A trip down memory lane
 

Joes comment on the Nikkormat, and Adey's OM1 made me think of this.

Since getting into photography, I have over the years gone through the upgrade path. Be it the ability to be able to afford what was a ' dream machine ' ( boys & toys ), kit purchased to suit a particular style as the hobby developed, or keeping up with the latest technology.

It would be interesting to see other members lists just to remember some fine names, and chart the introduction of developments over the years.

My list starting in 1966 with the advent of through the lens metering. Until then most meters were hand held or clip on.

Miranda G ...... Interchangeable view finders. With non coupled TTL metering head. Loads cheaper than the Nikon F. Bought when I was in the RAF in Aden.
Pentax Spotmatic ..... M42 thread lens mount. Top kit for its day. The end of pre set lenses. ( on early lenses the aperture control was a twin ring set up. Decide the setting and set the master ring. The second ring was used to open the lens up for focusing and then twisted back to the stop on the master ring before taking the exposure. How things have developed. )

Nikkormat FTN ..... traded the Spotmatic for this. Body only cost was £165 and I was on £12 a week. Petrol was 5s 3p a gallon. Thats nearly 4 galls to the pound.
Nikkormat FT3 ..... Introduction of AI coupling. No more twist each way to couple the lens to metering system when changing lenses.
Nikon FM ..... had 2 of these- kit bag now getting heavier. Leap up in metering technology. LED meter display, very fast response. The end of slow response CDS cells.
Nikon FE ..... Battery powered with aperture priority auto mode. Quickly sold. Let down by batteries in the cold.
Nikon F2S ..... Finally at the dream range. Back to twist and turn to couple the meter. This head could meter down to -2EV. Led display great for low light use.
Nikon F2A ..... AI so auto lens / meter coupling. Traded this for my wifes Bronica ETRS kit ( straight swop ). I needed to get her involved and therefore ' on side ' for future spends.
Nikon F2AS ..... The ultimate incarnation of the F2 range. Amongst the finest mechanical cameras ever made.
Nikon F3 ..... Back up for the F2AS. Quieter shutter. Battery dependance solved by using motor drive supply. The start of electronics, my first camera that relys on special lead for remote shutter operation. But it still takes interchangeable heads and screens.

Bronica SQA ..... A venture into medium format. Good kit. Could not afford Hassleblad. I used the CDS vertical finder as a solution to the rubbish that gets on the focusing screen when the flip up type is used. Still had a reversed image on screen. This camera really slowed me down in the landscape. I still miss the large viewfinder image.
De Vere 5 x 4 ..... A distraction brought about by the search for swings and tilts control in still life. I got it for very little and modified it to accept the Bronica body. That was just before Fuji released the GS680 6x9 cm which I really fancied but could not justify, as due to its size this is studio kit.
Agfa Record ..... Folding 6 x 9cm. Used for outdoor pop concerts. Its standard lens is 105mm so a 35mm crop of the neg made it like a super telephoto. Security just laughed whenever they saw it.
Olympus XA .... Very compact aperture priority. Limited range finder focus due to it small size.
Various 6 x 6cm folders that I have aquired and used as large neg. compacts.

Nikon D100 ...... A new age.

What next ?

Don

These are a list of cameras I have had in my past when I did photography full time before I went into the Mail order 24hour B and White development, no machinery purely hand printed.

Large Format Press Camera
Voiglander. Can't remember the type but sold it recently for a lot of money it was a rare one.
Yashika twin lens reflex with 35mm insert still have that. A brilliant camera

A few Kodak Brownies. Leicas. Still have an old film one.

Medium format. Mamiya 645 with various lens to do weddings, parties, baby portraits. A devil to carry all the equipment to venues, backdrops lighting ect.

First 35mm Pentax ME Super
35mm Pentax LX I wanted through the lens metering. Lots of various lens.
Had a long break 20yrs only used point and shoot.

Then onto Digital.
Konica 310Z still carry that in handbag for enmergencies.
Canon 300d passed over to hubby. Bought him 100-400 IS lens for Christmas.
Canon 350D. Lens 18-55,75-300, 170-500, converters 1.4 and 2x, Macro bellows,tubes, and 50mm lens.
Oh Forgot to mention I have met Lord Litchfield and Terence Donovan his photo's were inspirational(Speed of light,Speed of light)

I think thats it
Bye the way Don My dad was posted in Aden.

