TiHabanero

Local photo shop told me that film has made a come back of sorts. There is a hard core contingent that is using it again, but it is completely gone from the masses. They said that digital camera sales are in the toilet as well. Something like 21 million cameras were sold last year world wide. Ten or so years before that it as 10x that volume. Cell phones have taken over and are here to stay.

Oddly enough, I am going back to film after playing with digital for 3 years. Guess I am hard-core? Nah.

martl

Yep, the shot in my posting above is from 2004 and i bought the camera for that trip, as at that time there was no way to run a digital camera for 4 weeks without a power supply in those temperatures and bring something in decent quality home. At the next trip of that kind, which i did in 2008, i was the last mohican on the travel group to still use analog. I sold the Hassi in 2015 for (comparably) peanuts.

But i don't fully buy into that "good old times" thing. Shooting analog and fully mechanically certainly teaches you a lot about how photography works; And the cellphone camera may raise generations who never heard about depth of field, focal length, perspective, ISO/grain relation and the likes; but truth to be told, back wehen everyone shot on film there also were pretty few who actually knew what they were doing and brought home good results reliably (don't claim to be one of them, i just happen to spend money i shouldn't waste on stuff my skill doesn't warrant - bike analogy here ). And i threw away too many slides of pictures that would have been great if i hadn't messed up the settings.... digital trechnology certainly helps a *lot* with that.
As they say, the best camera is the one you have on you when you get a reat motive. A cell in my hand i prefer to a linhof at home in the cupboard.

PilotFishBob 

I used to have a lot more gear but divested in my late 30's as I became much less active with them and the need for funds arose. The timing was good, prices were peak. Fast forward to now... Last year at an estate sale I picked up the silver Nikkormat and lens on impulse. $20 in very good condition and everything works perfectly. Lately I've been seeing F2 and F2A bodies with DP2 finders go for a little over $100. To quote Mr Vonnegut: "And so it goes..."

76SLT 

My father has amassed a collection of probably 700 cameras. Sadly, they sit in his basement in stacks and piles, wall to wall now. He doesn't use them anymore but won't let me help him find new homes for any of them because "they're all keepers". This is a sample that sits above his computer desk.

horatio 

That’s a tempting offer. PM coming.

ScottRyder 

One of my first cameras was a 4x5 view camera and then I "upgraded" to an 8x10 vintage lightweight Rochester Optical Camera Co. with a modern lens.. Lugged it all over the mountains of New England with three 8x10 film holders, a spot meter and a waaaaay to heavy tripod. I finally sold it a few years back with the period correct lens. I wasn't using it and hope it went to a better home.



Cheers,

Scott

dmark 

Have not seen one of these posted yet so this was my pocket camera from '80 or so until I went digital. Scale focus and external cds meter on camera top with a great 35mm Zeiss lens. The lens collapsed making it the size of a pack of unfiltered cigs.
PS: This pic looked OK on my phone w/o reading glassed on. The left side dial is shutter & film speed; apeture set on the lens.

Cougrrcj

Back in the early '70s, I graduated from my grandmother's 620-format plastic whatever-it-was (Ansco?) to my mother's hand-me-down Argus C-3 that she bought new in the early '50s. What a brick!

Two years later, my parents upgraded so I got their old Minolta Hymatic 7s. That one worked great until too much crud got into the lens mechanism. Lots going on with the automatic exposure controls.. We cleaned it several times and got it working properly again, but after about the fifth time we finally gave up...

Then I got my first SLR - but one without a viewing prism -- a Practika FX3, stamped 'Made in E Germany under USSR occupation' on the camera body just under the lens mount - so I'm guessing this was also make in the late '40s/early '50s. I carried that camera through high school (yearbook 'student life' candid photographer), swiping my dad's screw-on Pentax mount lenses -- I especially liked the 85-205 zoom for taking candids. Since it used a look-down viewscreen, I didn't have the camera up to my face, so my classmates never knew when I'd 'strike' until they heard the not-so-subtle shutter 'THWOCK!'

I no longer have any of those old cameras. They were gifted to collectors.

SJX426 

I wouldn't be interested in the body but the lens, even though it is the most common, is one I don't have.

If you are referring to the matchbox car behind the Citroen, yes a Rolls. Bought the Matchbox in the 50's/60's usually for 49 cents each. I have about 60+ in various conditions. I did play with them. The Lionel was gifted to me in 1960ish.

Reynolds 

My favorite, with that lens or the pancake 40 2.8.

madpogue 

There's another taker, but I don't know if he wants the whole kit. If he doesn't want the lens, I'll let you know. And yeah, it's the Zuiko 50/1.8.

Yup, 49 cents apiece at the Ace Hardware. Once in a while, they'd go on sale, 3/$100. That was better than a snow day! Between them, and later the Hot Wheels, I had several cases. I gave them all to some younger neighbor when I got "too old" for such things (hindsight face-palm....).

