Dcarch:
The Camera with the Bellows, is similar to the one I made.
Not as nice, the Bellows got narrow towards the Lens.

I used a Grafex filmholder, that I loaded in the Darkroom.
It was adapted to slide in the back of the camera.

My interests went to other things , later on.

In Korea I built a Darkroom in one corner of our Dayroom, which was in a bombed out building.

The Marines and Air Force buddies helped with all the materials, Photo Paper and Chemicals.

I still have my Pentax MG and all the Accessories, along with a 12 foot Cable for shooting animals.

Have to hit the sack now. Going for tests in the morning.
I am going to have some repair work done; on my left leg,
on April 12th.
Later, Lou

That's quite a collection, dcarch.

My first real camera was a Kodak Signet 35mm rangefinder. It has a great Ektar lens.

My favorite cameras are my Rolleis. I have three of those with various Zeiss and Schneider lenses. They make superb photos.

I am very fascinated by 3D so, naturally, I have Stereo Realists. Three of those.

My first SLR was an Exacta, which I equipped with various lenses. I got a lot of use out of that. It was my workhorse for a while.

Those are just a few. I have a number of interesting little cameras such as Kodak Retinas and Olympus Trip 35s which are fun to use.

Wherever I worked I became the house photographer. I never owned a view camera but, in one office where I worked I had the use of a 4x5 Burke and James with a Polaroid back. That was for architectural photography. They also had a Nikon with a perspective control lens for making 35mm slides.

I've left a trail of darkrooms behind me as I moved about. Digital photography has put an end to that. No more wet darkrooms, thank goodness. I still shoot some film because it has incredible resolution and I have nice cameras. But it is all digital darkroom. The drugstore develops the film and I take it from there. I can do color processing with ease using PhotoShop which I never would have attempted before.

These days I am mostly using a P&S Canon. It does a good job but lately I am wondering if I could do better with a digital SLR. Would it be worth the extra bulk?

Jim

That's quite a collection, dcarch.

My first real camera was a Kodak Signet 35mm rangefinder. It has a great Ektar lens.

My favorite cameras are my Rolleis. I have three of those with various Zeiss and Schneider lenses. They make superb photos.

I am very fascinated by 3D so, naturally, I have Stereo Realists. Three of those.

My first SLR was an Exacta, which I equipped with various lenses. I got a lot of use out of that. It was my workhorse for a while.

Those are just a few. I have a number of interesting little cameras such as Kodak Retinas and Olympus Trip 35s which are fun to use.

Wherever I worked I became the house photographer. I never owned a view camera but, in one office where I worked I had the use of a 4x5 Burke and James with a Polaroid back. That was for architectural photography. They also had a Nikon with a perspective control lens for making 35mm slides.

I've left a trail of darkrooms behind me as I moved about. Digital photography has put an end to that. No more wet darkrooms, thank goodness. I still shoot some film because it has incredible resolution and I have nice cameras. But it is all digital darkroom. The drugstore develops the film and I take it from there. I can do color processing with ease using PhotoShop which I never would have attempted before.

These days I am mostly using a P&S Canon. It does a good job but lately I am wondering if I could do better with a digital SLR. Would it be worth the extra bulk?

Jim

Well Jim, I do have the Nikon Perspective control lens($1,000?)
As I said, I have more stuff: A home-made 1,200 mm telephoto scope for ultra long distance shots, a night vision scope for night time animal shots, a spy Minox camera I carried with me for those unexpected shots.

dcarch

Gentlemen hope you don't mind me popping in to your conversation just to say you all have some interesting looking equipment which reminds me of my dad's darkroom.

He was a hobby photographer in the days when nearly all cameras were made in Germany, and then he turned it into a sideline retail business with a small camera shop. Sometimes he took in trade-ins of old cameras as deposits on new ones, and they often ended up in the family basement or in his darkroom. He appreciated fine equipment and was a collector.

Too bad at the time I was too young to take a greater interest, although I did "borrow" his little Minox to take my kid's version of 'spy' photos. When I turned 21 years of age he gave me an old East German Voigtländer 35mm camera with which I took my best pictures ever, using slide film as it was cheap (now so happy that I did because I still have those slides).
And now I treasure those

My first kid's camera was a

In later years the Japanese models started coming onto the market but my dad still stocked more German equipment and was always testing some new camera or lens. He was responsible for photographing much of the now historical events in our town and his photos are in the local museum. He passed away before the digital age and left a wealth of equipment behind in the family home which my brother and sister finally sorted and sold. I was living here in Europe at the time so didn't participate in checking out what he had.