Christine

I think your Yashica is the 635. A buddy in Aden had one. Very neat idea. One camera and a choice of 120 or 35mm film.
Voiglander, I know some of these are worth a bit. A friend got a Nikon FG outfit in a trade in deal some years ago.

TD's phrase ' speed of light ' will live with me for ever.

My, my, have you had a busy life in the world of photography. :)

Don

In yesterdays rummage in the old kit bag I found 2 old light meters. Just taken quick pics - nothing fancy also of my Gossen. I am guessing that the Johnsons manual calculator is from the 50's. Lots will recognise the Weston as it was sold in various Marks over a long period. The Gossen is far more up to date and I still use it. The attachment clips on the front and gives 15 and 7.5 degree area readings.

When you put all three together and then consider todays fancy built in systems it shows how far technology has advanced.

Don

My first photos must have been taken some time during the '50s with my Mother's Box Brownie or my Dad's Ensign Greyhound.

My first 'exhibited' shots were two photos taken in Paris, with my sister's Brownie 127 during a school trip in April 1962. They were selected along with some from other pupils to illustrate the trip report on the school noticeboard.

I'd always been fascinated by photography though I was completely ignorant of the mechanics/processes involved - it was all magic to me!

When I started work in 1963 my first 'big' purchase was my very own camera at last! A Kodak Instamatic 200 with drop-in 126 cartridge and 'dial the weather' exposure. I thought it was the dog's whatsits and it went everywhere with me.

There was something missing from my photography but I didn't know quite what that was until my mate showed me his SLR (a Zenith C!) with both 50mm and 135mm lenses. It was one of those life-changing (and wallet-emptying!) experiences.

I bought a Practica L with seperate meter,35mm, 50mm and 135mm lenses and set off, whenever I could, to photograph the surrounding area from every angle. Having been a shift-worker for over thirty years, I've always had some daylight hours available during the week,so this gave me lots of opportunities.

I added a second 'LLC' body and, more significantly, a 400mm Soligor pre-set F6.3 lens to see if I could get any worthwhile shots of the local birds and other wildlife. My Zenith-owning mate had also introduced me to the basics of developing and printing my own films so I would shoot whatever I could in the day and then process at night and, hopefully, identify any mystery birds from the resultant blurred images!

The Practicas were quite noisy so the introduction of the Olympus OM1 was a godsend with its quieter cloth shutter and dampened mirror. I could never afford their 400mm lens so had to make do with a 300mm, which was a bit too short, until Sigma re-introduced a 400mm Apo in about 1989. I added other bodies from time to time though I've not had much luck with OM auto bodies both OM2n and OM4 failing to well-known faults.

With the OM system obviously coming towards the end of its life in the late '90s I bought a Canon EOS50E to get into a system that wasn't going to disappear just when my camera bodies might need replacing! I also added another Sigma 400mm lens to fit the new body

From there I've moved on to a 20D digital body which is a whole new ball-game and by-passes all those crappy 'machine' enprints to show you how good a photographer you really are! I can't believe how much better my bird photos look now - I'm not doing anything differently at the taking stage (other than taking more shots!).

Along the way I've also bought and sold on an Olympus 35RC compact and a Leica M4 50th anniversary model with 35mm F2 (that had to go just before I got married to help pay for a car as my old one was falling to bits!)

I've also got a Sony S85 digital compact camera which is quite nice though a bit slow by today's standards

My first SLR was a Praktica - used mainly with a 135mm lens. Traded in fairly soon [we had a local camera shop back then] for a little black Nikon FG with 50mm lens - can't remember what other lens I added. Then, if memory serves me right, came the Nikon F301 - because it had an integral motor wind [a rather slow one]. Then came affordable and useable AF - must have been the Canon EOS600 - I can't remember why but I sold it to a friend who still has it. Had various other cameras - Minolta, Canon and Pentax - but lost interest for a number of years, and during that time used an old manual focus Canon bought for 30.00. Tried a little Kodak digital about 4 years ago and re-kindled the interest. Sold the old Canon for 35.00.
Digital cameras? I've used Minolta Dimage 5,7i, Z1 and S304, Olympus 750, 770, 5050 and 8080, Fuji S602 and S7000, Kodak 6490, Panasonic FZ1, FZ2 and FZ20 and Canon A75 - think that's all the compacts.
Finally got a DSLR at the time there was a long waiting list for the D70 - so settled for a 300D. Added a D30 then swapped them both for a 10D. Just never felt quite right so in March this year made the change to Nikon - D70 and now D50.
A long journey..........!

