james_kennedy9

<p>Before you all get excited, what I showed was the F-22 Flying Test Bed, and it was a modification to the very first Boeing 757, which Boeing retained for test purposes. You can see an actual F-22 wing mounted over the pilot compartment and an actual F-22 radar in the nose. It was an electronic F-22, and very useful in conductiong tests. Our initial testing was on the ground with the radar mounted on 5 story tower, but even there you get a lot of reflection off of buildings and ground clutter. My area of interest was situation awareness and I monitored how well we could detect, track, identify and bring simulated weapons to bear on target aircraft, as they went through preplanned maneuvers. I flew on the FTB over 40 times and it was the most fun you could have with your clothes on. We had sevel flights down to Edwards AFB, in the Mojave desert in California to use their instrument test ranges. The FTB had about a dozen computerized work stations and I sat in front of 4 Displays and could see what an F-22 pilot would be seeing, and could also monitor data bus traffic.</p>

<p>Dave, you mentioned the Boeing Stratocruiser and I had a lot flights on that aircraft including a flight as an ROTC cadet where we refueled a B-47 bomber over Labrador. That was cool when the B-47 appeared.</p>

<p>Sorry to be such a long winded bore, but in my 70s, although I love my two sheepdogs, they are not great talkers, and my wife has a lot of activities outside the home.</p>

<p>My god, Peter, I was just going to sumit, when I spotted the beautiful E-17 Staggerwing Beechcraft just below. My father-in-law owned one, so yet another plane I flew on. That plane flew faster and was far more comfortable than C-47 gooney that bird Dave showed photos of.</p>

<p>Dave, great looking camera, wonderful photos of your father and the planes, enjoyed the explanations. You should be very proud of your father. Wow, 19 years old and became a pilot.</p>

<p>As a grade schooler during WW2, it is amazing how much we followed the war, and aircraft were my primary interest. Niagara Falls Air Force Base was just out of town and Bell Aircraft shared the field so we saw quite a few planes. Bell built the P-39 Air Cobra, and I think most of them wound up in Russia, because it carried a 37mm cannon with the muzzle in the propellor hub and had a tricycle landing gear. It was somewhat under powered not favored by the Yanks or the Brits. Bell also built the X-1, the first supersonic aircaft. Fort Niagara, built by the French in the early 1700s, was an active Army Post, and many German POWs were kept there. On a Sunday drive, we would see them playing soccer, and they all looked healthy and well fed, and probably happy to be not serving on the Russian front. Another aspect of the war that interest me a lot but I can't find any good sources, is that German POWs in the US midwest be placed on American farms and lived with farmers' family, did farm work, and I have never heard anything negative about it. Any kid growing up during war had hero worship for our troops. When I went to college, ROTC was madatory, and I was in Air Force ROTC 1954-58, and many instructers had served in the war. I decided to go for a military commission, because during that era, every healthy male was going to serve in the Military in some capacity, and it appeared that being an officer was advantageous. I would have loved to be a pilot, but I am color blind (red-green) so that was ruled. I became a weather officer and my organization, Air Weather Service, owned the Hurricane Hunters and Typhoon Chasers. I volunteered for those, but color blindness kept me out of that too. Went I left AWS HQ to take an ROTC assignment at UW in 1977, we had all female typhoon chasers flying out of guam who did typoon penetrations. Coming on active duty in 1958, there were still a huge number of WW2 and Korean War people in the service and I loved hearing the tales and quite a few of them had been POWs. I attended the 10 month Air War College starting in July 1973, great timing, because about 40 Vietnam POWs who had been released in Feb 1973, joined our class, and I got to know nearly all of them.</p>

<p>Rick, I would have guessed Curtiss P-40. I don't think I had even heard of the Hi-61, so I googled photos of both, and you may be correct, Rick, but if I had to bet, I think I would go with the P-40. After I spent 13 years on the B-1B for Boeing the the crews called the bone, rhymes with phone, I had 11 years on the F-22 stealth fighter, and I will post a photo of the F-22 taken when I was flying it and going out to sortie over NE state of Washington accompanied by four F-16 fighter that would be the enemy. Be very perceptive about aircraft, you will have no trouble distinguishing the F-22 in the center.</p>

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

<p>Thanks, Subb and Dave. My wife was born and raised in Bellevue Her mother graduated from Bellevue High in the 30s. We moved back to Bellevue in 1977, live a long block away from 148th NE which the boundary between Bellevue and Redmond. My first three years was at Udub, where I held every position from student to department chairman and senator. My wife is also a grad. And then I worked at Boeing for 24 years. If I worked at Microsoft, I could have walked to work in 10 minutes to the western edge of its truly gigantic campus. Many of your country men and women work for MS.</p>

