In Praise of Clockwork mechanisms

[cliveh]

Are batteries in cameras really necessary? when clockwork mechanisms will do the job.

 

[seezee]

I like my Leicas because the only thing the ones with batteries can't do without power is meter.

 

[pdeeh]

they are necessary, except when they are not

 

[AgX]

Batteries become empty. Clockwork geartreins can get sticky.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Whether batteries are necessary depends on the type of photography you do.

I like landscape and cityscape photography, so I don't even use a meter. Lately I've been using 100% mechanical cameras such as the Mamiya RB67.

Next to that, I like cameras where the only need for a battery is the meter.

But for those who shoot sports or other activities, sophisticated metering and autofocus is necessary. Yes, I could shoot basketball with my Speed Graphic and maybe get a few good shots, but I wouldn't be able to hand out dozens of photos afterwards.

 

[TheRook]

No, it's not really necessary. But sometimes it's nice to have an on-board, powered meter. Especially when you're shooting all day and the lighting is constantly changing from one scene to the next. And batteries are not prohibitively expensive. Put in a fresh battery, and it's good for 1-5 years, depending on the battery type and the camera's power consumption. I've never quite understood why some people express such disdain for batteries in cameras. It's not like with digital cameras, with their never-ending cycle of battery recharging.

 

[BrianShaw]

Are cameras in phones really necessary? when a camera will do the job.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

My Exakta VX's and a Minox III are 100% mechanical and they work just fine, including the slow speeds and long timed speeds.

It's a bit strange to me that the Exaktas are doing so well when other cameras' slow speeds (Leica M3 and Minox B) need a CLA more frequently.

 

[R.Gould]

I haven't bought a camera or meter battery for years, all of my cameras are 100% mechanical, and the only 2 cameras with built in meters are selimium metered, and still accurate, for the rest I use one of the Weston's I have, all spot on,

 

[pdeeh]

Are cameras in phones really necessary? when a camera will do the job.

are 'phones really necessary?
when semaphore flags will do the job

 

[cuthbert]

Usually mechanical cameras are more appreciated than electronic counterparts (see the price of the OM3 and the OM4. for instance), but I don't have a problem with a internal lightmeter, for shooting colour film and especially slide it's a necessity and holding another meter is cumbersome, I don't use them, so it's either exposure guessing on B&W or inboard lightmeter for colour.

 

[benjiboy]

I don't know of any clockwork lightmeters.

 

[AgX]

Don't you know the true Apug-Meter, with a springloaded dynamo ??

 

[Rick A]

I don't know of any clockwork lightmeters.

While definitely not clockwork, my Sekonic L-398a is battery free, and accurate. I prefer mechanical shutters for my work, all my LF gear, Zeiss Nettar, and OM-1(that I don't even put a battery in for the meter).

 

[LarryP]

Who needs an apple when you can have a clockwork orange ?

 

[Down Under]

Theo Sulphate, you use an RB67 for street photography!?! You must be very fit. Consider changing to a 5x7 Home Portrait Graflex - they weigh about the same, look very elegant on a big tripod, and the expressions you will get from your subjects will certainly be unusual and interesting.

Benjiboy, surely any Weston meter from the 1940s or 1950s can be regarded as clockwork, especially when the selenium cells break down and exposure data reads all over the place. Shooting then truly becomes a matter of "in the laps of the gods".

Old extinction meters now and then pop up for sale on Ebay, but many would consider these as pre-clockwork. One can use an old Kodak Exposure Guide, but that may be seen by some purists as cheating, being paper based and so not really clockwork.

Me, I'll go with Rick A's train of thought. I use Nikkormat FT2s with a 35 f/2 or a 28f/3.5 and I go one beyond, shooting meterless with Ilford XP400 and a variety of (equally non-clockwork) filters to deal with tropical light conditions. The results, if I may dare call them that, are overall quite satisfactory.

Not using a meter at all may really be anti-clockwork, but it certainly goes a long way to explain the state of my photography over the past five decades, as my partner would say, a cross between opportunistic and miraculous.

 

[benjiboy]

The inverse snobbery buffs and Luddites have reared their ugly heads again, for Pete's sake it's the 21st century the whole World runs on electronics. Do you guys have clockwork smartphones computers and T.V's ?

 

[ciniframe]

The inverse snobbery buffs and Luddites have reared their ugly heads again, for Pete's sake it's the 21st century the whole World runs on electronics. Do you guys have clockwork smartphones computers and T.V's ?

Your comment is presumption. How would you know the reason a person happens to like older mechanical cameras, watches, and whatnot? It does not follow that just because folks gain pleasure from useing these older cameras that they are either 'inverse snobs' or 'Luddites'. These older cameras, because of their mechanical nature have both advantages and disadvantages compared to later mechanically propelled but electronically governed shutters. Preferring one makes no negative comment on another person preferring the other.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have and use both battery dependent and mechanical 35mm, at time the advanced features of my Minolta 9 is best suited, other times I like a straight forward camera like a Spotmatic or Miranda. I don't have a smart phone, have little need for one, on the hand I have powerful computer, but there are time I use a typewriter. Saying that if I could back in time 35 years when I was a working PJ and could chose a F2 or Mintolta 9 or F5, guess which I would take.

 

[seezee]

I don't know of any clockwork lightmeters.

It's not clockwork, but it doesn't require a battery either:

Watkin's Bee Meter

I bought one of these on FleaBay, not for use, but purely to display.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

A battery controlled shutter is more accurate than a purely mechanical one. Older clockwork shutters were notoriously bad with fast shutter speeds often by 40% or more. Some cameras provided a default shutter speed usually 1/125 s for when the battery failed.

 

[onre]

A simple electrically controlled shutter, such as the one in Pentax 6x7, is quite reliable and straightforward piece of equipment. It's easy to overhaul and calibrate. The electronic circuit consists of a handful of components. If I remember correctly, there's a grand total of five transistors in there. Given the way the circuit works, their specifications are not very critical, so you can use many different off-the-shelf types as replacements without any effect to the operation of the circuit.

On the other hand, many later electrically controlled cameras aren't that repairable. As circuits grew more complex, large-scale integration was used to get it all fit in the camera. Many of these IC chips were only used in a certain model line, some only in a certain model. After the supply on those dries up, that's the end of the line for that camera model, whereas generic components such as basic NPN and PNP transistors will probably still be available new. Of course, as long as there's ample supply of working cameras available, that does not matter. For me personally it presents a sort of problem, though. Mechanically I can manufacture rather complex parts, but even a very simple custom IC chip is beyond my skill and resources - especially as schematics are usually not available as the designs are more or less "black boxes".

Dunno about "inverse snobbery" or "Ludditism", it's only a matter of preference. I think many people would call shooting film in these days of d*gital "inverse snobbery" or "Ludditism", no matter whether the camera needed batteries or not.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I prefer cameras that only use batteries for light meters.

 

[pdeeh]

Watkin's Bee Meter

I want one!
I want one!
I constantly need to meter bees ...

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I tell folks that I have film cameras that doesn't need batteries and some are blown away. I have a Canon F-1 N that has a hybrid shutter that will work without batteries within a range of shutter speeds just incase the battery died. One issue I have with clockwork mechanisms is I have sticky shutters at slower speeds with some of my old view camera and Hassy lenses