I took up photography as a job when I left school in 1964 printing photo's at a place called Napcolour in Manchester. I also worked in a 2 photographic shops on the sales side but didn't like that, I prefered the developing and printing side so decided to start my own business in Black and white printing. I did this at home which meant very long hours, sometimes until the late hours to get orders out. I realised after a good few years it had spolt what was once a hobby, so sold everything and gave up, that was until I bought my first digital now I can just snap away and enjoy again.

These photo's are of a few of the old items I have left. The small light meter is only tiny 2" x 1"

Exa500 with extension tubes.
 

The Exa500 is from 1966 / 67. Due to the high cost of SLR's, Exacta from East Germany and Zenith from USSR, were a more affordable entry into SLR photography.

I bought this for £10 at a boot sale some years ago. It was as much a case of the odd body shape, and the fact it was complete with a set of extension tubes, that marked it as a souvenir of the period worth the money.

Having spent some time on the Macro Forum using up to date kit. I am posting this as a memory of how not so easy life was in the late 60's early 70's for photographers involved in close up work.

The camera lens contains a spring loaded auto diaphram. The bracket joining the lens to the body is to stop the lens down and trip the shutter. It cannot work with a cable release.

I have never actually used the camera as in comparison to other camera's of the period it is very awkward to hold. The shutter release is on the left hand side on the lens. A partial depression of which stops the lens down prior to exposure. The shutter speed dial surrounds the rewind crank.

Don

I started out with a Zenith, as a teenager in the late 70's, I seem to recall the light meter was above the lens rather than TTL.

My younger brother was given a Miranda but never developed an interest in photography so I adopted it. Meanwhile my dad and elder brother both had Olympus OM1's. I found the viewfinder very dark, with the split screen blackening in low light and so on being offered a new camera as a birthday present one year I opted for the Canon AE1 program, which I still have though, despite being serviced, it never recovered from a trip to the sahara many years ago with it's fine powdery sand.

When I left I school a bought a secondhand Bronica S2A which I loved but despite my best efforts I couldn't get into studio work or the inclination to take up wedding photography and it therefore ended up sitting in a cupboard.

For many years I didn't pick up a camera other than for the odd family snap.

Recently however, I've re-kindled my interest and after borrowing a digital camera for a weekend I once again became hooked, needless to say as soon as I could I invested in a Fuji s7000. I found this to be a fantastic camera, very capable and sharp.

Recently however I upgraded to a 350d, with a Sigma 28-300mm and Sigma 80-400mm OS lenses!

Hi Jon,

If you still have any post a snap on here. Does not have to be anything fancy.

Bronica S2A - that was on my wish list once, took so long to get there I ended up with the SQA.

Canon AE1 program - must be loads of members who cut their teeth on this one.

Don

Hi Don

I do have one or two negs kicking around, I did try and scan a few recently but my Epson scanner only takes 35mm. I've got a few of a mountain rescue training excercise somewhere It'll be a poor scan on flatbed but I'll see what I can do.

Jon

I started off in about 1975 with a “Halina” 126 format camera, with fixed focus, fixed lens, fixed shutter, a sunny/cloudy aperture control. It was free with several books of Green Shield Stamps. I took some pictures at Mildenhall air show in 1979, my parents were sufficiently surprised by the results that my Christmas present in 1980 was a Fuji 35mm point and shoot compact, it was (very limited) program mode only, but would produce remarkably good pictures all things considered. It had DX coding which I thought was the height of sophistication! I kept this camera until I lost it (left in a bar/on a wall/café table/somewhere) on holiday in 1992. It was replaced with a very nice Samsung compact bought 2nd hand. Can’t remember the model but it had a wonderful 35mm prime lens. It was the only film camera I’ve ever owned with a date back.

