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Matt Bechberger studied electronics engineering and owned fifteen or twenty old cameras with selenium meters that had slowly died over sixty years. The cameras kept working while the meters went quiet. So he designed a tiny hot shoe meter, put it on Kickstarter, and it did well enough that he quit his job. That’s how Reveni Labs started. Today he designs every circuit board and enclosure himself, builds prototypes with a soldering oven and a microscope, and calibrates each unit against a Sekonic L-858 and a C-700, aiming for a tenth of a stop. Boards and enclosures come from China, and the rest (engraving, assembly, testing, shipping) happens in his shop in Ontario. I tested my Lumo next to what I called the Porsche and the Ferrari of light meters. Same readings. Faster startup.We started with the basics, why anyone still carries an external light meter in 2026 and what separates incident from reflective readings, then went into details I had never thought about. Why the Spot Meter Mark III asks you to keep both eyes open, and how a customer with only one eye still uses it. The flash duration circuit Matt built from scratch for the Lumo, clearly the thing he’s proudest of. The wrist-worn incident meter that almost nobody bought, and the 80/20 rule of product design he took from that flop. I complained a bit about modern products all looking alike, black boxes with a PCB inside, compared to the old cars and cameras I love. Matt pointed out, fairly, that his black box outsold his weird one.If you want to learn more and dive deeper into light meters, this is the article for you, enjoy the video!%%first_name%%, thanks for being a paid subscriber of Camera Clara, the Internet place that helps us all learning more about photography culture, while keeping high standards with fine art, publications, prints, books, and all the good elements photography can offer to us all. ❤️Your paid subscription also gives access to myself. Shoot me a DM anytime you want on Substack, and let’s chat, we can arrange video calls, and I can help you with your portfolio, photography, gear talk, etc. — no pressure, of course!You’re the best, and it will be my pleasure to meet you, and learn more from you.%%first_name%%, thanks for being a paid subscriber of Camera Clara, the Internet place that helps us all learning more about photography culture, while keeping high standards with fine art, publications, prints, books, and all the good elements photography can offer to us all. ❤️Please consider being a paid member of the CC community, it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee per month, and you will unlock access to every single article. With a paid subscription, you can also send me a DM anytime, and we can arrange video calls where I can help you with your photograph needs, up to you, of course, no pressure!Thanks for reading, you’re the best, %%first_name%%.Thanks for reading Camera Clara, the Publication that helps you learning more about photography culture, keeping high standards with fine art, publications, prints, books, and all the good elements photography can offer to us all. ❤️Please consider subscribing to for more articles right in your inbox! Quality over quantity, with the forever love for film photography and its techniques. With a paid subscription, you can also send me a DM anytime, and we can arrange video calls where I can help you with your photograph needs, up to you, of course, no pressure! Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

Yesterday, I got into the fascinating world of film photography in Japan with Kimi, who shares insights from his recently published 2025 film usage survey. We explored the findings that shed light on the evolving landscape of film photography, including the fascinating fact that, in 2026, Kodak overtook Fujifilm among film photography shooters in Japan.The evolution of film brandsKimi shared the surprising revelation that had been announced in his FilmFocus research and announced on relevant Internet websites like PetaPixel and KosmoPhoto: Kodak has overtaken Fujifilm as the most selected film brand in Japan, marking a significant shift in market dynamics. He noted,“In 2024, Fujifilm was the most selected brand with 84% usage, but this year, Kodak has taken the lead.”This change is attributed to various factors, particularly a substantial price hike by Fujifilm in 2025. The survey revealed that all brands saw a decrease in usage compared to the previous year, indicating a consolidation among photographers regarding the brands they choose.Shooting frequency remains steadyInterestingly, despite the price increases, shooting frequency among film photographers remained stable. 28% of respondents reported shooting more film, while 46% shot the same amount as in the previous year. Kimi reflected:“Shooting frequency held steady despite price hikes.”This suggests that while prices may deter some, the passion for film photography remains strong.Insights on new camerasOne of the key reasons for shooting more film was the purchase of new cameras. Kimi noted that many photographers are reinvigorated by new gear, which translates directly into increased film consumption. Raf shared his experience, stating,“During the whole year of 2025, I shot and developed around 160 roles of film.”This enthusiasm showcases the connection between equipment purchases and film usage.ConclusionKimi’s survey not only highlights current trends but also reflects the broader cultural appreciation for film photography in Japan. As the community continues to navigate changes in the market, it’s clear that the love for film is as strong as ever.The full research can be found on Kimiasu’s website, FilmFocus. You will have to use your browser’s translation features to translate it, but the images are still in Japanese.For a deeper dive into the survey findings and to hear more about Kimi’s insights (in English!), tune in to the full episode, we tried to be as most assertive as possible to avoid taking too much time from your day!Spread the love, share CC!Thanks for being a paid member of Camera Clara, your support is amazing and you’re a stellar person that supports independent creators on the Internet. I own you this one, buddy! Your paid subscription also gives access to myself. Shoot me a DM anytime you want on Substack, and let’s chat, we can arrange video calls, and I can help you with your portfolio, photography, gear talk, etc.You’re the best, and it will be my pleasure to meet you, and learn more from you.Thanks for reading thus far! Also, thanks for being a CameraClara free subscriber. Consider being a paid member, it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee per month, and you will unlock access to every single article. With a paid subscription, you can shoot me a DM anytime, and we can arrange video calls where I can help you with your photograph needs, let’s be friends.Please consider subscribing to Camera Clara for more articles right in your inbox! Quality over quantity, with the forever love for film photography and its techniques. With a paid subscription, you can shoot me a DM anytime, and we can arrange video calls where I can help you with your photograph needs, let’s be friends. Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

