Not sure whether to laugh or cry

[ridinhome]

<p>Was out with friends yesterday and the topic got around to the classic film cameras that I own. I mentioned my most recent acquisition (not going to mention which one it is since it's going to be the subject of a separate post when it's delivered). I showed someone a picture of the camera...and his reaction was:<br>

"Cool! So vintage. Does it take color pictures or black and white?"<br>

Sigh...</p>

[User_502260]

<p>Some years ago I brought a Pentax Auto 110 and three lenses to my brother's house for a barbeque. I took the camera out for a shot and one of the other guests asked "Does that thing squirt water?" Years later I brought a black Nikkormat FT2 to a pool party and mostly used a 35/2.8 "K" Nikkor. I got a lot of strange looks but the results were good and some of the frames were enlarged quite a bit. </p>

[leicaglow]

<p>And if I had a nickel for every time I've been asked lately, "is that an old analog camera?" My reaction is usually, "No, it's a high quality film camera."</p>

[longname]

<p>hahaha. I usually take questions like that as an opportunity to create some outstanding pile of bs.<br>

"X-ray."</p>

[gateway]

<p>"Does it take color pictures or black and white?"</p>

<p>It only takes black & white pictures, the color function broke!</p>

[john_robison3]

<p>My response to questions about my old film gear is to say;</p>

<p>'It's a photographic device using an interchangeable silver halide based sensor material deposited on a flexible strip of cellulose triacetate and incorporating several advances not found on even the highest end digital cameras, ie. it's fully functional without a battery.'</p>

<p>In fact, it does not use a battery, the lenses are made out of brass and glass and the whole thing is heavier than a pack of lifesavers.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I went to a great craft fair with a Stereo Realist around my neck. Not one person there had any idea what it was, and I was repeatedly asked what sort of camera it was (they at least got that much).</p><div></div>

[Julio Fernandez]

<p>I should not have drunk so much, I'm seeing double images!!<br>

Seriously, even in the old times a lot of people would ask if your camera took color pictures. Not to mention slides!</p>

[User_4525289]

<p>Well, I was asked by very sophisticated people questions like: do they still make black and white film? Where did you get it? Do they still make film for film cameras?</p>

<p>It is been more than 5 years since they pouched film stands way from check outs in grocery stores mostly in the dark corners and got rid of the minilabs.</p>

[bebu_lamar]

<p>Tell your friend that the camera uses replacable sensor so depending on the sensor you would either get b&w or color pictures.</p>

[mark_medin]

<p>"This Minolta X-700 is one of the earliest DSLR cameras ever made - it's a conversion from a film camera, in fact. It's so old it doesn't have an LCD screen, just a place for a memory card. See this switch up top? That's what switches from black and white to color - the color side has a beeper because color required a faster shutter speed back when this was made. It's only 3 megapixels, but it lets me use my old manual-focus lenses. Why does it make that noise after I shoot a picture? It's charging the sensor for the next shot, something they don't have to do anymore". <br>

I have the spiel down, and can keep it up if necessary, improvising all sorts of new BS. Older people know I'm putting them on, some younger ones are entirely taken in. Why not just tell them it's a film camera? When I have one of my older SLRs or my 120 TLR or folder, I own up then. I'd still love to BS someone into believing a 4x5 Graphic is digital, that would be the height of persiflage.</p>

[ridinhome]

<p>Lol! Good suggestions folks. I was going to go with telling people that its B&W only because the world was B&W until the 60s. Don't believe me? The how come you don't have any color movies from the 40s and the 50s?</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>Perhaps the question was to make you smile ? You did not take it as a joke?</p>

[polka]

<p>Not to forget people (even photographers) sincerely believing that older cameras and lenses are not suited for color pictures, thus having for instance Yashica rename its fabulous "Yashinon DX" 1,7/45mm for Electro 35 lens "Color-Yashinon DX" without changing anything else.</p>

<p>Paul</p>

[chuck_foreman1]

<p>I am so glad that so many of you are so playful. I've been sorely tempted to do this too. I too have been asked such questions as "Can you still buy film for that"! Children too are confused that there's no LCD back.<br>

