A Lens of Yesteryear

By Isa Farnik

If I had a nickel for every time the digital vs. analog photography debate has landed in my lap, I’d be rich. At those argumentative junctures, I reassure myself that it’s not the medium, but the subject which is

important. It also underscores the importance/rewards in possessing such a disregard. As the typewriter becomes the keyboard, the camera obscura, the DSLR and the root cellar, the refrigerator, it’s important to keep in mind that while we are moving forward, we can always look back. It also means that encoded in each incarnation of a tool are remnants of it’s predecessors, if you have the patience to look. There is also the opportunity to re-inject this essence back into tools or decode it where it already exists. This is the heart of labours of technological love like the entirety of the Steampunk sub-culture and more concisely, projects like on the right.

What you’re looking at is the shnoz from a Zeiss Ikon Ikonette altered to sit on a Jonas Kroyer’s Nikon D300. Even modernized, it manages to maintain it’s early 20th century mystique. Examples of photos taken with, blueprints and condensed build log of: http://www.jonaskroyer.com/photography/photoref/archives/1049 viahttp://hackaday.com/2011/02/11/bellows-camera-to-dslr/

P.S. Jake informed me that a post in on the way which in which he implements the practicum of the theorem read here. You guessed it, rails and bellows for a DSLR. Stay tuned!