I Dream of Cameras

Episode 98 • Five Years, That's All We’ve Got

How did these two mumbling malcontents pump out pods for five years and ninety-eight nattering episodes? In this one, the boys barely discuss that at all! Instead Jeff recaps his trip to London, to the shop where he bought both his Alpa and XPan, and Gabe recounts his acquisition of a legendary lens owned by an even-more-legendary photographer. A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest — tune in! November 20 marks IDOC’s fifth anniversary, and the 21st marks Jeff’s birthday! Jeff briefly recounts his trip to London, including a stop at Camera City [https://cameracity.co.uk/], the shop where he got both his first Alpa [https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwWEC3RcIo/] and his first XPan [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf6hlReuKn2/] Gabe’s birthday bonanza included a Lab-Box [https://www.lab-box.it/] and a Negative Supply [https://www.negative.supply/] scanning rig… …he found a Beseler 67SC [http://www.jollinger.com/photo/enlargers/beseler-67.html] enlarger on FB Marketplace… …and went to (basically) Spahn Ranch [https://www.history.com/articles/spahn-ranch-manson-family] in the Hollywood Hills to secure a 80mm f4 Rodenstock Rodagon [https://www.catlabs.info/product/rodenstock-apo-rodagon-n-80mm-f4-enlarger-lens-up-to-6x7-0882] enlarger lens… which, it turns out, used to belong to Herb Ritts [https://www.herbritts.com/]! our continuing adventures with the maddeningly inconsistent Chad GPT [https://chatgpt.com/]: it misled Jeff about the fate of the final penny [https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/united-states-mint-hosts-historic-ceremonial-strike-for-final-production-of-the-circulating-one-cent-coin], and lied to Gabe about a mysterious TLR which turned out to be a rare Rolleiflex 2.8F white face [https://tahusa.co/camera-review/rolleiflex-2-8f-planar-the-one-medium-format-camera/] what do the boys think of the soon-come Widelux XX [https://wideluxx.com/]? sad news: Freestyle Photo [https://www.freestylephoto.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqFY3hxaDHknbkg6Hv6R6XjZOwS_MR36yBcI3NCOoq4XUkCnNm4] is closing their brick-and-mortar location  should Jeff buy an O.G. Alpa-Reflex [https://mikeeckman.com/2024/10/alpa-reflex-1944/] on the ‘bay to complete his collection? once again, we improbably empty the Prodigious Mailbag™ and now you must run to the L.A. Camera Expo [https://www.lacameraexpo.com/] in Burbank ‘cause it’s happening at this very moment!

Episode 97 • La De Da, La De Da

More like L.A. De Da, because both hosts are together in the City of Angels: scoring sibling Olympi at a camera show, talking “new” Kodak film stocks with tasty typography, and shooting the works with a half-frame Swiss, a square-frame German and an American GOOSE. Tune in - it'll change your wife! this episode is dedicated to the memory of the great photographer Diane Keaton [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/oct/15/a-photographer-with-a-cool-and-deadly-eye-diane-keatons-creativity-behind-the-lens] our second bad review [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rwsbz9f9czpb0kupuixee/Another-bad-review.jpeg?rlkey=tue56woyz2dvrmuyzkrp57hxd&e=1&dl=0] has utterly vanished! Jeff’s results with the half-cookie Alpa 10s [https://corsopolaris.net/supercameras/half/halformat10s.html] were delightful... shooting with the Polaroid GOOSE [https://emulsive.org/reviews/camera-reviews/polaroid-cameras/the-goose-reviewing-the-polaroid-600se] was a total kick... and the square-frame Zeiss Ikon Taxona [https://www.35mmc.com/26/11/2016/zeiss-ikon-taxona-review/] - two-thirds of a cookie! - is a fun alternative to the elusive Mamiya Sketch [https://mikeeckman.com/2023/03/mamiya-sketch-1959/] at the wondrous L.A. Camera Expo [https://www.lacameraexpo.com/], Gabe snapped up an Olympus 35RC [https://schneidan.com/2015/05/15/olympus-35rc-rangefinder-a-pint-sized-powerhouse/], while Jeff went for big brother 35SPn [https://www.35mmc.com/01/06/2021/olympus-35-spn-review/], a rarer version of the 35SP [https://casualphotophile.com/2019/08/16/olympus-35-sp-review/] with better typography Chad GPT [https://chatgpt.com/] misled us again! he made Jeff buy a Kilfitt Makro-Kilar [https://mikeeckman.com/2019/06/kepplers-vault-40-kilfitt-makro-kilar-lens/] in Exakta mount, insisting it was Alpa Kodacolor returns [https://kosmofoto.com/2025/10/kodacolor-100-and-200-shops-sell-out-as-eastman-kodak-returns-to-film-distribution/] - or does it? once again, all we care about is good typography! how embarrassing: Jeff’s nemesis has entered the world of fashion [https://petapixel.com/2025/10/01/remarkable-collection-of-vivian-maier-photos-hats-and-dresses-up-for-auction/] we had a blast at the Bike Shed complex [https://bikeshedmoto.com/pages/los-angeles?srsltid=AfmBOor81sUryMSEBYUA42ywRYERLgNGeDdBV6h2z4_dWgjUPJh1HSV_] in DTLA’s Arts District we actually empty the Prodigious Mailbag™ for a change and finally, we urge you continue imploring Debbie Gibson [https://www.instagram.com/debbiegibson/?hl=en] to perform our theme song for the 100th episode

