Two years ago, on December 10th 2010, I posted my first
film picture on flickr. One year ago, I already celebrated my
first "analogversary". Today, one year later, here I am, still going strong on my commitment to film photography with vintage cameras.
This second year has been one of more mature camera choice and use, in general a year of more thought of photography. All in all, I exposed
71 films (22 black and white, 32 color negative, 17 color slide) using
14 different cameras. The camera that I most often used was my
Rolleiflex Old Standard 621 (18 rolls). The color negative film that I most used was again
Kodak Portra 400 (8 rolls), for black & white
Kodak Tri-X 400 (3 rolls) and on color slide
Fujichrome Velvia 50 remained a favorite (5 rolls).
In this year I got
5 new (old) cameras (
Rolleiflex,
Contessa,
Ikonta,
Super Ikonta BX and
Rollei 35). In order to balance the energy, I also gave
5 cameras away (
Polaroid,
Vitomatic,
Flexaret,
Beltica,
Hapo). As it seems, I am taking a more mature stand to vintage camera use, since I only got cameras that have some kind of significance, some meaning.
Another reason I am happy with my second analogue year is that I managed to accomplish one of the challenges that I set myself last year: doing my own
camera repairs, which is a natural step when the objects you are trying to work with are (almost) all many years older than your parents. I got tons of patience, some specialized tools, and lots of information and good advice from websites and flickr pals. I managed to
recover all speeds of the Compur shutter on my Rollfilm 5x8, to repair the
jammed film transport in my Contessa 533/24 and to lubricate the focus system and
recalibrate the rangefinder on my Super Ikonta BX 533/16. Oh yes, and there were some
fun experiments with junk Compur shutters, too... :)
I will definitely keep photographing on film with vintage cameras next year. My
next project, though, has all the meaning of the world for me: 6 weeks ago Mar gave birth to our
first born. Long before I could hold him in my arms, I thought I would try to find a camera from 1912, a camera
100 years older than our child.
This camera, a
Vest Pocket Kodak, could have been the one, since it was introduced in 1912, like the 127 film that it takes (and it fact, 127 film was especially designed for this camera). Some of its features (lens, body finish, autographic feature, engraved patents), though, point it to a little later (1921-1926).
The quest, thus, is
still open. I'll be happy if you keep sharing this journey with me! :)
