Vintage Film Cameras: Photography Showcase

JwRosenthal · Apr 27, 2020

studeb
Ugh. This thread is not good for me. Now i really want to start printing at home again.I develop and scan, but dont think i can get an enlarger in without some major concessions on the honey-do front. I tried to get the kids interested in film but it did not stick. They both have good eyes, but the instant gratification of digital is tough to counter. They have learned that some of my cameras dont have a screen, but still reflexively look after taking a pic. Maybe i should try the lady angle....

If you build it, they will come. Craigslist is your friend here. Three weeks ago I answered an ad for enlarger lenses (I bought 4 even though I only needed one of them- he wanted $10 each!!), and I asked if he had more stuff- hence the 4’ sink that was delivered to my house the next week for $100.
You can get creative with a space in the house and start small.
When I was in college emptied the coat closet in the bedroom hallway, used foam tape and a towel at the bottom to make it light right and put in a small shelf on the back wall to load film holders (was just enough room for me to get in and turn around). I had a rolling metal kitchen rack from ikea that held a Beseler 23C on top, two shelves for all my trays and such and it would roll into the hall closet. I had a piece of plywood cut to fit the top of the bathtub with a cut-out at the tub faucet so I could run water into a holding bath in a Rubbermaid container under the plywood in the tub.
Safelight clipped to the shower rod, another on the vanity mirror, enlarger on the rolling rack behind the door once closed.
Velcro strips around the window frame and a heavy vinyl sheet that I Velcro’d around the window and it was easily removable. (Towels stuffed under the door and the hall light off was enough to keep the bathroom light tight enough to print at night).
The whole bathroom could be a print darkroom in about 20 minutes and could be torn down in about 10 and all stash in the closet.
If you want it bad enough- you’ll figure out a way.

Dsloan · Apr 27, 2020

Jones in LA
As I moved away from shooting digital exclusively, I found that what I like most about film photography is that you generally end up with results that are NOT like reality. Rather, you're getting an analogue re-creation of the scene by means of chemicals and developing practices; we as the photographer get to choose the chemicals and developing process that suit our artistic objectives. I now think of a digital camera as simply a light-measuring device.

In a similar way, I really enjoy very grainy film stock, like ilford 3200. It's the same as when photography arrived, painting was pushed into abstraction and exploration of paint itself as a medium. If you can get a perfect likeness a with deguerrotype, why bother with portrait painting? If I can get ultra low noise, lifelike color, and razor sharp focus at the push of a button, then I might as well make my analogue images noisy.

Sorry, more family photos. I swear, I'll dig up a landscape or something without babies eventually.

studeb · Apr 27, 2020

JwRosenthal
If you build it, they will come. Craigslist is your friend here. Three weeks ago I answered an ad for enlarger lenses (I bought 4 even though I only needed one of them- he wanted $10 each!!), and I asked if he had more stuff- hence the 4’ sink that was delivered to my house the next week for $100.
You can get creative with a space in the house and start small.
When I was in college emptied the coat closet in the bedroom hallway, used foam tape and a towel at the bottom to make it light right and put in a small shelf on the back wall to load film holders (was just enough room for me to get in and turn around). I had a rolling metal kitchen rack from ikea that held a Beseler 23C on top, two shelves for all my trays and such and it would roll into the hall closet. I had a piece of plywood cut to fit the top of the bathtub with a cut-out at the tub faucet so I could run water into a holding bath in a Rubbermaid container under the plywood in the tub.
Safelight clipped to the shower rod, another on the vanity mirror, enlarger on the rolling rack behind the door once closed.
Velcro strips around the window frame and a heavy vinyl sheet that I Velcro’d around the window and it was easily removable. (Towels stuffed under the door and the hall light off was enough to keep the bathroom light tight enough to print at night).
The whole bathroom could be a print darkroom in about 20 minutes and could be torn down in about 10 and all stash in the closet.
If you want it bad enough- you’ll figure out a way.

Oh, i know about CL and all the evil that lurks there. I have space in the film bathroom for printing already planed in my head. Just waiting for the right pieces to fall into my lap. I passed on a free Beseler 23 a while ago, just as we were moving though. It will come. I worry about what will come next, med format? Large format? What was the Ansel Adams reply to what kind of camera he used?

