Do you use a vintage camera?

[Maj.Nick Danger]

For fun or for serious artistic pursuits?
I love film photography, and I always will.
It's just the good old fashioned hands on, do it yourself kind of quality that using a vintage camera has, so I have used them for the sheer fun of it.
I have used a Kodak twin lens reflex from the 40's and loved the pictures that it took. I recently bought a Kodak Brownie, first generation without the flash contacts, and I can't wait to take a few pics with it. Just need to find some film for it.
Do you use a vintage camera?

 

[Sefton]

Yes, I'm trying my hand with one that I recently bought from an older friend of mine. He purchased it in Sendai,Japan in 1951 when he was in the Army. It's a Konica and is a really nice camera. It has a leather case with carrying strap and is stamped on the bottom with the words: Made in Occupied Japan. He didn't have the manual for it so I'm learning it by trial and error-mostly error-,but I hope to have some pictures soon.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

35 millimeter?

Sounds like it is. Probably a range finder 35, like the Kodak Retina and many others from this era. Don't worry, they're really easy to use and the pictures will be great. As a basic rule of thumb, just follow the guidelines for exposure of the film as written in the brochure that comes with the film. You can't go wrong.
Happy picture taking.

 

[Sefton]

Yes, it's a 35 mm rangefinder. After my initial mis-loading and subsequent ruining of the first roll I started to get the hang of it. Once I get the second roll developed I'll post a few pics. I also have a Brownie box camera although I haven't tried it yet. I've read that you can take a modern roll film and roll it onto a spool that will work with the old brownies.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Right.

You'll get the hang of the 35 in no time. Don't know exactly if 35 mm film can be adapted for use in a Brownie.
Would be nice.
The Kodak Brownie takes 127 roll film, if I'm not mistaken. Kodak stopped making it a while ago, but it can still be had online.
Get it while you can.

 

[Sefton]

Oh,sorry I wasn't clear there. I meant 127 roll film. I think that it has to be rolled onto a different spool I think. I didn't know that anyone was selling the original stuff. Thanks for the info!

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Orbit 4x5 View Camera

Yeh, the kind where you pull a dark drape over your head to focus and view the image upside down and backwards! I've used it for years, but it's time to go digital. Wanna buy it?

I know - I'll post it in classifieds with all the details!

-dixon cannon

 

[LizzieMaine]

I still have the first camera I ever owned -- my grandmother's No. 2 Brownie, which she got when she was in high school in the mid-twenties. It uses 120 roll film, has a fixed-focus lens, and is basically just a leatherette-covered metal box with a hole punched on the front. But it was good enough to help me earn my Photography proficiency badge in Girl Scouts!

 

[Willi_Goat]

I have an AE-1 Program and just recently won this. I am looking forward to getting the Argus in and using it. Too bad I did not have it on my honeymoon in NYC last week.

I took a photography class several years ago and used my father's AE-1 during that and still enjoy using mine. In Germany several years ago I took a few rolls of B/W film with my AE-1 and some of the better photographs grace my walls.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Apart from when my kids hand me one of their 35mm point&shoots, or my dad hands me his digital, I ONLY use vintage cameras!

The newest camera I regularly use is my Olympus OM-2 SLR from the mid-70s. But the cameras I use the most are my pair of Minox subminiatures: a 1956-vintage model IIIS for b/w film (mostly T-Max 100), and a 1963-vintage model B for color film (mostly Fuji Reala 100). These "spycameras" produce simply amazing results from their tiny, pinky-nail-sized negatives: pictures with a totally unique look.

Of course, when I feel like it, I can also borrow anything I want from my retired-pro photographer parents. They have: Nikon F2 35mm SLRs from the early 70s, Yashica (LM, late-50s TLR) and Mamiya (RB-67, early-70s SLR) medium-format (120 rollfilm) cameras, and 40s-vintage Graphic 4x5 sheet film cameras (a Crown Graphic press camera and Graphic View II view camera)... And I won't even list all the various SLRs, TLRs, rollfilm snapshooters, folding Polaroids, etc., that they have accumulated from friends cleaning out their basements over the years!

