National Camera Day - 2019

[JimFox]

Today is National Camera Day! (Extended through Sunday)

We will be celebrating this day that honors the tool that we use to create art, the Camera in several different ways!

1st - In this Thread add photos of the film camera's that you have used in the past and/or film camera's you have currently own.

2nd - Also in this thread, post a photo that you have taken with one of your film camera's.

3rd - There will be an additional thread to post a photo that you took today, on National Camera Day.

You can reach that thread here: https://www.focalworld.com/index.php?threads/national-camera-day-2019-post-a-photo-from-today.9199/

So let the fun begin!

Jim

PS. Starting this thread so early in the morning I completely forgot to thank Tex who reminded me of National Camera Day a month ago and came up with the idea of posting photos of our old film cameras. Thanks Tex!

 

[JimFox]

This is a new old film camera. I bought it about 2months ago at the Denver Camera Swapmeet that I was exhibiting FocalWorld at. I haven't used it yet, so I am not sure if it works, though all of the mechanical parts do work. The biggest pain with this is it uses 620 film which is 120 film respooled on a different spool.

This is a Kodak Duraflex IV Camera with Kodet Lens. Not sure on the year of it.

 

[Jim Dockery]

I'm not a camera collector, so don't have any of my (many) old film cameras left to take pictures of.

I found this shot of my first camera, an Argus C3 that my grandfather gave me. Exposures mostly followed the sunny 16 rule.

A bit soft, but one of my favorite early pictures taken with the Argus, Cascade Pass, 1968.

My very generous grandmother gave me one of the best presents I've ever gotten for HS graduation. THE action camera of the day, I brought this on most of my climbs in college. It had a light meter!

One of my favorite shots with the Rollei, taken on the headwall of the Salathe Wall route, El Capitan, 1976.

 

[Tex Schneider]

"Envious"

It looks like one of the ladies has added something to the couture in her wardrobe and there might be a bit of envy going on with the other ladies in her group!

 

[AlanLichty]

I never had the luxury of enough space in my dwellings to keep all my oldest non-working gear so can't show any images of the twin lens reflex cameras I had in the 1960's. The original was a Rolleiflex that was a third hand camera by the time I got it as a hand-me-down but it stopped working a few years later and was replaced by a used Minolta Autocord which suffered an untimely death when the door on my first VW bus came open on a curve and the camera behind my seat took a dive onto the pavement.

This is an image of the Superstition Mountains from the Rolleiflex taken in the spring of 1966.

The last film camera I used is a Canon EOS ELAN which I do still have although it is a shelf decoration and I have no interest whatever in shooting film again:

One of the last images it took - two weeks before I bought a 6.1MP Canon EOS D60 in November of 2002. A fall forest floor scene on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens:

 

[Tex Schneider]

"Capture Your Vision" and "Tell Your Story"

 

[Tex Schneider]

"What Do You Mean, You Don't Have A Dark Room?!"

 

[Kyle Jones]

Here is my last film camera, a Canon Elan 7N, and these are the pictures I used to sell it on eBay.

1) The camera

2) My Tokina 24-40 (my first wide angle lens)

3) And this is my favorite shot taken with this combo

 

[JimFox]

I'm not a camera collector, so don't have any of my (many) old film cameras left to take pictures of.

I found this shot of my first camera, an Argus C3 that my grandfather gave me. Exposures mostly followed the sunny 16 rule.

View attachment 19387
A bit soft, but one of my favorite early pictures taken with the Argus, Cascade Pass, 1968.

My very generous grandmother gave me one of the best presents I've ever gotten for HS graduation. THE action camera of the day, I brought this on most of my climbs in college. It had a light meter!

View attachment 19388
One of my favorite shots with the Rollei, taken on the headwall of the Salathe Wall route, El Capitan, 1976.

Very cool Jim! I am enjoying seeing a photo taken with each. As I decided to use a roll of film this last week on my of my new film cameras I was quickly reminded what a blind feeling it was to not have even a light meter built into the camera.

 

[JimFox]

"Envious"

It looks like one of the ladies has added something to the couture in her wardrobe and there might be a bit of envy going on with the other ladies in her group!

View attachment 19392

Very creative Tex!

 

[Jeffrey]

Nice classics everyone.

I began messing around with cameras around '71-'72. I had no idea what photography was or knew anything about it. Ten years later I began shooting slide film of my travels and adventures. Mostly mid day boring snapshots. Fast forward to the turn of this century when I got a Pentax 67 and built up a nice system of two bodies and nice lenses, all which I still have. Meanwhile I was getting into digital with the first consumer camera over 1 megapixel, the Olympus D-600L. A few things later evolved into the Canon 1Ds, 2002. Major life and game changer. Still shot film concurrently. My studies led me to large format. I had a few various 4x5's until I discovered Ebony cameras. This was my second one and the keeper. I actually was so into this thing I stopped shooting digital for a while, and slowly began doing both again.