I decided to record a video for this post because it’s hard to convey all that in text form. As Marshall McLuhan used to say, the medium is the message, so a video is more effective than text this time. I’m glad Substack supports it all!The trick is to use the camera’s mobile app and configure accessibility shortcuts to control your phone with voice. From there, you gain a live preview and the ability to press the shutter button with a spoken keyword.In my case, the keyword was “Click.”Let me know if you try this trick on your own, and let me know what trigger word you chose for the task :)Like what you see? Share Camera Clara with your friends and restack this post, it helps me a lot!First time here? Consider subscribing!Thanks for being a paid member of Camera Clara, your support is amazing and you’re a stellar person that supports independent creators on the Internet. I own you this one, buddy! Your paid subscription also gives access to myself. Shoot me a DM anytime you want on Substack, and let’s chat, we can arrange video calls, and I can help you with your portfolio, photography, gear talk, etc.You’re the best, and it will be my pleasure to meet you, and learn more from you.Thanks for reading thus far! Also, thanks for being a CameraClara free subscriber. Consider being a paid member, it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee per month, and you will unlock access to every single article. With a paid subscription, you can shoot me a DM anytime, and we can arrange video calls where I can help you with your photograph needs, let’s be friends.Please consider subscribing to Camera Clara for more articles right in your inbox! Quality over quantity, with the forever love for film photography and its techniques. With a paid subscription, you can shoot me a DM anytime, and we can arrange video calls where I can help you with your photograph needs, let’s be friends. Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

Converting your own scans is the part of film photography nobody puts on a postcard. I scan with the film borders, so a big chunk of my time goes into cropping, rotating, fixing the rebate, then moving the file from one piece of software to another because the white balance broke or the gamma got encoded wrong somewhere along the way. It works. It’s also a small pile of hacks I’ve made peace with over the years.So when Yahya Rahhawi reached out about a converter he’s building, I was curious in a tired way. I’ve seen a lot of these. Most do one thing well and leave you needing three other apps to finish the job. My friend Fabian Socarras told me “I’ve used just about every conversion app out there, and this one by far has been the most complete”. And I completely agree! I’m on the same boat, also used tons of software, and EmberFilm is very promising!Yahya and I sat down on a Camera Clara livestream and went through an entire roll together, live, with negatives I had scanned that same morning. I’ll post some of the results here, but I strongy recommend watching the whole video.Yahya is a solo developer. He’s a computer science student finishing his degree, he started shooting black and white in a high school darkroom about four years ago, and the app, EmberFilm, grew out of his own frustration with the conversion process (we’ve all been there!). Before this he made a small open source tool that only removed dust. That one got enough good feedback that he kept going, and EmberFilm is the result of a few months of work and more than fifty beta testers texting him every single day.What got me is how much is already in there for a first release.The part I want people to understand first is the AI, because the words “AI” and “film scanning” in the same sentence usually make us all nervous. The software uses machine learning for dust detection, for the auto crop that finds your frame inside the border, and for white balance. The dust model is the clever one. It reads the actual RGB pixels, no infrared channel, and it still finds the specks and paints them out while keeping the grain intact.And all that runs on locally on the machine. I repeat. Every single AI feature runs in my machine only. Nothing gets uploaded. Your scans never leave your laptop, the models are compressed to run locally, and there’s no account, no cloud, no app quietly phoning home to a server somewhere. Yahya was clear about this on the stream and I think it matters. This is a good use of AI.The other thing I kept noticing was the one button conversion. You import the roll, you hit convert, and the scans come out looking right. That sounds basic. A lot of converters still get it wrong, and you end up babysitting every frame to make it usable. EmberFilm treats a project like a roll, reads the white balance once, and keeps it consistent across the whole strip, which is most of what I actually want from a converter.Now the part I cared about most. EmberFilm doesn’t push its own look on you. It doesn’t bake in a LUT to fake a “filmic” result and call it a day. It pulls the information out of the negative, the way a Frontier or a Noritsu does, and hands you a clean, flexible file you can take wherever you want. If you feel like adding a print look later, you can. That’s your call, not the app deciding for you. Portra 400 should look like Portra 400. One version of it, please.We hit a couple of bugs on the stream. An export that failed, a zoom that crashed because I zoomed in to roughly a billion percent. Beta things. None of it changed my read. The conversions were fast on 80-something megabyte GFX files, the memory use stayed around half a gigabyte, and the results were genuinely good.EmberFilm is Mac only for now, still in beta, with a waitlist on the site. No firm release date yet.Info and LinksThe app lives at emberfilm.app, where you can join the beta waitlist. The instagram is @emberfilm.app.One flag: there’s also an Instagram account called @ember_films (plural, with an underscore), that one does NOT belong to the app rather than some unrelated video outfit. Check it before you link it.This was our first livestream with Yahya and I doubt it’ll be the last. He’s that rare developer who’s also the user, and I want to keep following where this goes. For the record, nobody paid for this post. I just liked the software and contacted him out via Instagram. Thank you, Yahya! 💪 🇮🇶 🎞️ ✨ If you want to see the whole conversion happen, the full stream is up. And if you read Camera Clara and want more of these, the best thing you can do is subscribe. It’s how all of this stays independent and fun ! Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