JwRosenthal · Apr 27, 2020

Dsloan
In a similar way, I really enjoy very grainy film stock, like ilford 3200. It's the same as when photography arrived, painting was pushed into abstraction and exploration of paint itself as a medium. If you can get a perfect likeness a with deguerrotype, why bother with portrait painting? If I can get ultra low noise, lifelike color, and razor sharp focus at the push of a button, then I might as well make my analogue images noisy.

Sorry, more family photos. I swear, I'll dig up a landscape or something without babies eventually.

I have a colleague who loves reportage with natural light and 3200 handheld with a Leica- lots of grain. I’m the opposite, finest grain possible, view camera, architecture, lots of lighting (to quote a sculptor I use to know- I use available light....every available light).
It really is the joy in this hobby/career..the diversity in ways to tell the story as we see it.

BlackTalon · Apr 27, 2020

Jones in LA
Camera: Pentax K1000
Lens: Asahi Optics 28mm wide-angle, un-filtered
Film: Fuji Velvia 100

Nice! We've got a couple of those K1000s in my office; they haven't been toughed for 15 years. I need to bring one home and start playing with it. The nice thing is I have a handful of Pentax FF lenses from my dSLRs that I can use with it. My 7-year-old son was asking the other day if he can have a film camera, and this thread (and other posts by JwRosenthal) are great inspiration.

JwRosenthal · Apr 27, 2020

I have always been a big advocate of doing it yourself- sure there are a few labs that still process film (and I do send out color to Dodge-Chrome in DC), but half the fun with black & white is the process.
I used to attend and lecture at the View Camera Magazine conferences back in the early 00’s (some great people at those events), and there were many “artisans” who would be doing techniques like platinum printing, Pyro developers, Salt printing etc. I was shooting LF film for a living (not a hobby), using commercially available products and processing at pro-lab capacity (no time to get crafty when you need to batch process 300 sheets of film).
I was always advising new comers to just follow the box- don’t overthink the process, the chemists at Ilford and Kodak know far more than any of the hobbiest or “artisans” selling their boutique products. If you want to get into esoteric processes- more power to you. But if you want to just enjoy the workflow and tweak as you go, start by just following the instructions and grow your technique from there.
Anyone with a film camera, a brick of film, basic chemistry and a changing bag and daylight tank can process film in their kitchen sink.

Jones in LA · Apr 28, 2020

BlackTalon
Nice! We've got a couple of those K1000s in my office; they haven't been toughed for 15 years. I need to bring one home and start playing with it. The nice thing is I have a handful of Pentax FF lenses from my dSLRs that I can use with it. My 7-year-old son was asking the other day if he can have a film camera, and this thread (and other posts by JwRosenthal) are great inspiration.

The K1000 is my grab-and-go film camera: it's so light and compact and super-easy to use. Put some high-speed film in it and you can get some rather low-light shots, hand-held. Here a couple more K1000 shots

Family scene: that's me next to my Pop on his 85th birthday, plus Mum and my four sisters. All natural light. (ignore the fake cinema light in the background)

A shot of Mrs.Jones and our furry children, Goosenecks State Park, Utah (we also have five human children).

Camera: Pentax K1000
Lens: Asahi Optics 28mm wide-angle
Film: Ilford 400

Charlemagne1333 · Apr 28, 2020

Jones in LA
Like many people around the world, I seem to have more time on my hands than I know what to do with as we wait out the COVID-19 Pandemic's initial onslaught. So I thought I'd start up a thread that will, hopefully, keep me and other Forum members with similar interests just a little bit busier.

There are already a few threads among our Forums which feature photos and descriptions of beautiful, and interesting vintage cameras collected by Forum members: all film cameras as best I can gather. I'd like the focus of this thread (no pun intended) to be on the photos taken with vintage cameras, rather than the cameras. Of course, it will always be instructive to show an image or two of the camera used to take a particular photo, and a technical description of the film and lens used, for context. But here, let's let the shots be the show.

