Sire, the rabble are clamoring for camera porn!

<p>Well, tell them that good porn is hard to come by, and order them to disperse.</p>

<p>But stay, I am in the process of cataloging my conquests for insurance purposes, and I will throw them a few crumbs that are cluttering my dining table.</p>

<p>The first will be the Voigtlander Vito III. Only 15,000 were made and they are rare and pricey. This one is in ex++ condition with a great lens and terrible ergonomics which they share with the Prominent.</p><div></div>

<p>Next are my most recent acquisitions, a Canon F-1 New and a Canon F-1n, both looted in the past 3 weeks.</p><div></div>

<p>Next, a true treasure, a Zeiss Super Ikonta B (532/16) which is mint- except for paint rubbed of the rear door hinge and the dreaded Zeiss bumps on the rear.</p><div></div>

<p>Next is Big Bertha, a Bronica GS-1 6 x 7 cm, acquired 3 weeks ago for $250 and in EX++ condition.</p><div></div>

<p>And finally, one of my best, a Nikon F3HP in absolute mint condition which I got a few years ago.</p>

<p>I am not wealthy, didn't win Lotto, my Nissan pickuip has nearly 200,000 miles on it. Just that I have some nice pensions thank 22 years in the air force and 24 years at Boeing. The military provides my wife and me with a fantastic healthcare plan that covers most everything at very low cost and my kids are grown up, and my needs are modest.</p>

<p>I have become careful with those I do business with and I have some wonderful vendors who have my absolute trust.</p><div></div>

<p>I will try to provided photos from the above cameras when the sun shines once more in Seattle, which is now forecast for early March.</p>

<p>Well, I guess if one has a disposable income, there's no better direction in which to point it than at cameras like these. Beautiful examples of some fine cameras,<strong> James</strong>; I'm not sure if I should thank you for posting or not....Though I <em>did</em> enjoy looking at them :-)</p>

<p>I should have mentioned that I am a tyro when it comes to photographing cameras, and there are some shadows in the pics above that I wish I could have eliminated. I sat the cameras on and in front of two sheets of white cardboard and used a Nikon D90 with a SB600 flash gun used in bounce mode and an exposure correction of +2.3 since there is a lot of white background and the cameras have a lot of black. The only post processing I did was to crop. I used a 18-55mm Nikkor lens with VR.</p>

<p>Nice collection James! When I was a kid, I used my dad's Zeiss Ikon Contessa (which I still have and love), but my friend had an Ikonta B, which I always envied because of the image size. But I recall his was black, not chrome. Did they make them in both flavors?</p>

<p>Rick, I am sweating making my bi-annual property taxes that are due this month. Plastic money makes splurges like this almost painless up front. If my wife knew the extent of my madness, she would likely have me committed. As it is, she threatens a fantastic garage sale in the event of my demise, with everything going for $5 since she doesn't know an f stop from a doorstop (although drat it, she makes some wonderful photos, while I am an engineer, but not an artist). I wish I had your talent, Rick, and if we could actually trade talent for materiel, I would cheerfully swap you a few Leicas for your superb photographic "eye".</p>

<p>My father came to the US as a 12 year old from Scotland and started in the coal mines of West Virginia, before moving to the electro-chemical plants of Niagara Falls where I was born and raised. We were definately working class and my father had a hard childhood. He was the the proverbial Scots tightwad, and when a 5 cent piece left his clutches, he had held on so hard that the Indian on the front was kissing the buffalo's ass on the rear. From your name and country, I will make a leap of judgement that you are a Brit, just as I was raised. My father's father who bequeathed me his middle name, was a long term member of the 1st Lincolns as a private and rifleman. He spent 6 years in the Straits Colony (what's that? Singapore) and he shared the battlefield with Sir Winston Churchill when as members of Kitchener's expeditionary force to the Sudan, they liberated Khartoum from muslim extremists in 1898, and both went on to the Boer war. Khartoum was 110 years ago and it boggles my mind that I actually knew the kindly old man with a huge mustache since I was 8 years old when he died. How I would love to have a conversation with him now. I would tell him of his great grandson, my son, who served two Army tours in Iraq, dealing with muslim extremists in our misguided war. I swear that there is nothing new under the sun, and we just recycle. Family legend has it that when my grandfather was mobilized, he told my grandmother to keep the tea kettle on as he would soon return, and he didn't come back for 15 years.</p>

<p>My best to you, Rick.</p>

 

<p>Michael, I have no idea, but there were many variations on the basic theme.</p>

