slightly off topic....but for 4x5 affcionados...... my wife grew up in carmel, ca and once got a cease and desist order from Ansel Adams to quit bouncing in his trees

on the positive side her best friend is Edward Weston's daughter and my wife got weston prints for her 16th and 21st birthdays

Back in the days of film I have always had good luck buying used rangefinder cameras. I only bought Japanese brands and came to like Minolta, Yashika and Cannon. I spent a lot of time with SLR's but sometimes I preferred rangefinders for their lighter weight, ruggedness and simplicity. These were especially good for backpacking and camping. With rangefinders, they are pretty well sealed until changing film.

Rangefinders are not as sophisticated as SLR's. For instance the metering is either average across the scene or just a photo cell placed on the front of the camera. Often the lenses were not going to be as good as SLR lenses because rangefinders were made more as a consumer level camera and price was important. I also came to appreciate rangefinders when taking pictures of people. When you point a big SLR in their face they can get self consensus. A rangefinder is not as intimidating. People tend to act more naturally.

That is just my opinions. I have a soft spot for Film photography and darkroom processing (the other half of making pictures). Despite that statement and a wild thought of getting some Tri-X film and shooting some rolls I have not done any film photography. I tossed my film tanks, contact printer, bath trays and even my thermometer. It was sad, but I was done with processing film. Nowadays. it is all digital with lessons learned from the days of film.

By the way is there any free software that lets me "Dodge and burn" area within the print? I often used this technique to bring back the sky in a landscape. Or is the digital sensors not as sensitive as film?

This is Contaflex is from the 1950's. it has a fixed 45mm lens and requires either using a handheld light meter or the old educated guess for setting the exposure. The lens is sharp and with Kodachrome you can see the difference with pictures taken with this lens and the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens SLR lens.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fdec3fabb9.jpg

For several years I played around with an old Leica 560 f/6.8 Telyt-R lens. It was long as heck but light and worked surprisingly well. I sort of regret selling it. It was way long but actually easy to handle.

This is it alongside a Canon 400/5.6 for comparison.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d8915d0d71.jpg

Handheld shots using the lens.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9d42312064.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6c10b4b417.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b5613f4227.jpg

What came for me in the post today came for my C & V camera, so double points!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c259db4adf.jpg

Outer Shell 3-point camera strap in Cow. I have no idea if I'm going to like this on the bike or not... I think I've got it installed correctly, but the only instructions are a video. Which is beautifully shot, but has no narration or explanation, and is basically useless. I know it won't drop my camera on the ground, but I'm going to have to use it for a bit to see if I've got it set up roght, and then, if I do, if I like the thing. It's already kicked the tuchus of the thin black nylon one it came with, so that's a win.

--Shannon

Nothing to complicated with the old rangefinder cameras, they are a little slower to operate and take some time to focus etc. especially if one is used to do everything cameras etc. If you have shot analogue cameras in the past not much to overcome.

Many camera manufactures have made them, I would categorize them into a few different camps.....the really old school one that had interchangeable lenses and those that hade fixed lenses on them.....the former IMO are the most like the "classic" Leicas that many think of when thinking "rangefinder" camera.

A lot of folks call the older Canon Rangefinder cameras the "poor" mans Leica (their words not mine).....folks seem to prefer the Canon model "P" over any of it predecessors/successors due to it's simplicity and lack of an exposure meter etc. Canon 'P"'s can be found on any number of sites selling used camera gear, they range from 175.00 to 300 sometimes with a lens. Personally, I shoot with the Canon 7, dead meter and all and find it quite capable of making nice images.

If one wants a meter the Canon 7 series is the way to go. The 7 to some appears cluttered (I shoot with it and it's not an issue for me) and opt for the 7s or 7z. Canon 7's can be found at very reasonable prices 75 to 180 higer end with lens, while the 7z's can go for well over 300.

The nice thing about Canon is that they also share the same lens mount as the Leica (M39) and the lens range is quite extensive.

Here are a few pics from the net.....
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...251d8f2315.png
Canon P in black....lots of money for this one!
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6f860baac9.png
Canon 7....not as much as the P but still over a "grand".....that's why mines "chrome":D

Anyway I hope this helps.

Best, Ben

Yes, I like Canon and have owned and shot other manufactures as well.