And yes, I still do b/w darkroom work, also on vintage equipment (primarily an early-50s Omega D-3 4x5 enlarger)! I intend to keep doing it as long as there's film, paper, and chemistry available...

 

[boomerchop]

I have a Leica IIIf with 50/F3.5 lens. However, the shutter is sticky and I haven't gotten around to getting it repaired. I also have a Nikon F with Ftn prism, a Zeiss Ikoflex TLR and my dad's old Argus C3. My regular cameras are Nikon's, a mixed bag of FM, FE and FE2 which are getting pretty vintage themselves these days! I'm slowly moving into shooting all black and white, which I find more interesting than color and also distinctly different from run of the mill snapshots. Finally, I'm seriously considering getting a new Voigtlander rangefinder and a couple of lenses.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Black and White

Is way cool. I love the charm of old B and W photos taken with cheap cameras like Brownies and Beacons. But of course the higher tech large format stuff is simply stunning.
Good film seems hard to come by. Tri-x pan or whatever that Kodak stuff is that I always end up with just doesn't get it.
I really want to try some black and white infrared film. Pictures taken with that are peerless.

 

[Mr. Sable]

1954 16mm Bolex, baby.

and a pristine 1970's 8mm Bolex and 16mm Krasnogorsk-3. They're not terribly vintage, but old enough.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Hmm,...16mm eh?

I've got a 16mm Keystone Moviegraph projector from about 1935 that still works. I couldn't believe it when I found it.
So how's the movie-making business?

 

[pigeon toe]

I used a Kodak Duaflex II for my senior project in my high school photography class. I loved medium format but couldn't afford a nice medium format camera at the time, so I got a vintage one for $5. It was great because I had very little control over how the final image looked as there were no manual settings whatsoever, just point and shoot. Somehow a lens popped out and I think its kaput now.

I still use a Polaroid SX-70 (its from the 1970's) for my polaroid work though. It's incredible! It was very expensive though, as is the film. It's worth it though.

 

[MrBern]

Oh,sorry I wasn't clear there. I meant 127 roll film. I think that it has to be rolled onto a different spool I think. I didn't know that anyone was selling the original stuff. Thanks for the info!

Its probably a 620 filmspool. The spool is a bit smaller than the 120, but the film is the same. So w/ a little finesse, somephotographers re-roll them in the darkroom. But you can find some places that sell it still.

 

[John in Covina]

35mm

My regular camera is frozen and needs to be cleaned & lubed. I got it at Macy's in the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa in 1976-7. It a Minolta SRT-SCII which is similar to SRT-101 but without the self timer. It's match needle and does have a 1000th of a second shutter speed. Brass body and built like a tank. I have done some good work with it. I used Ilford B&W in it several times to get some real mood shots.

 

[MrBern]

My regular camera is frozen and needs to be cleaned & lubed. I got it at Macy's in the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa in 1976-7. It a Minolta SRT-SCII which is similar to SRT-101 but without the self timer. It's match needle and does have a 1000th of a second shutter speed. Brass body and built like a tank. I have done some good work with it. I used Ilford B&W in it several times to get some real mood shots.

the srt-101 is one of my first cameras. Actually my dad's camera.
Quite a sturdy camera. A real shame Minolta bit the dust.

I too use one of those little argus cameras. Incidentally, when looking for one, try to get one thats still got its leather case.

Most of my vintage fun is w/ a 1938 leica IIIB w/ a trigger wind. Tho I have plenty of other gear.
-bern

 

[pablocham]

Rolleiflex 3.5f and an old Hasselblad 500cm. I also have leica IIIc and a Contax IIb and a Rollei 35s. Got both rolleis at thrift stores. The rolleiflex is the nicest camera and the most fun to shoot. With the hasselblad I feel like I am always looking for someplace to put the back down or the darkslide. I have had a thousand shutter problems with the two rangefinders, but they are fun. And the Rollei 35s is great; everybody should have one.

For all that, I shoot a hundred times more digital than film.

 

[MrBern]

Oh,sorry I wasn't clear there. I meant 127 roll film. I think that it has to be rolled onto a different spool I think. I didn't know that anyone was selling the original stuff. Thanks for the info!

heres a company selling both 127 & 620 film.
http://www.jandcphoto.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=29