Camera Retrospective(Part 2)

This is the 2nd part of my journey through my late fathers camera collection. 

Let's move to the 1960's 

Ilford Sporti 4 - 1960 

The Ilford Sporti is about as basic as you can get from a camera, with nothing really more than a cheap lens and a plastic body. However it shows how the basic camera shape for the masses had evolved from the rather unwieldy box brownie shape to something we recognise today. 

This was helped in part by the development of new film formats which made loading and unloading film far easier and the move to film cartridges

Konica EE Matic 260 - 1967

This camera is actually quite sophisticated for the period.

It contained a electronic light sensor or CCD around the lens that allowed for light measurement through the viewfinder, removing the need for guesswork or external light meters. 

Secondly it allowed focussing via a mechanism in the viewfinder that required you to align two split images, which allowed far more accurate and detailed images. All this was contained in a small robust package. It also allowed the use of external flash bulbs allowing photos to be taken indoors.

 We are here starting to see electronics becoming part of the camera, and moving photography away from the guesswork element. While the CCD used is primitive compared to modern electronics, it is the start of the jouring to the photographic technology we have today.

Zenit-E 1965

I have a history with this camera. When I was about 12 my mother decided she wanted to do a BA in fine art. Unlike today, there were all sort of grants available to help mature students and with one of these she decided she needed a camera. 

The camera she got was the Zenit-E SLR. As it turned out she never used it much (nor the film developing kit which until recently languished in my old family home ), so being a fan of all thing gadgetry, I got the use of it. So you could say it was my 1st camera.

Zenit was the premium Russian camera make of the time.  This meant that it was bulky, built like  a  T-34 tank and did not have many of the finesse's and conveniences of other camera's of the era. However it's simplicity meant they were very reliable and more importantly cheap. New, they cost £50, which although not an inconsiderable amount at the time, was good value compared to other makes.

One of the biggest issues with it, apart from the weight, was that it did not have TTL metering. Instead you had to line up a small ring with the light meter mounted on the top of the camera, read off the required aperture, and set the lens value. Not exactly something that could be done quickly. However for landscape or other static objects, it was perfectly adequate, and it gave many their 1st experience of using a SLR.

Top of the Zenit showing the light meter and dial

However I never really learned how to use it properly. This was pre-internet meaning that information on topics such as depth of field, etc was not easily to get(I think my original camera had a depth of field preview button which presumably set the aperture to the required value, rather than the wide open setting). Also being pre-digital, any experimentation was expensive and slow.

The original camera was stolen when I went to university and it was a long time until I would get my next SLR, but having it my hands still gives me a great wave of nostalgia.

Praktica LTL 1970

Despite also coming from Eastern Block and from the same era, the East German Practika is far more user and consumer friendly camera that the Zenit. For starters it has TTL metering system (battery powered), but overall  the whole camera feels far more modern to hold and use.

In fact, call the look retro, add a CCD, and you would struggle to differentiate between it and many cameras today

Ricoh KR-5 1979

The Ricoh is example of the type of SLR's that we were coming out of Japan in the 1980's and 90's and redefining the power-base of the camera manufacturing. In your hands it feels thoroughly modern and apart from the lack of automation such for focusing and aperture, it is still eminently usable by anyone used to SLR or even DSLR. 

In fact of all the camera's this is the one that I would feel most happy bringing home to meet my mother. It's well designed, feels modern in the hand and can be easily used via the viewfinder.

The future

So what will do I intend to do with  with these cameras? Well my wife has made it clear that setting up a camera museum in the bedroom is not an option. 

In some way it would be nice to try them out. However there are two hurdles to this. 

1. Film. 

While 35mm film is still available, and a bit like LP's are making a bit of a retro comeback, other sizes are far harder to obtain. 

2. Batteries 

Camera's like the Ricoh require battery sizes not commonly found today. While the will function without them, you do not get conveniences like TTL metering.

So they will probably have to go. One possibility is to donate them to the disabled photographers association 

Camera Retrospective (part 1)

When I was clearing out my fathers house recently, I found that in his latter years my father had taken to collecting cameras.

Although we never really talked about photography, it is apparent from some of the family photos I have recovered that my father was quite a keen photographer in his youth.

It appear that some of that interest was maintained because it apparently he could not resist buying a camera.

Unfortunately he never really got to grips with the digital age. It must of seemed amazing to him to be able to urchase all this wonderful camera technology for what must of seemed a pittance. While in reality film cameras now (with a few exceptions) have now little more than curiosity value.

