CMC Someday #18 - “Classics” - do they take 'great' pictures?

[JDMvW]

<p><strong>CMC Someday #18 - “Classics” - do they take 'great' pictures?</strong><br /><br />Our cameras are ‘classic’ and our pictures are 'great', but what about <br /><br /><br />“it should come as no surprise to anyone that cameras, unless broken, are capable of taking pictures. Whether old or not. Film or other. “<br /><br /><br />Actually, to some of us it is a perpetual surprise, even a joy, to find old cameras still working - heck, many of them (Perfex, anyone?) didn’t work all that well when they were brand new.<br /><br /><br />Here is a camera that is a classic by most people’s definition — the <strong>Contax D -</strong> the slightly revised version of the Contax S that started the whole eye-level SLR camera infestation (no quibbling about some obscure European cameras hardly anyone bought).</p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>On this one, unlike another I have, the slow-speed mechanism sometimes more-or-less randomly engaged, so<br>

here are two sequential banal photographs taken with it, one working, one with the slow speed auto-engaging.<br /><br /><br>

**I am curious whether anyone wants to continue doing this only “picture of the whatever” series here on CMC.**<br /><br /><br />If you want this to go on, post a picture of a working or non-working CMC camera and some results taken with it, “great” or not.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>Oh, this sounds fun. I'll play!</p>

<p>This is a photo of my Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 6x9 folder. Well, not mine. I pulled this fine photo from Wiki. But this one is identical to mine, except mine looks a little bit, well... rough. Beat-up. It's gone on 2 whitewater boating (rafting) trips through the Grand Canyon, and while I didn't use it frequently, it seemed to do OK when I did use it.</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>Here's a banal photo from the first trip, in May 2011, around Mile 35. I consider it banal because when I saw we had good light, I composed the shot and tripped the shutter. Didn't even stop the boat.</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>I have a second, less banal, much more technically demanding photo. It's of star trails, photographed with the same camera, from the bottom of Grand Canyon, Mile 88, Hance Rapid, December 2012.</p>

<p>It's a 7-hour exposure, with the camera aimed at the North Star between 2 cliffs on a moonless night.</p>

<p>It was a tough shot to get. It was cold, below freezing. I had to hike out of camp in the dark, frame the shot by guess and by golly, set up the tripod and camera at 9:00 PM, open the shutter, and go to bed until 3:00 AM.... when I got up, hiked to the camera, closed the shutter, retrieved my gear, and crawled back into my warm sleeping back.</p>

<p>Not only that, but the camera had been left out in the rain on a prior attempt a few days earlier, and the lens had developed condensation. So I'd had to unscrew the front element, dry things as best I could, and.... it still had the condensation. So I had been setting it out in the sun, when we were in camp and had sun, in the hopes that the lens would be OK before the moon began rising each night later in the trip.</p>

<p>Eventually, everything came together, and I had success, IMO. Though I had no way to know that at the time....</p>

<p>This is one of the most technically demanding photos I've taken, and physically demanding too. 3 of my 4 attempts simply didn't work, or clouds came in, or it rained. But thanks to the crudity and repairability and just plain cheap looseness of a CMC, I *got* the shot.</p><div></div>

[User_5050610]

<p>JDM--I really enjoy seeing "pix of whatever" because they are always different--the kind of "you're not from around here" genre--please keep posting, everyone.<br>

Thanks!<br>

Paul</p>

[doug grosjean]

<p>Here's another, even older CMC. This is a Kodak Panoram No. 1, dating to about 1900. 120-film can be spooled onto 620 spools, and that works well. This isn't a photo of mine, but mine looks pretty much the same as this one.</p>

<p>There's no shutter. Instead you cock the lens, and when you trip the shutter, the lens swings from one side to the other, painting the image onto the film as it goes.</p>

<p>This is Geronimo's Trading Post, in eastern Arizona, along old Route 66. Photo taken in July 2007, while driving all of Route 66 in a softtop Jeep with my son.</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>And here's the photo taken with the Panoram, which was somewhere between 80-110 years old at that time....</p><div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

<p>Guess I always expect the worst, and I'm often pleasantly surprised by just how good they really are. Take this beautiful old Karat, for example. No idea if the pics are "<em>great</em>" or not... But the camera's really competent.</p><div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

<p>No.2</p><div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

<p>No.3</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>Another favorite old clunker for taking banal photographs is the Ciro-Flex twin-lens camera. I have owned a couple or more, and kept a Model-F for its good lens. It's crude, solid, loose, heavy..... I dropped one in the living room and worried more about the hardwood floor than about the camera. But all those traits make it robust to the harsh environment of the bottom of Grand Canyon, so it went on the May-June 2011 trip.</p>