Ebony SV-45U. Finely crafted in a small shop in Japan from walnut and titanium. The most outstanding workmanship and operation. Full front and rear movements and asymmetrical tilts and rear rise. One of my greatest pleasures has been using this thing. A well made 4" x 5" piece of film well scanned blows away anything any digital camera was able to do by a mile. But alas, as film and development services became more scarce, and as digital opportunities became much greater, I slowly retired this system. It was a joy just to open it up again for these iPhone pics this week. Some examples of my LF work are included.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice classics everyone.

I began messing around with cameras around '71-'72. I had no idea what photography was or knew anything about it. Ten years later I began shooting slide film of my travels and adventures. Mostly mid day boring snapshots. Fast forward to the turn of this century when I got a Pentax 67 and built up a nice system of two bodies and nice lenses, all which I still have. Meanwhile I was getting into digital with the first consumer camera over 1 megapixel, the Olympus D-600L. A few things later evolved into the Canon 1Ds, 2002. Major life and game changer. Still shot film concurrently. My studies led me to large format. I had a few various 4x5's until I discovered Ebony cameras. This was my second one and the keeper. I actually was so into this thing I stopped shooting digital for a while, and slowly began doing both again.

Ebony SV-45U. Finely crafted in a small shop in Japan from walnut and titanium. The most outstanding workmanship and operation. Full front and rear movements and asymmetrical tilts and rear rise. One of my greatest pleasures has been using this thing. A well made 4" x 5" piece of film well scanned blows away anything any digital camera was able to do by a mile. But alas, as film and development services became more scarce, and as digital opportunities became much greater, I slowly retired this system. It was a joy just to open it up again for these iPhone pics this week. Some examples of my LF work are included.

You just nailed my biggest complaint about film anymore - the lack of high quality labs that can handle film well within reasonable access. I had a lab I trusted in Salt Lake City back in the 70's and 80's but the lab got sold and the quality went into the toilet. Vancouver had a workable photo lab when I first moved here in 1998 but they closed their doors right around the time I first went to a DSLR in late 2002.

That Ebony is a really nice looking camera.

 

[JimFox]

I never had the luxury of enough space in my dwellings to keep all my oldest non-working gear so can't show any images of the twin lens reflex cameras I had in the 1960's. The original was a Rolleiflex that was a third hand camera by the time I got it as a hand-me-down but it stopped working a few years later and was replaced by a used Minolta Autocord which suffered an untimely death when the door on my first VW bus came open on a curve and the camera behind my seat took a dive onto the pavement.

This is an image of the Superstition Mountains from the Rolleiflex taken in the spring of 1966.

View attachment 19390

The last film camera I used is a Canon EOS ELAN which I do still have although it is a shelf decoration and I have no interest whatever in shooting film again:

View attachment 19391

One of the last images it took - two weeks before I bought a 6.1MP Canon EOS D60 in November of 2002. A fall forest floor scene on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens:

View attachment 19393

Very cool Alan! It's nice to have a nice last shot like that.

I have no clue where my first film camera is, I am sure my mom at some point sold it at a garage sale or gave it away to goodwill when we moved or when I was away in the Army.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

I started taking images for my TA classes in 1963 during graduate school. The image from Wawona Tunnel was taken in 1964 with a Pentax on Kodachrome 25 film. I switched to a Minolta in 1969 when I went to Indiana to continue graduate school. It wasn't until 1976 that I took up photography seriously and bought a Nikon FA and used Ektachrome 64 and eventually Fuji Velvia 50 which was used to take the Halekakala image below. I didn't go digital until 2011 when I purchased a Canon D500 S II. I quickly switched to the Nikon D800 when it first came out and now own the Nikon D850 which I purchased a few days ago. My first published image was in 1991. It was an mage of a Morel Mushroom and appeared in an Audubon Pocket Calendar. The last image I had published was of a terminal moraine just a few days ago for a National Geographic Learning project. I really don't submit anything for publication anymore but will respond to requests. Now, I just take images for my satisfaction. Nonetheless, it has been a great ride and I really have enjoyed my time here on Focal World with all of the wonderful photographers here.

First image taken with my Pentax camera.

Image taken with my Minolta camera on Ektachrome 64 film.

First published image taken with Nikon FA and Fuji Velvia 50 film.

Last published image taken with Nikon FA and Fuji Velvia 50.

 

[JimFox]

Nice classics everyone.

