Shutter, by Lewis Collard

a site about Lewis taking pictures

This site exists because I want you to get out there, with whatever camera you have, and take much better photographs than I do. I hope you find something of value here that will help you do that. :)

I started writing about this stuff in 2009, and most of it was written between then and 2013. I make no attempt to keep any of it up to date. I'll still like you if you disagree with anything I say on this site; chances are I don't agree with myself either.

Cameras

  • Canon A-1

    A legendary 35mm camera from the late 1970s, and my favourite camera ever made.

  • Canon EOS D30

    A long-obsolete, mostly-forgotten 3-megapixel digital SLR.

  • Canon T50

    An ugly automatic-exposure manual-focus SLR from 1983.

  • Canon T90

    The first modern camera (1986).

  • Fujica ST705

    A fully manual M42-mount camera with open-aperture metering.

  • Fujifilm X100

    A flawed gem. I ragequit my first one, then bought another because I liked it so much.

  • Kiev 88 "Hasselbladski"

    All the ergonomics of a camera from the 1940s with all the quality control of the Soviet Union.

  • Nikon D1

    Nikon's most important camera of the 1990s, and one of the most important cameras ever made. There is a sub-article on the PowerSmart aftermarket battery which worked better than Nikon's own ever did.

  • Nikon D2H

    A little celebration of my D2H which I bought with over 390,000 shutter actuations!

  • Nikon D2Hs

    A subtly improved D2H. I've owned three of these; I bought ludicrously high-mileage ones then wore them out at drift events.

  • Nikon D70

    Nikon's first cheap digital SLR, from 2004.

  • Nikon F55

    Plastic film SLR from the early-to-mid-2000s.

  • Olympus Trip 35

    No batteries required! There is a sub-article on how to focus it.

  • Pentax ZX-M/MZ-M

    The plastic-fantastic miracle. Weighs less than the motordrive for the A-1! I got it for free.

  • Praktica MTL3

    An extremely tough, fully-manual SLR camera from the late 70s.

  • Samsung Galaxy S2

    Reviewing the camera on 2011's finest Android phone. (Yep, this site has been around for a while!)

  • Nikon bargain digital SLR deathmatch!

    D2H vs D200 vs D70 vs D1! This was written back when these cameras were merely very cheap; these days you can get any of them almost for free.

  • Ancient professional bargain SLR DEATHMATCH!

    Nikon D2Hs vs Canon EOS 1D Mark II! Again, any of these cameras cost almost nothing then and cost even less now.

Lenses

Films

Camera-adjacent

Some things that aren't cameras, but are closely related.

Technical, opinions, etc

The technical parts articles here still hold up. The opinions less so. These days I try to have no more opinions than are strictly necessary. I'd much rather talk about what I did and things I like instead, rather than tell anyone else what they should be doing.