Steady Hand!!!!!!!! Film speed and shutter speed?
Best, Ben

Who knows, that was years ago. I'd be betting it was at least 1/1000th if not faster and the ISO would have been pushed to give me the shutter speed needed. As I remember, the last shot was at a local bird refuge and shot using my vehicle as a blind. So the lens was steadied by a beanbag I use over the window frame of the vehicle. So shutter speed could have been lower than the others as I would just need to ensure it was at around 1/500th to ensure no motion blur from the bird moving.

I moved from this lens to an old Nikon 800/5.6 ED lens that at first I used on a Nikon DSLR and then I adapted to work on EOS with my other lens. That was a heavy beast that I avoided handholding whenever I could. I remember working a bear once with it when I had no tripod. I had to steady it against trees and other brush to even try and get a decent shot.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...810580dad8.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d83a2feb50.jpg

At the other end of the spectrum is my old bellows setup that seen a lot of use with flower macro shots and the like. I need to break that back out and do some more work with it. Such a technical piece of kit to use as at high magnification even your own breath could move the subject and mess up the shot.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e7b2dd9173.jpg

Another victim of my bad knees. Hard to use this in a lot of situations when you have problems getting down onto the ground. And back up, LOL!

For anyone interested in photography, with the means to get to NYC, GO SEE THE DIANE ARBUS SHOW at the Park Avenue Armory. More than 400 prints in an awesome space, with an amazing presentation. We went to NYC yesterday for our wedding anniversary and the first stop was the Arbus exhibit. (Then we kind of did as we did on our wedding day: eat too much food, go to Coney Island, ride the Wonder Wheel, catch the last train out of the city and get home after 4am).
Anyway, Arbus photo exhibit!
Phil

Here's another one my father left me. Rollei SL66. The shutter is a little slow so I need to find somewhere to send it for a good cleaning. There's a couple lenses to go with it, and some other accessories.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...590ebce886.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...38f1e5c96c.jpg

And, after its first real ride, I can declare the Outer Shell camera strap to be a win. 20 miles, 1500 feet of climbing in the Oakland hills, with the SRT Super that started this thread snugged against the small of my back, on the right side. (Crossdraw strap coming up from under left arm to leftside breastbone.) The Minolta is a significant chunk o' metal... quite a bit heavier than I remember my X-700 as being. In the whole ride, the rig didn't move: bounce, slide, rotate, slip down... none of it. The only way I could tell I'd been wearing it was some soreness in my shoulder/neck junction... which is wonky anyway, and has been for 2+ decades, plus the new bar position and this being the hardest road ride I've done in years... not surprising that my shoulder's a little mad at me.

As to the photographing itself, it was fun. Mid-day, and sunny, so I had to find interesting shadows and other not-boring ways to take pictures of what was, after all, a very, very pretty East Bay ride. Burned up the last 20-ish frames of the Tri-X, and I hadn't brought more. Fortunately, the last few shots corresponded to the like 2nd-to-last place I wanted to take pictures, so it almost worked out. (Not to mention, I'd never changed film in this camera before, and not in any camera since 2014. Having my 1st time be in the field ain't a great idea anyway.)

Almost all of my old manual-SLR muscle memory is long-since forgotten, so there was a bit of a comedic aspect to the whole thing. I didn't quite manage to take a macro image of the backside of my lens cap, but there were multiple no-winds, several lens-cap-still-ons that fell short of me snapping the picture, including one that was saved only because I'd also forgotten to crank the advance. Add in the totally-unfamiliar strap system, and there was much fumbling, and some cursing.

Since I'm burning a roll each of Tri-X, HP5+, and FP4+, I decided to swap in the HP5. Tri-X is the only black & white film I've ever shot, and not much of that, so I decided that sticking with another roll of 400 would maybe flatten the (re-)learning curve a bit. We'll see.

So, tl;dr, bottom line, dead-and-buried lede:

The Outer Shell camera strap is a great product made by great people, and if you want something that does what it does, you should buy this one from them, 'cuz it's rad and they're rad.

--Shannon

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...de9eeac440.jpg

Let me add some C & V camera literature:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7ad208974b.jpg

We had one in the studio for lighting tests, back when the polaroid film packs were still relatively cheap for the B&W version.
That's a good piece of glass on that camera too- nice and sharp after f5.6 and smaller.
Some of the so-called test shots even made a little money with certain models.

-D.S.

