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Cameras Discussion on Cameras of all types

Historic cameras/lenses and other exotic bits of kit.

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  #1  
Old 31-08-08, 17:28
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Default Historic cameras/lenses and other exotic bits of kit.

At Sassans suggestion I will start this one off with what is probably the most exotic hand held light meter ever made ... the SEI Photometer.
Measuring angle 1/2 deg spot and was the meter Ansel Adams used when he developed the Zone System.

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/sei.html
http://www.kcbx.net/~mhd/2photo/film/expose/sei.htm

Don
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Old 31-08-08, 19:44
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Good start and nice catch.

I am amazed by the extend of knowledge a photographer had to earn before getting into business on those days, physics, chemistry, math, art... Isn't it strange that now, even a most unexperienced person can come up with a wonderful image just with a very little luck and effort!
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Old 31-08-08, 20:36
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As for me, there is one that I am totally obsessed with.
It is a monster to create very little image of all the big things and in every sense, is an engineering miracle.

"Nikon 6mm fisheye"

At one point I believed this is another creation of those guys who made a movie in a dark room, calling "Man walking on the Moon" and wanted us to believe man actually has walked on the moon! Well my paranoid is all gone now after seeing 3 of it for sale so far in past 8 years on ebay.
As per history (A good review exist here) this was made only by special order and only few are actually made. Three were shown in USA as display in major cities and one, in Chicago that was on window display, was ran into by a car and it disappeared with no trace!!!

At above 5 Kg weight, this 24 cm in diameter, non-AI fish eye F/2.8, 12 elements in 9 groups lens with amazing angle of 220 degree that means not only sees and record anything in front of it (180 degree in x and y axis), but it takes extra look to what is behind it, so the legs of tripod and photographer behind and form other end, head of photographer are all in the field of view of picture. I hope by giving the info here, I am not adding more competitors to hunt on of these baby s but I really first like to share the knowledge and then learn if any one of you actually has seen or touch it real world. As for now, sweet dreams for me. Truly this is best to be kept in a museum if you can find and donate it to place of your interest.

This is the picture of last one that I sadly witnessed getting sold twice on ebay and couldn't afford it (Well divorce will cost me a lot more...). I hope I am not in breaking of any applicable laws by uploading this imformative image as the ebay auction is gone now and pictures do not exist any more so I can't quot the auction number.

[img=http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1826/nikon6mmmf3.th.jpg]
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Last edited by sassan; 31-08-08 at 20:54.
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Old 31-08-08, 20:50
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Whooooo, Now that's an impressive bit of kit and wouldn't attract some attention when using it.

24cm diameter - Massive!

Keep it up chaps, this thread is going to be a real interesting read.
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Old 01-09-08, 17:47
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Default Instant image review

Nice one Sassan.

Now for something we all take for granted in the digital world.
That is the ability to instantly review the shot ( chimp ). Back in the days of film the only option was to use Polaroid film in a seperate camera body.

Although Polariod film was per shot an expensive option it was used paticularly in a studio environment for lighting/composition checks. Also useful for determining the shot a client might want especially when they are standing over your shoulder and are not quite sure of what they really want. Lots of experience of this one.

With medium format cameras with detatchable backs like my old Bronica SQA, this is no problem as film backs could be instantly changed, with the film being protected from accidental exposure by a darkslide. Polaroid backs for medium format are fairly straight forward. As the polaroid film is on the film plane they require no special optical elements so cost little more than a standard roll film back.

With 35mm however it is a different story. Due to the shape of the camera body it is impossible to get a polaroid film pack on the film plane, and so any back needs to contain an optical element to bridge the gap. The simplest if you can call it that was the NPC polaroid back. This used a fibre optic block to achieve that, but the downside of this back is that the final image is only 36x24 mm, the size of the film gate. The device was therefore quite an expensive option for such a small image view. The requirement existed though, as these were produced for a wide range of camera models.
Link to NPC site http://www.gwdigitalandphoto.com/proback2.cfm

Mikami overcame the image size problem specifically for Nikon F and F2 series by developing a special polaroid back. The Speed Magny.
Necessarily it was quite a bulky device, with the image relayed from the film gate through a lens onto a 45 deg silvered mirror. From that it passed through a Nikon enlarging lens onto another larger 45 deg silvered mirror which projected the image onto the polaroid film.

Two links from mir.com and you need to scroll down a bit on each one to view the Speed Magny.
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...htm#SpeedMagny
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...agic/index.htm

An additional link from the Nikon Historical Society, at the bottom of the page shows a Nikon F with the Speed Magny attatched and a resulting polaroid shot.
http://akiroom.com/redbook-e/kenkyuk...kai200709.html

Don
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Old 01-09-08, 19:59
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Hoey View Post

Now for something we all take for granted in the digital world.
That is the ability to instantly review the shot ( chimp ). Back in the days of film the only option was to use Polaroid film in a seperate camera body.


