Hello the campfire:
Golly gee! All we seem to talk about now is digital image systems. Is anyone still stuck in the mid 20th centry like I am? I shoot a lot of Black and White, have miles of slide film in 35MM and 120-220, apprecite the simplisity of manual camers, and get a headach trying to do much more than point and shoot with digital cameras, or even the fully auto film cameras. I have just about wrung the lense off a Minolta full auto trying to shoot it like my Minolta with non auto focase lens.
I just got a like new miniture Speed Graphic with all of its accesories, several lens, backs and flash. Can't find flash bulbs locally. It is a great camera to play with but not to carry in to the wild. It is hander than my Ansco wooden 4x5 field camera, and produces great images, both b/w and color reversal ( ever seen a 2.25x3.25 slide?).
I would love to talk to anyone who still has a foot in 1950 or earlier.

Judge Sharpe

JudgeSharpe-

FINALLY, someone else thinks the "old way!"

While I don't carbon-date back to 1950, I still use nothing but film, shoot on my beloved Nikons and have never used any such feature as "autofocus." Actually, I resent all this new gadgetry.

And transparency is still my favorite medium with b&w a close second.

As to the "new age tools," sure, some of it makes for convenience, but some people have come to totally rely upon it and have no clue as to how to focus, expose or compose a photo. They shoot fully-auto and then hope to "fix" it in the computer. Newspapers now send out people totally green, give them an all-auto camera, a laptop with spellcheck and a cell phone -- and proceed to call them photojournalists.

All the new technology has also allowed people to cheat photographers out of tons of $$. They'll scan a photo, remove the copyright, put in on CD and then pass it off as their own at WallyWorld or wherever. Some places even allow the copying of originals -- whether clearly copyrighted or not -- and make no effort to stop such activity.

But enough of this venting from an old-timer...

I am afraid that film will be priced like gold before long. Many vendors have limited their inventories, and the last time I was in a major camera shop, I asked for 10 rolls of Plus-X and got the blankest stare I have ever seen.

Digital is simply not for me. No matter how good the gear may be, when you get to 16x20 and larger images, digital simply can't compare to film. I have a transparency of a coyote taken in the mountains of Wyoming. The day was somewhat overcast and cold, but the rendition of fine detail (Fujichrome 100) and the feeling of depth with that photo (the 'yote was on a ridge with blurred out mountains behind him) could not be matched by anything digital -- at least not in my experience.

I'm also a retrograde 35mm film user. I use my Nikons (FM2, F3 and F100) with a battery of good lenses and flashes I've accumulated over the years. I still like the WYSIWYG looking through my F3. There are several options for having my slides digitized so why get rid of such good equipment? And it's hard to beat the shutter delay of a good old fashioned SLR. People on this forum will wax eloquent over lock-time on a trigger, it's the same for a camera.

Back in 1986 I was sitting in the waiting room of Wilson Airport in Nairobi, waiting for a flight to Masai Mara with my wife. An American tourist, seeing that I had a big bag of photographic equipment, came up to me with his newfangled all-electronic SLR. It was brand new but somehow on the flight from the USA it stopped working. He was furious. I pulled out my Nikon FM and said, "See this, no batteries, no electronics, pure mechanical perfection." Live in the bush in Africa a few years and the only camera you will buy is a Nikon FM or an older Leica, like an M3. They're both bullet proof.

I really like my film cameras and will start using them more again if I ever learn to process my own B/W. Have a complete darkroom set up with two enlargers but not a good place to set it up now. Took my F5 out this past week and my 645 a few weeks ago. also have an RB67 that may well be my favorite but haven't gone on a trip to use it yet this year. If I remember, I'll scan in some photos I did with the RB67, 645NII and a Yashica 635 later on.

Wink wrote:

quote:

Live in the bush in Africa a few years and the only camera you will buy is a Nikon FM or an older Leica, like an M3. They're both bullet proof.

A big to that!

Don Fischer wrote:

quote:

if I ever learn to process my own B/W.

It's a breeze. You'll pick it up with no problem. But like you said, having a place to do so can be a hassle.

In that regard, I am very fortunate.

In the 80s, I worked for a hometown paper and maintained connections over the years, even when I lived many miles away. Sometimes I supply them with images they may need, and they always ask for a few articles/photos for an annual hunting publication, which I gladly do for them (even wrote most of the very first issue that came out in the mid-80s). In return, I have unlimited access to their darkroom and at any time I want to show up. It's a nice tradeoff, but lately, I seem to never make it over there anymore, evn though it's extremely convenient in that it's located right behind our place of business...

