Apolitical Thread

[trysail]

Why do I keep a collection of film cameras with their lenses and accessories?

They are beautiful, functional and essentially useless unless I use the lenses with an adaptor on a digital camera.

I have wide-angle, 50 mm, 100mm, 200 mm, 300 mm, 400 mm, 500 mm, all M42 thread, but the longer lenses would make a digital camera too unbalanced.

...not to mention that these days, they have almost no value.

How many know anything about focus, aperture, speed, depth of field these days, etc.?

My beautiful, all-but-indestructible, Leica M2 is testament to that fact.


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[heathergives]

...not to mention that these days, they have almost no value.

How many know anything about focus, aperture, speed, depth of field these days, etc.?

My beautiful, all-but-indestructible, Leica M2 is testament to that fact.


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My Dad gave me an old Pentax K1000 with several different lenses. I don't think I've used it since I've had a smart phone.

 

[oggbashan]

Most of mine are Russian Zeniths, including a boxed photosniper.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5096/5489332970_06d0afafa9.jpg

None of them need batteries. A few years ago I lent a basic Zenit plus a long variable lens to my youngest daughter going to Africa for a photo safari. After a week the others with her couldn't get batteries for their cameras but she could continue shooting because she didn't need them.

They went to a wildlife rescue centre and she was given the opportunity to get close to a lion cub. She was slightly dubious because the lion cub was so large. It tried to claw her but she hit it with the long and heavy Russian lens on her camera. The lens was unharmed. The lion cub shook its head and crawled away.

 

[RocketLauncher]

My parents were genuine Cockneys, born within the sound of Bow Bells, and lived there until they were made homeless by a Zeppelin bomb in 1915 - then the world's largest ever aerial bomb.

My father, and his older brother, could still speak the Cockney of their youth but trained themselves to speak Received Pronunciation as senior civil servants. Their youngest brother had a market stall in Bethnal Green and spoke the current Cockney of the multicultural streets of the East End. He never stopped teasing his brothers for their refined speech.

Two of my daughters can speak in the current East End Patois which means nothing to me.

My mum, too. Wasn't allowed to sit on the stoop and eat bread and jam and no brogue for her.

 

[trysail]

Most of mine are Russian Zeniths, including a boxed photosniper.

...None of them need batteries. A few years ago I lent a basic Zenit plus a long variable lens to my youngest daughter going to Africa for a photo safari. After a week the others with her couldn't get batteries for their cameras but she could continue shooting because she didn't need them.

They went to a wildlife rescue centre and she was given the opportunity to get close to a lion cub. She was slightly dubious because the lion cub was so large. It tried to claw her but she hit it with the long and heavy Russian lens on her camera. The lens was unharmed. The lion cub shook its head and crawled away.

I shot my last roll of film roughly three years ago. It's still in the camera.

After the local photography store closed its doors, there's nowhere that I can easily take film to be developed.

I don't know where I could purchase film today.

The old "indestructible" Leica M2 was amazing. I once accidentally dropped it from chest height on to a concrete sidewalk— I picked it up and carried on as if nothing happened (which proved to be the case).


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[oggbashan]

When I carry my Photosniper assembled on its rifle stock I worry security staff.

The underside looks just like a Colt 1911.

 

[Conager]

I've been acquiring cameras. I've got a whole series of digital cameras from about one-and-a-half megapixels on up. I've got an old Polaroid Land Camera. Circa about the 1950 or so. Got an old Kodak brownie. 2/8 mm cameras four 8 mm projectors in case I want to host and LSD acidfest, and three editing rigs to slice it all together. I've got one of the earliest VCRs. I have the VCR from the Go video legal case. I've got the Kodak instant camera that Polaroid sued out of business.

I've got two Canon Rebel camera bodies one in 35 mm one digital (the lenses are interchangeable between the two.l I've been acquiring various lenses for other cameras when I see them cheap and eventually I will assemble some other cameras. I think I'm set up for a Nikon.

I know next-to-nothing about any of it, but it's all on my to-do list.