So anyway, I'm just starting my DSLR lens collection and will be saving up for a Canon 24 - 105mm f4 L. Or I should just win the lottery LOL!

SharonCb

SharonCb,

So that's how you got into picture taking. Very interesting.

You have done a wonderful job in your tutorials. You have let people know how easy it is to take good pictures.

It only takes a couple of hours to read thru your tutorials and start taking good pictures the rest of your life.

Of course, it takes a life time to become an artistic great photographer.

dcarch

"Gentlemen hope you don't mind me popping in to your conversation..."

By all means, please do join in. The more, the merrier.

It's interesting how many experiences are shared in this thread. My first camera as a kid was also a brownie reflex. Your dad and dcarch both had Minoxes. (Now there's a sign of a hard core photographer.) I and dcarch both used the Nikon PC lens, a pretty unusual item, the only lens of its kind if I'm not mistaken.

So, there is lots of photographic reminiscing to be done as it seems we all are of about the same vintage. I'm sure Lou will be back with more.

dcarch, from seeing the equipment you have, I've revised my estimate of your age upward. :-) Your food design for some reason gave me the impression that you are significantly younger than I. Your camera accumulation however makes me think we are of similar age.

On the subject of German cameras, I remember well the era when just about every fine camera was German made, and there were many makes. Even the wonderful little folding 35mm Kodak Retinas were designed and built in Germany by Nagel. Just as a reminder of how nice those were, I'll post a pic of mine when I get a chance. I never used a Voightlander but I know they had one of the best reputations of any camera.

German camera designers of that era were clever and fanatical about mechanical details. Every time I open or close the back of a Rolleiflex I am amazed by that complicated, but smooth operating, latch. And the way the back is removable and the little locking mechanism on the shutter release and the whole design of the shade and magnifier on the focusing screen, etc., etc., etc.

And, of course, the optics of all those German cameras are top notch. So, what is left of German camera making? Leica is the only one left that I can think of. Are Leicas even made in Germany any more?

Am I correct that the Japanese camera industry began with a rangefinder Nikon which was a knock-off of the Leica? I think so. Something like that anyway. I was never attracted much to Nikons, although I understand why they would be used by journalists travelling the world and folks like that who needed a really rugged camera. My best 35mm SLR is an Olympus OM-1. It's much lighter and more compact that a Nikon and is finely made, although more delicate.

Well, that's a lot of rambling, so I will stop for now. Any others out there lurking with memories of the days of film?

Jim

P.S. I have to comment once more, as I have before, how much I admire Sharon's food photography. It's better than most of what I see published and it's an inspiration for me to improve mine.

Well, Jim, my interest in cameras is not really in photography per se.

I am more interested in the observation of the world, the universe, of the very far, very near, very big, very small, very dark, very bright ---------.

(SharonCb, I love your moon shot.)

It is my belief that the truth lies and hides in the unobservable by your normal senses.

Just think, your cell phone is kind of like a camera. They both capture electro magnetic waves. Camera operates in the range from near infrared to near UV, and cell phone operates in the range below infrared waves.

I am fascinated by the fact that at any given monument, there are millions of signals passing right through your body unbeknownst to you, until you tune in with some appropriate electronics, then all kinds of meaningful information can get extracted literally from thin air.

How old am I? Does it matter?

As we have seen many times, age is not equal to intelligence or kindness, and immaturity is unrelated to the number of wrinkles.

Let me just say that every single atom in my body is billions years old. :-)

dcarch

"How old am I? Does it matter?"

Not to me so much. Maybe more to you, it being your aging process. I have concerns with my own. I was just reacting to the change in my perceptions, which surprised me.

Your philosophical statement has made me think about my philosophy of picture making a bit. I find it difficult to summarize. There are so many aspects to it. One aspect I think we share is an interest in the ability technology gives us to access things very distant to us, things that are constantly in going on everywhere. For me, it takes the form of web cams. I like to see people on a street in a far away place, going about their business. Or a volcano erupting. Or peregrine falcons nesting on the ledge of a tall building. Or fish swimming around a tank in someone's living room.