Meanwhile, in 1986, I bought my first SLR, a Miranda MS-3, a clone of the Pentax ME Super. This was bought from Dixons for £150, a huge sum for me at the time as an apprentice. It had a 28-70 lens, fully manual mode or also aperture priority mode. I learnt an awful lot about photography using this camera. I also started my lens “habit” with this camera, buying a second hand 80-250 “no name” lens that I thought would be really good for airshows. Well, it was better than the Fuji compact or the 28-70, but I learned that cheap lenses are just that, cheap lenses. I sold this outfit in 1989 to finance my first AF SLR, a Pentax SF-7, a move I regretted later as the more compact manual focus SLR was a much nicer item to hold and carry. In common with all the 1st generation AF SLRs, it was often quicker to use manual focus. Nevertheless, I took a huge number of pictures with this camera, with its 28-80 kit lens and also supplemented this with a Sigma 75-300. The SF-7, both lenses, and the Samsung were all stolen when our hotel room was broken into during a stay in Quebec city in 1994. My entire collection of camera equipment, and my partner’s Pentax P30N (lovely little camera) were gone. The thing that really hurt was the loss of about 12 reels of exposed film.

The insurance company paid out and I bought a Pentax Z50-P, 35-70 kit lens and a Pentax 100-300. The AF on this later model camera was massively better than the SF-7, but both lenses are as soft as toffee at max aperture. The Samsung compact was replaced by a Yashica T4 with a 35mm Zeiss T* prime lens. Quite the sharpest lens I’ve ever owned, even though it’s fixed to the camera. Get films back, flick open the wallet, you can tell instantly which camera, Yashica or SLR, they’ve come from. I still own these cameras and lenses but they have now been superseded by my Pentax *ist DS digital SLR bought in August 2005. I always swore I’d never go digital, but then my partner bought a Sony DSC-S85 (for a huge sum of money at the time, compared to today’s prices). It still takes as good a picture as today’s equivalent offerings, though it is painfully slow to use. I saw the digital benefits and started using this camera more than my partner. I bought my own Sony DSC-W12 at the beginning of 2005.

Other cameras I own:
1986 Pentax K1000, bought 2nd hand, yearning after my MS-3 I guess. Fully manual, built like a brick, can be used as a hammer in an emergency. The f/2 50mm prime is fully compatible with the *ist DS and pin sharp. This now sits on the bookcase primarily as an ornament but gets used now and again if I ever want to use 35mm film. I borrow the lens now and again if I need a sharp, fast 50mm on the DS.

1938 Rolleiflex Automat type II. Medium format 6x6. Fully manual, “centre weighted” metering, i.e. the table advising of possible suggested settings under a range of lighting conditions is a large label stuck in the middle of the camera back. This is primarily ornamental but does get used when I need to de-stress. It really makes you slow down, take your time and think about your photography. I doff my hat to those press photographers in the 1930s and 1940s who used this kind of kit for press/action/sports photography, it really can’t have been easy.

Duncan.

Fantastic thread!!

1974: Ricoh Super 44. 127 roll film camera for a dwarf TLR.
1976: Nikon F (Hummer if I can label it) for six months. Only with a normal lens.
1978: Father’s Leica M3
1979: Canon FTB
1981: Canon EF added.
1982: Second hand Canon AE1
1984: Canon A1
1986-99: Canon F1/F1n/New F1
2000: No camera, No shoot.
2001: No camera, No shoot.
2002: No camera, No shoot.
2003: Canon EOS 1V
2005: EOS 1Ds Mark II

Now: Looking and thinking as what to add with my current system..

Digital cameras to start
fuji S602 zoom got a wideangle and telephoto adapters
fuji F700 (i think) bought for a schooltrip.. used regually untill 06 when I got the samsung i6 as part of the samsung opticron digiscoping kit at the time.

I had used an old canon 35mm AF SLR for a while that was my dads.. the EOS 650, and gave a fully manual fuji SLR a go too (also my dads).. got hooked on SLRS and bought a canon 350D when I got the opertunity.

I began using 35mm after I got my first digital. a step backwards some would say but, being SLRs, (and having a 3rd pary 100-400mm lens canon fit) ment I could better persue bird photography. (before starting digiscoping).

I tend to use the samsung i6 most these days, due to its compactness so its easy to carry around in the pocket. But enjoy using the 350d whenever possible.

