Thursday 15 August 2013

Analogue fetishes



15 comments:

  1. I don't personally have a camera fetish, but that Ensign-Selfix is wonderful to look at.

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    1. The one that caught my eye was the Voigtlander Vitoret

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  2. Such a handsome analog camera collection. I like all of them.

    I need to look for "Side by Side."

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  3. Hey, at least with the fully manual ones, you can attach lenses and walk around "snapping pics" with no film in them. I do that with my Mamiyma/Sekor. It's strangely satisfying. :D

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  4. Nice collection of cameras. You really do need to take a few shots and post them. I still use mine on occasion. The biggest problem for me is getting the time. I take what ever size film nearest to the cameras format and wind it onto original spools and shoot. I only do B & W. Hence the need for time. I do my own processing and printing.

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  5. It's an interesting conversation. I wish art supply stores would pick up the making and distribution of film and processing products, as they do painting supplies. I find I compose better in the film cameras, even if I can zoom and get better clarity in digital. I like my film cameras the same as the typewriters - it's cool that they could do it at all, make a 1/1000 of a second mechanical shutter, for example.

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    1. Now THAT would be great! At the moment, a department store near my house still processes film (I'm on first-name terms with Earl, the dude behind the counter at the photo counter), but he told me last time that they were getting rid of the processing equipment and photo processing would take around a week instead of one day. Ahh well...
      As for film vs digital, I'm still not proficient with either.

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  6. I read the first line involving you watching something involving Keanu Reeves and stopped reading in disgust. (Just kidding). Developing my own B&W films in the dark room at school was the most rewarding photography I've ever done. I only wish those facilities were available to me now. With traditional film cameras you took so much more care about making each shot count. Now it's just snap snap snap snap snap snap "Oh hopefully one of them will look half decent"

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  7. Great collection of cameras! My daughter is a photographer and absolutely loves her Mamiya and her cute little Dianas and all the rest, but about 99% of the photos she takes are with her iPhone. Years ago when digital cameras were just getting popular, she and I and met well-known photographer Johnny Donnels (Some of you may know him from his association with Ilford photographic paper.) and asked what kind of camera he used. He had already made the switch to digital and said he'd never go back to film. That was all I needed to hear to make me a convert, since I never had any real talent with film cameras.

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  8. Those are such beautiful Cameras.

    I have both film and digital. I specifically use Medium format film cameras, and in all honesty it is a tool that has a limited, but often specific purpose.

    Like Dana pointed out though, the vast majority of my photos are taken on my iPhone. But it doesn't mean other cameras of mine don't get a look in. I use them for whatever purpose I have at the time that I wish to specifically achieve.

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  9. Mind you, that Ensign Selfix is beautiful!

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  11. My first "real" camera was an Exakta VXIIa (http://tonymindling.blogspot.com/2010/09/so-pretty.html). A truly lovely bit of engineering which did its job well. I shot thousands of frames of 35mm Tri-X and Plus-X with it, and later a series of Nikons, processed and sleeved six frames per. Like Steve, I first began to learn that craft in a high school darkroom, and the joy of processing and printing a good negative has never been matched by digital images. Nevertheless I'm not going back, and the lovely Exakta now graces a glass-fronted display case filled with nostalgic photographic litter.

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  12. Beautiful collection of cameras, Rob! You could make a shelf with ten or twelve compartments and hang it on a wall with the cameras nestled in each one. Maybe a sheet of Perspex to keep the dust out.
    I had heard about that Keanu Reeves documentary, I think he produced it himself. And I recall George Lucas being an avid proponent of digital from way back. I think he had a meeting with Spielberg, Scorsese and a few other visionary directors ten years ago where he extolled the virtues of digital over film. And those new RED digital cameras (that look like a steel shoe box) are revolutionising film-making. Still, it's sad to hear that Panavision no longer make film cameras. Too many ends of too many eras in this Digital Age for my liking.
    And like Dana did with Johnny Donnels, on those rare occasions when I meet a photographer who's over the age of 45-50, I always ask them about digital versus film and they always respond that digital is better.
    Anyway, I'm off to go and buy a few rolls of Kodak 100.

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  13. Gorgeous beasties! I also keep a small collection of interesting film cameras I have run across in the wild. I love the "Ful-Vue" camera. It looks like a Doctor Who villain.

    I learned on a Canon AE-1 with a busted meter and loved the mechanical feel of the A1. I switched to the largely plastic Elan 7e (eye controlled focus) and was lusting after a T90 until the Digital Rebel arrived. That was ten years ago and I have shot maybe two rolls of film.

    While I miss the mechanics and precise feel of the old SLRs, I also enjoy the freedom to experiment and insanely wonderful high ISO performance. I remember when shooting ISO 800 was something special and was nothing but grain.

    Digital can and has lead me into the cult of image perfection. I've been trying to break out of that mold. Manual focus lenses on digital bodies help that along. My old Canon glass from the '80s has been joined by Olympus and Pentax glass from the '60s.

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