<p>So here's a Ciro-Flex that's much nicer than mine....</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>And here's a photo taken with that same model camera, around May or June 2011, in the bottom of Grand Canyon at Tappeats Rapid, at the mouth of Tappeats Creek.</p><div></div>

[allancobb]

<p>Oh the banality, it's killing me but I love it! Nice cameras and photos everyone.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Most picture threads start being about a camera, but after post one and the obligatory showing of the camera are about anything but the camera. Cars and other motorized vehicles. Playing war. Not old cameras.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I'm obligating myself to display this Zeiss 520/18 "Baby Ikonta" using a 50mm f/4.5 Novar and a 3-speed Derval shutter with an accompanying roll of 127-sized Tri-X that expired in 1979.</p>

<p><img id="yui_3_11_0_3_1396244218667_433" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7308/12785109644_50c8ec5203_z.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Followed by a shot of the lobby of the Brown Hotel, Louisville Kentucky (built in 1926); using the old Ikonta with the old film in an old hotel.</p>

<p><img id="yui_3_11_0_3_1396244356655_429" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7211/13252100464_3af12a5596_c.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>This shot is from that old expired roll of 127 Tri-X. The camera may not be all that great, as well as the photo, but the hotel and the Kentucky bourbon they serve at the bar definitely are!</p>

<p>Who's next?</p>

[podstawek]

<p>Old Yashica A which I bought for nothing from an estate sale. Here photographed using another classic, Mamiya C3. The Yashica was very dirty, hadn't been used for decades, and smelled mold. All it needed was a thorough cleanup, and it was good to take pictures.</p>

<p><img src="http://podstawczynski.com/zdjecia/yashicaA.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>A few pictures taken with this camera (more, including color samples, can be found <a href="http://podstawczynski.com/blog/?p=162">on my blog</a>):</p>

<p><img src="http://podstawczynski.com/zdjecia/1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://podstawczynski.com/zdjecia/2.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://podstawczynski.com/zdjecia/3.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[CoryAmmerman]

<p>JDM, I do enjoy these threads, and hope you continue starting them. I like to contribute when I have a camera that fits the theme, and I've actually gotten around to putting a roll through it. Even when I don't have anything to add, I like seeing other's examples. I often see cameras that I've never seen before. </p>

<p>One of my classics that I also consider to be a good picture taker is my Yashica-Mat. I've only managed to get out with it once. Something that I need to remedy.</p>

<p> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17722715-lg.jpg" alt="yashica mat" width="464" height="700" border="0" /><br>

The camera</p>

<p> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17722716-md.jpg" alt="img211" width="680" height="672" border="0" /><br>

One Shot<br>

<br>

<br>

<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17722717-md.jpg" alt="img214" width="680" height="672" border="0" /><br>

One more</p>

[doug grosjean]

<p>Not my favorite camera, but the only 4x5 camera I own.... a Burke & James 4x5 press camera. Mine is beat-up, not so nice as the one in the photo. But....</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>It has its moments. Photo of my Dad, taken in 2009, on a cloudy day in the backyard using a black backdrop propped against the garage in the shade.</p><div></div>

[richard_]

<p>one of my favorite old-time camera: Agfa Isolette l with 3-element (non-coated) 85/4.5 Agnar lens. 6x6cm and scale focus. About as basic as it gets my friends - but does offer exposure control...</p><div></div>

[richard_]

<p>and a photo taken several years ago somewhere in Napa Valley, Ca (wine country).<br>

I'm was more interested in creating mood here, so i purposely kicked it out of focus (by adjusting the aperture and focus). And the Flare imo turned out to be a added bonus :)</p><div></div>

[AJG]

<p>Here is my classic: a color dial Contax IIIA with 3.5 cm f/2.5 W Nikkor mounted and 5 cm f/2 Zeiss-Opton Sonnar with eBay special vented lens hood. Thanks to Photonet members for steering me to the W Nikkor last year, a less expensive and satisfactory alternative to the post war Zeiss Biogon 35. The Edward Gorey house is taken with the W Nikkor, the other with the Sonnar. The unusual thing here is probably the functional and accurate selenium cell meter on the Contax. Both shot on Tri-X developed in Sprint film developer and printed on Ilford Multigrade, scanned on an Epson all in one.</p><div></div>

[AJG]

<p>Next image:</p><div></div>

[AJG]

<p>The camera and lenses.</p><div></div>

[RCap]

<p>One of my favorite classic cameras.</p><div></div>

[RCap]

<p>Lower Manhattan from the Fall of 2013 with Tri-X 400.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>