<p>My wife and I viewed all of the photos and enjoyed them. Not being a native, I could only recognize a few scenes from the 70s. This region is beautiful and has the world's nicest summers. Except for last year, when summer never arrived. But auto traffic is horrible, often 24/7. Even the interstates become parking lots when going through Seattle. I wish I had been more obsessed with cameras earlier. I never leave home nowadays without at least one camera, and often practise drive-by shooting with a digital even when I am the driver. But I am careful. Early on the Air Force sent me to NYU in the Bronx for a year, later to two years at MIT. Not a single photo. I discovered photography when I was sent to Saigon and bought a Konica auto S2. Of course, Saigon was different and exotic to all westerners. But when I returned to the land of the big PX, I put the camera away. There is nothing worth wasting film on during the 4 years I was in Nebraska. But my job was involved imagery, but it came from classified weather satellites and super secret spy satellites.</p>

<p>For those of you who might like a peek at a highly classified and very successful spy satellite from the late 60s, google "NRO corona". Spy satellites then used film, had a lifetime of about 2 weeks, and ejected film cannisters that were snatched in mid air by special C-130s near Hawaii. It has been 35 years since I was debrieded, but I would be the firm on digital. The spy satellites in my era didn't use 35mm, it was much larger and took stereo photos.</p>

<p>Great photos. Well done.</p>

<p>Dave, I was in Kintergarten on 7 December 1941 and my Uncle Bill was an Army Air Corps NCO stationed at Hickham Field, Honolulu, on that date. I love WW2 memorabilia. I am a retired Air Force colonel, have a daughter who is a retired Air Force lt colonel and whose husband is a retired Air Force colonel and B-1B pilot and my youngest son had two tours in Iraq as a junior Army officer. </p>

<p>Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>Since many of you have asked what makes of camera I use, I use Kodak Retinas, Canon FDs, Nikon SLR and DSLRs, Minolta MC and MD, Pentax screwmounts, Konicas, Leicas, Zeiss Ikons, Voigtlanders, Bronica, Rollie 35, Yashica, and a few Kievs.</p>

<p>I hope this narrows it down for you.</p>

<p>I truly believe that this it the best informed forum on photo.net. I own many cameras but which are the best lenses?</p>

<p>Rick, I will go back and ponder the responses, because you are one of my icons here.</p>

<p>Thanks for the quiz. Before the answer was shown, I guessed Exacta because of the unique body, and I thought it must be a Cosmonaut. Very clean cut and good looking. Yuri was a perfect choice because everyone in the world could love him. It was probably a requirement but I read that he was quite short.</p>

<p>The US Air Force sent me to MIT 1962-1964 where I acquired two masters degrees, one in meteorology and the other in aeronautics-astronautics. There were several hundred military students attending MIT, the greatest technical school on the planet. My classmates on the astro side included Buzz Aldrin, Edgar Michell and Charlie Duke, all of whom would be future moon walkers. Aldrin and Mitchell were pursuing PhDs, but Charlie was going for a masters and we had about 8 courses together. We were all young 1/Lts or captains and I attended Charlie's promotion party when he made captain. I had two one-on-one sessions with him post moon flight when he visited Seattle.</p>

<p>Charlie flew on Apollo 16, but for those of you who recall the first landing in 1969, you may recall someone in Houston saying to the Eagle, in a southern accent, "You have a bunch of us here about to turn blue". That was Charlie and he was from South Carolina and a 1957 grad of the Naval Academy. In those days before the first graduating class of the Air Force Academy in 1959, West Pointers and Naval Acad grads were permitted to go into the Air Force and Charlie was one of them.</p>

<p>Spotmatics are great cameras and the F was the best of the bunch. Does not require stop down metering, and although I believe this is argued to death, I think Spotmatics have a bridge circuit that allows you to use modern 1.5v batteries. Never use alkalines. Spotmatics have a very nice feel in the hand. The 105mm lens is excellent.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>As photographers, maybe we should "Honor old virtues" by enjoying our real classics, and get up to speed with new technology rather than attempting to embrace hybrids.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Rick, for the life of me, I can't understand what you mean in this sentence. Honor old virtues and get up to speed with new technology seem to be in conflict with each other.</p>

<p>JDM, are you sure they are not phony Leica copies?<br>

The towns where Leicas were designed and made were in West Germany.<br>

Unfortunately, Zeiss was in East Germany.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I agree. I'd rather get a Leica and be done with it.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I did spend about $1200 for a LN Leica M6 classic that came in the box and had some extras like lenses.<br>

The problem is that I am afraid to use it.</p>

<p><em> </em>I know, this is the classic camera forum, but you may enjoy reading the article by David Pogue, which appeared in today's NY Times on the Fuji x100. I would love to have one, but $1200?</p>

<p>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/technology/personaltech/21pogue.html?ref=technology</p>

<p>Question #3. Don't you kinda have to be straddling the tracks in order to look for trains?</p>