 

[Tryharder62]

I don't know much about camera's but I do miss film. You took a roll in and got your pictures. You looked forward to seeing what was on there. Now I have all these pictures but they sit there on the computer, tablet, phone. There are too many to deal with. It get's overwhelming.

 

[RocketLauncher]

Bump.

 

[oggbashan]

Apart from my Russian Cameras, which include Leica clones Fed and Zorki, I have a collection of early Kodaks including Kodak Autographics from 1915 ish.

I gave my first Kodak collection to a local museum in the 1970s but then I acquired many more.

One of my uncles bought a massive Negretti and Zambra full-plate camera in the 1930s for ten shillings. After he died, his widow sold it for enough money to fund two trips to Australia to visit her son and grandchildren.

My uncle used to make up his own glass plates for it and strap it to his bicycle for architectural pictures. The definition was amazing even when enlarged up to eight times.

I had a second Zenith Photosniper but I gave it to a nephew who was a chief planning officer. He could take pictures of planning breaches without getting close enough to be challenged and/or assaulted.

 

[oggbashan]

Sewing Machines

It all started back in the 1960s with my second financée (out of 3).

She had just moved into a new-to-her rented flat with a friend but she didn't have any curtains. She knew she could make them but didn't have a sewing machine nor any money.

There was a shop in Greenwich that sold used sewing machines. I drove her there. Their cheapest machine was an 1890 Wheeler and Wilson treadle machine that needed attention. It cost two pounds and ten shillings. I serviced it, oiled it, greased it, fitted a new treadle drive belt to replace the old one that was brittle and she could make her curtains. Three divorces later and a move to Australia and she still has it and uses it.

But her flatmate wanted a sewing machine too, and had slightly more money. I drove the flatmate to Greenwich. We bought a pre-1914 Singer hand machine for four pounds. I serviced and oiled that one too.

Their friends wanted sewing machines too. Over the next five years they bought and I repaired, serviced and oiled another 12 sewing machines.

When I married my wife (we didn't get engaged - just married) she wanted a sewing machine. Over the next twenty years I acquired fourteen vintage sewing machines which I restored before donating all of them including six treadle machines to a rural life museum.

I still have eight hand machines in my garage - all very old i.e pre-1900 and in full working order. What should I do with them now?

 

[Conager]

It all started back in the 1960s with my second financée (out of 3).

She had just moved into a new-to-her rented flat with a friend but she didn't have any curtains. She knew she could make them but didn't have a sewing machine nor any money.

There was a shop in Greenwich that sold used sewing machines. I drove her there. Their cheapest machine was an 1890 Wheeler and Wilson treadle machine that needed attention. It cost two pounds and ten shillings. I serviced it, oiled it, greased it, fitted a new treadle drive belt to replace the old one that was brittle and she could make her curtains. Three divorces later and a move to Australia and she still has it and uses it.

But her flatmate wanted a sewing machine too, and had slightly more money. I drove the flatmate to Greenwich. We bought a pre-1914 Singer hand machine for four pounds. I serviced and oiled that one too.

Their friends wanted sewing machines too. Over the next five years they bought and I repaired, serviced and oiled another 12 sewing machines.

When I married my wife (we didn't get engaged - just married) she wanted a sewing machine. Over the next twenty years I acquired fourteen vintage sewing machines which I restored before donating all of them including six treadle machines to a rural life museum.

I still have eight hand machines in my garage - all very old i.e pre-1900 and in full working order. What should I do with them now?

I would say send them to me but I wouldn't be able to afford the freight.

Mine is a Wheeler & Wilson pre 1907

Still has the notions box with all the accessories.

 

[oggbashan]

My oldest is a Singer New Family model low serial number (fiddle base):

http://www.sewmuse.co.uk/singer.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_New_Family

https://sewalot.com/images/singer_12_1862-1902_Alex_Askaroff_sewalot.JPG

 

[RocketLauncher]

 

[RocketLauncher]

 

[RocketLauncher]

 

[RocketLauncher]