Episode 96 • Here’s What We've Been Up To

Is it enough for these two “middle-aged men” to merely share “what they’ve been up to”? One peevish iTunes reviewer doesn’t think so! But for the rest of you, tune in to this XL episode to hear the felicitous end of Jeff’s half-frame Alpa saga, news of Gabe’s bag-quisitions and camera meetups, a screed about how the new tariffs are crippling our hobby, a impassioned defense of free speech, and so much more! rejoice, for Jeff’s half-a-cookie Alpa 10s [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Alpa-10s-chrome-Half-Frame/A01734] finally arrived! not only that, after he emailed the CEO of UPS [https://about.ups.com/mx/en/our-company/leadership/carol-b-tome.html], he got a personal response and an apology! Gabe loves his supersnazz Bleu de Chauffe [https://www.bleu-de-chauffe.com/en/] camera tote, yet couldn’t resist snapping up Jeff’s cheap Strand Bookstore messenger bag [https://www.strandbooks.com/lg-vintage-bag-green-9789110852600.html] as well Gabe (along with Rafael Hernandez [https://www.instagram.com/2071photo/?hl=en]) went to the Susan Meiselas event [https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/an-afternoon-with-photographer-susan-meiselas-9-13-25/] at the Aero Theatre… …and crashed the LA Camera Exchange meetup from imstilldeveloping.com [http://imstilldeveloping.com] and Fridge Film [https://fridgefilm.com/] the new hot camera is the Nikonos V [https://emulsive.org/reviews/camera-reviews/nikon-camera-reviews/the-nikonos-v-the-underwater-on-land-adventure-camera] — clearly the IDOC effect in action! Jeff has been kitting out his new Polaroid GOOSE [https://www.thephoblographer.com/2021/12/02/the-polaroid-600se-was-called-the-best-instant-film-camera/]… …but finds a 50mm lens a bit too tele-ish on the Alpa 10s, since a half-frame focal length × 1.44222 = full-frame, so he put in an offer on a 40mm Kilfitt Makro-Kilar [https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/kilfitt-makro-kilar-40mm-lens-review-popular-photographys-1955-dream-lens-as-close-as-it-gets.207371/] guess what? we got another bad review [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rwsbz9f9czpb0kupuixee/Another-bad-review.jpeg?rlkey=tue56woyz2dvrmuyzkrp57hxd&dl=0]! Gabe hung out with friend-of-show Chris Smirnoff [https://www.instagram.com/csmirnoff] and also Robert Capron [https://www.instagram.com/robert_capron], who played Rowley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid [https://diary-of-a-wimpy-kid.fandom.com/wiki/Rowley_Jefferson], and went to a screening of Anvil: The Story of Anvil [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anvil!_The_Story_of_Anvil] with the mighty Fred Coury [https://www.instagram.com/fredcoury] the end of “de minimis” [https://nymag.com/strategist/article/what-does-the-end-of-de-minimis-mean-for-online-shopping.html] is a catastrophe if you buy stuff from abroad; check this eBay page [https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/] for all the grim details - and thanks to tariffs, Ausgeknipst no longer ships to the US [https://ausgeknipst.de/en/pages/shipping] the boys take a graceful swan dive into quite the Prodigious Mailbag™ the folks at AOK Camera Repair [https://aokcamera.com/] win the coveted IDOC endorsement Gabe’s pictures feature in a Judd Apatow article in the latest Vanity Fair [https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/judd-apatow-opens-up-his-personal-photo-trove] and Camera Maintenance & Repair by Thomas Tomosy is super-expensive, so grab the PDF from the Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/cameramaintenanc0000tomo] or from here [https://drive.google.com/file/d/14nldA2ja97YMXVdS8Yc7cd7vZCsUSS0M/view]

