(Photograph © Alfred's Camera Page)
I first became interested in photography at an early age. My
parents eventually gave me a camera of my own and encouraged me to take
photographs. My first camera was a Bilora
Bella, like the one depicted here. It was
given to me by my parents when I was a child, in the 1950s. It used the
now obsolete roll film type known as 127, with a format of 6x4.5 cm. I
still have photographs that I took using my Bilora Bella, and have
enjoyed using and owning cameras ever since.
My interest in photography really blossomed during the the early
1960s, when I was permitted to borrow my father's old
Agfa Isolette I , which used 120 type roll film.
He always encouraged my interest in photography and I am now the proud
owner of that slendid old camera. The B&W
photographs that I took, and then developed and printed myself taught
me a lot about photography.
Sometime between the years 1965-1968, I bought a used
Robot Junior camera
from a work colleague and switched from using B&W
film to using colour reversal slide film. The Robot Junior used 35mm
film and had a clockwork motor drive, but the format was 24x24mm which
was rather
inconvenient because it meant that my slides could not be mounted when
the film was processed. Instead, I used to buy slide mounts separately
and rotated one half of the mount through 900,
to produce the square frame required.
The Robot Junior had a good quality lens and so produced excellent
photographs. Later, during the late 1980s, when I began using kites
fitted with radio controlled servo motors to take aerial photographs, I
wished I had kept that camera. It would have been ideal as it's
sibling, the Robot II, was used as a gun camera
by the Luftwaffe during WWII.
I eventually sold the Robot Junior and bought a used Russian
35mm single lens reflex (SLR) camera called the
Zenit B. Like much of the Russian equipment sold in the West
during the Cold War period, the Zenit B was a good camera for the
price, very robust. However, it was quite heavy and had a rather noisy
shutter which left the user in no doubt when it was released! Also, the
Zenit B didn't have a built-in lightmeter, consequently another item of
photographic equipment had to be carried around. Whilst none of the
other cameras that I had owned up to that time had built-in
lightmeters, I was gradually becoming a bit more discerning. I remember
buying a close-up lens so that I could do what nowadays is called macro
photography.
So, later during the 1970s when I had more disposable income, I
upgraded to a new East German 35mm SLR called the
Praktica LLC. It had a built-in
lightmeter, weighed a less than the Zenit B and was quieter in
operation. It was more expensive because it was more sophisticated.
During the period that I owned the Praktica LLC, I became enamored with
the idea of using interchangeable lenses and bought a telephoto lens.
Sometime during the late 1980s, I upgraded again, trading in my
Praktica LLC for a used
Canon EOS 630 35mm SLR. This was and still is a really
excellent camera which I used for many years. I bought various lenses
for it, but eventually settled on just two, a Sigma 70-300mm zoom and a
Sigma 17-35mm wide-angle lenses.
Having previously used my father's old Agfa Isolette I, and
having used 35mm cameras and colour slide film for a number of years, I
wanted to return to using B&W
in medium format, but using a more modern camera. So, I looked around
at what was availabl and eventually bought a used Yashica Mat 124G that took 120
roll film to shoot 6x6 cm square format photos (same as a Hasselblad).
This was a really excellent camera which I greatly enjoyed using, but I
eventually found the fixed lenses rather too restricting. I wanted a
medium format camera with interchangeable lenses, much like those used
the 35mm SLR cameras that I had been using.
So, I eventually sold the Yashica (mistake!) and bought a used
Bronica ETRS SLR which also used 120 roll film, but produced
a 6x4.5 cm format. I still have that camera together with two lenses, a
50mm and the standard 75mm (ie equivalent to a 50mm lens on a 35mm
camera). Whilst it is a good camera and I have enjoyed using it very
much, nevertheless I have often regretted selling the Yashica Mat 124G.
Sometime during the period 1997-1999, while on holiday in Ireland, I
bought a Canon Ixus Z90 (APS format) to
take colour prints. I wanted something that was more suitable for
'point & shoot' situations, when I didn't want to lug a heavy
bag full of camera equipment around. I didn't want to load my SLR with
print film, as it was being used it to take colour slides.
Meanwhile, I bought our son a used Pentax ME Super which
unfortunately he didn't really like very much, so I eventually ended up
lending him my Canon Ixus Z90 instread. I really liked the versatile Pentax ME Super, because it was a
smaller, lighter SLR than those I had used.
I first became interested in pinhole photography early in 1998
and built myself a wooden pinhole camera that took a
standard double-darkslide 4x5 filmholder.
My interest in pinhole photography eventually developed into an
interest in large format photography. Consequently, I bought an old 4x5 Micro Technical Camera, that
was made by Micro Precision Products (MPP),
which I used briefly for some landscape and architectural photography.
The price didn't include bought a lens so I had to buy one separately.
I eventually found 150mm lens for it (ie equivalent to a 50mm lens on a
35mm camera).
Here is a photograph of two Canadian war photographers
using similar cameras (probably Speed Graphics) in 1945.
Sometime later, I bought an eraly verson of the Zero
2000 pinhole camera
that takes 120 roll film. The present version is somewhat more
sophisticated than mine.
I bought my first digital camera in January 2000, which was a
1.5 mega pixel Fujifilm MX-1700 Zoom. After years
of lugging heavy camera bags loaded with expensive equipment, this
little camera that could easily be slipped into a pocket and produced
instant results, was absolutely wonderful. It produced excellent
results and was so ideal for taking pictures for this website.
Certainly
the resolution was more than adequate for most of the computer displays
used at that time.
Later, I bought a
Contax G2 rangefinder camera which I used extensively with Agfa
Scala 200x reversal film to produce many B&W slides. Having for
many years used colour reversal film to produce slides and given my
longstanding interest in B&W, the idea of being
able to produce B&W slides appealed to me.
I particularly liked the fact that this film could be pull-processed to
ISO 100, or push-processed to ISO 1600, enabling me to emulate with the
camera (by exposing the film at different ISO speeds) things that
previously I had only been able to do when processing film in the
darkroom. The
Contax G2 is a superb camera, but sadly it hasn't been used
much since I bought my digital cameras.
During 2005, I upgraded my digital camera from the old Fujifilm MX-1700 Zoom to a new Nikon CoolPix 8800. This is the
camera that I now use on a daily basis. It is an excellent camera,
which still I enjoy using very much. My only criticism is that by
today's standards it is pretty slow, when saving images and the screen
is rather small.
|
