Photography

1994 Jaguar XJ220 Wikipedia

Kodak, Jaguar, Zenith: Brands That Had Every Ingredient For Higher Success

This post is a companion to the latest 3DLANES podcast episode. This was supposed to be a Collective Horology weekend. I had the trip planned with my wife, hotel booked and everything, and Sunday morning was going to be Morning Motors, the Cars and Coffee that Driving While Awesome puts together. Instead I spent the

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Made in Japan

The Globalization of the Camera industry: It Became Everybody’s Business

This post is a companion to the latest 3DLANES podcast episode. The camera started as a precision artifact. German. Exclusive. Built by hand in the same tradition as Swiss watchmaking, meaning it was expensive, it was serious, and most people couldn’t touch it. Leica, Zeiss, Rollei. That was the holy trinity. And like a fine

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Nikon FM2

The Nikon FM2

This post accompanies the latest 3DLANES podcast episode discussing the Nikon FM2, its origins, its place in photography history, and the competitive landscape at the time of its introduction. The Nikon FM2 was positioned between enthusiast and professional-grade equipment, a flagship-level camera at a mid-tier price. It remained in production for 19 years (1982–2001), becoming

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Minolta XG-M

The Minolta XG-M: A Piece of Photography History, Today

October 1981.The manual-focus SLR market was mature, crowded, and tightening. Feature differentiation was incremental, competition was fierce, and margins were compressing. Minolta needed a camera that could defend its position in the mid-tier consumer segment without overextending into professional territory. Enter the Minolta XG-M, marketed in Japan as the X-70 and arriving there in 1982,

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