Something that has been sitting with me since I did this shot:Here is the project I mentioned: Hope in Shadows.You can find their website here. It’s such a beautiful and nice project!If you like this post, don’t forget to send to a friend, leave a comment, or subscribe. You can listen directly here, or find the CameraClara podcast on your favorite app:* Spotify* Apple Podcasts* cameraclara.com/podcastLeave a comment below or write to [email protected]. I’ll read your messages in the next episode. Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Twenty minutes. Just me, close to the microphone, thinking out loud. Podcast episode on air! You can listen directly here, or find the CameraClara podcast on your favorite app:* Spotify* Apple Podcasts* cameraclara.com/podcastIn this episode I talk about the technical and philosophical differences between shooting film and digital. Not in a gear way. More in a mindset way. Why film forces you to read light differently, what the ISO lock teaches you about creative constraints, why the contact sheet is the most honest mirror a photographer can have, and what happens to your thinking when you only have 36 frames left.Leave a comment below or write to [email protected]. I’ll read your messages in the next episode. It's my first time doing this, so please also let me know what do you think about the overall thing: did I do it right? What would you like to listen? How about the form and structure?And also, subscribe to CameraClara here on Substack, as that helps me a ton! Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

Last week I had Max Adams on the Photography Community Camera Clara livestream/podcast. He runs a YouTube channel with almost 80,000 subscribers (as April 2026, important to say, because it’s growing fast!). Max is known professionally for doing restaurants/food and real estate photography, and on his own time he’s a film photographer like us. We showed up wearing the same hat. We talked for over an hour and covered a lot of ground.Find the full episode in this post’s header. Below, some highlights worth reading even if you watch the whole thing, especially if you are curious to learn if food photographers eat the dishes after photographing (sorry for the clickbait, I have to do it to survive 😂).Shooting for a livingMax photographs food on location with one light during operating hours. Cheese goes cold, meat loses its shine, soups stop steaming. He shoots fast. Every time, someone asks who’s eating all the food. “I am,” he says, staring at 15 dishes.I asked if clients request artistic direction. His method: say “I got it” and ignore it.Sensors, shutters, and fake blurHe rented the Sony A9 III and showed why global shutters matter. A drone propeller at 1/8000s looks banana-shaped on a regular sensor. On the A9 III, perfectly straight. Every pixel reads at the same instant.The fake depth of field debate came up. Software blur still can’t handle hair, glasses, or the gradual falloff from sharp to blurry. A decade of “it’s just a matter of time.” We’re still waiting.Film, cameras, and strong opinionsI shared my Japan mistake: 20 rolls of CineStill 800T, shot temples and snow in Sapporo. Cold and flat. There’s a meme: “If NASA used CineStill 800T,” and there’s a gas station on the moon. Because that’s what we do.Max said, “Can I say something controversial?” and dropped: “I’m not a fan of halation.” Bold move. Let’s all now altogether cancel him on the Internet. 😅Near the end he casually pulled out a Leica IIIC from 1941. Delivered to the Luftwaffe. 85 years old. It works.We want to do more of these. Go subscribe to Max Adams on YouTube. Almost 80K subscribers and he still responds to everyone.♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️Camera Clara is a film photography newsletter. If you're reading this and haven't subscribed yet, you can do that here.♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

