Unknown 120 Roll film cameras
I started in photography early, pulling the film out of my fathers camera to look at the pictures. No inkling of processing, but it is interesting to think of this in comparison to kids of today!
Somewhere as a kid we had another roll film camera. My brother and I shared this, including on a trip to New Zealand in the early 1970s when I was either 9 or 11, whichever was the year before adult fares kicked in. It had a cloudy, hazy and sunny lever which used to move three different fixed apertures in front of the lens. Sadly, I was often indecisive (it is hazy, but a bit cloudy as well) which resulted in positioning the unperforated piece of metal over the working bits. Lots of black photos.
Kodak Instamatic 56X
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Instamatic_56-X I think my brother and I received one of these each from my mother in the 1970s for Christmas. Quite a big present for us, and one that I got a lot of use out of. It went on a lot of Pathfinder hikes and camping trips. No focus, no exposure, but it did have magicubes! I think we used to try to press the shutter slower when it was darker.
Ricoh 35 ZF
http://35mm-compact.com/minicompact/ricoh35zf.htm This was my first camera of choice. I had a few friends who had Olympus trips and the like. The Ricoh had the advantage of a lot more control, including zone focussing and the ability to set the exposure and a bulb mode, which I think I did use to use from time to time. A nice camera, but I would have been much better with a rangefinder, I had a few out of focus shots to prove it.
Olympus OM 10
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Olympus_OM-10/20/30/40 http://www.thecamerasite.net/01_SLR_Cameras/Pages/olympus10.htm My first SLR. Bought from a friend who was upgrading to Nikon. A nice piece of kit, with the claim of being able to set the exposure ‘off the film’ during the shutter actuation. I had my doubts about that even then. I cannot remember why or who I sold this to, but it was prior to leaving Australia in 1989. I did have the additional ‘manual adapter’, what madness possessed them to come up with a camera that needed an additional plug in attachment to function well.
Pentax P30N
http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/bodies/P/P3tn.html I think I bought this when leaving Australia to come to the UK in 1989, so it got a fair amount of use. I think it came with an awful zoom lens, I ended up buying second hand lenses in the UK, a f1.4 50mm and a Sigma 24mm f2.8, both of which I still have. Both need a service, but are better than their resale value would suggest. I also had a Tamron Adaptall 2 70-210 for a bit of reach (I think I had this with the Olympus as well), but it has never had a lot of use. Still have it as well, it is still ok, but I am not a fan of telephoto. My star lens became a Sigma 17-35mm, bought just before we went to New England, so I was able to get a tax refund via Mum. I stopped using the P30N after digital came along. Although it does have a mechanical only shutter option of 1/100 sec and mechanical B setting (from memory, my brother currently has my P30N in Australia).
Nikon 35mm fixed focal length autofocus
Not sure which one this was, I will find it on the internet at some point. It has a good lens and did take some pretty good photos for a point and shoot. I think the only features it had was a flash, autofocus and a self timer. Stopped doing something, so went to expand my father’s camera collection. I think it still works.
Konica Revio
http://www.thecamerasite.net/02_Rangefinders/Pages/revioixus.htm#Revio Bought by Paul from Bluewater for my birthday. At the time, APS looked like a good option, with the different photo formats. Sadly, it was just before digital, it was a bit grainy on larger print sizes and the actual camera had an annoying habit of running out of battery and rewinding the film. I had a few films that only had 4 or 5 photos because of this, and processing was fixed price by then. I had it fixed under warranty, but it has had far too little use, superceded by digital.
Fuji A310
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/fuji/finepix_a310-review/index_pfv.shtml I was a relatively late arrival into digital. This was a nice little camera, I managed to get one that actually did a decent job of night shots. I had used a similar one from work, so I had a rough idea of the quality. Sadly, it stopped working during a period of disuse, I had been going to give it to Audrey. Sold on eBay for £1 for spares or repair.
Panasonic Lumix FX01
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicFX01/ A nice compact camera. I chose this bnased on reviews and samples seen on the internet of night photos. Indeed it is pretty good at night photography, having up to 60 seconds exposure, unbeleivable! It is pretty easy and portable as well. The only criticisms would be the noise over iso 200 and the jpeg artifacts in photos. Oh, and it has managed to get dusty insides and now has a couple of spots on the sensor. I have reduced them and am considering a good blast from the tyre nozzle at the garage. I am not sure it is worth £60 to professionally clean it when the LX3 (with raw and a 24mm lens) is going to drop in price soon!
Pentax K100D
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk100d/ Bought in 2007 with some backpay. I continued with Pentax mostly because of the Sigma 17-35, which on digital was a pretty standard zoom and saved a couple of quid on the kit lens, which I assumed would be inferior. Sadly the Sigma had developed spots (possibly fungus) which do show up at apertures smaller than f8 when pointed towards bright lights. I am not impressed with that, it was not that old, and I think I might have considered Nikon a bit more seriously.
I ended up buying a 12-24mm pretty quickly, the Samsung version as I was able to save about £100. It was still £450. The quest for wide continued. Buoyed on by extreme angles and panoramas, I bought the Pentax/Tokina 10-17 fisheye, which is pretty well used. For me, fisheye is not an ‘occasional use’ lens. Most of the stuff I really like has been shot with that lens.
Sadly, on the recent trip to Australia the 12-24mm fell in a river. The travel insurance paid out, but only £200. As times are tough, I have now bought the MkII kit lens and a Digital King wide angle adapter (from China for £18 delivered instead of £70 local). This combination is adequate until I win the lottery and purchase a Nikon D90 and all the wide bits to go with it.
Pentax MZ-30
http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/bodies/MZ-ZX/mzzx30.html A recent (March 2009) gift from the vicar. Autofocus, so a step up from the P30. Came with an awful 35-80mm lens (probably the same piece of cheap plastic I got with the P30N), but I have a 28-105 which is a much better match. Have put a couple of films though it, and it works nicely.
Pentax K-x
http://www.pentax.co.uk/en/product/16701/Photo_Cameras.html Upgrade December 2009, although I have kept the K100d for the moment as well. So far, I am very pleased. There are a couple of minor points, such as the inability to turn of dark frame subtraction on long exposures, and the lack of a wired remote, but I seem to be working my way around that.
