degrees I could get dozens of images on a single roll of film and still get a pretty good sized negative. Turns out I can get about 30 images on a roll and even a quickly made pinhole will produce a satisfactory sharpness.

Check it out at Team Droid

Via the f295 Pinhole Photography Forum

Cynthia Meadows’ "Mass.Romantic" photography show, NY, US

Cynthia Meadows' Mass Romantic show flyer

Mass.Romantic, Cynthia Meadows‘ debut show of color photographs, opens at the Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday June 3, 2006, and remains on view through June 28.

An opening reception will be held on the evening of June 3, from 5 to 7 pm, at KMOCA, 105 Abeel Street, Kingston, NY, US. In the gallery after the opening, it’s time to dance! Come celebrate life with Kandykorn and her friend Erica, aka DJ Meow Mix.

Via Mr. Andrew Long

Verhoeven/Bell pinhole & Holga phototography show, Yokohama, JP

This show features color pinhole photographs done in Kyoto, Japan by Fred Verhoeven and black and white Woca Plastic Camera Photographs of northern Japan by Court Bell.

Fred Verhoeven is a photographer from San Francisco, CA. Court Bell is a American Photographer living in Sendai, Japan. This show is presented as Japan viewed through American eyes.

Gallery is located minutes away from JR Kannai Station in Yokohama.

Gallery Otamachi
3-35-2 Otamachi
Naka-ku
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Dates: Monday, June 05, 2006 – Sunday, June 11, 2006
Opening reception: Thursday, June 08, 2006 at 05:00 PM

Artist websites at www.fred-verhoeven.com & www.courtbell.com

Via Pinhole Visions

JPEG patent rejected!

Right to Create write:

The USPTO has rejected the broadest claims of the JPEG image format patent held by Forgent Networks.

It’s nice to see the Patent Office doing the right thing, but it’s too bad that more than $100 million dollars that Forgent has extorted from industry will never be returned to its rightful owners. Forgent gets to keep that money, regardless of how the PTO rules. For nearly 19 years, this patent has stood without challenge. Now, just over a year before it was to expire, the PTO declares that it is bogus.

Continue reading at Right to Create

The Public Patent Foundation, who brought the challenge, write:

"The Patent Office has agreed with our conclusion that it would have never granted Forgent Networks’ ‘672 patent had it been aware of the prior art that we uncovered and submitted to them," said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director. "Making matters worse here is that this new prior art was known by those who filed the application that led to the ‘672 patent, but none of them told the Patent Office about it, despite their duty to do so."

Continue reading at pubpat.org

Via Right to Create

Canon to halt development of film cameras

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Canon Inc. said on Thursday that it would halt development of new film cameras to focus resources on digital models, the latest sign of the rapidly fading role of film in photography.

A spokesman at Canon, the world’s largest maker of digital cameras, said it made the decision to freeze development of both compact and single lens reflex (SLR) film models because the markets for both are shrinking.

Canon said it would continue to produce and sell existing models and make a final judgment on the business in the future while monitoring market demand.

Continue reading at Reuters

This is becoming a familiar story. It sucks, but I can’t say I’m surprised. At least they’re keeping the current models around, which IMO is a very good thing. If you’ve already got money in Canon EOS glass for digital, US $300 for an Elan 7N body is one hell of a value if you want to shoot film.

Via Plaid Jello