young people who use classic cameras

[jeff_livacich]

<p>Regarding the old cartoons: my favorite is doubtless Rocky and Bullwinkle. When I was Patrick's age, I used to come home from school, grab some snacks, and watch reruns of the Bullwinkle Show or Rocky and His Friends.<br>

Boris, Natasha, Captain Peachfuzz, Fractured Fairy Tales, etc. Loved the dialogue. I'm an incorrigible punster (so don't incorrige me), and usually cracked up at a turn of phrase I hadn't caught before.<br>

Regarding blankity-blank Barney. I still recall kids singing the version of the original Barney song that they all preferred.<br>

/with a double-barreled shotgun, Barney on the floor,<br>

no more Purple Dinosaur/</p>

[Rob_the_waste]

<p>Any of these young'uns remember the original Gilligan's Island? It got me behind more homework than I can remember.</p>

[Paul Lewis1664881697]

<p>I'm in my mid-30s and had a bit of a different path to classic cameras. In the mid-90s, I became interested in super8 filmmaking, which of course depends on using cameras built in the 1960s and 1970s. About six or seven years ago, I realized that I was more interested in making still images and started working with B&W film and eventually Kodachrome and E6 films. Here's my progression from around 1996 to today:<br>

1. Minolta super8 camera<br>

2. Mom's Minolta SRT SLR<br>

3. Elmo 1012-XLS super8 sound camera and Beaulieu 4008 super8 camera (the most beautiful piece of machinery ever made!)<br>

4. Some messing around with Diana plastic cameras.... this didn't help my interest in still photography, it actually slowed it. Good thing I got rid of them all.<br>

5. Lomo LC-A Kompact, which made some beautiful images with Kodachrome film<br>

6. Nikon FM2n (with B&W and Kodachrome film)<br>

7. Nikon F4s (E6 and Kodachrome films)<br>

Next camera? Maybe an F6, a Pentax 67, a Mamiya 7ii? Who knows?</p>

[mark_hodos]

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>my 2 cents. I just turned 30, and I love the old cameras. Started with a Nikon D50 2 years ago, then got a RB67 8 months later, then found that that strange contraption that I had inherited from my grandfather is a Voigtlander Bessa RF 6x9 Folder in very very good condition. Score. I use that more than anything, really. Then, I got a good deal on a Linhof Technika. Recently in Hong Kong, I got a Graflex XL with the 80mm 2.8 Zeiss lens on it. That thing is pretty cool too. I recently got a Bessa R4A, which is my first 35mm camera. Also, my bathroom now smells of sulphur from the HC-110.... It's good to see this thread and know that I'm not the only one going backwards in time...</p>

<p>There's an element of chance combined with the skill of knowing the camera (the Bessa RF's rangefinder is a little off (does anyone know the exact vintage of those?), so you have to shoot a few and develop them before you figure out how to focus it accurately, avoid double exposures, etc.)</p>

<p>However: if it hadn't been for a friend who shoots digital talking me into the Nikon D50, I would not be where I am now with these old cameras -- I likely wouldn't be into cameras at all. I also did a shoot of my Capoeira group, and we rented studio lights, softboxes, and pocketwizards. The DSLR is tailor-made for that application as the RAW files were photoshopped afterwards for ad brochures, etc. Checking exposure (and making sure the action was stopped mid-flip or whatever) instantly was key, as was taking 2000+ images in one day and turning them over to the art director as we were packing up.</p>

<p>So, I owe my interest in photography as a whole to the DSLR, and I learned how to shoot manual by metering/chimping with the DSLR and then capturing with the RB67. I now have a spotmeter, but without that D50 it would have taken me SO MUCH longer to learn this stuff. Sitting there and practicing with Ansel Adams' The Negative and seeing the results in real-time was great. It gave me a starting point to not be afraid of film, if that doesn't sound too strange.</p>

<p>One thing that I've noticed: the D50 can take a nice, clean sharp picture very quickly and easily. So, if I ever need that (auction listings, the cat does something ridiculous, etc), it's right there. If I had to do that with film, it wouldn't be as easy. scanning or printing takes forever comparatively, as you all know. So, what I'm trying to say is that having the digital allows me to dedicate the mechanical/film cameras for the artistic stuff. I haven't taken the digital outside of my apartment for a year almost, but it's good to know it's there. But hey, with the march to obsoleteness in the digital world, now the D50 is a "classic camera" too, so I guess it fits.</p>