I began messing around with cameras around '71-'72. I had no idea what photography was or knew anything about it. Ten years later I began shooting slide film of my travels and adventures. Mostly mid day boring snapshots. Fast forward to the turn of this century when I got a Pentax 67 and built up a nice system of two bodies and nice lenses, all which I still have. Meanwhile I was getting into digital with the first consumer camera over 1 megapixel, the Olympus D-600L. A few things later evolved into the Canon 1Ds, 2002. Major life and game changer. Still shot film concurrently. My studies led me to large format. I had a few various 4x5's until I discovered Ebony cameras. This was my second one and the keeper. I actually was so into this thing I stopped shooting digital for a while, and slowly began doing both again.

Ebony SV-45U. Finely crafted in a small shop in Japan from walnut and titanium. The most outstanding workmanship and operation. Full front and rear movements and asymmetrical tilts and rear rise. One of my greatest pleasures has been using this thing. A well made 4" x 5" piece of film well scanned blows away anything any digital camera was able to do by a mile. But alas, as film and development services became more scarce, and as digital opportunities became much greater, I slowly retired this system. It was a joy just to open it up again for these iPhone pics this week. Some examples of my LF work are included.

View attachment 19406 View attachment 19407 View attachment 19408 View attachment 19409 View attachment 19410 View attachment 19411 View attachment 19412

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Truly impressive Jeffrey!
View attachment 19420

 

[JimFox]

I started taking images for my TA classes in 1963 during graduate school. The image from Wawona Tunnel was taken in 1964 with a Pentax on Kodachrome 25 film. I switched to a Minolta in 1969 when I went to Indiana to continue graduate school. It wasn't until 1976 that I took up photography seriously and bought a Nikon FA and used Ektachrome 64 and eventually Fuji Velvia 50 which was used to take the Halekakala image below. I didn't go digital until 2011 when I purchased a Canon D500 S II. I quickly switched to the Nikon D800 when it first came out and now own the Nikon D850 which I purchased a few days ago. My first published image was in 1991. It was an mage of a Morel Mushroom and appeared in an Audubon Pocket Calendar. The last image I had published was of a terminal moraine just a few days ago for a National Geographic Learning project. I really don't submit anything for publication anymore but will respond to requests. Now, I just take images for my satisfaction. Nonetheless, it has been a great ride and I really have enjoyed my time here on Focal World with all of the wonderful photographers here.

First image taken with my Pentax camera.
View attachment 19425

Image taken with my Minolta camera on Ektachrome 64 film.
View attachment 19426

First published image taken with Nikon FA and Fuji Velvia 50 film.
View attachment 19427

Last published image taken with Nikon FA and Fuji Velvia 50.
View attachment 19428

Great images Doug! Your first photo from Yosemite reminds me how happy I am that they cut down those 2 trees to open up the view. I am still kind of shocked to this day that they did it, but I am so glad they did because it allowed so many more people to get open views of the valley.

 

[JimFox]

Another camera I pick up in Denver a couple of months ago. It also uses the 620 film so no photos out of it yet.

This is I believe a Kodak No 0 Junior, Series II

Some helpful aids needed to shoot back then.

 

[JimFox]

Another camera I got from the Denver Camera Swapmeet. It cost me $25, and it works. I ran it's first roll of film through it this last week, and it seems to work great. It was like going back to the dark ages at first. It has no built in light meter, it has no built in focus indicator or range finder to help.

It also only has a max shutter speed of 1/200th, so it made it a bit tricky to shoot. It has no filter rings, so when I took it to the beach to shoot I actually hand held a polarizer in front of it to help knock down the light a little bit.

And also focusing was a great test of my ability to gauge distance because I had to just look at what I was shooting, guess the distance, adjust the lens to hopefully the right distance on the scale and then shoot. I had no idea if it was actually in focus. When I did get the film back this last Wednesday one of my joys was the fact that I had guessed right and all of the photos were in focus. I probably shot 12 or so different compositions in different locations to try it out and they were all sharp and exposed right, I was truly amazed.

This is the Agfa 1953 Stileto

I had a hard time accessing the Histogram on it.

In it's nice leather case

My first photo on the roll of film.

A photo later that evening at Seal Beach Pier.

 

[dan swiger]

Here's my arsenal. With the exception of the 35mm, all have used in the last year
Starting at the back row,
______________________
Plastic 4x5, 90mm (single lens)
3D printed pano camera, using 120 roll
Toyo 45A

Canon Canonet
Topcon RE Super
Canon Elan 7e

Mamiya 7
Mamiya RB67

The 1st real camera was the Topcon RE, middle, that I bought while in Vietnam.
With the exception of the light meter, it still works!
All the other film cameras I've acquired in the last 8 years

My fave is the Mamiya 7.
The RB67 is my MF "long glass" kit

 

[JimFox]

Not sure why, perhaps a hang up with the internet connections with the server but I am having problems getting Dan's photos and a few of my last photos to load. I will check on it.