Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I still enjoy shooting with my old film cameras. Anyone else?

Still have a Nikon F, but it's not been out for years. One can post process to B & W, but there seems to be a little life missing.

Not me. Since digital came out I'm not sure where my old film camera even is. Truth is since I got started using my Iphone I haven't even opened the case that houses my digitial camera and lenses. I made a half hearted attempt back in 2006 to learn photography bought a bunch of gear with the help of a friend who is into it but just never got the bug.

I was a professional darkroom technician for some years. Nothing makes you feel old like having something you once did for a living become completely obsolete.

I did a lot of film photography using Pentax screw thread cameras, an H1a and a Spotmatic. Hard to get batteries for them now. The last film camera I bought was a Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL. I'd always wanted one for the dual averaging / spot light meter, so when I got a chance to buy one for $20 I did.

I retired from film photography when my parents move to the retirement home, which meant closing the darkroom my father built and in which I had spent thousands of hours. We managed to sell the temperature controlled sink, but couldn't give the enlarger, tanks, trays, etc away. There were a lot more people getting OUT of chemical photography than were getting INTO it, so there was a glut of supply and little or no demand. I ended up giving it all to the local high school and was happy to have found them because it would have broken my heart to have had to throw it all away.

I saved a Kodak catalog from the 60's. Just thinking about the endless array of films and specialized papers and accessories they offered then almost brings a tear to my eye.

Here’s link to his Facebook page. He is also site director at Ft. McKavett SHS

https://m.facebook.com/RubyAmbrotypes

Here's a video my son made for his Youtube channel. He loves the old film camera's.

I sold or traded all of my film cameras. I have a Nikon D 7100 I use now.

I'm up to my eyes in Olympus OM and some Nikon. A sad shame.

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Nice video! The 1-second shot your son did on the Bulb setting of the cowboy silhouette was a particularly nice shot. The last time I saw anyone shooting with a Pentax 6x7 was when I was backcountry camping in Yellowstone right before the park closed during the winter of 2009. I ran into an Aussie who was doing a bit of a walkabout across North American named Ryan Jaffe and he was carrying one. It's not a camera I've run into very often even back when they were still making them. I think your son's is the fourth one I've ever seen. I knew two people who shot with the Mamiya RZ67 he had but both of them used it for mainly studio work. I had a friend who got deployed to Iraq 20 years ago so I helped his wife keep their photography business going while he was gone by doing some of their on-site work using an Mamiya RZ67 for some construction progression shots they had been contracted for.

The closest thing I have to the Pentax 6x7 in size is my Fuji GSW680 III rangefinder (aka my Texas Leica). It's bulky but the negatives are big and it takes great photos. Here I'm taking a few photos of my daughter rock climbing at El Portrero Chico in northern Mexico with it.

I took a look at his FB page. Very impressive work. It looks authentic to the period!

I haven't shot film in years. Once a year or so, I get out my Canon EF, F1, and Miranda Sensorex and trip the shutter a few times.

Back in my youth I shot and developed tri-x and Ektachrome. I bought an Epson 4780 scanner to turn my film into digital files.

Banning mercury batteries really p*ss*s me off. Some one sane might have implemented an exchange program and not killed so many light meters. A pox on them.

I text my son your comment and he said "Thank You". He also said the Texas Leica you mentioned are great cameras that increase in value with each passing year.

Decades back I picked up a Pentex 6x7 in Hong Kong for a friend. Could not find one in Japan, but when I asked in Hong Kong the clerk put 6 of them up on the counter.

Have no idea if there was much in the way of lenses available.

I like my Fuji a lot mainly because it's a good balance between simplicity, sharpness & large negatives. In the photo in the above post, I'm taking a picture with it. The picture I took is below:

My son said he shot some of the photos in this video with his Texas Leica. Great topic by the way….

Somewhere in a closet is my Canon Rebel EOS that I bought used from a coworker in about 2001. I probably last used it in around 2003. Bet there's still a roll of film in it.

Your son is shooting with the more common 6x9cm version of the camera because that was the model that was sold in America. I have the identical but slightly wider angle 6x8cm model that was available only in Japan. You can get identical results from both cameras because they are so incredibly similar. The thing I really like about the 6x8 is that it produces 9 negatives per roll. So when you put it in a negative sheet it's a perfect 3x3 collection that fills the whole page. The 6x9cm negatives that come out of my Zeiss Ikonta only produce 8 shots per roll. So they get cut 3-3-2 and you're left with a "gap" on the last row. I know that's a stupid reason to like something but the symmetry of the 6x8 appeals to my quirkiness. Also 6x8cm enlarges almost perfectly to 8x10 with almost zero waste so you can "crop in the viewfinder" easily if you want to. 6x7, 6x8 & 6x9 are all excellent formats.


Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it. It's a topic that's near & dear to my heart because it's a hobby I've enjoyed for a long time. Here's a photo of me at Vedauwoo, Wyoming with my Hasselblad showing what I generally look like most of the time :

My first SLR was a Miranda Sensorex that I bought in 1967, in Japan, while on R&R from Vietnam. Sold it to an army buddy whose tour was ending. On my second R&R, to Taiwan, I bought a Pentax Spotmatic, which came home with me and spent many years together.

The quality of the photos produced by these cameras is impressive, even when compared to many of today's cameras.

Some from 1967:




indoors without flash.


Indoors with flash.

It's amazing that this photo is from 56 years ago. Excellent color & detail! They were still selling screw-mount Pentax cameras when I was working in department stores in high school. Bayonet mounts had just come out.

Bought my Asahi Pentax in Japan 1971, shutter still works. Haven't run a roll of film through it in 20 years probably. Sold my Hasselblad 30 years ago, great camera but a monster to tote around. Still have my darkroom equipment in the attic, just can't seem to part with any of it. It's certainly not coming back. Spent many an hour in the darkroom.

I dont have any 35 mm anymore , just one 80-200 Cannon lenz. My first camera was a Cannon AE-1 Program. It was $214 around 1979. I then bought my Cannon A-1 . It got ruined on my way back from my Honeymoon when I put it on the back seat , and down the road put the brakes on and the camera went into a cooler full of ice and water. I later bought a Cannon AL-1, a cheaper camera but still nice. Later on I went with some cheap 35 mm and then video got popular but really wish I would have stayed with a camera. I decided to buy a Nikon 3400 digital and I liked it but does not work anymore. About 4 yrs. ago I got the big idea of buying a full frame Cannon DS 1 Mark 111. It is a huge camera , takes very good pictures but it is just way too heavy and is a portrait camera , not one you go hiking in the woods with. It is a hard camera to use and way too many buttons to matter. However, when I get it right , the picture is above anything my Iphone could put out. It was a $6300 camera when it was in production and I have a lens that was $900 . I bought the Cannon for $1000 plus tax and the lens, is huge and was about $125. I am not a portrait photographer. For some reason I dont get it but I do pretty good out in the woods.