<p>James, we have a similar background, English/Scottish on my part, with a similar lineage of colonial service, not particularly fashionable in this age. The Straits Settlements were comprised of Singapore, Malacca and Penang, as I recall, and distant relatives of mine served there. And now I'm in one of the world's most far-flung countries, enjoying peace and good health and cultivating an addiction to old cameras. I suspect my great-grand-parents would have approved...</p>

Some people's porn is scenes from a nursing home for others. I don't carry anything that weighs over 1/2 pound nowadays. :)

<p>James: Those F1's are lovely. It is on my list. Do not know when it will be in my hands though :)<br />Les: I like your motorized gang :)</p>

<p><strong>James</strong> - you had me at Big Bertha.</p>

<p><strong>Les</strong> - while all of the motorized gang look great, couldn't help but focus on the A1 with Motordrive MA. I have the same kit, was playing with it this weekend. Feels damn good in my hands.</p>

<p>I'm not a "collector" of old cameras, but I have assembled a few Canon film cameras like those I used to own. Here are my first two:<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/railfan/CanonAE-1.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="691" /><br />A pristine AE-1 that was kept in its neveready case, so there was no wear on it at all.<br />I can't seem to add another image, will do in another message.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Here's my A-1 with Motor Drive MA, and a 50mm f/1.4 SSC lens:</p>

<p><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/railfan/CanonA-12.jpg" alt="" /><br />This one was also kept in its case, the only wear is at the top of the prism, I assume this is from removing the case top over and over. I added the motor drive later.</p>

<p>I also have an AL-1, although I never owned one in the past. I only have it because the fellow at the flea market only wanted $5.00 for it! No posed photo of it though.</p>

<p>I have several Canon zoom lenses, a 28mm, a 135mm, and several flashes and power winders too.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Impressive A-1 kit, Bob. It must be triple the weight of the bare body.</p>

<p>Since Rick and I got into a discussion of background, I have to comment on your name. Since my father's family originally settled in Ohio just across the river from Wheeling, WV, I inherited his devotion for sports teams, specifically the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Browns, and the Toromto Maple Leafs in Hockey (Ted (Teeter) Kennedy was their long term captain). The Cleveland Indians had their greatest season in 1948 and won the World Series, in the first year that I took baseball seriously. They were lead by player-manager Lou Boudreau, who was a fantastic shortstop, great hitter, and brilliant strategist. He was made manager at the age of 24!!!. In the single game playoff that would determine whether the Indians or the Boston Red Sox, led by Ted Williams, would go on to the Series, all Lou did was to hit two home runs and two singles at Fenway Park and the Indians won, 8-3. Are you perchance related to Lou. In my first year in the military, attending NYU, one of my military classmates wife had baby sat for the Boudreaus in Cleveland.</p>

<p>Here's some kamera porn from the old DDR.</p>

<p>Courtesy of the SED.</p><div></div>

<p>And as for rabble:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Classic Manual Camera participant:I told you, we're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week...<br />King Arthur: Yes...<br />Classic Manual Camera participant: ...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...<br />King Arthur: Yes I see...<br />Classic Manual Camera participant: ...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs...<br />King Arthur: Be quiet!<br />Classic Manual Camera participant: ...but by a two thirds majority in the case of...<br />King Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!<br />Woman: Order, eh? Who does he think he is?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So Les, Who makes the best bellows?</p>

Love the cameras shown here. James, you're a walking library and history book! JDM .. You're Crazy! I love it here!

<p>I found the other photo I took of all of my Canon FD gear:</p>

<p><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/railfan/CanonFDgear6May2010.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Chuck, thanks, but when you are 74 and moved around a lot, you have lived through a lot of history, but old age is highly overrated.</p>

<p>JDM, your cameras look very minty. I have a couple of Kiev's but never got into the DDR stuff. I have a Zeiss Contax IIa, which of course was West Germany, and I love the workmanship of Zeiss.</p>

<p>Les, I have done only a little macro, but just how many mags can you squeeze out those bellows. As an ex-mechanical engineer, they are very impressive mechanisms. Every mechanism that responds in a well defined way to an adjustment is a 4-bar linkage.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Chuck, thanks, but when you are 74 and moved around a lot, you have lived through a lot of history, but old age is highly overrated.</p>

<p>JDM, your cameras look very minty. I have a couple of Kiev's but never got into the DDR stuff. I have a Zeiss Contax IIa, which of course was West Germany, and I love the workmanship of Zeiss.</p>

<p>Les, I have done only a little macro, but just how many mags can you squeeze out those bellows. As an ex-mechanical engineer, they are very impressive mechanisms. Every mechanism that responds in a well defined way to an adjustment is a 4-bar linkage.</p>

<p> </p>