Ach, der Schmerz! Aïe, la douleur! Jeff’s insanely rare, perpetually coveted, and newly repaired half-frame Alpa 10s has been lost by UPS. As you listen to the latest episode of our Smash Hit Podcast™, globally acclaimed yet eschewing of praise, spare a thought or a prayer for the grieving cohost!

yes, the Alpa 10s half-cookie is MIA at UPS - should we be putting AirTags in our important packages?

Gabe is obsessed with which film cameras were used by legendary photographers to take legendary shots - are you?

Gabe went to the LA Camera Expo and came home with a slew of darkroom equipment

Jeff got great results from Atlanta Film Co. with Kodak Vision 3, but is it worth the extra cost, time and effort?

the Osiris F1 is a fun ’n’ freaky (’n’ patent-infringing?) film-processing robot

we urge you to check out the Cameradactyl Master System from mad scientist Ethan Moses

Gabe is back in the hunt for camera bags - his new obsession is the sexy, stylish and super-expensive Bleu de Chauffe

meanwhile, Jeff’s Strand Bookstore messenger bag is dirt cheap!

we both flipped for Sissi Lu’s new googly-eyed hang-tag lens cloth

Jeff snapped up Langdon Clay Cars: New York City, 1974-1976 book shot with a Leica CL and Kodachrome 25 - yet everyone on Instagram thinks the pics are AI slop!

Gabe found Jeff Bridges’ elusive and highly prized Pictures Vol. 1 at Goodwill for six bucks!

who sent Gabe a 110 camera? do tell!

happy birthday to our friend Vance DeGeneres - check out his incredible New Orleans New Wave band The Cold!

Los Angelenos! look into imstilldeveloping.com and the LA Camera Expo - Gabe will be there!

and finally, we stick a pinky toe into the Prodigious Mailbag™

Jeff’s been engaged for over a month, and is suffused with bonhomie and goodwill, while the normally sanguine Gabe is ENRAGED! At eBay sellers who say “make an offer,” but don’t actually want one; at overpriced camera straps and thumb drives — he’s seething! Next, the boys note some stereotypically male behavior from “Chad” GPT, discuss the financial state of our beloved Kodak, examine the controversy over Nick Ut’s “Terror of War” photo, and take a swan dive into an exceptionally Prodigious Mailbag. Finally: will Debbie Gibson record a vocal version of our theme song for the upcoming (and final?) 100th episode, or is that Only In My Dreams? Shake Your Love and find out!

Gabe traveled to Lake Muskoka north of Toronto and shot no film

Jeff asked ChatGPT to compare the Closter Princess Junior with the Galileo Condor II, and it claimed they were bikes! We now dub the app “Chad GPT,” because he’s a man who'll never say “I Don't Know”!

is Kodak in trouble? Calm down!

we discuss the emergent controversy over the authorship of Nick Ut’s “Terror of War” photo, as recounted in the new documentary The Stringer - for example, even AP admits the negative was not shot with Ut's preferred Leica M2, but a cheap Pentax, and our trusty dusty camera repair guy confirms this

Gabe rails at eBay sellers who say “make offer” but don't want an offer

also, when is the asking price too high? for straps, thumb drives, Alpa strap lugs...?

Jeff openly derides absurd packfilm prices

Gabe rhapsodizes about OC Camera in Laguna Hills

we both love Sissi Lu's recent photo shoot with her mom

our trusty dusty camera repair guy replaced the focusing screen in Gabe’s Rolleiflex 2.8E, and the results are glorious

the Prodigious Mailbag™ includes an unexpected eyewitness update on Jeff's Alpa 10s half-cookie

Gabe will be at the LA Camera Expo this Sunday, August 17th

our designer (and award-winning photographer) Keith Greenstein is back on Instagram

check out The Darkroom Rumour, The Darkroom’s amazing new streaming site for photo documentaries

and let's get Debbie Gibson to record a vocal version of our theme song with composer Fred Coury for the 100th episode!

Vapid glad-handing? Try happy wed-banding, because Jeff and P are engaged! This blockbuster XL episode features a brief recap of the proposal and a lengthy recap of the engagement-moon that followed, with a smattering of camera content along the way. Tune in for all the romance!

Gabe went to New York!

at B&H, the mighty Shlomo hooked him up with a Rolleiflex 2.8E - so much for that 30-camera limit!

hung out with Sissi Lu and Chris Chu

shot nothing but film with the Leica M6

went to an event at Kodak House, saw some great stuff shot with with a Kodak Baby Brownie

and left J + P a cool old Christie’s auction catalog from the Chelsea flea market

Jeff lingered in Europe!

bought and then returned a Zeiss Tenax II

picked up film, books and apparel at the Zurich Ars Imago

snagged a Freitag Lassie bike-messenger bag at their flagship store as an all-weather beach-friendly camera tote

back home, his half-cookie Alpa 10s is undergoing major surgery

while the recent Leica auction featured a similar Alpa 10s half frame

and also the last original Alpa ever built! the 11es Jubilee

Kodak Vision 3 may yield gorgeous results, but getting it processed is challenging - Atlanta Film Company to the rescue

at Nice airport, the Sissi Lu Do Not X-Ray bag was a lifesaver

we share news of big Chattanooga photo walk we’re sadly missing!

and finally: two gods have ascended to a higher plane, Ozzy Osbourne and Tom Lehrer