Not to seem ignorant, but what is film and what does 35mm and 120-220 mean?
Does it a refer to a medium wide angle and medium length telephoto?

This has to be a joke. Right?

My first camera was/is a war time 4x5 Speed graphic. I have a very nice little 2 1/4x3 1/4 Century Graphic too. Love the old beasties.

Got into "modern" film cameras when I bought a Nikon F with money I made baggin' groceries in High School. Picked up an F2 in the late 60's and a bunch of Hassy gear and a Cambo on eBay.

Finally gave the digital stuff a try (D200 Nikon) and it just about replaces the 35's. Still not the quality of 6x6 and larger. Very convenient though.

In 1975 my son was born and my mother gave to me her 1948 vintage Kodak 35mm Rangefinder camera. She had notes scribbled into the camera case telling me what shutter speed and F-stop to use in different conditions. I struggled and wasted a lot of film but I finally started to get it-and to appreciate the photos she had produced with that thing. After only a few months I wised up and bought a light meter and things got better. Mom passed away and I thought I better quit lugging that camera through swamps and woods-bought a cheap Vivitar with light meter in the view finder and a couple lenses. Wow, what fun. I took a lot of photos with that cheapie and even had some published but the volcano dust on Mt. St. Helen's did it in. PIcked up a Canon AE1 and really went to town. I have since gone digital and I enjoy it but I still also keep that Canon close to hand and a good supply of Kodachrome in the frig. Even when shooting digital I still try to revert to the process, the involvement it took to shoot with that old range finder. I am a rank amateur but photography was magical then to us old timers but I suppose to the new guys with spark it still is, even with all the technology. What fun!

If we are going to talk film, let's post some film photos.

This one with a Yashica 635 on 120 film. Probably Illford 100 ISO. Be alright to call it ASA?



This one same camera but with Pan F



Pentax 645 w/Ilford Delta 100



Mamiya RB 67 with Ilford Delta 100



Yashica 635 and Illford Pan F



Nikon FG and Fuji Reala



Hasselblad X-Pan and Fuji Reala



Thats enough. Lets see some of you other geezers stuff!

I understand the love of the oldies, but for Africa or other travel with weight limits I finally gave in and went digital mostly for the weight. Good tripods weigh a ton and the cameras Oh for RB67 you need another carrier on Safari. I love my Cannon for cromes but the camera and 4 or 5 lenses add too much weight. Just have to come in to the 21st century, bawling and kicking.

Years ago, when we had film cameras, it was quite a nightmare managing safari photos, not to mention the expense as well.

Eight or so of us would go hunting, and we would take anything up to 60-80 rolls of 36 exposure films.

After the hunt, I get all the films, have them developed and printed.

Once that is done, they each one marks the photos he wishes to have, and then I get those printed.

This might take a number of weeks after the hunt before each hunter gets his pictures.

Since we changed over to digital, I used to take blank CDs with me and a laptop com puter. Each evening, I collect all the cameras, download the photos to my computer, and when I get enough to fill a CD, I made copies for each hunter and PH.

Then the resolution went up - and the number of cameras went up too.

So we moved to making DVDs.

Last year, I took 40GB hard disks for each one of us, and copied all the photos to them each week we were there.

At the end of the bhunt, each one of us had a complete copy of all the photos taken by everyone.

We are off again in about 10 days time, and I have bought 160 GB portable hard disks for each one in the party.

Again, each will have a complete set of photos in his bags as he gets home.

My dad got me started into photography when he was the chief photographer for the 1st Army HQ in Governors Island, NY back in the early '50s. I used a lot of his vintage collectible bellows-type cameras but not his Speed Graphic 4x5 press cameras that he used for work. He also let me take some homemade movies with a 16mm manual movie camera.

My first 35mm was a hand-me-down Argus C3 that my Dad let me have after he acquired a Contaflex with a Zeiss Tessar. We also had our own dark room in our house where I learned how to develop my own film and photos in black and white. After he passed away I kind of inherited all the cameras and equipment but I was more into teenage pursuits to appreciate and care for the photographic treasures that I was left.

In Vietnam I hardly had any time to take pictures, much less carry a camera. Back home my little brothers got into everything and ruin or lost a lot of the photographic equipment that my Dad left.