Before putting up my first photo, I should say something about how I came into collecting vintage cameras, and making photographs with them. I have had an interest in photography since childhood. I was my Junior High Schools's official photographer for the student newspaper in the late 1960s (I was issued a Polaroid camera that only shot black & white film), and had the same job for my High School's student newspaper as well (I had to use my own camera -- a Canon FTb SLR). Later in life, I became as immersed in the world of digital photography as any photographer naturally would be. Then a few years back I learned about the origin of the photo known as "Bliss", which was the default desktop background image for the Microsoft XP operating system for many years. It turns out it's an unaltered image taken with a medium-format film camera: the Mamiya RZ-67. I made a perfunctory search on EBay for cameras like the RZ-67 and found out that they were relatively cheap and abundant. To make a somewhat long story short, I ended up purchasing my first vintage camera, a predecessor to the RZ-67 called the RB-67 Pro-S. I bought additional lenses and accessories as well. I found a print of an old professional photographers catalogue from the late 1980s and calculated the value of all the RB-67 gear I had accumulated: about $6,000 in 1980s dollars, and I was out only about $400 in present-day dollars. I think that's one of the coolest things about collecting vintage cameras: you can purchase for not much money today (Leica and Rollei cameras excluded), what was state-of-the-art and prohibitively expensive back in the day.

Now, on to the photos. Please post yours!

--------------------

Grand Canyon from the South Rim

Camera: Mamiya RB-67 Pro-S
Lens: 50mm wide-angle + No.25 Red filter
Film: Ilford Delta 100

Ansel Adams has taught you well

I always had a soft spot for medium-format but they were always out of my budget when I was younger. My first ‘proper’ camera was a Canon EOS 5 - not quite Bronica standards, but the metering system was extremely reliable. As much as I enjoy the endless creative possibilities of digital editing, there was nothing more satisfying than spending a few hours in a darkroom with the distinctive smell of developing chemicals, and the anticipation of seeing one’s images magically appear

Canuck · Apr 28, 2020

I bought a Canon Elan II in 2000, just before digital was available or affordable. Took it on a three week trip to Scotland and England (visited 34 tower clocks in 11 days, including the Great Clock, Aka Big Ben). I took 650 pictures on that trip, The Canon did a great job for me, but within two years, I bought an Olympus C 5050 for close up work, and shelved the Canon before I really learned to use all its features. I’ve used it for one roll of film since 2000. I misplaced my Olympus Pen telephoto when I really needed it, so out came the Canon and my telephoto. The photo of the biplane shows a replica WW I, Neuport XI biplane, one of 5 Canadian built, Volkswagen powered 5/8 scale planes that flew at Vimy on the 100th anniversary of Vimy. They visited many spots elsewhere.

studeb · May 1, 2020

Took a while, but in the spirit of this thread.
All with my grandfathers M3, first two Ilford HP5, last one Kodak CN400.
Got up early for this one, still had to wait 20 minutes for some "Fashion tourists" to clear the area.

No tourists here, too cold in winter.

Most people look out to the ocean from this point - Salk Institute in La Jolla

JwRosenthal · May 1, 2020

studeb
Took a while, but in the spirit of this thread.
All with my grandfathers M3, first two Ilford HP5, last one Kodak CN400.
Got up early for this one, still had to wait 20 minutes for some "Fashion tourists" to clear the area.

No tourists here, too cold in winter.

Most people look out to the ocean from this point - Salk Institute in La Jolla

Lovely- you should make that first one your avatar.

Scarecrow Boat · May 23, 2020

This is the perfect thread for me haha. The most modern camera I own is my phone. Outside of that I have my daily user Hasselblad 500cm, Leica M2, Leica MDa, Rollei 35, Canon P, and FujiFilm Klasse... among so many others.

Yashica D

Hasselblad 500CM with varying lenses

Rollei 35

Leica M2

Leica MDa

JwRosenthal · May 23, 2020

Michaelscttpprco
This is the perfect thread for me haha. The most modern camera I own is my phone. Outside of that I have my daily user Hasselblad 500cm, Leica M2, Leica MDa, Rollei 35, Canon P, and FujiFilm Klasse... among so many others.

Yashica D

Hasselblad 500CM with varying lenses

Rollei 35

Leica M2

Leica MDa

Welcome Micheal! You will find you are in good company, lots of people here who live their lives in analog as much as possible.

Deafboy · May 31, 2020

Lady in Cambridge, Massachusetts just passed away. Elsa Dorfman did large format portrait photography.

