Old Cameras

[Beechwood]

I walked past a market stall on sunday, surprised to see piles of SLR cameras that I coveted in the 80s, Olympus and Pentax and Nikon FEs. None of them had a price sticker over £15, another sign of the times.

 

It must have been 25 years since I even took out my slides to have a look, they are all stored in the projector cassettes, mistakenly I thought that someone could make use of the cassettes, I looked on ebay and again they are worth pennies.

 

My brother is a film editor, really enjoys working with film stock, no one will pay for the quality of the end result anymore, its all instant results with the negligible skill that the digital world provides.

[Art]

I walked past a market stall on sunday, surprised to see piles of SLR cameras that I coveted in the 80s, Olympus and Pentax and Nikon FEs. None of them had a price sticker over £15, another sign of the times.

 

It must have been 25 years since I even took out my slides to have a look, they are all stored in the projector cassettes, mistakenly I thought that someone could make use of the cassettes, I looked on ebay and again they are worth pennies.

 

My brother is a film editor, really enjoys working with film stock, no one will pay for the quality of the end result anymore, its all instant results with the negligible skill that the digital world provides.

 

Wish I had been there. I love old film cameras. In fact, I have quite a collection/group of them. Mine are used all the time vs. just collected. Mostly Nikons.

[TXKat]

I still have three film cameras that I won't part with. I even have some vintage/antique cameras you can get film and developing for.

They aren't worth anything to those, as you say, wanting instant gratification. Agreed!

 

There is definitely something to be said about the quality of some photos that can and will only be achieved by using film. Digital photos are worthless unless printed, which is yet another problem, and those that take the time to actually learn their craft, not just "photoshop it" are becoming few and far between. Having said that, some of the VERY expensive (5 digit price tags) can product some stunning images, but there is something to be said about that film richness, the depth of the photo, the.....something. (Especially in b&w.)

 

Digital photos (printed, not developed) definitely lack in the richness and longevity of film photos! Most of these photos are shared, but never printed. For this reason, I believe there will mostly be only electronic evidence of the current culture, unlike the vintage photos so many enjoy and those family photo albums that date WAAAAY back of relatives and another time. It's quite sad and it is something my photography website discusses often. Most of us still have our film cameras and won't get rid of them. Sometimes new and fast and fancy isn't better.

 

It's a very sad statement and an insult of sorts to the photographic masters of long ago, again, IMHO. *steps off soapbox*

 

Interesting topic!

[DrRoger]

The Nikon FE - wonderful camera that took me through art A level. Sad to see these amazing pieces of engineering now worth so little. Guess it must be the cost of repairing things like shutter blinds. Our local auction house regularly has some classics for virtually nothing - including Hassleblads and on one occasion a Nikon F with the huge motor drive. When I was in Edinburgh there was a shop selling really old cameras - they'd a Graflex Speed Graphic in the window - doubt the shop is still there now. Rattling on, sorry. Now I just use my phone camera to 'photograph' things.

[Zookie]

Until recently, I had an extensive camera collection. I've sold most of them, except for a couple of large format cameras that I refuse to part with.

I only use digital these days, and have begun to collect "vintage" cameras of that type.

I've been looking for a complete Canon Xapshot kit for some time now, no luck though

Edited December 1, 2014 by Zookie

[dan in montreal]

I still have a pretty large collection of film cameras and I still use them. Even my lowly bakelite Kodak Brownie is taken out for a ride at least once a year (even this once ubiquitous object is now so strange that it attracts all kinds of attention).

I for one will never completely abandon analog photography. It's just not the same thing. I'll never part with my Pentax Spotmatics. Ever (unless film becomes absolutely unavailable). And by the way I also use digital cameras, I'm not against progress or change.

Edited December 2, 2014 by dan in montreal

[Beechwood]

The Nikon FE - wonderful camera that took me through art A level. Sad to see these amazing pieces of engineering now worth so little. Guess it must be the cost of repairing things like shutter blinds. Our local auction house regularly has some classics for virtually nothing - including Hassleblads and on one occasion a Nikon F with the huge motor drive. When I was in Edinburgh there was a shop selling really old cameras - they'd a Graflex Speed Graphic in the window - doubt the shop is still there now. Rattling on, sorry. Now I just use my phone camera to 'photograph' things.

 

 

I had an FE too Roger, a range of lenses from 20mm to 400 but used the 20 and a 105 everywhere I went. With Kodachrome 25 and some Ilford black and white film stock, I took some great images travelling through China, long before it became developed.

 

Great days

Edited December 1, 2014 by Beechwood

[Ceilidh]

Ah, Kodachrome. Now you've gone and made me cry. I still have a couple of rolls in the freezer but nowhere to have them processed anymore. Still have my film cameras. My home was burglarized last year and my father's 1950's ContaxII was stolen. The one thing taken that really hurt.

