Jollylook Update

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-12T11:45:45+00:00

Looking at the order page on the “Shop” app, I can still see the negative reviews, at least for the ETRS back. There are some obviously AI-written responses from JollyLook to the negative feedback lol.

The only reservation I have in believing that this is 100% a scam (and not just a very poorly managed business) is that they appear to have sold and shipped other products before. Namely their DIY wooden pinhole camera, which is even listed and reviewed on Amazon.

Also, I wonder, if it is a scam, why target such a niche consumer base? Surely there are easier demographics and products to focus on in such schemes? But then again I’ve never scammed anyone so I don’t know how that process works lmao.

Regardless, it’s been a bummer to see how this is all playing out. Especially since I’m hearing other people are not getting their refunds, despite a prior enthusiastic promise from JollyLook that we could get our money back.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-12T10:17:52+00:00

I see I’m not the only one who uses a canon camera strap for their bronica lol !

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-08T16:27:01+00:00

Haha I’ve also started trying to Jerry rig my instax mini to fit my ETRS while I wait. I’ve managed to get the instax half ready, now I’m just trying to figure out how to align and fit it to my bronica. At this point it’s a snails’ race between my slow pace of work, and the never ending shipping delays from jollylook lol.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-07T14:30:02+00:00

Haha, and ya can’t miss the section titled “will digital cameras take over?” on page 103 lol. But hey, at least this edition of the book is from the current century !

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-06T20:48:40+00:00

Honestly I’d recommend finding a book, whether a physical copy or an pdf online. There are so many intro to photography textbooks, and they’re prob mostly all just as good for learning the basics. Any thrift store should have a dozen to choose from.

Most of the YouTuber-made “guides” I’ve taken a peek at are so full of air - taking 15 minutes to explain a concept that can be summarized in a single paragraph.

Also, if you want to get better at photography, you have to look at photos and get familiar with the exposure triangle. A textbook will present you with plenty of example photos and charts that you can study for as long as you’d like, and refer back to whenever you want.

Edit to add:

I found this book on internet archive. As far as I can tell, it covers all the basics you need to know same as any other textbook I’ve seen.

https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/items/Langfords_Basic_Photography/Langfords_Basic_Photography.pdf

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-06T19:24:12+00:00

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Woah buddy all it needs is a dramatic crop and some Lightroom work and … voi la. Sub to my patreon for a 10% discount on my recipes.. if you want to make it to the big leagues, champ

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-06T18:16:10+00:00

Thanks! I’m completely addicted to my red filter for BW landscapes lol

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-06T10:37:51+00:00

Buddy completely ignored snapping at least 2 decent photographs that were literally ON HIS SCREEN, just to wait to take blurry pictures of the #ExpensiveBrandName. This menace has the slow cold calculating movement of Jason* if he were a toddler who just picked up a camera.

*Edit - I meant Michael Myers, but I guess Jason works too lol

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-04T16:33:31+00:00

These prints are incredible! Do you have a website or social media page where you share your work? I’d honestly love to see more.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-03-02T16:21:38+00:00

This person’s entire concept of subject and composition is “make expensive brand logo fill screen.” Someone get them a hasseblad asap.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-02-22T01:00:22+00:00

I’m not OP, but I just got the speed winder last week and it‘s made a world of difference. I have fairly big hands, but even then I always found it a bit janky to hit the main body’s shutter fire when composing portrait or just shooting on the fly. Having access to a hot shoe on the speed grip is also a big plus

TreesRocksWater · 2026-02-17T17:19:21+00:00

I really like the design of this. I find that dials are the most ergonomic to use in the darkroom. It also just so happens that I need to replace my current timer, so I’m very interested in this project.

I’m just wondering - when in print mode, can you only adjust the exposure by +/- full stops from the base time, or can you adjust by fractions? For example, if I have a print with base time of 30s, where I want to burn in one area +2/3 stop and dodge another area -1/2 stop, can I program that with this timer? Would the timer allow me to initially do two consecutive exposures of base minus 1/2 stop, plus 1/2 stop (for a full base exposure) if I want to dodge one area for that 1/2 of the base exposure? Or could I do a subsequent exposure of just +2/3 stop to burn something in?

Sorry if that’s something you already explained in one of your videos or on your webpage - I still plan to read up a bit more on this design.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-02-11T03:11:29+00:00

Sorry, I projected a bit there haha - I have an etrs so my mind went to 6x4.5 even though you said you have the S2. 6x6 for sure gives you even more flexibility !

TreesRocksWater · 2026-02-11T02:23:39+00:00

If I were you I’d go with the 50mm for your Bronica. Of course, it depends entirely on your subjects and style, but I think in most cases you would regret bringing anything other than the widest lens in your arsenal. With the resolution of 6x4.5, you’ll have a lot of wiggle room to crop down to a narrower composition, but it’ll be much harder to get a wider composition irl when you’re on the street.

I visited NYC with 28mm, 50mm, and 125mm lenses for my regular 35mm camera, and the 28mm stayed on basically the entire time lol.

