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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

What camera gives you the most joy?

Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I was looking at my >100 year old Underwood 8x10 film camera, a handsome mahogany piece of English craftsmanship and was thrilled. I realized that I'm just happy even passing it.

I feel that way when I use the 5D with my 50 1.2 lens. I don't get such a thrill with any other camera set up. I know that the street portraits will be wonderful and it's such an intimate way of doing something for someone when one can show them themselves so beautifully represented. When they smile I even forget the magnificent Underwood.

What camera gives you such pleasure?

Asher
 
G

Georg R. Baumann

Inactive
I must say, although currently I only have one camera, LOL, I was hard pushed to sell it for a better version, but I could not get it over my heart.

The Olympus E1 was the very first camera that was fully digital integrated from body to lenses, and the built quality is just magnificent.

She will stay with me for the rest of my days, and once she might give up taking pictures, she already has earned her place of honor in the shelf. <smile>
 
J

Jay Hoss

New member
My 30 gallon galvanized garbage can pinhole camera (16x20 Paper Negs). Best camera I've ever used. If only there were a digital back......
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jay Hoss said:
My 30 gallon galvanized garbage can pinhole camera (16x20 Paper Negs). Best camera I've ever used. If only there were a digital back......
Click to expand...

OMG

Can we have pictures? Can you show the camera and the prints? Take a picture of them immediately!

Asher
 
J

Jay Hoss

New member
Asher,

I'll look for the camera tonight and wrangle some photographs together. Stay tuned....

If I'm lucky, I'll also be able to dig up the photo's of it in the field. This camera was able to have the neg changed in field as I dragged this thing all over the place.
So a one shot camera wouldn't work. Changing the neg was a feat, hot also. I had purchased a large black plastic tarp from the local hardware store, wrapped myself w/ camera
like a burrito. Let my eyes adjust to the darkness, used gaffers tape to plug light leaks then turned on my portable safe light opened the can and swapped out the paper negs.
 
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Kathy Rappaport

pro member
How do you post after that!

I am with Asher - My 5d gives me nachas (joy in yiddish) especially when I am sitting here with a fresh pile of mounted images from the lab waiting to be framed. When I see the images printed like this, I cannot believe that *I* did those...then I remember that, YES, I did....and I feel very proud and yet humble at the same time. Actually, everyone here in the office has had enough of me today...
 
J

Jack_Flesher

New member
For me, it's hands down my Leica M. I smile every time I pick it up, and smile broader every time I print an image from it :D


© Jack Flesher Click on image to see the large version!
 
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M

Marcus Peddle

New member
I would say that my Nikon 300 with a 35mm lens gets me the best results and that, of course, gives me great joy.
Shooting handheld black and white with my Nikon FM3a and the 45mm pancake lens let's me enjoy a simplicity that's hard to beat.
When I want to feel 'manly' I get out the Contax 645 and tripod. Joking, of course. I enjoy the relatively slow process of shooting medium format. It's relaxing. Until I get the film back and realise I've just wasted another 5,000 Korean Won. :)
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
I'm not sure whether it's my Canon 30D which I use everyday and have had just a year, or my Ciro-flex TLR that I learned photography with in the early 60's when I inherited it from my father.

I use the Ciro-flex seldom because it is so primitive and the 120 roll film is a PITA to process and scan, but I also love the primitiveness that causes me to resurrect those old manual photography skills. I seldom estimate exposures when shooting w/ the Canon, always using the built-in spot meter. When I shoot with the Ciro-flex my "in brain" light meter takes over and I seem to get excellent exposures most of the time.

When I manage to avoid double exposure, that is....
 
J

JimCollum

pro member
The M8. (before that it was the Mamiya 7II). The M8 just feels right in the hands, something i can carry all the time, and the files are some of the best i've seen from a digital camera
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Charles,

As a matter of interest, how do you store all those negatives? A shoe box? Do you have a file system? Are they just forgotten as today as they could be looked at differently with photoshop edits.

I'd like to see a picture anyway of the Ciro-Flex as I don't recall ever having seen it.

Asher
 
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David A. Goldfarb

New member
I like them all when they're doing what they do best.

I suppose I always get a special kick (and not just from the mirror) when I'm using my 5x7" Press Graflex, which is a large format SLR from around 1920.

It's also fun to shoot my 4x5" Tech V handheld, Weegee-style.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
David A. Goldfarb said:
I like them all when they're doing what they do best.

I suppose I always get a special kick (and not just from the mirror) when I'm using my 5x7" Press Graflex, which is a large format SLR from around 1920.

It's also fun to shoot my 4x5" Tech V handheld, Weegee-style.
Click to expand...
"Weege-Style" since you photograph people sleeping on fire escapes in the hot summers or what?

Asher
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Asher Kelman said:
Charles,

As a matter of interest, how do you store all those negatives? A shoe box? Do you have a file system? Are they just forgotten as today as they could be looked at differently with photoshop edits.

I'd like to see a picture anyway of the Ciro-Flex as I don't recall ever having seen it.

Asher
Click to expand...

Asher, you can see one here : http://www.cosmonet.org/camera/ciroflex_e.htm. Mine is the "top of the line" Model F with the Rapax shutter and f3.5 85mm Anastigmat lens.

I store the negatives in sleeves in a binder. Once there were contact sheets for each page of negs, but most weren't well fixed and degraded over the years. I doubt many are worth even scanning today because most of what I shot back then were snaps.

The pictures from those times aren't worth much, but the experience I gained shooting, processing, and printing those pictures will last a lifetime and has made me a better photographer in the digital age.
 
J

Jay Hoss

New member
Asher,

As promised here is a link to a flickr slideshow. The fruits of the garbage can, will be posted later this week. I need to setup a copy stand at home to photograph the 16x20's the can produced.

2295524989_367ca22459_o.jpg
 
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Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jay Hoss said:
Asher,

As promised here is a link to a flickr slideshow. The fruits of the garbage can, will be posted later this week. I need to setup a copy stand at home to photograph the 16x20's the can produced.

2295524989_367ca22459_o.jpg
Click to expand...
That's magnificent. I'll dupicate the images to start a thread here ]on this pocket camera! Obviously well designed. I'd like to see a leather covering for the cold weather. How can one not love it!

Asher
 
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Charles L Webster

pro member
Jay: The setup looks great. I met a guy a while ago who shoots with similar pinhole cameras.

Can we see some of the results?

The shots I've seen from similar "barrel" pinhole cams feature substantial perspective distortion due to the curve of the paper in one direction, but not in the other.
 
J

Jay Hoss

New member
Chas,

I plan on setting up my copy stand either tonight or the next and will have some of the images posted here.

My other barrel camera was an outdoor ashtray that I "borrowed" from college awhile back....I remember photographing a scene on campus when a student came up and put his cig out on my camera. ;-)
 
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