Episode 55 • Vienna Calling

I Dream of Cameras

Hello, oh-oh, Vienna calling! Jeff’s in the City of Dreams for Episode № 55 of I Dream of Cameras, featuring talk of travel, model shoots and being trailed by paparazzi. Do they swoon for the XPan? Find out in this globe-spanning dispatch!

Jeff’s in Vienna, Austria for this one!

Cameras of 1968:

Petri Color 35

Fed Mikron

Konica Autoreflex T

Praktica Super TL

Gabe’s been going to a lot of camera meetups ‘cause Jeff has abandoned him

Jeff talks about the nature of his globetrotting adventure: Bratislava, Brno, Vienna, Prague, Karlovy Vary…

Photographing picturesque cities, being trailed by paparazzi

The cameras he brought: the Hasselblad XPan and the Olympus XA4 Macro

The XPan opens doors! photographers notice it — it’s not a dilettante’s camera — and this has led to some fascinating conversations

Gabe’s had a similar experience with Rollei TLRs

The XPan is a surprisingly great travel camera — between behind-the-scenes stuff and exotic Central European cities, Jeff’s burning through two or three rolls of Kodak Portra 400 a day

Kodak Ultramax 400 was cheaper but a bit disappointing

also in the queue: Portra 160 and FPP Color 125 (a.k.a. Svema)

Jeff’s getting an extraordinary insight into the collaboration between model and photographer on a fashion shoot

yesterday’s photo shoot was with Leica Ambassador Pat Domingo, who used a Leica SL2 Reporter and a custom black chrome Hermes edition Leica M10-D with red leather and a 35mm Summicron that belonged to his father

Gabe had some struggles to get back in sync with his black-paint Leica M4

Jeff’s pretty good at judging exposure — are you?

Gabe’s also been out shooting with the Mamiya RZ67, the Hasselblad 501cm and the Rolleiflex 2.8E2

And he’s fascinated by the work of Saul Leiter

And he’s still enjoying the black Canonflex RM and Pentacon Six TL

Jeff’s favorite black-and-white film is Double-X 250, a GREAT stock which for some reason isn’t commercially available (except through Cinestill) — buy a 100-foot roll from Ultrafine Online and start bulk-loading!

Jeff’s East Coast lab of choice: picturehouse + smalldarkroom in Chelsea, NYC

and finally, a dip into Das Prodigious Mailbag!