I was sad to hear (from this post on Rangefinder Forum) of the passing of Ivor Matanle. As the post says:

Whilst I’m still awaiting advice from his family, I’m sad to advise that it has been reported on Amateur Photographer forum, and also Facebook, that Ivor Matanle, author of Collecting and Using Classic Cameras, and follow up title Collecting and Using Classic SLRs has recently passed away.

Ivor and I corresponded from time to time, always about photographica, and he was invariably kind and helpful—I always enjoyed our communications. Personally I loved his enthusiasm for using classic or collectible cameras so evident in his books, something I could always relate to. But he authored other non photographic titles too, notably on the history of WWII and related subjects, as well as works about Australia illustrated by him.

Ivor had been fairly quiet over the last couple of years following a stroke that slowed him down a bit. He was still working on his first novel last year, though whether this was completed I don’t know. When last we contacted each other a few months back he sounded quite chirpy, and had been up and about for short walks near home with a lightweight 35mm SLR occasionally since his stroke, so he was still shooting, if not to the last, then, at least, until quite late in life.

I can’t say that he was the first person to stimulate my interest in old cameras. That would be Jason Schneider and his articles in Modern Photography (which I found interesting even if I didn’t at the time start collecting). When I actually started to collect cameras around 2011 one of the first purchases I made were Schneider’s books on camera collecting. Then I looked for other resources and came across the two books above, which I quickly acquired and very much much enjoyed. Around the same time I also started reading the UK magazine: Amateur Photographer, which often featured articles by Matanle on vintage cameras (which reminds me that I cut out a number of these articles. I still have them somewhere. Maybe I should scan them).

RIP Ivor.