Polaroid has many interesting interesting stories, which also includes suing Kodak and winning, and developing instant movies, which destroyed them.
The SX-70 is their biggest victory.
A folding, single lens reflex camera.
"Instant" Polaroid film in a pack which included the battery for operating the camera and moving the film.
Through the lens metering, which included the flash.
This is a later model with the ultrasonic auto-focus, which turned up in many other uses.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bd8a0dbef6.jpg

And using the same film pack:
Polaroid Macro 5
Crazy technical plastic was originally for medical and police ultra macro closeups.
Ah, what stories it could tell.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...dceccf81bd.jpg

I picked it out of the FREE box at a garage sale.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ce6e13b5b1.jpg

Yep, exactly what this one was (mostly) used for. Pola 665 pos/neg film was sooooo cool- it made for a great traveling portrait camera. The novelty of it could start the conversation, then offer the positive to a prospective subject, keep the neg to scan/print later!

The talk about Polaroids reminded me that I have my Grandfather's old M-80. Family sent it to me years ago. Went and found it and then checked to see if there's been any revival to the problem of finding film for one of these. Nope, the only Fuji choice is still out there but is around $250 a pack and was last manufactured in 2016. So back into storage this goes. No way I'm paying 25 bucks a shot to try a film that may no even work.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9b74bf7867.jpg

Today's addition to the C&V Camera Thread:

Minolta PG Rokkor 135 mm / 2.8 fixed telephoto lens:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4e94dee428.jpg
I like the aluminumness (aluminosity? yeah, that's the word,) the aluminosity of this thing. Not much plastic to be found here:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b8b83f4d12.jpg

The delightfully-overbuilt leather-n-velvet lens case:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e5c1834887.jpg

Good stuff here, I think. Going to take it and the 50/1.4 out for some shooting tomorrow, schedule and weather permitting. (We've had 15-20 mph winds here in the East Bay for the last couple of days. Demoralizing, is what it is. Having no experience with fixed telephoto lenses, I'm going to shoot the same scene at 50 and 135 a few times, just to start getting a feel around the differences.

For 50 bucks, I ain't gonna complain much.

--Shannon

Here's all the manual focus lenses I routinely still carry and use with my photography. I have adapters for all of these and now use them on EOS DSLR's. Still working an old Canon 5D along with a 7D, a 7D MK II, and a 5DS R.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...814bd4ab44.jpg

Mamiya A 200/2.8 APO - A super lens for sure and since I'm using it on a 35mm body I get the sweet spot of this lens edge to edge for the image.
Vivitar Series 1 70-210/3.5 Macro -Just found this one in an antique shop about a month ago for $9 and had to grab it.
Vivitar Series 1 80/2.5 Macro
Olympus Auto W 24/2.4 - Good edge to edge sharpness for a 24mm.
Olympus Zuiko Shift 35/2.8
SMC Takumar 50/1.4 screwmount. - Amazing 3D rendering with this beauty.
SMC Takumar 135/3.5
Leica APO Telyt-R 180/3.4 - Crazy good resolving power at infinity. You should see the detail that shows up with this one
Leica Elmarit-R 90/2.8 - This is a main headshot lens, not that I do a lot of that type shooting.
Leica Elmarit-R 60/2.8 Macro - Most of my bike photoshoots on here are taken with this one on my Canon 5D
Leica Summicron-R 50/2.0
Leica Sonnar 85/2.8
Carl Zeiss Planer 100/2.0 - Just a super amazing piece of glass.
Carl Zeiss Planer 50/1.4
Carl Zeiss Distagon 28/2.8
Carl Zeiss Distagon 35/2.8

I have a full suite of AF Canon lenses also that sees use when shooting faster stuff like sports and action. But for my slower, more deliberate work I still prefer the results from these old manual focus beauties. I am starting to have some issues though focusing with the diopter of the camera's at the strongest setting. I don't know how much longer my eyes are going to allow me to work these.

Jamesdek , that's a very nice collection of glass that you have adapted to your EOS bodies, Am I to assume the "bird" shots were shot on digital?

A few more more......
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4218d46bf0.png
2 of 2000-3000 Canon F-1 Military Bodies with 7.5 FD Fisheye and 58mm 1.2 Aspherical lens
I was lucky enough to get 2 of these before they got very expensive, the one with the 1.2 has a bit of wear and a ding on the wind side, the other has tape on the edges to help protect the finish.:D
Best, Ben

For sure. I haven't used the slide/film scanner in a very long time. In fact I'd like to find a modern good slide scanner to start digitizing all my old slides. Heck, I even have some Velvia in the freezer I'd shoot if I could practically do anything with them.

