Japan Exposures would like to express their sincere appreciation to the following individuals for their contributions to the site. We are very grateful that others share our enthusiasm for Japanese photography and make the effort to express this in writing for us to share with the rest of the world. Thank you. Dan Abbe lives in … Continue reading Contributors
At most train stations in Tokyo, there’s still film stores that still develop a roll of film in 45 minutes or less, so you can stop back and pick up your pictures on the way through, and enjoy looking at them on your train ride home. In the Japanese photography magazines, many articles are still devoted to film cameras each issue, although digital camera coverage is starting to pull way ahead, with even dedicated titles catering only to digital shooters. Nonetheless most of the camera store ads in the front or back pages still list a huge selection of used film cameras and lenses for sale. These are now referred to as classic cameras.
Recently, a young Japanese woman brought in an old shiny camera to my office, a curious look on her face. It was her grandfather’s 1950s Konica IIA, a rangefinder. She said her grandmother had wanted her to have it, an old antique that her grandfather, who had passed away recently, had loved using.
The young woman told me that she had taken the Konica to a camera shop, where they had charged her 30,000 yen (about $270) to do a CLA on it. But the young employee at the counter who returned it to her told her he didn’t know how to load film into the camera or use it.