Unfortunately his collection did not include anything like a Leica Null-Series camera, but it does provide an interesting photographic foot note on how far we have come in terms of camera technology.

So I thought it would be an interesting side line to have a trip through history and look at some of the cameras and see what we can learn.

Exhibit 1 Kodak No 2-A Folding

In some ways this is the most personally interesting camera in the set, since unlike the others this camera was owned by my grandfather.

The Kodak No. 2A Folding Autographic Brownie was manufactured between 1915-1926, and is actually for the time quite a sophisticated beast.  It cost abut £6 at the time, which is roughly £120 now, so quite an investment probably at the time.

It has all sort of functionality such as, different focal length settings, and shutter speeds. It also folds back into it's case. So basically today's equivalent would be a mid range compact. A camera for the amateur enthusiast, which pretensions beyond just taking snaps.

Exhibit 2 - No.2A Brownie model C 

The box brownie is the camera that took photography from the professionals and gave it to the masses. They were so popular and ubiquitous that even today you find thousands littering car-boot sales. They were also produced for over 50 years in various guises, so showing how slow photographic technology moved in those days.

This particular model was a  No.2A Brownie model C maroon/winding key, manufactured between 1930 and 1936.

In terms of a camera it is only one step up from a pinhole camera, with a simple winder, 2 optical prism's and a simple mechanical shutter. The one interesting thing about it is that it came in a choice of colours showing that the camera was not competing on pure technology any more, but also consumer fashion.

Exhibit 3 - six-20 Brownie Model D

If I was to guess the age of this camera I would of said it was from the 1930's. I was surprised therefore that it dates from the 1950's, an age when I thought the brownie form factor had been supplanted by the type of camera shape we are more used to seeing today.

The Six-20 Brownie model D was manufactured between 1953-1957, and although almost certainly more sophisticated than the original brownie still retains the boxy shape. The main innovations seem to be improved view finder, the addition of flash contacts and the 1950's equivalent of a macro lens

The most interesting thing about this camera however is that it shows Kodak was now behind the technology curve, and would have to change to stay in the game. This it did, but a similar crisis in the 1990's are the world moved to digital proved it's undoing. You wonder whether Nikon and Canon will have the same issues with mirror-less cameras?

To be continued...

References

http://www.brownie.camera/
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/

Photographic memories

Why do we take photographs? A deceptively simple question, but one which I guess would have a number of responses depending on who you are

Maybe your livelihood depends on your ability to take photos? If so then your primary motive would be to make money. For those amateur photography enthusiasts out there, the answer would range from simple enjoyment to being able impress our peers and friends with your skills. 

However for the vast majority of us, I think the simple answer would be in order to capture memories

Recently I have had to clear out my late fathers house. Unfortunately in his later years he resorted to collecting a lot, and disposing of nothing (from talking with friends I think this is not a uncommon problem with elderly relatives). The result of this is that it has taken a considerable amount of time to sort through the clutter. 

However one of the things I have found is a lot of family photos, ranging from Edwardian family photos to more recent family snaps. With my interest in photography I have taken on the role of family archivist and I have been spending a bit of time sorting them and digitizing the more significant ones. 

During that process I came across the one that I've put at the top of this page. 

Now technically there is nothing significant in this photo. It is of a nondescript house, taken on cheap film, now faded with age. But to me it tells a very powerful and personal story.

You see standing in the doorway on the right hand side is a small boy with blonde hair about 4 years old. 

That boy is me. 

My age in the photo means that this must of been taken soon after we moved into the house that would form the major part of my childhood and be my fathers home for the next 50 years. 

So when I look at this photo I can't help wondering what I would of thought , with the benefits of hindsight, of my life to come?

The truth is not all the memories of this house were good ones. But as I sat on a step inside the house for what I knew would be the last time I could not help replay the images of photos that were taken in this house. As I did so, I could not help shedding a tear for those long forgotten memories and the people in them. The realization that I would never be able to so vividly bring those memories back to life again was a very emotional moment for me.

Of course this is a very personal photo, but it shows how, when wielded correctly, a photo can be used  to generate strong emotions. 

However telling a story with a single photo is not an easy task. A title is a good start because it sets the viewer down the road you want them to travel. Also the need to tell a story is why I enjoy putting photo montages together. It is easier to tell a tale by using a number of images, using music to set the mood. 

This is also why rules for competitions such as those for the British Photographic Society, emphasize the story over the purely technical aspects. 

This in the end separates the great photographer from the merely good. If you can take a single photograph and use it to tell a powerful story that resonates not only to you and people involved in the photo, but to the entire world, then you are well on the road to greatness.

1967-2015