Kat and Everett from FridgeFilm joined the Camera Clara live stream last week, and it was one of the most fun episodes we’ve done.If you don’t know them yet: they’re two LA-based film photographers who develop film in the most chaotic places imaginable, film the whole process, edit it with great energy, and post it on YouTube. Think about Spider Man asking for 50 bucks (lmao), a Scientology security guard showing up and challenging them in their matching blue jumpsuits while trying to evangelize the church, chemicals flying inside a UHAUL at 7am (LMAO), red wine as a film developer, camo faces paint in the woods, a bucket melting onto someone’s arm in LA traffic, and much more fun!The content is awesome in the best way, and the technique is actually solid.We talked about temperature tolerance in C-41 (more forgiving than most people think), what happens when developer gets exhausted, and what it actually feels like to invert blix and dev by mistake (I’ve been there).They also dropped some news: a FridgeFilm original film stock is coming soon, with pre-orders opening shortly. Name and box design are still under wraps.Watch their videos on YouTube and follow them on Instagram at @fridge.film. I’m already planning a New York collab with rowboats on the Central Park lake. They’re in.YOU don't wanna miss this episode, I guarantee you will have a good time watching it! Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

I spent the afternoon on the Staten Island ferry with a full battery and high hopes. The light was perfect coming off the water, Manhattan doing its thing in the background, and I kept shooting. Felt like one of those rare sessions where everything lines up.Got home, pulled the SD card, plugged it in. Nothing. Completely empty. No error message, no corrupted files, just blank. I still have no idea what happened, and at this point I’ve accepted I never will. I think it was my storage USB that corrupted the SD card filesytem or so.I also had the Mamiya 7ii with me for medium format shots. Those rolls are safe, sitting on my bathroom drying from development. I’ll post the results once they’re scanned and converted.Before starting the recovery process, I turned the camera on and recorded this tutorial, because you might need it one day.If you would like any help with this, please consider being a paid subscriber to Camera Clara, and I would be more than happy to help you out.Rescued photosAll taken with the Leica M10-R and a 50mm f/1.4 Summilux. Imagine losing these… Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe

Note 1: this is a video-article. Make sure to click on the video to play the full thing (I know, Substack is confusing sometimes).Note 2: This is not a traditional review in the sense we will fully cover tech specs. That’s not what CameraClara is for (go to PetaPixel or DPReview for that, they do a better job). Of course we will talk about specs here and there, but our conversation is focused on bringing the perspective from what an experienced street photographer thinks about Ricoh’s new street-photography camera.Juno Morrow is a NYC street photographer known for her bold color work. Follow her at instagram.com/juno.morrow.We sat down for a live stream to talk about her first weeks with the Ricoh GR IV HDF. Juno has been shooting street in New York for decades, mainly with a Nikon ZF. The GR IV is a big departure. Here is what she thinks so far.Camera Clara is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What’s the HDF thing?HDF stands for High Definition Filter. It’s a built-in diffusion filter on the lens that softens the image with a slight glow, similar to what you’d get with a physical filter in front of the lens. Ricoh sells it as a creative option for a more cinematic or film-like look. The HDF version costs $100 more than the standard GR IV.The effect is more intense than Juno expected. The standard lens already has some diffusion built in, which she had only heard one other creator mention before buying. She has mostly kept HDF mode off and wonders whether she should have saved the $100 and bought the standard version. Still, it’s a nice option to have.Positive points of the Ricoh GR IV HDFThe size is the main draw, and it delivers. Juno is an overpacker by her own admission, often carrying several cameras and heavy lenses. Having something this light and pocketable is a real relief. She looks like a tourist with it, which works well for street. People notice it, shrug, and move on quickly.The lens is impressive. Zone focusing is also easier than expected, with the deeper depth of field on APS-C making snap priority mode much more forgiving than on full frame. The menu is well designed for street photography. If you skip auto-area AF and lean on snap priority, shooting is fast and straightforward.Negative points of the Ricoh GR IV HDFBuild quality is the main concern. The buttons feel loose, the battery compartment is flimsy, and after just a few days, crud is already getting stuck in the lens mechanism. For a camera at this price, it does not inspire confidence.The screen is bad. Low resolution, fixed, no tilt. Juno compared it to a screen from a 2008 DSLR, and the actual spec backs that up.High ISO is a weak spot. Colors and dynamic range fall apart before noise becomes obvious. It’s acceptable at 3200 but nothing to celebrate. She notes this is her first APS-C camera in 14 years, so her tolerance for sensor limitations may be lower than most.Metering is unusual. In night scenes, the camera meters for highlights and the results can come out very dark with no adjustments.Framing from low angles is harder than expected. The camera is light enough, but the lack of a real grip makes it tricky to control the angle precisely.What does she think?She went in knowing the trade-offs and so far the camera is doing what she needed it to do. Remember me to ask Juno again about the camera in six months.Watch it now! Get full access to Camera Clara at www.cameraclara.com/subscribe