Episode 95 • Swiss Miss

Ach, der Schmerz! Aïe, la douleur! Jeff’s insanely rare, perpetually coveted, and newly repaired half-frame Alpa 10s has been lost by UPS. As you listen to the latest episode of our Smash Hit Podcast™, globally acclaimed yet eschewing of praise, spare a thought or a prayer for the grieving cohost! yes, the Alpa 10s half-cookie [https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Pignons/Alpa-10s-Half-Frame-(halbformat).html] is MIA at UPS [https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/file-a-claim] - should we be putting AirTags [https://www.apple.com/airtag/] in our important packages? Gabe is obsessed with which film cameras [https://www.shutterbug.com/content/these-are-cameras-used-10-worlds-most-famous-photographers] were used [https://www.notes.nicefilmclub.com/posts/6-cameras-used-by-iconic-photographers] by legendary photographers [https://streetphotography.com/famous-classic-cameras-and-the-street-photographers-who-used-them] to take legendary shots - are you? Gabe went to the LA Camera Expo [https://www.lacameraexpo.com/] and came home with a slew of darkroom equipment Jeff got great results from Atlanta Film Co. [https://www.atlantafilmco.com/] with Kodak Vision 3 [https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/product/camera-films/250d-5207-7207/], but is it worth the extra cost, time and effort? the Osiris F1 [https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/osiris-f1-film-processor-automated-analogue-analog/] is a fun ’n’ freaky (’n’ patent-infringing? [https://petapixel.com/2016/06/15/osiris-f1-affordable-automatic-film-processor/]) film-processing robot we urge you to check out [https://www.cameradactyl.com/] the Cameradactyl Master System [https://petapixel.com/2025/03/11/photographer-creates-new-analog-format-and-groundbreaking-modular-photo-processor/] from mad scientist Ethan Moses [https://www.instagram.com/cameradactyl/] Gabe is back in the hunt for camera bags - his new obsession is the sexy, stylish and super-expensive Bleu de Chauffe [https://www.bleu-de-chauffe.com/en/] meanwhile, Jeff’s Strand Bookstore messenger bag [https://www.strandbooks.com/lg-vintage-bag-green-9789110852600.html] is dirt cheap! we both flipped for Sissi Lu’s new googly-eyed hang-tag lens cloth [https://www.sissilu.com/store/p/eyeball-charm] Jeff snapped up Langdon Clay Cars: New York City, 1974-1976 [https://langdonclay.com/portfolio/carsnyc] book shot [https://thevintagent.com/2024/04/14/in-the-darkness-langdon-clays-cars-nyc-1974-76/] with a Leica CL [https://gear.vogelius.se/-editorials/leica-cl/index.html] and Kodachrome 25 [https://www.35mmc.com/01/09/2023/5-frames-of-kodachrome-25-and-64-an-unromantic-retrospective-by-simon-foale/] - yet everyone on Instagram thinks the pics are AI slop! Gabe found Jeff Bridges’ elusive and highly prized Pictures Vol. 1 [https://www.jeffbridges.com/store-tote/pictures-volume-1] at Goodwill for six bucks! who sent Gabe a 110 camera? do tell! happy birthday to our friend Vance DeGeneres [https://www.instagram.com/vancenotvance/?hl=en] - check out his incredible New Orleans New Wave band The Cold [http://www.threechordcity.com/]! Los Angelenos! look into imstilldeveloping.com [http://imstilldeveloping.com] and the LA Camera Expo [https://www.lacameraexpo.com/] - Gabe will be there! and finally, we stick a pinky toe into the Prodigious Mailbag™

