A trip down memory lane

[Jon Sharp]

Hi Don

I do have one or two negs kicking around, I did try and scan a few recently but my Epson scanner only takes 35mm. I've got a few of a mountain rescue training excercise somewhere It'll be a poor scan on flatbed but I'll see what I can do.

Jon

[yelvertoft]

I started off in about 1975 with a “Halina” 126 format camera, with fixed focus, fixed lens, fixed shutter, a sunny/cloudy aperture control. It was free with several books of Green Shield Stamps. I took some pictures at Mildenhall air show in 1979, my parents were sufficiently surprised by the results that my Christmas present in 1980 was a Fuji 35mm point and shoot compact, it was (very limited) program mode only, but would produce remarkably good pictures all things considered. It had DX coding which I thought was the height of sophistication! I kept this camera until I lost it (left in a bar/on a wall/café table/somewhere) on holiday in 1992. It was replaced with a very nice Samsung compact bought 2nd hand. Can’t remember the model but it had a wonderful 35mm prime lens. It was the only film camera I’ve ever owned with a date back.

Meanwhile, in 1986, I bought my first SLR, a Miranda MS-3, a clone of the Pentax ME Super. This was bought from Dixons for £150, a huge sum for me at the time as an apprentice. It had a 28-70 lens, fully manual mode or also aperture priority mode. I learnt an awful lot about photography using this camera. I also started my lens “habit” with this camera, buying a second hand 80-250 “no name” lens that I thought would be really good for airshows. Well, it was better than the Fuji compact or the 28-70, but I learned that cheap lenses are just that, cheap lenses. I sold this outfit in 1989 to finance my first AF SLR, a Pentax SF-7, a move I regretted later as the more compact manual focus SLR was a much nicer item to hold and carry. In common with all the 1st generation AF SLRs, it was often quicker to use manual focus. Nevertheless, I took a huge number of pictures with this camera, with its 28-80 kit lens and also supplemented this with a Sigma 75-300. The SF-7, both lenses, and the Samsung were all stolen when our hotel room was broken into during a stay in Quebec city in 1994. My entire collection of camera equipment, and my partner’s Pentax P30N (lovely little camera) were gone. The thing that really hurt was the loss of about 12 reels of exposed film.

The insurance company paid out and I bought a Pentax Z50-P, 35-70 kit lens and a Pentax 100-300. The AF on this later model camera was massively better than the SF-7, but both lenses are as soft as toffee at max aperture. The Samsung compact was replaced by a Yashica T4 with a 35mm Zeiss T* prime lens. Quite the sharpest lens I’ve ever owned, even though it’s fixed to the camera. Get films back, flick open the wallet, you can tell instantly which camera, Yashica or SLR, they’ve come from. I still own these cameras and lenses but they have now been superseded by my Pentax *ist DS digital SLR bought in August 2005. I always swore I’d never go digital, but then my partner bought a Sony DSC-S85 (for a huge sum of money at the time, compared to today’s prices). It still takes as good a picture as today’s equivalent offerings, though it is painfully slow to use. I saw the digital benefits and started using this camera more than my partner. I bought my own Sony DSC-W12 at the beginning of 2005.

Other cameras I own:
1986 Pentax K1000, bought 2nd hand, yearning after my MS-3 I guess. Fully manual, built like a brick, can be used as a hammer in an emergency. The f/2 50mm prime is fully compatible with the *ist DS and pin sharp. This now sits on the bookcase primarily as an ornament but gets used now and again if I ever want to use 35mm film. I borrow the lens now and again if I need a sharp, fast 50mm on the DS.

1938 Rolleiflex Automat type II. Medium format 6x6. Fully manual, “centre weighted” metering, i.e. the table advising of possible suggested settings under a range of lighting conditions is a large label stuck in the middle of the camera back. This is primarily ornamental but does get used when I need to de-stress. It really makes you slow down, take your time and think about your photography. I doff my hat to those press photographers in the 1930s and 1940s who used this kind of kit for press/action/sports photography, it really can’t have been easy.

Duncan.

[Rudra Sen]

Fantastic thread!!

1974: Ricoh Super 44. 127 roll film camera for a dwarf TLR.
1976: Nikon F (Hummer if I can label it) for six months. Only with a normal lens.
1978: Father’s Leica M3
1979: Canon FTB
1981: Canon EF added.
1982: Second hand Canon AE1
1984: Canon A1
1986-99: Canon F1/F1n/New F1
2000: No camera, No shoot.
2001: No camera, No shoot.
2002: No camera, No shoot.
2003: Canon EOS 1V
2005: EOS 1Ds Mark II

Now: Looking and thinking as what to add with my current system..

