historic

1923 Leica

Oskar Barnack’s 1923 0-Series Leica May Fetch $3.2M at Auction

Leica has announced the return of the Leitz Photographica Auction, the world's largest auction of historic cameras that will be held for the 40th time and celebrate its 20th anniversary, with a special piece this year -- the Leica 0-Series No. 105, produced in 1923 and owned by Leica inventor Oskar Barnack himself.

Yellowstone National Park 150th Anniversary Photos

See 150 Years of Yellowstone National Park in Photos

Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States' first national park in 1872. To celebrate its 150th year, National Geographic has published a series of photos captured over that time of what is often called America's Wonderland.

23 Years Later: Reviewing the 1998 Classic Nikon Coolpix 900

In 1998, Nikon launched the COOLPIX 900, the company’s third digital camera but arguably its first designed with photographers in mind. The previous COOLPIX 100 and 300 may have had the honor of being Nikon’s first digital cameras, but those 1997 models were firmly in the computer peripheral camp.

Reviewing Canon’s First Consumer Digital Camera 25 Years Later

Canon’s first consumer digital camera was the PowerShot 600, which launched in 1996 and sports a fixed 50mm equivalent lens, half a megapixel of resolution, and a surprisingly large body. It cost just shy of a grand at the time and was the debut of the PowerShot series.

25 Years Later: Revisiting the DSC-F1, Sony’s First Digital Camera

Back in 1996, Sony launched its first consumer digital camera, the DSC-F1. It had one-third of a Megapixel, four megabytes of built-in memory, a 1.8-inch screen, and a lens housing that could rotate 180 degrees for comfortable waist-level shooting or selfies.

Sotheby’s to Auction Off Massive Ansel Adams Collection, Including $1M Print

Sotheby's has announced plans to auction off one of the most impressive collections of Ansel Adams' work in existence. On December 14th, over 100 of the legendary photographer's most iconic photos will be sold, headlined by an early print of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico that is expected to fetch between $700,000 and $1,000,000 by itself.

Cambridge Uploads Powerful Archive of Photos by Jewish Doctor Exiled by Hitler

The Cambridge Digital Library recently uploaded a powerful collection of images captured by Albert Eckstein in the 1930s. Eckstein, a German Jewish doctor, was exiled by Hitler and the Nazi party in 1935 and he chose to spend his exile in Turkey helping to fight the scourge of infant mortality in the country's poorest communities.

Behind the Scenes: Shooting Wet Plate Portraits of the Cast of Little Women

Now these are some cast portraits we can really get behind. On-set photographer Wilson Webb recently got the chance to photograph the entire cast of Best Picture nominee Little Women, but instead of shooting glitzy studio portraits, he decided to stay historically accurate and capture wet plate collodion portraits instead.

Historic Print Collection Including Rare Negative of Hiroshima Bombing is Selling for $2 Million on eBay

There's an unbelievable auction currently live on eBay that might rank as the most expensive item we've ever seen on the site. Uncovered by the folks over at The Phoblographer, the auction is offering hundreds of historic WWII prints, a Kodak Pocket camera, and an extremely rare negative of the Hiroshima bombing, all for the whopping buy-it-now price of $2,000,000.33.

Steel Wool Photographer Burns Down Historic 1920s Landmark

If you ever try your hand at light painting photography with burning steel wool, be extra careful with safety and legality. Just a few months after a photographer allegedly destroyed a historic shipwreck in California with his sparks, another steel wool photo shoot has burned down a historic 1920s building in a US national preserve.

The Daguerreotype Achromat 64mm f/2.9 Revives the First Lens from 1839

Holy crowdfunding success Batman! Lomography has done it again, and by "done it" we mean launched an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign. Their new Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art Lens just went up on Kickstarter this morning at 5am Eastern time, and by 2pm it had already broken $200K in funding!

Portraits of Immigrants Arriving in the United States in the Early 1900s

Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay was the busiest immigrant inspection station in the United States at the dawn of the 20th century, with millions of immigrants arrived in the United States via the island by boat.

Amateur photographer Augustus Sherman was the Ellis Island Chief Registry Clerk for a number of years in the early 1900s, and he used his special access to shoot portraits of many of the immigrants who passed through the station.

The Final and Finest Photo of Pluto Before Flyby

After traveling nine years and three billion miles, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally reached the dwarf planet Pluto today. To celebrate, NASA released this final and sharpest photo of the dwarf planet captured before the historic flyby.

Eerie Photos of an Abandoned NASCAR Speedway

The North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina was home to top NASCAR races from when it opened in 1949 through when it closed in 1996. It reopened briefly in 2010 but was shuttered again in 2011. Since then, it has been lying dormant as investors and businesses sort out the fate of the historic racetrack.

Photographer Seph Lawless recently paid the track a visit, capturing what the location currently looks like years after it was bustling with racing fans and speeding cars.