<p>I love the Brits and that is my ancestry but they do have their quirks as we all do. I have only been to the UK once in 1985 and had a delightful trip. My oldest daughter and her husband were stationed in the UK in East Anglia, she at Lakenheath and he at Mildenhall, which are close together and they bought a house in Mildenhall of very recent vintage. It was a nice brick house, but in the bathroom, it had of course twin faucets for hot and cold, so shaving was an ooh! and ah! event. The worst thing however was that the mirror was not over the sink but on a different wall. I don't even want to know why the Brits prefer what we call wax paper for toilet tissue. But I loved the pubs and true to my heritage, I loved the haggis I ate near the beautiful city of Edinburgh, and really enjoyed walking on the wall that encircles York. I wonder if the Brit series "Doc Martin" has made it New Zealand. It is a smash hit here in the States, shown on public TV, and I can't wait for season 5 to begin. It takes place in a small fishing village near Land's End in Cornwall, where apparently there are blue skies every day of the year and no one needs a winter coat.</p>

<p>As soon as I saw the first photo of the camera, I asked myself how the devil do you hold it. Thanks for explaining. It would appear to be awkward. Very nice photos, however.<br>

Question #2. What is the purpose of that thing on the back of the Toyota that appears to be a very poorly placed side view mirror?</p>

<p>Sadanand, nice looking camera and a great performer in your hands. Can you reveal the locale of the shots. I ask because the jogging path looks quite a bit like Green Lake in northern Seattle WA.</p>

<p>But you are on the slippery slope. My first AF film Nikon I ever had was an F100 which I bought about 4 years ago for $500.00 It is impossible not to like the F100. Then a year later, a Nikon F4s for $350. And about 6 months ago I foolishly speculated that I was ending my quest for film cameras. Whereupon, I have since bought an F90s, an N80, and an F5. And that is just mentioning the Nikons. </p>

<p>Most of what I shoot is stationary, so autofocus speed is not a big deal. When I take shots of my two Old English Sheepdogs, autofocus is nice to keep up with them. The F5 autofocus is noticeably faster than the F4s, but it is still by split seconds. Might be important if photographing high speed sports. I like autofocus mainly because my eyesight is not the greatest. I lost the high rez of my right eye due to a condition known macular edema, with just enough peripheral resolution to provide 3D vision, but I can't read a billboard with that eye. If I close my left eye while driving, the car in front of me disappears into a gray blob. Why I like telling this is because they tried some experimental techniques on me (they admited there is no known cure). It involved injecting hormones into my eyeball with a needle. </p>

<p>I really like the rubbery finish of the N80, F100, and F5, and am glad they kept it up with the digitals. I wish I had it on my F4s and N90. It seems as though the camera is glued to your hand. At my favorite local camera store, which has a good inventory of used stuff, one of the salesman said that he sold a lot of F100s by just asking the customer to hold one in their hands. I can see why. It feels as if it were custom made just for me.</p>

<p>I reviewed what Matanle had to say in book on classic SLRs. He definitely like the Sensorex with just two minor quibbles. He thought they may not be up to the rough and tumble world of the pros, at least as much as the Nikon heavyweights, and he said it might to tough to assemble a range of lenses, but you have that covered. He suggested carefully checking out the shutter.</p>

<p>The pro thing would not be a concern of mine. At my age, I don't risk life, limb and camera just to get a photograph. </p>

<p>Lovely looking camera, Rick. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I don't believe I have ever held a Miranda. I will have to see what Ivor Matanle has to say about them. It is always exciting when you receive a box in the mail. Best wishes.</p>

<p>Can you still get polaroid film for a graflex xs camera?</p>

<p>It is posted in Modern Film Cameras.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>f/1.2 and a fastest shutter speed of 1/1000s? Shouldn't you be praying for storms?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Bon Matin, Jean-Yves. The f/1.2 lens and the Rollei arrived yesterday, still daylight but not enough time to go on an expedition. But I went out my rear deck just to see how it looked through the viewfinder of my most recent Nikon F which has the FTn meter modified to take 1.5v batteries, which I have only had for 2 weeks. I set the aperture to 1.2 and yes, it would have required a faster speed than 1/1000s.</p>

<p>Right now it is 11 AM in Seattle (Bellevue, actually) and my wife and I are still in our bathrobes perusing the Seattle Times and NY Times. It is sunny and I hope to make it to Mount Vernon to see the tulips, but first, another cup of coffee, and the Travel section. Even approaching the age of 75, life is still worth living. And this forum is one of my joys.</p>

<p>They include a made in germany rollie with a zeiss lens and a 55 f/1.2 lens on a Nikon F.</p>

<p>because this is what I will be using</p><div></div>

<p>Lovely photos, Rick. As a former US Air Force meteorologist, I really enjoyed the initial photos of the condition known as ground fog. This phenomenon prematurely aged me when I was stationed near Atlanta, Georgia at a NORAD regional HQ 50 years ago, and we would scramble jet fighters at any aircraft coming towards us from overseas that deviated from the filed flight plans. The fighters could stay up for 90 minutes max, and when scrambled near dawn, the danger of widespread ground fog under clear skies was always present. Clear skies meant that the ground would radiatively cool to the dew point, at which time water vapor would condense and would form dew, but could also appear in the form of ground fog, which would make landings hazardous in those dark ages. NORAD is an acronym for North American Air Defense, and our partners were our Canadian brethren. In Canada, we had several coast to coast lines of radar coverage known as the Dew (distant early warning) line, the mid-Canada line, and the pine tree line.</p>