Abandoned cameras and long gone films

<a href="http://westfordcomp.com/classics/wing/pompous.html">More from the hospital project </a>

It was a great time to own something more than a poin & shoot 35mm camera.My most enjoyable times were in the darkroom. D 76 and Tri-X ruled.

Nice photos. God Bless my Rollei TLR. It went to digital heaven last year. Hope it found a good home.

"My most enjoyable times were in the darkroom. D 76 and Tri-X ruled"

 

It's not too late to repent.

My first forays into medium format (aside from old 6x9 folders and box cameras) were recently with a Pilot Super, a Pentacon 6 TL and a Weltaflex. I fear none of them are quite up to the Bronica or Hasselblad.

 

Nice pictures and always get a boost out of your posts. Thanks.

The Pilot Super is a very cool camera. I've got one that I've been trying to fix for months.

Gene,

 

You are a master. It doesn't matter which tools you use.

 

Dennis

I see myself as more of a persistent bastard, but thanks.

My Pilot Super works just fine mechanically, but the mirror and the viewfinder are so dim as to make it easier

just to use the sports finder. It is nice; and (as a Praktica, etc. collector) I had to have one as an ancestral

spirit, so to speak. I can't locate the film I shot with it or I'd post an example. I haven't got around to

digitizing it yet.

Gene, you really should try buying a camera without film in it and learn how to load it. That way you wouldn't have to sell them after you take the film out<g>.

Radical idea. I reject it.

Great looking shots. Seems that you've been taking great shots for some time now. Your house must be filled with

great pictures.

 

I know exactly what you mean about the cameras. While I haven't gotten to your standards in cameras to buy/sell

yet, I did just pick up a Fuji GW690II. We'll see how long that one stays with me. Thing looks like a toy store camera

on steroids.

Is there anything better than D-76 at a perfect 68 degrees? My personal fav will always be my rb67, and Plus X.<div></div>

LOL at Michael Axel!

 

I nearly spit my drink all over my monitor reading that one.

 

I was worried Gene wasn't coming back because he ran of of film to find, so I headed to Idaho and shot rolls and rolls of locals (so the pics would look like they were taken in the 50's) and then drove all the way to the frozen North and hid all the cameras in his yard where Gene could find them. I know, it sounds like I'm some crazy stalker. I just did what any Found Film Fan would have done. But, how to get him outside to see the cameras? I doused myself in KodaFix and hid in the bushes, hoping to draw him out to the feeder in his yard that I had filled with Dektol powder. I think the wind was working against me because I didn't see any sign of him.

 

Off topic,

 

If I could only have one camera it would be one of my Bronicas. Thank God we don't have to only have one camera. Lately I've been getting humbled trying to learn how to use a 4x5. Why don't they come with a stool to sit on? My goodness, but crawling up under a hot darkcloth and stooping over while endlessly focusing can wear you out!

Another great picture Gene .. I see nothing there that doesn't scream perfection .. not sure I agree with your commentary about achieving it with digital .. as I find digital renditions of clouds lacking in many of the photos I now see; and again I find that orbs like the sun in many landscape shots today just awful .. of course, none of that is present here. From bright reflections off the building to foreground shadows .. this picture rocks.

Gene,

 

I saw the light and I repented. As penance I'm using D76 and shooting old TLRs. Some things(cameras) fit. some

don't. I think knowing when it doesn't is rare. The IR shot was too cool. I really liked it.

Ref; cloud renditions... A.Aubrey Bodine maintained a file of clouds and skies which he mated and matched to whim,

when confronted (with his crime??)he replied “I think I have as much right to do that as a writer has to use

adjectives.” Like Dennis sayid, it doesn'T matter which tool is at hand, you're the man!!

It looks to me like you shouldn't have sold it, you should have learned to like it.

Excellent photos. The detail is astonishing. Love IR.

Look at the Silo shot. Astonishing detail in the shadow and the highlights. Nothing like a huge frame of film.

'Is there anything better than D-76 at a perfect 68 degrees? My personal fav will always be my rb67, and Plus X."

 

I felt the same way until I tried XTOL.

Nice pics, Gene.

 

You wrote: "If you're reading this, you likely understand that some cameras just don't feel right to you."

 

It's not just cameras. Pants, cars, motorcycles.... sometimes a perfectly good whatever that everybody else is happy with, just doesn't fit *me*. And vice-versa. Don't worry, it's no crime to sell it off and go back to what you're happy and comfortable with.

These images are nice! I know what you mean by a camera not feeling right. I sold my c330f, i dont know why, i love my yashicas, C and mat, and my rolleicord, something about the c330 i didnt like, i had like all the lenses, maybe thats what it was, to many choices.

Cool wave shot.