I don't exactly remember which models I used when hung outside helicopters back in the late 70's - early 80's, but they were large format jobbies. My own cameras at that time were the Pentax ME & MX, outstanding and I have thousands of slides taken with them (attached a couple here) which I keep meaning to get properly scanned. Along the way I tried the Canon AE1 :) , Olympus OM1 and a few more, but always preferred my trusty pentax's.

21 years later and I returned to photography (June 2007) and bought the Nikon D80. I am hooked all over again and have just added the D300 to my collection. Looking forward to the future and whatever the digital age has in store...

btw that's me on the top of Mont Blanc!! :D

Having posted a pic yesterday in the gallery of a camera I had not used ( Zorki 4K ), here is one that I got at a boot sale for about £10 and used on and off throughout the 1990's.

Agfa Record 6x9 cm.

Great for outdoor pop concerts where any camera that looked even faintly serious was not allowed. This folded up and slipped in the pocket so very discrete. The huge negative could stand a lot of cropping to give the equivalent of using a serious telephoto lens. Limitations were shutter speeds, with a max of 1/200 sec, and requirement for a seperate rangefinder to determine focussing distance if under 100ft, and of course a seperate light meter. Nothing built in here. ;) Also unlike todays digital image storage you could only get 8 frames before needing to change the film. :D

Don

I started off about 1952 at the age of 6 - with the local celebrations for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. My father was a keen amateur and had carried a camera with him most of his childhood and throughout the war and he still carries one today at the age of 87. He still has colour photo's he' took and developed of the coronation of George VI. His war, as a Navigator in costal command took him to South Africa, North Africa, Palestine ( as it was then), Lebanon, Syria, Italy, Norfolk and Ireland. And he has albums and albums of photographs from all these times.
My own first camera was made of bakelite, cost 1/6d from Woolworths and the film was about 8mm producing postage stamp size negatives. Dad taught me a lot and I progressed to using one of his cameras which was a Kodak Number 1 Autographic. With the start of 35mm he went on to Minolta and Canon.
I went to Zenith, then Pentax then a Nikkormat FT and a Rollieflex 2.8 F2 with a Zeizz Planar 2.8/80. I became hooked on Nikon and when all my gear was stolen in 1986 by a burglary I lost an original Nikon F Photomic, a Nikon Photomic F2 AS, a Nikon EL 2, 2 Ftn's and lenses that included 85mm 1.8, 35mm PC Nikkor, 200mm Medical Nikkor, Ai-Nikkor 300mm f/4.5, 500mm reflex and many others.
Needless to say I was under insured and had the heart knocked out of me - I spent several years just taking family snaps.
Just before retirement in 1997 I returned and am now full digital - Nikon of course! Started with D70 kit- then D200, D2h & D2x - considering a D300.

I thought that he abdicated before having a coronation?

Sorry Adey, Senior moment, you are right, the photo's of the George VI's Coronation which was 1937
Andy

1982 - Pentax K1000. Loaned to me by Torquay art college as part of my fine art foundation course.
1983 - Olympus OM30. Bought with grant to study graphics at Middlesex Poly.
1985 - Started work at photo repro house in London producing publicity shots for actors, models and celebs (first job, first morning, 15 shots of Adam Faith!). Somehow acquired Yashica Mat. Hated it! Still got it as an ornament/paperweight.
1988 - Blew up engine of motorbike and had to sell OM30, 50mm 1.8, 135mm lens, motor-drive to work colleague to pay for repair.
1988 - 2004: "The wilderness years"
2004 - Bought the 2nd D70 sold in London Camera Exchange, Bristol.
2006 - Bought D200 and use it constantly, only using the D70 for IR.
2008 - I do like the look of the D300...................

I think you're probably half right, anyway - didn't they use the date that was already booked for Edward VIII? Which colour film did your father use/develop and how much have the shots faded?

My dad took his simple Ensign folding camera with him during the war but in his 'country-boy' innocence he wasn't covert enough when he took a shot of what he later realised were probably the planes/gliders going to Arnheim - his sergeant immediately took the camera off him and removed the film! It was probably the only film he had because we have no other wartime photos amongst the family snapshots, most of which I've retained.

