Why do we like old equipment?

[Rob_the_waste]

<p>...Why do we like old equipment? I got to wondering about that today. I just dropped off a roll of film that I shot with a Fed 5C, and it's one of my most modern cameras. My cameras date mainly from the early '70's back to 1930. I know a number of you folks have samples that are substantially older, but it's still a decent range. I got a toy in the mail today that just made my night. It's a preamp. It lets me use a turntable and my old vinyl albums again, and I've got the wife screaming at me to turn it down (last time I heard that was in the early '80's, and I'd swear she can't stand to see me enjoy <strong><em>anything</em> </strong> ). The newfangled 5.1 home theatre is technically more advanced than the old time stereo (kind of like digital cameras) but I got a real thrill out of hearing Yes' "Roundabout" on vinyl. The same with The Who's "Squeeze Box." It still sounds great. For the record, I took some shots of the sunrise this morning with my 1930 Zeiss Ikonta too (funny time to be on vacation, but I'll take it).</p>

[gene m]

<p>Because <em>we're</em> "old equipment."</p>

[User_4525289]

<p>I do not like "old equipment". I like manual cameras mainly because they fun to have and it is fun to make pictures with them. I do not like old manual meat grinders or non electric refrigerators, or mechanical victrolas,(OK I would like to have a victrola but not for music listening).</p>

[david_l3]

<p>What Gene said. I love old cameras and have too many at home. In fact, this evening I bought another old beater, a Nikkormat EL and 50mm 1.4 for 20 bucks. If they can hold up over several decades I hope I can too. </p>

[james_wheeler1]

<p>The old "handshake across time" comes to mind. I like using old equipment because it is a link to the past and because some of it is stuff I couldn't afford when I was younger. There is something to using an old Conley sheet film camera that awakes the historian in me and links me to the original owner.<br>

The same logic applies to my using a cavalry carbine (trapdoor carbine) that served in the Indian Wars or a rifle from WWI (Enfield or Springfield) or WWII (M1 Garand). The sense of history is well worth the effort.<br>

Gene is right in that we tend to be older and appreciate the older equipment.<br>

Finally. It is fun!</p>

[james_wheeler1]

<p>Forgot to mention, we also have a large collection of vinyl recordings (over 2,000), a collection of laser video discs (over 3,000), a lot of books, and some antique tools. My wife shares in these hobbies and shares her quilting interests. One of my majors in college was history and it seems to have influenced me a lot.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>Because they still work well to effectively accomplish imaging making goals</p>

[jason_hall5]

<p>I like machines and things of mechanical nature, almost no matter what it is. More importantly, I really like things that are made for precision. Before photography came into my life I was highly in tuned with firearms, and as you could imagine, I mostly favored ones built for accuracy. As the saying, "only accurate rifles make interesting rifles".</p>

<p>As photography became a part of my life, I found the same interest in the gear. Well, as they say, they don't make it like that any more. So those all metal, finely made machines is what make me smile.</p>

<p>Jason</p>

 

[summitar]

<p>I think those who said that it harkins back to our youth have struck a resonant chord. I couldn't afford a 35mm camera till I was 30 years old. Now I have 7 Leica's. Not that I am wealthy in any way. It is just that I have some discretionary income as opposed to squeezing every nickel until the indian is kissing the buffalo's butt.</p>

[steve_dittmar]

<p>Gotta agree with Jason. I am a toolmaker by trade and I think the intoxication of high quality worksmanship and beautiful metal work and design got me started collecting "old stuff". Really hooked on tlr's right now.</p>

[silverscape]