Edit - waitaminit - is that a red XKE on the deck below the Citroen? Dang.

Oh man check out the Dymo labels on the inside of the Rolleiflex case. You can just about smell the leather from here.

That Rollei 35 jogs a memory; buddy of mine in high school had one, but in silver. Well, it was his mom's, but he borrowed it a lot. It really was the gadget-head pocket camera of the '70s. Intrigued me to no end. That impossible combination of extensive features, ultra-compact size (given the format), and European simplicity and elegance.

He also had a Pentax, hm, an SP1000, maybe? And my dad had an awful Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL from Montgomery Wards, also thread mount. There was no used market to speak of out in the exurbs where I lived, so I bought the cheapest thread-mount SLR available at the time, a Ricoh TLS with a 55mm F2.8 lens, so I could borrow lenses from buddy & dad. I was so young and scruffy at the time, the sales guy made me show him my clean hands before he let me handle it, even before asking if I had the money.

Later I met a woman with a not-yet-vintage Nikon F2 photomic. So of course, I bought an old Nikkormat FT and a couple used lenses, and built from there. We brought the F2 with the stock 50mm on a bike / B&B tour of Ireland back in '85; it was the heaviest thing in our kit. We've been together almost 40 years now, haven't fired the F2 in ages. The meter pooched on the Nikkormat in about '92, so I picked up an old FT2 at a resale. Then when digital came around, I just went through the usual progression of point & shoots. Finally went full circle to DSLR a few years ago; I even did a redneck AI hack on my old 105/2.5, my favorite old Nikkor lens from BITD, so it now works on my D7* bodies. Still have the F2 and the 'mats.

Sorry, no photos of the any of the old iron / glass. I really should get some pics, just for insurance/documentary purposes.

Are you looking to rehome any of the Nikkor lenses?

Deal4Fuji

100 year old bellows camera still on the job making backstage photos of a punk band. Daughter Aaryn is in the biz

and the subject

I wish I had more info on the brand....trying to find out

madpogue 

^^^^ Even the fridge looks older than the daughter.

(And no, we probably shouldn't start a "Show us your C&V major appliances" thread.....)

Chuckk

Been doing vintage cameras longer than bicycles.
The living room pile, USA from the left and German from the right.
The Perfex 55 on the far left was my Dad's.

gomango

Brings back wonderful memories. I was gifted one of these on my first trip to Bayern in 1988.

My wife's uncle loaned it to me for our trip to Berlin and the former DDR.

We spent a week in Berlin and just under two weeks traveling across "then" East Germany.

I filled dozens of rolls and really got the hang of the camera. We were surprised they weren't confiscated.

Upon our return to Chiemsee I was gifted the device and it was a loyal travel companion for years.

It's been sitting in a box here for years, as I found the ease of digital a siren song I couldn't ignore.

As I am heading towards retirement, perhaps I will dust this one off and set up my darkroom again.

Such a pleasurable, creative hobby.

fwiw I have a few nice cameras including a new Nikon Z50 two lens kit I picked up for travel, but specifically for macro work on pollinator plants, bumblebee id and stream trout of the Midwest. It's a little big, but man, it takes great pictures. I think it will fit in my Swift Ozette just fine.

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-pr...z50:121319:wwa

https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/mirrorless/z50.htm

riva

I agree 35mm cams got past up a while back, but the case for the good old days gets a little better as you get bigger on film size. The fine detail you can get with a good lens even on 6cm of film, not to mention the tilt options that come in with the really big film sizes.

IMO there are cases where using film still makes sense..

ascherer 

I have about 100-120 Matchbox cars from the 50's-60's that I collected as a kid in "Collectors Cases". My wife wants me to put them out for display.

forresterace

For many years, I used to shoot 8X10 transparencies in the studio every day. The cameras used, varied from Calumet, Cambo to Deardorff. Occasionally when we had to shoot a full page catalogue cover shot, we would produce an 11x14 transparency using this beast,
a Deardorff 11X14 studio camera.

Doug

horatio 

Now that’s a camera!

bobwysiwyg

Makes my 4x5 look like a point-and-shoot.

abshipp 

These are all so beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing.

A lot of the '50s era ones remind me of battleships. I love it.

My parents had for years a Minolta SLR I believe they received at their wedding in the mid-80's. They donated it a year or so ago. This thread is making me wish they didn't

Wileyone 

Would Love to see the carry strap.

forresterace

One advantage of such a camera stand - if your shooting down at a fairly steep angle using a long lens (say 18" -24") with 4-5 feet of bellows and the camera is about 12
feet in the air. It can be difficult hanging off a twelve foot ladder to see through the ground glass. Many's the time I've actually stood with one foot on the camera stand and one foot on the ladder!

Doug

repechage

I surfed around looking as Speed Graphic cameras. Do not know enough to buy one yet. When I was very young, those I were told were THE press photographer's camera.

clubman 

Is that a 'tin type'. I know little about old film.