Don

You are absolutely right Don and how much we have come so far!
Vividly remember the days of Polaroid back and could always fantasize "How marvelous would it be to see the actual result of setting you put up on the manual cameras of 70s in an instant image, with out waiting for film role to be finished, rewind, got it to photographer's shop, developed, fixed, pictured and finally viewed by the paper picture in matter of weeks, with no ability of general photographer to contribut at all in post processing except may be chosing the glossy or non glossy paper...that is unless he is runnig his own photoshop and non virtual color darkroom. B & W was obviously a different story.
Of course after all dealing with the image size etc, the Polaroid result was dependent on its chemical and factors that could be something erroneous or not reproducible by the final image on the film ....


Your last link had a beautiful image of all the "Black Knights" the History of the Black Photomic Finders towards the end of the article.
Do you remember the switch from silver metal body, to black?


Here are two other great fish eye lenses of Nikon, one AF. Wish I could find a way to attach the images permanently to this web page as they will die when ebay remove the auction in 90 days time after auction ends.

LINK - 1

LINK - 2
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Old 01-09-08, 23:34
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Found some reference material to the 1.3mp F3 digital camera variant a college tutor brought in on loan during my degree. My first introduction to digital imaging;
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...odak/index.htm

Pretty exactic back then, but a bit of a mino compared to the technology available today

"this digital imaging lark will never catch on" lol
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Old 02-09-08, 00:45
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Good one Joe.
To surprise you, I still take picture with my DCS NC2000e Kodak/Nikon based DSLR that uses Nikon N90s body (Not F3), very similar to the one on your mir link.

**************

Here is probably the most expensive piece of glass you can ever buy (Price divided by weight or size of what you get), or almost;
It is a converter that on early dates of Canon switching from FD / FL mount lenses to EOS, was used to keep the heavily invested professional photographers on expensive long focal length lens, happy with transition thus enabling them to use old expensive lens, on new camera bodies (Still film base camera bodies).

Ebay LINK

Canon has long stopped making them and I believe only 1 to 2 thousand of them were ever produced. There are cheaper Chinese version now a days too, but due to typically low quality glass used, they reduce the IQ significantly as opposed to real Canon deal that makes no noticeable change in IQ when used on long length old FD Canon's lenses.
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Old 02-09-08, 16:24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sassan View Post
...............Do you remember the switch from silver metal body, to black?
The Nikon F's passed me by. All about afordability, and in those days these were seriously expensive bits of kit. By the time the 80's arrived I made up for lost time by getting F2's. F2 metering heads I have had are DP-2 , DP-11, and still have DP-12. If you are a fan of the F then check out this site, lots of great images of F kit from that era. This guy is a serious collector .
http://www.destoutz.ch/nikon-f.html

Black v chrome, then that really got underway in the 60's. Black being promoted as the 'pro' finish. Mind you, you did have to pay extra for it. From my receipts from the 1980's a black FM2 was £12 more than a chrome version. Lessons learnt for me from my Pentax Spotmatic from 1968 which was black and new, but that finish was not as durable as chrome and the camera quite quickly showed signs of brassing where the black had worn away. Black was, and still is, the collectors favorite and I had a black F2A that actually gained £200 in value over the three years I had it. This was probably down to keeping it in the base portion of the never ready case so protecting the finish, and never using it in the rough and tumble. So from a durability point of view my other F2's were chrome.

I see the second lens link is from the Nikonos RS. Probably the most famous user of one of the earlier versions was Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Don
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Old 02-09-08, 16:30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe View Post
Found some reference material to the 1.3mp F3 digital camera variant a college tutor brought in on loan during my degree. My first introduction to digital imaging;
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...odak/index.htm

Pretty exactic back then, but a bit of a mino compared to the technology available today

"this digital imaging lark will never catch on" lol
A good read Joe, and yes and I was one of those. From 1988 through to 2003 I was primarily a medium format user and so paid scant attention to those early digital days. With the release of the D100 and ensuing publicity I realised that for my needs the writing was on the wall so for me it was then the exit film. So while I know a fair bit about film cameras from 1960 to 1990 I know nothing of the early digital era. Memories of saying I would not buy a computer until they had at least 6gb hard drive due to the speed of development.

As we are looking back at kit in this thread then I will post a link to my other great desire from the late 1970's ............ The Hasselblad 501C/M. On my salary pipe dream stuff.
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Hasselblad_500_C/M

By 1988 I could afford a decent m/f outfit and bought into the Bronica SQA system. Hugely more affordable than the Hassie 501. Superior interlocks and operation, and with PS lenses capable of the same image quality. I cannot find a non e-Bay link to SQ images, but here are a couple for the ETRS which although similar was smaller.
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Bronica_ETR
http://www.myphotoweb.com/Zenza_bron..._col/index.htm Click images in the left pane for a larger view.

Stevie had an ETRS outfit for 6 years before the weight finally got to her, and following a burglary spent a good slice of the insurance money on a new F3 instead .

Don
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