Episode 56 • A Night at the Opera

“On Wednesday evening, at the start of the opera in the St. Margarethen quarry, the unbelievable happened: Carmen survived.” And this is just the start of Episode № 56 of I Dream of Cameras, which features a harrowing escape from certain death, an enigmatic Central European supermodel, exotic cameras from East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and Jeff Bridges! Tune in for all the intrigue.On the final night of his Central European trip, Jeff was almost killed at an outdoor performance of CarmenCameras of 1967:Olympus Trip 35Hanimex Praktica Novo I BZenit EMore on Jeff’s recent observation of fashion shoots, including two different professionals’ use of the Olympus StylusLook for many behind-the-scenes XPan shots on Jeff’s InstagramGabe finally found his long-lost Leica R6.2… he’d sold it to LA Film Camera!Our composer Fred Coury went to an LA Photography Club meetup and got hookedThe Argus C3 is terrible — fight us on this!On Alan Peres's recommendation, Jeff visited FotoŠkoda in Prague and it was incrediblePicked up a Zeiss Pentacon FM and a Carl Zeiss Jena 35mm f2.4 Flektogon lensIn Český Krumlov, Jeff visited the fascinating Museum Fotoatelier Seidel……and found a Czech-made Meopta Stereo-Mikroma at a local antique storeGabe got a black Olympus OM-2……and a Nikon D700……and is seeking a waist-level finder for his Contax 645The challenges of shooting film abroad: do you wrestle with unsympathetic airport security personnel? Ship your film home and risk it getting x-rayed along the way? Process it locally? After equivocating for days, Jeff rolled the dice and took 18 rolls to the lab at FotoŠkoda… and it was a smashing success!Also: Portra 400 is totally worth it, and the XPan is a great travel cameraExciting news: a new Widelux is inbound from Jeff and Susan Bridges and the team at Silvergrain ClassicsWhile the Widelux has a 126° field of view, the XPan with 45mm lens covers 71° — is that panoramic?What do we think of the Minolta P’s and other “fake” panoramic 35mm cameras which merely mask the frame?Finally, a dip into our prodigious mailbag!