[Ant]

Digital cameras to start
fuji S602 zoom got a wideangle and telephoto adapters
fuji F700 (i think) bought for a schooltrip.. used regually untill 06 when I got the samsung i6 as part of the samsung opticron digiscoping kit at the time.

I had used an old canon 35mm AF SLR for a while that was my dads.. the EOS 650, and gave a fully manual fuji SLR a go too (also my dads).. got hooked on SLRS and bought a canon 350D when I got the opertunity.

I began using 35mm after I got my first digital. a step backwards some would say but, being SLRs, (and having a 3rd pary 100-400mm lens canon fit) ment I could better persue bird photography. (before starting digiscoping).

I tend to use the samsung i6 most these days, due to its compactness so its easy to carry around in the pocket. But enjoy using the 350d whenever possible.

[Derekb]

I don't exactly remember which models I used when hung outside helicopters back in the late 70's - early 80's, but they were large format jobbies. My own cameras at that time were the Pentax ME & MX, outstanding and I have thousands of slides taken with them (attached a couple here) which I keep meaning to get properly scanned. Along the way I tried the Canon AE1 , Olympus OM1 and a few more, but always preferred my trusty pentax's.

21 years later and I returned to photography (June 2007) and bought the Nikon D80. I am hooked all over again and have just added the D300 to my collection. Looking forward to the future and whatever the digital age has in store...

btw that's me on the top of Mont Blanc!!

[Don Hoey]

Having posted a pic yesterday in the gallery of a camera I had not used ( Zorki 4K ), here is one that I got at a boot sale for about £10 and used on and off throughout the 1990's.

Agfa Record 6x9 cm.

Great for outdoor pop concerts where any camera that looked even faintly serious was not allowed. This folded up and slipped in the pocket so very discrete. The huge negative could stand a lot of cropping to give the equivalent of using a serious telephoto lens. Limitations were shutter speeds, with a max of 1/200 sec, and requirement for a seperate rangefinder to determine focussing distance if under 100ft, and of course a seperate light meter. Nothing built in here. Also unlike todays digital image storage you could only get 8 frames before needing to change the film.

Don

[andy153]

I started off about 1952 at the age of 6 - with the local celebrations for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. My father was a keen amateur and had carried a camera with him most of his childhood and throughout the war and he still carries one today at the age of 87. He still has colour photo's he' took and developed of the coronation of George VI. His war, as a Navigator in costal command took him to South Africa, North Africa, Palestine ( as it was then), Lebanon, Syria, Italy, Norfolk and Ireland. And he has albums and albums of photographs from all these times.
My own first camera was made of bakelite, cost 1/6d from Woolworths and the film was about 8mm producing postage stamp size negatives. Dad taught me a lot and I progressed to using one of his cameras which was a Kodak Number 1 Autographic. With the start of 35mm he went on to Minolta and Canon.
I went to Zenith, then Pentax then a Nikkormat FT and a Rollieflex 2.8 F2 with a Zeizz Planar 2.8/80. I became hooked on Nikon and when all my gear was stolen in 1986 by a burglary I lost an original Nikon F Photomic, a Nikon Photomic F2 AS, a Nikon EL 2, 2 Ftn's and lenses that included 85mm 1.8, 35mm PC Nikkor, 200mm Medical Nikkor, Ai-Nikkor 300mm f/4.5, 500mm reflex and many others.
Needless to say I was under insured and had the heart knocked out of me - I spent several years just taking family snaps.
Just before retirement in 1997 I returned and am now full digital - Nikon of course! Started with D70 kit- then D200, D2h & D2x - considering a D300.

[Adey Baker]

Originally Posted by andy153

...He still has colour photo's he' took and developed of the coronation of Edward VIII...

I thought that he abdicated before having a coronation?

[andy153]

Originally Posted by Adey Baker

I thought that he abdicated before having a coronation?

Sorry Adey, Senior moment, you are right, the photo's of the George VI's Coronation which was 1937
Andy

[greenbunion]

1982 - Pentax K1000. Loaned to me by Torquay art college as part of my fine art foundation course.
1983 - Olympus OM30. Bought with grant to study graphics at Middlesex Poly.
1985 - Started work at photo repro house in London producing publicity shots for actors, models and celebs (first job, first morning, 15 shots of Adam Faith!). Somehow acquired Yashica Mat. Hated it! Still got it as an ornament/paperweight.
1988 - Blew up engine of motorbike and had to sell OM30, 50mm 1.8, 135mm lens, motor-drive to work colleague to pay for repair.
1988 - 2004: "The wilderness years"
2004 - Bought the 2nd D70 sold in London Camera Exchange, Bristol.
2006 - Bought D200 and use it constantly, only using the D70 for IR.
2008 - I do like the look of the D300...................