<p>Anyhow it's great to see all these people my age. I think we all thought we were the only one. Anybody else live in New York?</p>

[jay_mcclure]

<p>I'm 27 years old in Salamanca New York and I proudly shoot classic cameras. I shoot primarily my Canon EF, a 35mm SLR camera (production run from 1973 and 1978) opperating on Canons FD mount seconded by my M-42 mount Chinon CS.<br>

What it was that really hooked me was the fact it was classic cameras I used back when I was in photography classes. In the early ninties I learned on cameras from the seventies and eighties. After a hiatous from the late ninties to 2005 I decided to take photography back up and wile looking for a new camera I opted to go with something I knew as opposed to getting some newfangled digital and went straight for the Canon I still use to this day. There where no fancy buttons or dudads on it (ok I take that back it does have some dudads on it but...nothing fancy)<br>

It was not untill I began to build a lens collection that I found a new kicker, the price tag. A Canon FD 400 2.8L runs around two to three grand wile the EF 400mm 2.8L runs around seven grand. With 23 lenses at my disposal (not including filters and additional accessories) I've come along to a point where I have the lens I need to get the job I want accomplished with out paying a million or more.<br>

Since taking it back up I have aquired and shot with my:<br>

Canon EF<br /> Canon TLb<br /> Canon AE-1<br /> Minolta XG-1<br /> Minolta XG-7<br /> Minolta XG-M<br /> Pentax H2<br /> Olympus OM-1<br /> Chinion CS<br /> Nikon FM<br /> Yashica T3D<br /> Kodak Signet 40<br /> Leica IIIF<br /> Argus C3<br /> Poleroid One step<br /> Poleroid One step<br>

<br /> and plan to shoot in the future my:<br>

Ansco, Buster Brown<br /> Ziess - Ikon, Box Tengor-54/2</p>

<p>All without ever having owned a digital SLR. The grips on the newer SLR's are awkward and uncomfortable to me, and there has been a couple of times my digital PnS has been in my pocket and I did not even realize it, not to mention how awful it is to hold. I still like the feel of the classics. It looks like a brick and feels like a brick, I know I have my camera.</p>

[Johnny Martyr]

<p>soo many wonderful stories here, i have been overwhelmed reading them all! and WHERE IS patrick dempsey? he's a good efriend of mine actually.</p>

<p>at any rate, i think this is an interesting topic. increasingly i see younger and younger people turned onto pre-1980's cameras. it's funny because the early 80's seem to be the general cut-off date of classic cameras. i think there have certainly been modern classics like the voigtlander bessa series and the nikon fm2t but the mass production of mechanical non-electronics-dependant cameras seemed to have mostly dropped off by the early 80's and yet instead of younger kids getting turned onto pentax p3's, they are still buying spotmatics! i think this is a testament to how unique this equipment is and that this trend we are all a part of is not simple nostalgia or connected to our age and what we grew up with. </p>

<p>for me, in many ways, i have a love affair with technology that came before me. maybe it's because i feel disallusioned and untrusting of computers but grew up being weened on them and this is my way of rebelling or breathing a fresh breath. </p>

 

[jay_mcclure]

<p>A large portion of the alure it as I see it also is that JDMC sticker they put on them actually ment something back then. Those old cameras are work horses. Unlike todays cameras they have the capability to function for decades to come despite what ever happens to it where as the modern equivalent gets wet or dropped it's going out for service.</p>

[silverscape]

<p>WOW....I never imagined people would still be posting on this topic! I just decided to check my posts and I saw some new comments. Thanks, guys! </p>

<p>And yeah, I'm wondering about Patrick Dempsey too. I thought for sure he would have replied to this. In fact, it's been a long time since I've seen him on Photo.net. I hoped everythng is okay, or that he hasn't bailed. I hate to say it, but some of the other forums can get kinda nasty. That's why I mainly stay here.</p>