I'm just beginning to take up photography again, thanks to the "digital revolution". For my last two Alaska hunts I took along a couple of point-and-shoots but I also brought along a disposable 35mm film camera that is waterproof down to 15 feet so that I could take pictures of fish underwater while canoeing. Froze my hand off and didn't get any pics of fish for all that.

My wife is calling me to breakfast. Got to break this off.

I'm 67, been there done that. Today my darkroom sits on my desk. My constant companion sits in my shirt pocket. It's waterproof, dustproof, and takes outstanding video clips. It's been on both hemispheres and it's still images rival those I've taken with SLR's. Sorry, I love progress.

Oh yah, it'll take 300 still images or 45 minutes of video on a SD card and battery not much bigger than a postage stamp.

I started out with a 4x5 view camera then graduated to a speed graphic hauling it around in a big wood box & draging along a damn heavy wooden tripod too. (Thank you Uncle Sam) And that wasn't yesterday either!

Just last year I sold my 8 x 10 Sinar, but I still have my Hasselblad system and a Besseler enlarger. Don't use it much though.

Hey guys, I must really be old, cause I'm still using my VOIGHTLANDER 35 that I bought in 1953 in Germany. while in the service. The best camera for me, don't need any of the digital newfangled things. Can't work them anyhow. I started out in this world back in 1931.

All these photos taken with my Minolta dynax4 film.

Photos

I learned photography with my Father and Grandfather by quartering 8 x 10 sheet film with a studio camera back in the 1940's.

Moving to a 5 x 7 for field work was a great weight reduction. We carried film holders that contained sheet film, two per holder. If you wanted 10 photos you carried 5 film holders. I really liked the 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 Speed Graphic bellows camera with flash bulbs either number five, or number eleven.

A true gear driven, clock work, number ten Circuit camera was used to make panoramic group photos 8 or 10 inches high and up to 10 feet long, as a contact print. Check the museums and you will see these long photos of many solders in rows. Those are real panoramic pictures.

What I learned back then was how to read the light, take one picture, two if the camera sounded "off" or someone moved, processed one sheet of film in the darkroom, printed it, and get paid. We mixed our own chemicals. Strange as it will see today, but we purchased "Hypo" in one hundred pound barrels. Really.

I still live in the film world, but failing eyesight caused a shift to autofocus cameras. Mine include all Nikons, F4, F5, one manual focus FM3A, and an assortment of autofocus lenses both prime and zoom, all at least F2.8 or faster. I shoot from 20mm to 300 mm and add a TC301 doubler to the big one for an effective 600mm on film.

Slide film is my favourite, print film second, and if Scala B&W slide film was still readily available, that would still be used too.

No digital camera I have tried comes up to the capabilities of film cameras. I have been checking since the days digital cameras used computer disks for memory.

Of course you can buy a new digital and take 800 pictures before breakfast. This is accidential photography.

Why not take one and get it right?

I will soon be 55 and am embracing the digital age with love.
No film and no developing.
http://pawprintphotography.com/

Those who use digital seem to really like it. There and many advantages. For me the ability to take one shot and process the end result is a real plus, also changing ISO speed is a great idea. If only the dust was not a problem. I am a chronic lens changer. I know about the "new" dust shakers etc. but am not impressed.

Film is still all I use, but digital has opened up a huge market for image making and that is truly great. The potential for excellent creative results and the satisfaction that provides is priceless.

Film however is not dead, no will it be for a very long time, IMHO.

quote:

Not to seem ignorant, but what is film and what does 35mm and 120-220 mean?
Does it a refer to a medium wide angle and medium length telephoto?

It's the size of the image on the film.

I too was a film only user, then I got a Lumix DMC-FZ18, I doubt it would survive a Safari. But for general use it's as good as any 35mm film camera and I don't need a Jeep to cart around all the junk you tend to collect with an SLR. Nor do I have to sell a kidney to get a decent lens for it.

Hi Guys,
This thread started me thinking. I have a cannon AE-1 35 mm. I bought it a couple of years ago because I wanted one very badly (back in the day )and could not afford it. I have never used it .

It comes as a kit: camera 4 lenses and a tripod.
The lenses are :Vivatar 29-90 mm , canon 50 mm, vivatar 70-210, a 2X vivatar converter, Instruction book and rain hood.

I need room in the closet so if any one is interested I will ship the entire kit to you for $100.00 or best offer.