<p>I just have a fascination with antique mechanical and electrical devices. I always have. I'm not sure why exactly...maybe just the novelty of it. I'm 31, I grew up with electronics. As a kid in the 80's and 90's, I was completely surrounded by everything being made of plastic and electronics. I grew up with video games and CD players. So to me, seeing devices from another time period fascinates me. <br /><br />I remember when I was a really little kid, maybe in the early 1980's, my parents actually had an old vacuum tube radio. I have no idea where they got it from. But I remember watching the tubes glow, and I was just so curious about it. Then later on, in the early 1990's, my parents used to go in antique shops and thrift shops. Sometimes I would go with them, and I would see antique movie cameras. I was just curious about how a wind-up, mechanical camera could record movies. So sometimes they would buy me a cheap movie camera, just to play around with. At that time (around 1992), I didn't think you could still get 8mm movie film. I think that was where my fascination with mechanical cameras started.<br /><br />Now, fast forward to today and I've regained my interest with vintage mechanical cameras. Of course now, I actually learned how to use them and that was what got me interested in photography. Then I learned how to develop film. I've also started a collection of antique vacuum tube radios. I learned how to fix them, and I have a collection of vintage equipment like vacuum tube and capacitor testers. Oh, by the way...if you have an old tube radio and it doesn't work anymore and you're just getting a loud hum...it's usually because of a bad filter capacitor. Just replace the capacitors and it's good as new! The filter capacitors buffer out the noise of the AC sinewave. So when the capacitors go bad, you get interference from the AC power supply and you get a loud hum. I just thought I would throw that out there :)</p>

<p>So for me, I would say that my interest in old equipment is just the novelty of it. I like using antique film cameras because they're a lot more fun, but also because I just like the feel of a REAL, all-metal camera, and the sound of a mechanical shutter. Every film camera I own is older than me. Heck, some of them are even older than my parents. (Well, other than my 110 cameras...but even they're <em>almost</em> older than me).</p>

<p>I also have a couple of manual typewriters, railroad lanterns, and a few telegraph keys. I have a record player too, and a few records...and yes, I listen to it once in a while. I don't know...I just think antique stuff is cool :)<br>

<br />The oldest camera I have is my Brownie 2A (Model B). I think it's from the early 1920's. Most of my other cameras are probably from roughly the 1930's-1960's.</p>

[jason_hall5]

<p>"the intoxication of high quality worksmanship and beautiful metal work and design"<br>

-Steve Dittmar</p>

<p>Yeah, thats what I was trying to say. :o)</p>

<p>Jason</p>

[j_moon]

<p>What Gene said~<br>

To me, I love older things. My old tube guitar amps, my old tube radios, just old things. When I was introduced to cameras, my Dad gave me his old Olympus OM10, it was his backup camera for work, and that got me interested in cameras. Finding out my great Grandfather Schneider was a Photographer, from Germany, gave me new intrest in older cameras. My Great Grandfather then moved to Trenton. Ontario, Canada, and found out he couldnt make a living for his family as just a Photographer, so he became a builder/Photographer. 2 houses he built are still standing in Trenton. Everytime I use my older cameras, I feel the presence of the former users, and know my Dad and Great Grandpa are smiling down at me when I click that shutter.</p>

[2008.]

<p>I like old worldy things and old cars but i would not want to drive one ! cheers.</p>

[alex macphee]

<p>If there were only one good reason for having old cameras, they'd probably not be so interesting. Instead, I think there's a whole cluster of reasons, which change from week to week in emphasis and composition. Sometimes, it's a camera I ached to own when I was an impecunious youth. Sometimes, it's because it just feels right in my hands. A few have made comparisons with vinyl records, and there's something in that. One of the more irrational reasons I have for liking my vinyl collection is the way in which it's so clearly visible what's going on when a record is being played : the stylus hovers over the wavy groove, and I can see what's happening, how the groove mechanically vibrates the stylus to transfer information from the record to the amplifier. The design of CDs is just as sophisticated and admirable, but they present more of a 'black box', and looking at a CD spinning doesn't have the same aesthetic effect on me as looking at an LP spinning.</p>

<p>In some ways, an old camera has the same effect on me. You can see how it works, simplicity allied to ingenuity. The more automated the camera, the less I feel a partnership with it.</p>

<p>An old camera you've owned for ever is a bit like an old song. The song itself may be good or mediocre, but it may have accreted associations over the years ; it might have been current when you had your first kiss, or when you first met that special one in your life, so that, whenever you hear it, it comes with years and years of continually added memories.</p>

<p>Sometimes, it's just a damn good camera that's a joy to use.</p>

 

[Julio Fernandez]

<p>Maybe our parents would not let us play with their expensive cameras when we were children?</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>When I was a "kid" I wanted every camera in sight. Now I have most of them.</p>

<p>Gene has it, we're "old equipment" too.</p>

[chuck_foreman1]

Respect.. Appreciation. Be it electromechanical like Valves/tubes, vinyl/shellac, tone-generators, dual-carbs etc.