I have a pet peeve though.. "Analog".. camera!<br>

There weren't ever any analog cameras this is a designation based on the the other (new designs) being called digital. I prefer the word "conventional" camera. I guess this makes me a pendant arrogant little AH. Just "Analog" rubs me wrong. Film camera is OK and when you think about the word "camera" itself ...It's the wrong word too! In many european languages (less so in these days of globalization) it is called a "photo apparatus" ..well I'm getting off the subject here and probably deserve a punch in the nose. I am grateful to Mark for identifying the art (and fun) of satire "persiflage" and you know people are oh so gullible.. I'm sure you could convince someone the Speed Graphic is indeed a modern architectural digital measuring device!! Oh so much fun!!</p>

[nishnishant]

<p>So was there never any camera made that couldn't sense color? Just curious. I mean can you take the oldest ever camera made (hypothetically speaking), and put color film in it and get regular color prints?</p>

[conrad_hoffman]

<p>Nice stereos JDM. Just relax your eyes to see triple, then focus on the center image. No viewer needed.</p>

[ridinhome]

<p>You're not going to believe this...was out with some other friends last night and was boasting about my other recent classic film camera purchase and I got the same question. Maybe it's me?</p>

[ridinhome]

<p>Just noticed this - even Leica use the word analog to describe their film cameras. <br>

http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/m8/</p>

[silverscape]

hey Chuck, I definitely agree with you...the whole "analog" thing really gets on my nerves too. No one ever called film cameras "analog" until digital point and shoot cameras became popular. It's pretty much just a new, fad hipster term that became popular a couple of years ago. And it doesn't even really make sense anyway. You can have an analog watch, an analog multimeter, or an analog signal, but saying "analog camera" doesn't make sense.

 

I never call film "analog." What's wrong with just saying "film camera"?

 

And for what it's worth, all my friends know that I shoot film and I actually NEVER hear anyone call it "analog." They just call it film. Also, I have friends that are a big mix of ages...some of them are around 18 and 19 years old. But they all know exactly how film cameras work. My friend TJ is 18, but he even has a lot of family pictures and pictures with his friends on 35mm film. He just moved recently, and I was helping him to sort through a bunch of negatives. They do have a lot of picutres from a digital camera, but they used film too. And he didn't say "oh, these are my analog pictures." He just called it film and negatives.

 

Heck, maybe I should start calling my cameras "silver halide light capturing devices."

[eyespy]

<p> <br>

the photo.net site owners appear to be prejudiced/biased againt non members. I had a great response to the above that just got all crazy withn the response window ( typing slows, the sentence does not auto adust width.)Anyway the short version: Canon AE1 appears to be one of the first cameras to use digital circuitry to enable the capture of light. The cam converted binary code to analog for voltage etc etc. ref: The Camera Craftsman March/April 77</p>

[silverscape]

Steve, that was just for auto exposure though, right? I just looked up the Canon AE-1 on Wikipedia and it was apparently the first camera to have a microprocessor. But I mean, it's still a 35mm film SLR. It's not like it actually captures the image digitally. But in that case, then you would be using the term "analog" correctly, where your converting between a digital and analog signal. To me, if someone is talking about a digital camera and a film camera, calling the film camera "analog" just because it isn't digital seems lame. Film has been around for over 100 years, why do we have to suddenly start making up new terms for it now?

 

hehehe....March of 1977. Wow. I wasn't even born yet.

[clark_yerrington]

<p>sometimes i go to outdoor parties during the summer and shoot pictures of 20- and 30-somethings, with a rolleiflex or some other weird old camera. good conversation starter, gets a lot of attention... and even after i tell them all about it, answer their questions, and they see me unloading and loading a roll of film -- after i take a candid portrait, they always crane their necks, looking at the back of the camera and want me to show them how the shot turned out! and i mumble, um, yeah, maybe in a few days... write down your email and i'll send you a link.<br>

the use of 'analog' to describe anything non-digital kind of drives me crazy, too.</p>

[dweezil]

<p>B.T.W even a digital camera records the image in an analog way; after exposing the sensor to the light each cell or photo site, will get an analog charge depending on the amount of light it got; then depending on the iso setting this value will be amplified in analogical way. After this step when the signal is big enough it will be digitised an processed digitally.<br>

And what did you call my camera? Analog? the thing you are holding is analog! Mine is acctully chemical ;-)</p>

[silverscape]

LOL...Erwin, that's a very good point. If people insist on giving a new name for film cameras and for some reason just saying "film" isn't good enough anymore...how about we just say "chemical." At least that would be more accurate! Light causes a chemical reaction on the film, at the molecular level. It's a photochemical camera. Hmm...or would that mean it glows in the dark? (isn't that photo-luminescence?)