Hello all. In June of 2010 this happened.
My great Uncle was a photographer in Hollywood from the late
50's to the early 80's. He was more of a production photographer, like
documenting the making of a film. Some films include Some Like it Hot,
The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, and many others.
Last summer (2010) my mom was going through a box of his cameras that
she received after his death in 1985. At the time i had a little point
and shoot Canon and really didnt know anything about cameras. Inside
were Two Rolleiflexes, three Nikon F's, a Fujica 35 Auto-M, and a Argus
slide projector. There was also a Pentax Spotmatic, which was not my
great Uncle's, but rather my Grandpa's.
So i pulled everything out and i kinda knew how to work the Nikon
cameras, because they are rather simple. I had never seen or even heard
of a "TLR," or even "Rolleiflex," before then. At first i thought the
glass was broken on the Rollei's because of the leaf shutter, for some
reason it looked broken, since id never seen one and didn't know a thing
about it.
So on to the internet to do some research and find out i did. In a
matter of a week i went from not even know where the shutter button was
on the Rollei's, to knowing almost everything about them. I found out
that one of them is a 1959 Tele-Rolleiflex 135mm F/4 Carl Zeiss Sonnar,
with a pretty low serial number for its batch. The second one is a 1962
2.8E3 80mm Xenotar, again with a pretty low serial number for its batch.
I mean the serial for the Tele starts at 2,300,000 and mine is around 2,300,020-030. So i don't know if that means anything, but i find it pretty
cool that they are pretty low.
So i got some film, which was $10 for two rolls! Loaded a roll into each
camera and starting snapping away. Firstly i was amazed at the picture
quality, being that these cameras are right around 50 years old. Another
reason i was because my Uncle died in 1985 so that could have been the
last time they were used. Fast forward 25 years later and sitting in a
box all that time could be bad for cameras, but i guess
not. They could use some TLC, but they are fully functional.
I also found out how much they could be worth in good condition and i
was surprised, though i have no intention of selling them. I am going to
use them for what they were made for... if i can continue to afford the
film for them and developing, etc. I currently have about 8 rolls of 120 to use up.
So i just wanted to share my story about my two cameras. Now i have 11 film cameras to my one digital (Nikon D5000).
I have pictures of the cameras and many of my other cameras on my Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andys93integra/
and my Zenfolio:
http://andysphotos.zenfolio.com/
Thanks for looking,
Andrew Olson
My great Uncle was a photographer in Hollywood from the late
50's to the early 80's. He was more of a production photographer, like
documenting the making of a film. Some films include Some Like it Hot,
The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, and many others.
Last summer (2010) my mom was going through a box of his cameras that
she received after his death in 1985. At the time i had a little point
and shoot Canon and really didnt know anything about cameras. Inside
were Two Rolleiflexes, three Nikon F's, a Fujica 35 Auto-M, and a Argus
slide projector. There was also a Pentax Spotmatic, which was not my
great Uncle's, but rather my Grandpa's.
So i pulled everything out and i kinda knew how to work the Nikon
cameras, because they are rather simple. I had never seen or even heard
of a "TLR," or even "Rolleiflex," before then. At first i thought the
glass was broken on the Rollei's because of the leaf shutter, for some
reason it looked broken, since id never seen one and didn't know a thing
about it.
So on to the internet to do some research and find out i did. In a
matter of a week i went from not even know where the shutter button was
on the Rollei's, to knowing almost everything about them. I found out
that one of them is a 1959 Tele-Rolleiflex 135mm F/4 Carl Zeiss Sonnar,
with a pretty low serial number for its batch. The second one is a 1962
2.8E3 80mm Xenotar, again with a pretty low serial number for its batch.
I mean the serial for the Tele starts at 2,300,000 and mine is around 2,300,020-030. So i don't know if that means anything, but i find it pretty
cool that they are pretty low.
So i got some film, which was $10 for two rolls! Loaded a roll into each
camera and starting snapping away. Firstly i was amazed at the picture
quality, being that these cameras are right around 50 years old. Another
reason i was because my Uncle died in 1985 so that could have been the
last time they were used. Fast forward 25 years later and sitting in a
box all that time could be bad for cameras, but i guess
not. They could use some TLC, but they are fully functional.
I also found out how much they could be worth in good condition and i
was surprised, though i have no intention of selling them. I am going to
use them for what they were made for... if i can continue to afford the
film for them and developing, etc. I currently have about 8 rolls of 120 to use up.
So i just wanted to share my story about my two cameras. Now i have 11 film cameras to my one digital (Nikon D5000).
I have pictures of the cameras and many of my other cameras on my Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andys93integra/
and my Zenfolio:
http://andysphotos.zenfolio.com/
Thanks for looking,
Andrew Olson
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