Another example is talking with someone in Japan on ham radio, using only 5 watts of transmitter power. I do some things just because I can, especially when I am a bit impressed that I can.

One thing I think I could do, and have thought I might do for a long time, is build a view camera, as Lou did. With all the other things I might do, I probably won't get around to that. I probably won't get around to building and using a really nice pin hole camera either, although I have spent considerable time thinking about it. I just wonder what I could do with infinite depth of field.

Expressing in words my thoughts on photography (beyond chatting about equipment) would take more effort than I have at the moment. One of my recent photos might be a way to start. It won't upload right now however. Give me some time to fix that.

How mature am I? Does it matter? :-P

Jim

Jimster are you a radio ham? Both my hubby and I have both held advanced radio amateur licences for years with EA8 calls, although this past year we didn't renew our licences.
The radio shack is in our garden. But the station is pretty dusty now. I used to operate a lot in morse ...3 watts QRP as well as SSB. Over to you.

SharonCb (YL)

Yes, but I have been inactive for quite a while.

One of my many unfullfilled ambitions is to get my code speed up to where I can operate CW decently. That's the way to go with QRP I think. Perhaps if I start practicing again we both can dust off our stations and make the occasion contact. My license renewal is sitting at my elbow waiting to be returned. I recently received an attractive QSL card from a Japanese ham confirming a contact made years ago.

My most treasured contact was with Pitcairn Island. One of my college roommates had been there and I had heard a lot about it. My roommate was named for one of the Pitcairn Islanders and the man I talked with remembered his family very well. You can imagine the pileup I had to cut through with my humble 100 watts to get that one.

Incidentally, I operated on the broadcast band for about 10 years as a jazz DJ on a college station. That was fun.

73's de N2KMB

OK. Now I have it.

Jim

dcarch....please excuse the hijack! I'll go away in a minute and leave you two to talk.

That's cool Jim....and a DJ as well!
That's interesting to meet another ham here on the cooking forum. I got my licence here in Spain so my studies in electronics etc was all in Spanish. Spent a year with my novice EC8 call where we could operate only on 40 and 80 meters in CW and a tiny part of 15 meters above 21.150 in SSB.

I was then using an inverted Vee wire antenna strung across our back yard and used to sit up all night at the station and listening to hear the Russian and Yugoslav stations coming in with the rising sun! What fun years those were. I slept most of the day then.

Then after a year I went for next exams and passed to EA8. Yipee....could get onto 20 meters, and use the 3 element beam we had on the roof but right...many pileups to get through on those frequencies. As Canary Islands are classed as Africa for the DXCC I often had my own pileups when operating in CW as a YL. I worked Bob in Norfolk Island and a few other exotic islands but never got Pitcairn. Wasn't it exciting to get a new country like that? My most treasured contact was from an orchid farmer in India who was a QRP CW contact. He sent me a lovely letter laboriously typed on poor paper with a feather inside and his QSL card.

My code was pretty good when I graduated from my old brass straight keyer to an electronic paddle. (We had to take our exams on a straight keyer!) Now I don't know how I'd do on it.
I wonder if my callsign has been given out to someone else since I didn't renew it. But I'll sign it here.

73's and 88's from EA8BUO.

Believe it or not....they first gave me EA8BUM for my callsign. I wrote a letter to the board in my best Spanish saying I didn't want to be BUM and explained why.
They changed it a few days later. :-)

Please please continue SharonCb. I also had an interest in ham radio long time ago. I now just listen to CB once in a while.

I built my FM/AM radio when I was younger.

dcarch

Jimster....that's how dunes are built...I spent lots of happy hours walking along the tops of dunes....looking for the fence line.
Great picture...I can smell the salt and taste the oysters
Linda c

Aha! Another lurker is enticed into the thread. I'm glad the photo is meaningful to you, Linda. The location is Nauset Beach. Other locations along the back side of Cape Cod suffered several feet of erosion this past winter. High cliff areas were beaten back 12 to 15 feet. It's good that doesn't happen every winter. The Cape would disappear in short order.

Jim

Sharon,

I got a big laugh out of your call sign story.

Jim

Jimster...