Episode 94 • All Floral Wallpaper and Joy

Jeff’s been engaged for over a month, and is suffused with bonhomie and goodwill, while the normally sanguine Gabe is ENRAGED! At eBay sellers who say “make an offer,” but don’t actually want one; at overpriced camera straps and thumb drives — he’s seething! Next, the boys note some stereotypically male behavior from “Chad” GPT, discuss the financial state of our beloved Kodak, examine the controversy over Nick Ut’s “Terror of War” photo, and take a swan dive into an exceptionally Prodigious Mailbag. Finally: will Debbie Gibson record a vocal version of our theme song for the upcoming (and final?) 100th episode, or is that Only In My Dreams? Shake Your Love and find out! Gabe traveled to Lake Muskoka [https://wldb.ilec.or.jp/Display/html/3425] north of Toronto and shot no film Jeff asked ChatGPT [https://chatgpt.com/] to compare the Closter Princess Junior [https://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3423&] with the Galileo Condor II [https://www.35mmc.com/21/12/2017/5-frames-62-ferrania-condor-ii-francesco-melis/], and it claimed they were bikes! We now dub the app “Chad GPT,” because he’s a man who'll never say “I Don't Know”! is Kodak in trouble [https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/12/business/kodak-survival-warning]? Calm down [https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/14/kodak-denies-its-shutting-down-amid-media-reports-of-financial-struggles/]! we discuss the emergent controversy [https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/napalm-girl-photo-controversy-investigation-vietnam-war-1235395151/] over the authorship of Nick Ut [https://www.instagram.com/utnicky/?hl=en]’s “Terror of War” photo [https://www.nga.gov/artworks/136637-title-caption-object-terror-war], as recounted in the new documentary The Stringer [https://theviifoundation.org/films/the-stringer/] - for example, even AP admits [https://www.ap.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TerrorOfWarReportUpdate_May2025.pdf] the negative was not shot with Ut's preferred Leica M2 [https://www.photothinking.com/2021-04-22-leica-m2-the-sibling-classic/], but a cheap Pentax [https://apnews.com/project/terror-of-war/], and our trusty dusty camera repair guy confirms this Gabe rails at eBay sellers who say “make offer” but don't want an offer also, when is the asking price too high? for straps, thumb drives, Alpa strap lugs...? Jeff openly derides absurd packfilm prices Gabe rhapsodizes about OC Camera [https://www.occamera.com/] in Laguna Hills we both love Sissi Lu [https://www.instagram.com/sissi_lu/?hl=en]'s recent photo shoot with her mom [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEc6civBEaY] our trusty dusty camera repair guy replaced the focusing screen in Gabe’s Rolleiflex 2.8E [https://allmyfriendsarejpegs.com/cameras-and-lenses/rolleiflex-tlr/], and the results are glorious the Prodigious Mailbag™ includes an unexpected eyewitness update on Jeff's Alpa 10s half-cookie [https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Pignons/Alpa-10s-Half-Frame-(halbformat).html] Gabe will be at the LA Camera Expo [https://www.lacameraexpo.com/] this Sunday, August 17th our designer (and award-winning photographer [https://www.instagram.com/p/DNT7XjIvF-V/?img_index=6]) Keith Greenstein is back on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thekeithgreenstein/] check out The Darkroom Rumour [https://www.thedarkroomrumour.com], The Darkroom’s amazing new streaming site for photo documentaries and let's get Debbie Gibson [https://www.instagram.com/debbiegibson/?hl=en] to record a vocal version of our theme song with composer Fred Coury [https://www.instagram.com/fredcoury/?hl=en] for the 100th episode!