Cameracraft magazine – Taking your practical photography further

Category: Cameras (Analogue)

  • In the B O X X: Alfie cameras’ latest development

    In the B O X X: Alfie cameras’ latest development

    • A new model from Alfie Cameras gives a new twist on instant photography
    • View camera with pinhole or custom optics shoots straight to paper
    • Develop on location – without the Impossible challenge of integral chemistry
    The Alfie Cameras [ B O X X ] instant analogue film camera, a wooden box camera with lens plate and ground glass in a traditional form with a novel solution for avoiding the darkroom!

    Showcased at The Photography Show in Birmingham, the new [ B O X X ] camera from Alfie Cameras is a very different proposition to their current, innovative turret-lensed half-frame 35mm offering. Launching with a Kickstarter campaign that opens on 17 May 2026, early access and VIP benefits are offered for those who sign up as an Alfie VIP.

    Built around a traditional wooden case with lens plates, Waterhouse stops and a ground glass focusing screen the [ B O X X ] camera is small and lightweight. A choice of three optics is available: 100mm portrait lens, 55mm wide-angle lens, and a 65mm pinhole lens – though the design allows the scope of adapting your own view camera, bellows or other systems.

    The darkslide, developing film back and two black-and-white prints from the [ B O X X ] camera prototype

    Using cut sheet media and environmentally friendly darkroom chemistry, the DIY approach to solving the problem of instant photography offers immense scope for experimentation and technique, while also returning to the one-off, unique quality of every capture and the shared experience of taking images together if you choose to share your creativity.

    We got to play with the prototype a little in Birmingham and can’t wait to see the finished product – and we hope to bring you some more information on Alfie’s existing TYCH half-frame camera – you’ll want to check it out before grabbing that Pentax 17…

    The Alfie TYCH camera, foreground, is a half-frame 35mm analogue film camera with a turret lens system - its success means the BOXX camera can follow.

    You can see the [ B O X X ] camera at Photographica in London on the launch day, where the fascinating system of miniaturised, portable darkroom in the form of a film back may be just the start of a flexible camera for enthusiasts.

  • Alpha's Silver Jubilee


    The Alpha System celebrates its Silver Jubilee or 25th Anniversary this month.
    We have a full length revision of the article which appears in the latest Photoworld now online as a page here.
    Read our 25th birthday review of the Alpha system’s history now!

  • Kodachrome reaches the final frame

    LONDON UK, June 22, 2009 – Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire KODACHROME colour film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.
    Sales of KODACHROME Film, which became the world’s first commercially successful colour film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to other, newer KODAK films or to the digital imaging technologies that Kodak pioneered. Today, KODACHROME Film represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films.
    (more…)