I like your dune photo very much. Sorry I posted my last paragraph before refreshing the screen so didn't see your pic until after I'd pressed 'submit.'

dcarch...I also had a scanner radio and used to listen to other activities as well on the bands. Some interesting things listening/watching on the station on other bands in RTTY (Radio Teletype - which we also did for fun) were shopping lists from cruise ships for supplies as they were coming into port. I remember things needed included tuxedos, champagne, and incredible amounts of luxury foods lol. Gradually RTTY messages became encoded so it wasn't possible to understand those messages. I haven't looked on the bands for ages and I guess it would be interesting to see what's still there.

Our 3 element beam and tower came crashing down in a big wind storm here some years ago. However a German friend of ours who is also a ham, comes to stay with us every year and he put up a little vertical antenna which does an adequate job but not as good as the big rotating beam.

We also used to pass on messages during emergencies such as earthquakes and floods in Central America, when telephones were down (before cell phones) from Europeans searching for families in a disaster area, as radio signals from Canary Islands (being surrounded by water) often were stronger.
But I did enjoy morse and had a good Sommerkampf FT-One rig which had great filters for tuning out interference.

We also listened to US military pilots landing and taking off from an air force field in Portugal during the Gulf War.

I met my husband thanks to ham radio. He was in a QSO on ten meters with my (also a ham - VE7) brother on Vancouver Island and my brother mentioned that he had a sister living and working in the same town in the Canary Islands!!!! So as it was customary then, my brother gave him my phone number to say they'd had a conversation and pass on greetings. We met up and that was how it happened. After we were married I started studying to also get my amateur radio licence. :-)

Our story was also published with photos in a ham radio magazine called 'CQ'. Don't know if that magazine still exists.

There was so much interesting stuff to listen to on the radio bands, especially when you had radio equipment to catch things that didn't show up on home radios or scanners.
It was a wonderful hobby but I know so many of us have gone over to computers and Skype lol.

SharonCb

Oh my. You've really set off an avalanche of memories with that post, Sharon. Much of it is about my late brother who was far, far more advanced than I with electronics and had a degree in photography as well.

He was several years younger, so it was I who initially sparked his interest with my modest sound system and radio projects. He then went on to surpass my electronics knowledge by a huge amount and convinced me to get my ham license.

My brother and I started listening to short wave broadcasts on my Grandmothers floor model Zenith whenever we visited. I still have that radio. My brother, who was a private pilot, liked listening to aircraft and also various utility bands such as the shipping ones you mentioned and ones used by railroads. Too bad so much is encoded these days. That takes a lot of the fun out of it. You must have heard those mysterious "number stations" where someone reads lists of numbers in groups of, I think, five numbers. I never found out what was going on with those. Do you know? Some people speculated they were for transmitting information to spies. Whose spies that would be, I have no idea.

BTW, as a Canadian you may be interested that I, my brother and one or two of my sisters were dedicated listeners to the CBC. Their programming was far richer and more varied than any U.S. radio at that time. We were always comparing notes on what had been broadcast on various programs. I was very up-to-date on Canadian politics back then.

You met your husband via ham radio, eh? That's quite a story. Yes, CQ is still published. I picked up a copy recently to catch up on what has developed during my hiatus from ham radio.

I'm glad we met up on this thread. It may be the spark I needed to practice my code and pick up where I left off. I have a nice HF rig which ought to be put back in use and I have a Heathkit HW-9 (hot water 9) for QRP which I acquired with the day in mind I could operate CW. I always thought it would be fun to operate from a beach with a portable mast and solar power on QRP. Yeah, present day transceivers have new, advanced features but I think I can be very happy with what I have.

Jim

P.S. So as not to be so rude to non-hams, here is a glossary of a few terms:

CW - Morse code
DX - Distance
DXCC - DX Century Club (for those who have made and confirmed contacts with 100 countries)
QSL - a contact
QSL card - a post card with information confirming a contact (or just reception in the case of SW broadcasts)
QRP - low power (5 watts or less)
CQ - calling anyone who is listening (also a ham magazine by that name)
HF - high frequency
SWL - short wave listening
YL - young lady (a female of any age)
OM - old man (a male of any age)
SSB - single side band (one of the modes of transmission, along with FM, AM, RTTY, etc.)