Oh my...

tikkathree · May 31, 2020

Scarecrow Boat
This is the perfect thread for me haha. The most modern camera I own is my phone. Outside of that I have my daily user Hasselblad 500cm, Leica M2, Leica MDa, Rollei 35, Canon P, and FujiFilm Klasse... among so many others.

It IS true that the best camera is the one you have with you.

You guys aren't good for me. I sold all my film cameras 35mm and MF some years ago (well there is an Olympus Trip somewhere with a homeload roll of something b&w in it!) to concentrate on digital. You could tempt me into film again and once we're out of covid I'd send my film away for developing (no desire to go there at all!) so maybe a rangefinder maybe a Contax G1 or 2 or an Olympus OM body and kit 50mm or maybe a Mamiya - probably a 645 for several reasons. I just adore the ergonomics of using a full control film camera.

Right, step 1: find the Oly Trip and use it.....

JwRosenthal · May 31, 2020

tikkathree
It IS true that the best camera is the one you have with you.

You guys aren't good for me. I sold all my film cameras 35mm and MF some years ago (well there is an Olympus Trip somewhere with a homeload roll of something b&w in it!) to concentrate on digital. You could tempt me into film again and once we're out of covid I'd send my film away for developing (no desire to go there at all!) so maybe a rangefinder maybe a Contax G1 or 2 or an Olympus OM body and kit 50mm or maybe a Mamiya - probably a 645 for several reasons. I just adore the ergonomics of using a full control film camera.

Right, step 1: find the Oly Trip and use it.....

CONTAX!!! Yes, get it- or a Mamiya 7 kit....you need it, you have to have it... ::stirthepot::

Scarecrow Boat · May 31, 2020

JwRosenthal
CONTAX!!!

I have been tempted to get one of these but have always held off due to the dwindling people that work on them. I will be 100% SOL whenever my Fujifilm Klasse W bites the dust as not one repair shop in the US will touch it and more and more abroad are saying no (it's not broken but it is 14 years old and 100% electronic). And yet, I still really want to play with the contax. Though, honestly 35mm is not my favorite format so I would opt for the Mamiya 7 every day of the week.

tikkathree · Jun 1, 2020

Scarecrow Boat
I have been tempted to get one of these but have always held off due to the dwindling people that work on them. I will be 100% SOL whenever my Fujifilm Klasse W bites the dust as not one repair shop in the US will touch it and more and more abroad are saying no (it's not broken but it is 14 years old and 100% electronic). And yet, I still really want to play with the contax. Though, honestly 35mm is not my favorite format so I would opt for the Mamiya 7 every day of the week.

Contax and Mamiya 7 are both rangefinders: I don't know why I didn't bond with them very strongly the first time around and it doesn't inspire me with lots of confidence that a second time would be any better. Plus Mam 7 is a heavy old thing...

Scarecrow Boat · Jun 1, 2020

tikkathree
Plus Mam 7 is a heavy old thing...

Very true but a Hasselblad 500cm is my go to camera with a Pentax 67 regularly making its way into rotation. I enjoy heavy cameras and how slow they are 😀

JwRosenthal · Jun 1, 2020

If you don’t mind a fixed lens, I carry a Zeiss Super Ilonta B as my pocket camera when I don’t want to be encumbered by a 4x5 rig (I have heard the words “you are ruining vacation!”). Zeiss lens, razor sharp and even has a synch on shutter so I can and do small SB’s with pocket wizards for impromptu location work (I never leave home without 2 small slaved flash units and a folding reflector for fill or key). That kit fits in a satchel and is easy to have on hand for anything that may come up.

Vintage Film Cameras: Photography Showcase

JwRosenthal

Dsloan

studeb

JwRosenthal

BlackTalon

JwRosenthal

Jones in LA

Charlemagne1333

Canuck

studeb

JwRosenthal

Scarecrow Boat

JwRosenthal

Deafboy

tikkathree

JwRosenthal

Scarecrow Boat

tikkathree

Scarecrow Boat

JwRosenthal

Similar threads

Leica TYP 109 for watch photography?

Photo CD, Aps film cameras and the Canon EOS-M

Legacy 35mm film glass that can be used on a DSLR or adapted to Mirrorless

Watch photography with a Canon EF 70-200mm lens?!

Leica cameras produce some really awful photography

Vintage Watches are great, but let’s see some Vintage Cameras