[Charles Rice]

I'm not giving up my Canon F1 until somebody pries it from my cold dead fingers.

 

PS - now's a great time to buy those lenses you always drooled over.

[Beechwood]

Ah, Kodachrome. Now you've gone and made me cry. I still have a couple of rolls in the freezer but nowhere to have them processed anymore. Still have my film cameras. My home was burglarized last year and my father's 1950's ContaxII was stolen. The one thing taken that really hurt.

Went through my slides yesterday, some 500+, the depth of colour for Kodachrome is still superb, deep strong colours and great definition.

[Barnaby Bumble]

Ah, Kodachrome. Now you've gone and made me cry. I still have a couple of rolls in the freezer but nowhere to have them processed anymore. Still have my film cameras. My home was burglarized last year and my father's 1950's ContaxII was stolen. The one thing taken that really hurt.

 

I thought there was still a lab in the Pacific Northwest that would process it. It's possible I'm completely making that up (my memory isn't what it used to be), since I've never shot any Kodachrome.

[Barnaby Bumble]

I have a 1949 Leica IIIc that was factory-converted to a IIIf. Still works great.

 

I also have a Mamiya C330 that a retiring wedding photographer gave to me back in the '90s. I don't actually know how old it is, since he didn't buy it new. I do have the old shillelagh flash for it, though. I use it to crack walnuts.

[abstract49]

I have kept my film cameras, too. I'm not as enamored of the Nikon FE as some of you, but it has been serviceable, after a new shutter installation not long after the warranty ran out, some thirty years ago. An FM fills my 35 mm collection, with a few lenses, fixed length and zoom. Then there are 4.5 X 6 mm and 6x6 (all Mamiyas), a 4X5 and a 5X7. As Charles Rice said, they'll leave my possession when I punch out.

 

That said, I do use digital. I travel, and I have no place to set up my darkroom now, so it's not convenient to use the film cameras very much. I am looking forward to semi-retirement, when I hope to be able to devote some serious time to it.

[Beechwood]

I have kept my film cameras, too. I'm not as enamored of the Nikon FE as some of you, but it has been serviceable, after a new shutter installation not long after the warranty ran out, some thirty years ago. An FM fills my 35 mm collection, with a few lenses, fixed length and zoom. Then there are 4.5 X 6 mm and 6x6 (all Mamiyas), a 4X5 and a 5X7. As Charles Rice said, they'll leave my possession when I punch out.

 

That said, I do use digital. I travel, and I have no place to set up my darkroom now, so it's not convenient to use the film cameras very much. I am looking forward to semi-retirement, when I hope to be able to devote some serious time to it.

My FE wasnt that durable and I wished,when I used it, that had bought something more robust, perhaps I was asking too much with a motor drive and a 350mm mirror lens, not sure that the frame of the thing was strong enough. It gave up altogether in Singapore when the high humidity caused problems and mould inside the lenses.

 

Maybe these golden days werent so gold after all.

[abstract49]

My FE wasnt that durable and I wished,when I used it, that had bought something more robust, perhaps I was asking too much with a motor drive and a 350mm mirror lens, not sure that the frame of the thing was strong enough. It gave up altogether in Singapore when the high humidity caused problems and mould inside the lenses.

 

Maybe these golden days werent so gold after all.

Yes, my FM was more durable and, in spite of a small viewfinder quirk, was one of the most serviceable 35mm SLR cameras I ever had. But, if the glass quality had been as good as Nikon's (in those days), I would as soon as had my old Pentax K1000 again.

 

"Golden days?" I agree with you; maybe not so golden in every way. In many ways, technologies have improved the things we use - cars, e.g.

 

We probably have better glass, at relatively lower cost, than we did back then, but how can you improve on the dead accurate shutters in high grade small and medium format cameras and for large format cameras?

[Koyote]

I shot semi-professionally back in the film days, but sold off all of that gear in the early 2000s before its value went through the floor. The cameras and lenses were always tools to me, so I had no emotional attachment.

 

I also don't miss the days of film photography, as I can now get great result in far less time -- and without having to devote a portion of my basement to a smelly, chemical-filled darkroom.

[Charles Rice]

 

 

I also don't miss the days of a smelly, chemical-filled darkroom.

Ah, the perfume smell of fixer on my hands - and watching as my skin slowly peels away. (OK, stop bath is hard on the nose)

[abstract49]

Love those smells!

[TXKat]

Yeah, the darkroom was always a place of relaxation for me and I never minded the smell!! It was only about a year ago that I finally threw out some old photographic paper (I think I threw it all away...). Only to turn around a buy three aluminum developing canisters with reels at a garage sale!!! No use for them, but they just called to me. I just can't seem to give it up!

Edited December 12, 2014 by TXKat

[Barnaby Bumble]

I'd love to set up a little darkroom. Aside from not really having an appropriate space, though, disposal of the chemicals in an environmentally sound way is a major hurdle.