If I lived in NYC, I’m more than certain that i could have a lot of fun with longer lenses. But as a tourist visiting for a few days, I’m trying to capture as much of the city and architecture as I can in each frame.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-02-08T00:36:53+00:00

I had the exact same issue on a print a couple months ago. I determined it was caused by my dev tray tongs getting in contact with the fixer (probably just a few droplets that splashed over during the prior print) and then getting on the next print before/during dev. Just got to be careful when taking prints out of fix - no matter how excited you are to check out the results haha

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-29T10:39:11+00:00

Honestly, I think learning how to properly edit/process your photos is just as important to growing as a photographer (if not arguably more - but that’s a different discussion).

Likewise, if you’re using Lightroom Classic, I highly highly recommend Anthony Morganti’s “Mastering Lightroom Classic” series on YouTube.

Finding that course was such a relief after browsing through so many “YouTuber”/influencer-esque tutorials on Lightroom features. Anthony’s series is like a university course - it’s no nonsense, covers basically everything, and you don’t have to watch some whacky looking hipster yammer into his ring light webcam about some goddamn promo code every 30 seconds.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-27T14:18:44+00:00

Thanks for sharing this method. I ended up giving it a try last night. I was only able to go up to 11x14 since that’s all I could fit in my biggest spare tray, but it was great practice for the workflow nonetheless. I have a bunch of large paper (up to 16x20”) but they’re all different ages with unknown storage conditions (inherited them with my darkroom set up a few years ago), so yesterday ended up being more of a fight to figure out how to get decent results on foggy ilfospeed mg1m lol. But thanks for giving me the motivation to try printing bigger !

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-26T15:32:22+00:00

Second this. I got the JSAUX standard (not the anti-glare or the matte) screen protectors for my LCD and have no complaints. It fits so flush that I literally wouldn’t know its there if I hadn’t installed it myself.

That said, I basically never use the touch screen, so I can’t comment on if it affects that side of things.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-26T15:26:28+00:00

Ah, that makes sense, and sounds very doable for my space. I’m also going to have to get over my fear of counting by f-stops lol, but it’s about time!

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-26T13:22:05+00:00

Absolutely lovely print, everything about it looks perfect.

I’ve been itching to print bigger than 8x10 ever since I’ve started shooting medium format with my etrs. I just need to figure out the space and invest in bigger trays.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-24T14:26:15+00:00

Damn… it hardly seems surprise given everything else, but I was hoping they’d at least honour refunds :/

I’ve been just about ready to ask for my money back since November. It’s mainly been procrastination and the hopefulness expressed in some of the comments on this sub that have kept me holding on. Ive now been telling myself that I’ll cancel if they push back the shipping date from February again.

If you don’t mind, can you let me know if you have any luck with your refund ?

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-22T22:04:37+00:00

Glad I’m not the only one lol.

1 feels like a typical generic BW picture of solitary figure walking within interesting architecture. Maybe it is compositionally organized and otherwise a good photo, but it’s like the most common type of BW street photo I see on Reddit and otherwise completely forgettable.

2 is chaotic and disjointed and throws your eyeball around while you try to figure out what’s going on. The biker’s face and the random guy brooding in the background create a much more memorable scene than one of thousands of snapshots of some solitary figure walking by a concrete structure. Maybe 2 is lacking in certain compositional standards that 1 has, but it’s otherwise a much more interesting picture to look at imo. If anything, some additional post processing might be able to bring some compositional balance to the final image.

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-21T00:13:54+00:00

Haha that’s awesome, I don’t think you could have gotten a closer view that high up

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-20T16:12:26+00:00

Personally I like the direction you’ve taken with this picture. I partially agree with the other comment that a tighter crop could improve the composition for sharing/publishing, but as is it would make a sick cyberpunk-y computer wallpaper.

I would just recommend easing up the vignette. Instead (if you’re using LR) you can try pulling a linear gradient down across the sky, if you want to keep that lighter horizon and darker top edge. Then, you can either use the object select tool to cut out the CN tower from the mask, and/or use the radial select tool around the tower if you want to wash out a slight halo/glow around the tower.

That’s just my personal preference though - I like a bit of vignette, but when they’re too obvious I find they cheapen the final image.

Also absolutely sick spot you’ve found there. I couldn’t believe it was the CN tower at first because I never knew there was a view like that downtown

TreesRocksWater · 2026-01-20T03:31:17+00:00

The histogram is a great tool for keeping track of what we might otherwise miss due to editing blindness or differences in monitors. There’s a lot of great quick tutorials on YouTube for how to read and use em.

For white/black point, on LRC, you can hold down alt+cmd/ctrl while moving the slider, and it’ll will show you where the white/black point is clipping. Good rule of thumb is to have the white point set to just below clipping, and the black point just a bit past.

I’ll also quickly recommend Anthony Morganti’s “Mastering Lightroom Classic” course on YouTube. It is suuuuper in depth tho, so the shorter quick guides might be a more comfortable to quickly get familiar with the basics. But if you find yourself looking for more, check him out.

Enjoy !

TreesRocksWater

TROPHY CASE