 

It's just intoxicating and fascinating. I can wind and fire cameras almost all day.. I've done it too!

 

I don't think that it's becasue I'm old too or that now I can afford it.. or some pyschological freudian fulfillment.

It just pure desire to work with tool that are transparent in their utilitarin concept and beautiful in their execution!

[carl_klitzke]

<p>"We" are not ALL old equipment. Some of us younger types just like the feel of the craftsmanship of older equipment (huh huh huh). Oldest camera I own is from 1962 but it's still so much more fun to use than my Nikon AF stuff. Nice to be able to adjust the aperture without having to hold down 4 buttons and spin a dial with an already-occupied finger..my 2c</p>

[machts gut]

<p>I was born in 1964 in Braunschweig and my first camera was one of the same year and the same city, a Voigtländer Vitrona. The camera is long gone, but I just recently bought a Voigtländer Vitomatic IIa and a Bessa II. And of course I have a camera from the second famous camera manufacturer from Braunschweig, a Rolleiflex.</p>

[john_robison3]

<p>For me it's 'if it's working don't fix it' sums it up. Just replaced the light seals on two classics yesterday. Still have a modest darkroom and try to print at least twice a month. I feel that far too much life is slipping by that is only being recorded as ones and zeros in millions of hard drives. Will it last or will 99+ percent be unrecoverable in a decade? Sorry, but my reply is getting into a bit of thread drift here. To come back to the OP's original question my main reason is I trust my old but well mantained equipment but know that when my just purchased DSLR's brain goes idiot then most likely like a microwave, DVD player or any other modern electronic gear, replacement not repair will be the only option open. I'm just not comfortable with our throw away society.</p>

[steve salmons]

<p>The combination of quality built equipment and the sense of achievement derived from producing the desired results in using it, does it for me. I would derive no satisfaction from a system that guaranteed perfect results every time even if such a system was possible. I like the working with equipment that demands some thought and input on my part to get a worthwhile end result. Where is the sense of achievement without that?</p>

[tom_cheshire]

<p>Why do I like old cameras? Hmm. It is a lot of things. I like gears and mechanical things. All the parts working together is sort of like watching a bunch of dominoes being toppled. Also like high precision. Then there is the look of the thing. Design. It is better to look good than to actually photograph good. And then there is the status thing. If nobody wanted Rolleiflexes mine would seem a few notches less desirable. And there is the actual use of the camera thing. But, somehow, a 25 year old camera doesn't seem old to me. I mean, a Canon AE-1 Program is a "new" modern camera to me. An "old" camera is a Contax IIa or an Exakta. </p>

<p>Chris, hey, you like old radios too? I have an Ozarka floor console from 1927. It has big "acorn" and "lightbulb" tubes. Also an art deco Atwater Kent that still needs restoration. Lots of others here but would like to sell most of them. </p>

[jason_hall5]

<p>" I like the working with equipment that demands some thought and input on my part to get a worthwhile end result." -Steve Salmons</p>

<p>I have never seen or heard of a camera that could produce worthwhile results with out carful thought and good input from the user.</p>

<p>I have seen many many really bad crappy shots from vintage cameras (my grandma has boxes of them) just like the loads of crappy shots from folks today with their digital P&Sers and DLSR. A crappy shot is a crappy shot and that really hasn't changed since the day the first Brownie hit the market. <br>

What REALLY gets under my skin, is when folks look at some of my work and seeing how much better it is over their own usuall snapshots, they say it must be that high dollar camera that I am useing. </p>

<p>Jason</p>

[james_wheeler1]

<p>Crappy images are the norm, as is the confusion between the cost of equipment and the quality of results. The equipment can be woodworking tools, quilting, art, or whatever. Gene M has shown us plenty of proof that crappy cameras can be used by a good photographer to produce quality images.<br>

Like Jason, I get irritated when someone compliments one of my images by saying "That's a great picture, you must have a really expensive camera." There is a certain joy in telling them that the camera in question is a $5 item from Goodwill.</p>