Roger W. Hicks

Most people are vaguely aware that shutter speeds aren't always as fast as they are marked, that ISO speeds can vary, and that overall, photography isn't that precise a science. What they often don't know is just how far-out things can...

The Chinese-built, American-designed Fotoman 617 justifies itself as soon as you see the first transparencies on the light table. The huge format is a knockout. It's gorgeous. That vast slab of film is 21/4x62/3". That's 56x168mm, or over 11 times the area of 35mm.

It's ideal for scanning, too. Even a very modest flat-bed film scanner giving...

Weird stuff is my favorite category at any show: the things that don't fit into sensible categories, but are useful, or unusual, or yes, just plain weird. Some manufacturers of weird stuff rejoice in being called weird (they are often the most fun of all) but others sometimes flinch and say things like, "Um, we'd prefer to be called, er, unique." At a...

Mechanical precision has an almost sensual pleasure of its own. Think of the buttery wind-on of a 1950s Leica M3, or the way that the lens panel of an Alpa 12 glides into place, then fits solid as a rock. Recently...