Old film cameras as collectibles

[DuncaninFrance]

But... film photography has a certain soul that modern photography doesn't have. Film has to be developed and prints have to be made. Digital has no soul to it. There is no sensed value to each image in digital photography... no click has any real worth in itself. The decisive moment no longer exists. To focus on a subject and consider the mechanics and the options in film photography is about like the difference between shooting black powder and loading a round of smokeless powder into a modern semiautomatic firearm.

While not wanting to be confrontational Robert I have to say that I could not disagree with your above thoughts more strongly
Having been a serious photographer for more than 55 years and experiencing cameras from a fold out Zeiss Ikon through Box Brownies to my current Canon 500D, (I tried counting up the cameras I have owned and used in that time which I think is certainly over 30) and having had my own Dark Room as well as using Photoshop since the 90's, photography still offers me all the magic that I discovered when I was 12 years old........

[Niner]

I agree that digital is better by far in a lot of ways. You can take countless photos for next to free ..other than the cost of the postage stamp size SD card you place them on and the electricity to charge the battery once in a while. I'm all in favor of them. They are great and amazing. But I was reading something the other day...which I can't find now... where a long time professional art photographer was saying that he thought that now the means of photography has changed so much it has affected the end as a creative art. The photographer snaps the photo the same way but with less need for experience and knowledge of his photographic instrument. Nobody develops the negative in a critical skilled way and nobody prints the image in technically knowing way. Film comes in canisters with a specific limited number of spaces for images. Film is meant to ultimately be a tangible image printed on a photographic paper to be dealt with by time. Digital images, for the most part, are destined to be erased and not taken with any seriousness.

I was only waxing poetic on this because I think it is like re-experiencing something that in another twenty years...or sooner ..most of the living will have never experienced and never will. It's a little like Davy Crockett taking old Betsy into the woods to shoot a bear from close range with only the one ball of lead over a load of powder and a side lock flint that he hopes will spark upon pulling the trigger as opposed to some modern hunter taking his high powered multi round scoped rifle into the woods in hope of shooting a bear from a safe distance.

[DuncaninFrance]

But I was reading something the other day...which I can't find now... where a long time professional art photographer was saying that he thought that now the means of photography has changed so much it has affected the end as a creative art. The photographer snaps the photo the same way but with less need for experience and knowledge of his photographic instrument. Nobody develops the negative in a critical skilled way and nobody prints the image in technically knowing way. Film comes in canisters with a specific limited number of spaces for images. Film is meant to ultimately be a tangible image printed on a photographic paper to be dealt with by time. Digital images, for the most part, are destined to be erased and not taken with any seriousness.

Well I couldn't agree less with that statement, it's utter bollocks.............

He has obviously forgotten about Polaroids that he took to check the lighting in a studio and then the contact prints that were looked over using a magnifier and the crop limes that were drawn on them not to mention the motor winds, assistants frantically loading new film into MF backs and a mirriad of other things that happened on a shoot.

Here is a quote from one of my favourite photographers which says it all for me;

Could you have taken your early pictures with a digital camera?
Yeah, it’s not the camera that takes the picture; it’s the person". David Bailey

[Niner]

Well...I can see what you are saying but what I'm trying to get at is that the means can be as interesting and as important as the end. For instance, consider this as an example. Two fishermen are fishing yards apart on the same stream and fishing for the same species of fish. One fishes with a fly rod, weight forward floating line and a specially selected handmade fly. The other uses a ultra light spinning real standard light test line, a short light rod and casts a factory made ultralight lure of a color that he thinks will produce strikes. Both may or may not catch fish...but.... the experience will be different for each of them in how they fish. Now if the only thing either wanted was to have fish for the table they could have gone down to the local fish market as a sure means to an end. But they didn't want to have fish as much as they wanted to fish for fish, and do it in the way that suited them on that particular day. Photography ought to be that way too..... in my mind, anyway. Some days I want to do it the old fashioned way and sometimes I want the new easier, surer, cheaper, more controllable way. Why not?

[DuncaninFrance]

Now that's a whole different statement

I just think that to take good photographs you have to start with the MkI eyeball and go from there, no matter what kind of process you use. If you can't frame a picture in your minds eye then you need to be very, very lucky to get an image that can be worked on with a great end result................

[deadin]

Anybody wants to get real nostalgic, they need to trade me out of this outfit......
It's an 8x10 field view, triple convertible Schnieder lens (also another wide angle lens) 4 film holders, a bunch of filters, spot meter and dark cloth. The whole outfit in its case is around 40 lbs and cost about $7 every time it goes "click". (last time I looked...)

[Niner]

deadin....I'm nostalgic...but not that nostalgic. That's the kind of camera a serious collector would pay money for. I'm not that serious.

[DuncaninFrance]

I'd buy it IF I could find a plane large enough tom transport it here

[Niner Delta]

That camera needs a guy standing next to it, holding up a pan of that stuff that flashes
and leaves a cloud of smoke.......

Duncan, I'm sure it would fit into the cargo hold of a large ship.......

.

[DuncaninFrance]

That camera needs a guy standing next to it, holding up a pan of that stuff that flashes
and leaves a cloud of smoke.......

Duncan, I'm sure it would fit into the cargo hold of a large ship.......

.

Good point Vern