It's just too simple and efficient of a process now with digital to really go back.

Thank you for this thread - I checked out my camera archive and discovered it needed a bit of de-moulding.
They're entirely family inheritance - my camera gear is now all Canon film or digital.

I don't use film any more but it's still interesting.

Kodak Folding (No 1 Pocket Kodak Junior)
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3a25bbfb04.jpg

Kodak Retina 118
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e81e381890.jpg

Ihagee Exakta Model B
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5c04dc1055.jpg

Beaumat Beauty rangefinder
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ffd46190f7.jpg

Others:

There actually is a market for old, expired pack film for these cameras. I had a stash of 665 in my basement I decided a few months ago I was never going to actually use. Most of if nearly two decades out of date. Put a couple up on eBay for what seemed like crazy money (based on recent auctions) with the usual disclaimer that it was expired and not guaranteed, and it got snapped up immediately, and the buyer contacted me directly to buy any more that I had. Expired film obviously carries a risk, but I always found it was extremely rare to get nothingwhen I used to use it, and often got something pretty cool.

Back when I had a studio I had a small collection of cheap vintage cameras I picked up at flea markets and yard sales. The hope was always to find one that, through its flaws or light leaks, or whatever, might produce some interesting 'mistakes' in use. I don't recall any of them actually succeeding in that way (a Holga or Lomo, etc were easier to coax 'good' mistakes out of), but they were cool to just have displayed on a shelf....

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1407649549.jpg

I remember that stuff. Very handy at times.

I had* a Polaroid back for the Hasselblad, primarily for checking lighting/settings in the studio before a shoot but occasionally for creating a quickie negative to print without the hassle of developing a roll. Some trimming required to reduce size to 6x6.

*Still have it and the camera kit, but it's not like they have a mission in 2025.

Yeah, I get that, but I'm not the guy, LOL! If anyone come back with a reasonable film pack for the old Polaroid I'll certainly try it. But I'm not paying $25 per shot just to play with the camera.

And that's what I like about it. The inefficiency of the thing. The sheer manual-ness of it. I think that it's a separate thing now, almost its own sub-form.

It also scratches my "acquire neat things" itch in a way that digital hasn't, so far. (I have my dad's EOS Rebel XT in storage, and I liked using it enough to eventually upgrade the body, but it's very much not the same thing, at least for me.)

--Shannon

For me the camera body has always just been the box. The magic happens with the lens. Going with digital bodies also really freed me up and let me experiment more. I no longer was held back but just the sheer cost of buying and developing film. I was also able to pretty much retire my medium format gear for most work. I started playing with the telephoto lenses on a DSLR and then "chopping" a scene up into individual pieces. Then you merge them in photoshop and get one amazingly detailed huge file. Like one print I have in the house that is 3' x 5' and that's only 1/2 the size of the actual file. I combined 20+ shots using the Mamiya 200/2.8 on the Canon 5D to create the image. The detail and size is amazing. The total file is over 1/2 a GB. At full size you can easily see Elk in a meadow far away that the naked eye could never see. Now this won't work in all conditions but on a calm day with consistent lighting this technique is a blast. Could never get anything like that with film

Took a step to further combat the old eyes when I use the old MF lenses still. Ordered a Fotodiox AF confirmation adapter for my Contax lenses. Had one for years for the Leica R ones. Waiting right now for the evening sun to get a little lower. Then I'm heading out to play with the Contax 100/2.0.

Today's addition to the thread:

Some pictures!

Shot with the Minolta SRT Super, 50 mm / 1.4, Kodak 400TX, exposed per on-camera meter:

(These are pictures of the matte prints, taken with my phone on top of the mini-fridge in my shelter room. The discoloration is an artifact, it's not on the prints.)

I liked this cactus:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c77f340361.jpg

This is my favorite shot of the whole roll: (Again with the color artifact.)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0405942ad3.jpg

There was one other shot that I liked quite a bit. 3-for-36 on the 1st roll of film I've shot in over a decade? Yeah, I'll take that action.

And, bonus, the nice lady at Photolab in Berkeley looked at the prints and negatives for signs of camera problems and found nothing wrong. So that's a relief, especially given that I only spent a hundred bucks on the camera.

Keep 'em comin'!

--Shannon