Hi Adey, its along time since I've seen them so I rang him up. Dad says he has two left. One of the Coronation and one of the Sepentine Lido. They are both in excellent condition and locked away. He, like me, liked to play in the darkroom and he says he cannot remember the name of the process but he made three different colour separation negatives and combined them. I think he was playing with the old Trichrome Carbro process.
Hope this helps
Andy

Cheers, Andy. I imagine that producing a colour shot by such a method was immensely satisfying in those days. We don't know how lucky we are, nowadays!

Excellent posting Don.
I've enjoyed reading through other peoples trips down memory lane.
So here's mine....

My first camera was a Kodak 127 Brownie with lovely tartan case! I was given it by Dad. Interestly he was a wedding photographer at My aunties wedding(mum's sister), which is how he met mum. I took loads of pictures with it until I took it into school, dropped it and cracked the lens!...I cried all the way home!

I was bought a Disc camera after that. A ghastly thing that makes me shudder even now. I had little knowledge back then, but even at the time I realised it was a piece of junk.

Next piece of junk was a series of nasty compacts

First 'real' camera was a Pentax Spotmatic, and with my pocket money I saved up for a Photax 300mm preset f8 lens to go on it. I took many photos with that at the local motor track...one appears on my gallery of Nigel Mansell in his JPS F1car.

Sold the Pentax to get Praktica MTL3 with match needle metering and then MTL50 with fancy LED metering!....Both Prakticas shutters gave up....wished I'd kept the Pentax.
Got a Praktica BC1 electronic...awful horrid thing. binned it when that shutter jamed too.
I tried a lubitel for my first experience with 6x6

Got a decent SLR as birthday pressy...my first Contax RTS. That took me all the way through school. I sold it last year!

Starting college required a camera that was compatable with kit the college had....ie Nikon
I bought a Nikon F3, and an FM as backup...The Contax stayed back with my parents as I was packed off to sixth form then university.
Camera purchasing and selling then exploded!.....
The first F3 stayed with me until after uni', which I sold to pay off student loan...
Most have been secondhand, Nikon FA, F301, Yashica AF (the one with the slide on flash...can't recall model 230AF rings a bell tho...nasty 'trap' focus mode..plastic fantastic)
Canon A1 (even tho I lusted after the F1n at the time) Bronica ETRSi, Pentax 67 (until the bank manager student overdraft computer said no)
Borrowed larger format cameras from university Linhof, Sinar, and Arca Swiss all used. Hated lugging around big heavy cameras tutors insisted we used. I fell in love with Linhof Tech' landscape cameras. Massive panoramic format size, great lens, suprisingly leightweight considering it's format. A beautiful machine...but couldn't justify the price tag verses use for my own.
back to my own 35mm I even bought an original S/H Nikon F ...not sure why, but seemed like an idea to go with my F3 at the time.

More recently, a few film SLR's like Canon T70, Olympus 1000, Canon 500n, Ricoh, Cosina, Miranda...to name a few.

Canon Eos, Nikon f and D series, Pentax, Olympus, Minolta/ KonicaMinolta, sony Fuji etc.......have handled most popular cameras since through work....but fortunately never had the compulsion to own

My own kit the Contax RTS system finally went last year......

Enter the digital age for my own kit...and back with NIKON.
film cameras and my first digital a D1 and D1h...primarily for their speed, build quality and compatablity with one constant throughout the years...Tamron adaptall2 lenses. I still use them on the current bodies, though the lenses are more pro spec' than my early Tamron lenses.
I still prefer action pictures to larger format...and still wished I'd kept the Spotmatic!

As Sassan keeps baiting me with exotic Nikon lenses, and I am on a bit of history trail, then I thought I would post a couple of links showing Canons Model 7 rangefinder with f0.95 / 50mm lens.

http://www.huffman.tk/id11.html
http://www.collection-appareils.fr/c...ml/canon_7.php
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Canon_RF_2e.html

Don

Makes me feel old, started with a Ross Ensign TLR (126 film I think) which produced vague muddy contact prints which would never have taken an enlargement even if I knew about such things. Forgot about photography until my mid teens when I had a KodakColorsnap which had a fixed shutter speed with distance guessed and set by a scale and exposure set by weather symbals. Shot mostly slides with it and they mostly came out too! Move on a few years and I bought a Praktica SLR with 50mm and 135 lenses. Then once I was married and the first child arrived to photograph started down the Canon FD trail then EOS and finally Canon digital.