I was trawling through some old digitised images, on a CD I came across, and in among them was one of my earliest photographs. It is my brother and grandmother, taken back in 1960.
I was 12 at the time and I had persuaded my father to let me use the family camera, a Coronet Flashmaster, circa 1954.
(I Googled it and found this image.}
I used this camera (very sparingly as I could neither afford film or processing) until I was about 16. I then graduated to another Coronet, this time 127 film size, here seen in my daughter's hands in the 1970's.
And that was me until I joined the Merchant Navy, in 1966, and bought my first "real" camera (one with shutter speeds and f numbers), a Halina Rolls.
Once I was into the black magic of photography I progressed to a Yashica Minister III, a Practika Super TL, and eventually to a Nikon EM. The EM was the death of serious photography for me, as I couldn't afford glass for it. Eventually the door seal perished and I gave up, only to find digital a couple of years later. I started with a Fuji S602 before moving on to my current stable. Photography has always been about recording images for me. Never really about art. I don't have the eye or the inclination for arty shots.
How did you start out?
John T.
Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
I can't remember the simple film cameras I had when I was a young boy, except for a Kodak Instamatic which was followed in my teens by a Halina Paulette Electric (with a built in selenium lightmeter similar to the one above). When I started earning I bought an Olympus Trip, then slowly progressed up to a Pentax ME, and finally a Contax 137 (a small SLR but with a built in motor-drive). In the early 80s I lost interest in photography, other than for holiday snaps, but I have kept the Pentax and the Contax (and they still work). After retiring in 2010, I returned to more serious photography in the digital age, when it became my main pastime. I bought my first DSLR in 2011, the Pentax K-R, and now I mainly use the Pentax K-5 IIs, often with prime lenses.
I started when I was 10 or 11 with a Kodak Instamatic. My real hobby was hiking and backpacking in the Derbyshire and Yorkshire Dales. The camera was a way to bring back the memories. Sadly I moved to the US 15 years ago and left all my boxes of old prints behind.
I got more serious in the mid 90's betting a Canon sureshot zoom compact and then my first digital (Kodak DC200+). Things got really serious around 2004 with the purchase of my first DSLR.
A bakelite 127 Brownie 1946/7, film was hard to get. Started work, 1950, end of 51 bought, at 5 shillings a week, an 120/12on Agifold, was £12.10 shillings. Joined the RAF Jan 53, was eventually posted to Singapore for 2 1/2 years. There bought a Voigtlander Vito B, and, just before I left, a Rolleicord V. Paid about £30, sold it for £60 when I came home. Eventually swapped the Vito for a motor bike. Resumed work Jan 56. Since then had a big variety of cameras, mainly bought Reps samples, and never lost money selling them on. Won a Nikon EM in a selling competition great camera, not thought so by diehards, as it was made of plastic. Still have about 30/40 lying about, including 2 10x8 Plate cameras, which I did use when I started work. One I should have held onto was the Leica 3G. Now a Sony a290 and one lens, Tamron 18/200, does all I want, and more. Ed.
When I left the Merchant Navy I started work in Edinburgh and virtually all my useable cash went on photography. Each payday I would buy film, collect my processed film and put the previous week's output in for processing. No money left for drink or girls! It was at that time I joined the local camera club, saw how easy it was to process my own photos, and set up my own darkroom. With the money I saved I met a girl, got married, started a family, and once again had no useable cash left. Isn't life always a bit like that?
Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
Don't know why, but this came to me last night. A little known fact about the EM, got it from a Japanese technician at a Nikon meeting.
If you removed the battery, and set the camera on auto, the shutter speed was about 1000th, don't recall trying it. Ed.
I loved my EM. Suddenly started getting sharp, correctly exposed, images. Calling it plastic is a bit of a slight. It was Polycarbonate (I know that is plastic but high tech plastic). Having has a 35 mm, 50 mm, 55 mm and a 135 mm lens. Plus a 2x adaptor which gave me 70, 100, 110 and 270 mm, I now was reduced to using a 55 mm lens for everything. Back in 1979 there wasn't the range of non Nikon lenses available and what there was were almost as dear an Nikon's own. I kept the Nikon Series E 50 mm f1.8 lens, and after years of kicking about in the back of a drawer found, about six weeks back, that it would work on my D80. It only works in manual and doesn't give any metering (isn't that how I started out anyway). A quick test shot, a look at the histogram and an exposure correction, and away you go. Here is an image, captured a month ago, using the Series E lens on the D80.
Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
I started with a Kodak 66, a 120 roll film camera, my first 35mm camera was a Halina 35x, then a Kristall R Leica-copy, then my first real Leica IIIb with uncoated f/3.5 Elmar, progressed to a IIIc Leica, M2 and M3. First SLR was a Nikkormat, then a Pentax 1000 which I still have.
Now is a Fuji X-E1 and a Pentax Q7, but mostly using old manual glass on both, including a 135mm f/2.8 GDR "Bokeh Monster" !
A 60 year photographic life well travelled.
(This post was last modified: Nov 29, 2015, 17:19 by danmdan.)
(Nov 29, 2015, 17:16)danmdan Wrote: I started with a Kodak 66, a 120 roll film camera, my first 35mm camera was a Halina 35x, then a Kristall R Leica-copy, then my first real Leica IIIb with uncoated f/3.5 Elmar, progressed to a IIIc Leica, M2 and M3. First SLR was a Nikkormat, then a Pentax 1000 which I still have.
Now is a Fuji X-E1, a Pentax Q7, and a Pentax K20D, but mostly using old manual glass, including a 135mm f/2.8 GDR "Bokeh Monster" !
