The current book weighs in at a mere 200 or so pages, with “only” 176 photos, but while it may not be as comprehensive as the book of last year, it is still quite a beauty and has instantly propelled itself to the top of my favorite Moriyama books. (Takuno 1987, now hard to find, tops this list, if you’re curious). Outside of photographs that accompany an interview with Moriyama at the beginning of the book, as well as those few that accompany some essays at the back of the book, the vast majority of photographs have been printed full-bleed, one to a page. Given that this is an A4-sized book (8.5 x 11.5 inches roughly, for those in the US), it makes for a sumptous offering. (And truth be told, the paper is of a thicker and nicer quality than the Rathole book).

Every Moriyama outing is full of grain and tilted camera angles and stray animals, and there is plenty of that to go around here. But somehow these Hokkaido photographs come dripping with even more texture and pathos. Falling snow looks more like little pinholes in a distressed 35mm film negative, and the more open-space quality of Hokkaido, as opposed to the normal Tokyo stomping grounds of Moriyama, effuses much of the work with a reflective loneliness.

In addition to the book, there is a 58-minute DVD of an interview with Moriyama on the soundtrack while a slideshow of the Hokkaido work plays. Essentially the interview is the same as that which appears in the book (both in Japanese only), but many of the photos included in the slideshow do not appear in the current volume, creating a real value add.

Northern is for sale in the Japan Exposures bookshop.

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A customer in Malaysia, who is obviously privileged enough to be given a private view of a final pre-production model of the forthcoming Olympus E-P1, sends us the above photo. In it you see a Carl Zeiss ZM Planar 50/2 mounted on the E-P1 by means of a Rayqual Leica M-M4/3 adapter for Leica M lenses.

He comments further:

The focusing is great because of the 3″ screen, plus you have the zoom function like the G1. In certain ways it is better than the G1…. the face detection works very well even with this manual lens. Without an EVF it is a bit odd and needs getting used to but it is a very solid camera though. Just imagine… an 100mm f2 ( 50mm x 2) image stabilized lens… this is mind blowing… the Rayqual really feels like a piece of precision engineering.

Looks like this will be an exciting year for M4/3.

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Our Equipment Sourcing Service is proving increasingly popular and we are getting good attention from the Tokyo used camera dealers on behalf of our clients. But sometimes there is an item too good to miss, but without a current client mandate. Therefore we have started to pick up these items anyway and offer them in the Japan Exposures Web Shop with the hope of finding them a new owner that way.

From Hello Kitty Polaroids to the now legendary Fujipet toy camera, you can find an initial listing of interesting items in the newly created category Exotics. Give it a browse to be enticed and check back once in a while for any updates.

Of course, Equipment Sourcing will still be there for those who know what they want and items that you want us to search for.

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Ahead of scheduled July 2009 Rayqual has released the two announced adapters for the Micro-Four-Thirds system (such as Panasonic Lumix G1 and the speculated digital Olympus Pen F).

As always these high quality MADE IN JAPAN adapters are made to high quality standards and allow photographers and cinematographers to reliably and precisely mount their Nikon F and Contax/Yashica lenses on modern digital bodies.

Pentax K, Olympus OM and Leica R versions will follow suit in August.

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Following the DNP films we have added another inexpensive film to our selection: Fujicolor Industrial Color Negative Film.

The film comes in very plain packaging and is available in 100 and 400 speed and is an all-purpose colour negative film for general use. Available in packs of ten or higher quantities on request.

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Nikon F and Contax/Yashica to M4/3 lens adapters will become available in July June and Pentax K, Olympus OM and Leica R versions will follow suit in August.

Prices will be in line with the Leica M and Canon FD to M4/3 adapters (¥18.700).

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The amount of pre-orders is continuing to exceed expectations. As a consequence Fujifilm are unable to fulfill all pre-orders at once right upon release. Sellers will be allocated a number of units as they become available and exact number of the initial and subsequent batches are at this point in time unknown. What is certain though is that orders are fulfilled on a first ordered, first served basis.

Unfortunately we are unable to tell what our and the position of our customer who ordered this camera from us is right now, so we kindly ask for more of your patience — it will come and it will come soon. Once you have it in your hands it may well have become an instant classic already.

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We have for a limited time signed copies of this book available at the publisher’s price of ¥3,990. The title has been selling well and, given that there have only been 700 copies printed, will surely sell out before long. Actually, Hong Kong Reminiscence 1958 is one of two new books the 84-year old Nagano released over New Years, the other being a collection of Tokyo street snaps mainly from this decade: Distant Gaze: Dark Blossom of Winter — the subtitle being a classical Chinese reference to the last phase of someone’s life. We have signed copies of this title available as well.

Please view Shigeichi Nagano’s page in our bookstore for these and other Nagano titles we’re currently carrying.

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3. Dry bed of a mountain river in Nagano

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More negativity is in a forthcoming technical mini-review by Christoph Hammann for Japan Exposures where he checks out the new Kodak Ektar 100 Professional. For now meet its antipode, the Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) Centuria 100.

DNP inherited the Centuria brand from the now defunct Konica Minolta photography business. The Centuria films are low budget films with very decent performance, in fact if you ask top league Japanese photographer Koji Onaka, he would probably tell you that this stuff is all you should be using. We are offering very competitively priced 10 and 100 packs — treat yourself to shooting without the worries of cost. Three to four rolls of of Centuria versus a single roll of Ektar…

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