EYE CANDY FOR US SENIORS
on 07/14/2008 at 11:05 AM
35mm? Heck no, the good Rollies took 120 roll film! You got back either slides or negatives that were much larger than lowly 35mm film.
Twin lens planar cameras were a royal pain to use, but they really made you a photographer, not just a snapper of pictures. You had to be. First you had to find something to take a picture of. Then it was time to get out the light meter, which was as big as a pack of cigs. Then when you figured out the proper exposure you had to set the lens. Then cock the shutter. Then compose your shot while holding the camera against your stomach and looking down into it. Then the smart folks rechecked the light. Then you used your shutter extension cable to take the pic because the risks of getting your thumb in the shot by using the actual shutter button were too great.
Once you’d taken all 16 (or was it 12) shots on the roll you dropped off the film at the drugstore, and in as little as 2 weeks you could have your pictures back. Kodachrome for color prints, expensive, or Ektachrome for color slides, less expensive. B&W was available too.
My dad had one of these, or at least some kind of twin planar camera of quality. It took magnificent sharp pictures, but time had to stand still until he was ready to make the shot.
Today’s 4-7-10-12 megapixel snapshot cameras make it too easy, and they just get better and better. Only the professionals have any understanding of light and contrast these days, and that’s a shame. I’m waiting for the next generation of digitals to have “art” modes built in.
Don’t get me wrong, digital is fantastic. But you have to buy a new camera every 3 years to keep abreast of things. My 4Mpix camera is already a dinosaur, and so is the 7Mp version of the same camera my brother bought 2 years later. The new ones are bigger, better, less expensive, and much much faster, plus memory is cheaper than ever.
With a freshly charged set of batteries people at a party a few weeks ago took 112 pictures with my camera in just a couple hours. Sure, most of them sucked, but some were priceless (especially the birthday boy’s ex-wife, my MIL, looking like she was passing razor blades).
When I was working at AEDC http://www.arnold.af.mil, I bought a Hassleblad. We needed it to take UV pictures of missle plumes. We got a lens that was over 8000 bucks (in 1980 dollars), and the lenses in it were quartz instead of glass to pass UV. We had a special filter made for it that only allowed UV through. We shot Tri-X, and used the women’s bathroom for a darkroom. I developed a programmable controller for it to shoot up to 99 pics at a time.
Posted by bikerbob
07/15/2008 at 05:26 AM