Time-travel back to 1988...what were you using?--Color

skystrick · Aug 4, 2013

Just curious to see how much the last 25 years has changed the field of photography...

Just for fun!

Okay, back in 1988, what were you using for:
(1) Top most-used camera?
(2) Top most-used color film?
(3) Top most-used paper?
(4) B&W enlarger w/ color pack, dichro color enlarger, or somethine else? - Bonus points if you can you remember the model!

If 1988's too specific, we can just say "the 1980s".

Muihlinn · Aug 5, 2013

For 1988 this:

1) IIRC a 1959 nikon F
2) Kodachrome 64
3) Whatever the lab returned, or for BW, ilford/agfa/valca depending on offers
4) by then I just moved across countries and I bought a cheap & unknow secondhand enlarger which was slightly wobbly, at that time most were slides.

chriscrawfordphoto · Aug 5, 2013

I was 13 years old, shooting with the Olympus OM-G that my dad bought me for my 11th birthday. I had a 50mm f1.8 and a 28mm f2.8 lens, both Olympus Zuiko lenses. I had never used black and white film or done my own processing, that would have to wait till I took photography in high school a few years later. I shot Kodak's amateur color neg films. I think it was Kodacolor VR-G, usually in 100 speed. Got it processed by a local lab.

I don't have the camera anymore. It was broken in a car accident when I was 16. Totaled my car, too. Replaced the camera with an Olympus OM-4T

BMbikerider · Aug 5, 2013

That's 25 years back and I thought I was having problems with short term memory loss! The camera almost certainly a Nikon F or very similar but definitely a Nikon with prime lenses and possibly a Rollieflex 'T'. My enlarger was definitely a LPL7700 with a Nikkor lens for both formats (Still got it and only changed the bulb twice!) and the film would have been FP4/Tri X and for colour, Agfa slide. I didn't start C41 printing until about 1990.

Steve Smith · Aug 5, 2013

In 1988 I was 24 and had only one camera. A Nikon FG.

Steve.

Tenoates · Aug 5, 2013

I was using my Canon AE-1 that my dad gave me back in 1977 when I was 12.

benjiboy · Aug 5, 2013

In 1988 my wife and I sold our previous house and moved into our present one, I had 2 new Canon F1's, an A1 and a T90 and 2 mamiya C330F's, I sold the A1 recently and bought another new F1 body, I still have and use the same cameras. I used to shoot a lot of Agfa Portra 160 on those days and Agfa 50S and Ektachrome 64 slide film sadly all no longer with us.

bdial · Aug 5, 2013

A Nikon F3 which I still have
My "go to" film was Kodachrome
Color prints were on whatever the lab used, but my preference was Kodak.
No darkroom at the time.

perkeleellinen · Aug 5, 2013

Looking through the family archive I think my parents quit using B&W film around the mid '60s. I remember on holiday we used to give our 110 cartridges to this processing place on the high street that boasted a 30 minutes turnaround, so quick the prints were still tacky. Their machine was in the window and prints would pass by as they were drying on a conveyor - interesting to see all the family photos - then excitement would come as we spotted our own shots. Kodak, Fuji and the rest were too expensive so we always bought the shop brands of film.

hoffy · Aug 5, 2013

1988? My Brothers Olympus 35mm Point and Shoot, or my Plastic Kodak Brownie that took 110 film

The film? Back then it would have had to be Kodacolor Gold.

selmslie · Aug 5, 2013

1. Hasselblad 500 C/M
2. Kodachrome 64 and 25
3. Ilford Multigrade
4. Besseler 45 MXT w/dichro color head

Helinophoto · Aug 5, 2013

(1) Top most-used camera? Goko 100 compact crap (looked like this http://cdn2.sulitstatic.com/images/...2d65c0e10142f409b908baa335005efe541f44f48.jpg )
(2) Top most-used color film? No idea, the "store had it in 200 and 400" color negative, probably "Fuji film". ^^

(3) Top most-used paper? "Quality photo paper from the lab"
(4) B&W enlarger with color head? No..

Hey, i was 14

Doug Smith · Aug 5, 2013

1) Nikon F
2) Agfa color negative
3) Lab prints
4) n/a

Ashutterbug · Aug 5, 2013

OM-2 & Mat 124
Shooting Ektachrome 64, FP-4 and the last of my Panotomic X (this was a sad time).

spacer · Aug 5, 2013

My Mom's K1000.

I don't remember what film I used mostly, but I think she'd bought it at Duffy's in Clovis NM.
The camera disappeared at Disneyland a couple years later.

Ap507b · Aug 5, 2013

1. Nikon FA (I still have it)
2. Fujichrome 100ASA slide film.
3. Whatever the lab used.
4. Not applicable to me.

lancekingphoto · Aug 5, 2013

I was 16 years old and had just bought my first SLR: a Konica TC-X, that I bought for use in a high school photography class. That camera traveled around the world with me, and brought me many hours of happy shooting. I used whatever was readily available for film, mostly Kodak consumer films with a fair amount of black & white for good measure. I used to work at a drugstore, so I got a small discount on my film processing. I still have that camera today.

mablo · Aug 5, 2013

1988 is the year I bought a brand new Minolta 7000 kit. I shot whatever colour film I could find and had negs and prints made in the lab. I still have some of the prints and I think my brother still has the camera somewhere. I had no access to a darkroom at the time.

jerrybro · Aug 5, 2013

I was shooting a Minolta XD5 and Ektar 25 film.

benjiboy · Aug 5, 2013

I'm still using the same cameras as I did in 1988, I've only bought two since then a Canon EF body, and a new Canon F1 body, I don't like constantly changing cameras you can never operate them without thinking.

wblynch · Aug 5, 2013

I was shooting mostly my wife's generic Minolta 35mm Point and Shoot. It took OK pictures.

On occasion I would drag out my Olympus OM-1 but we were too active at that time to worry about photo gear.

Grab and go was the theme of the day.

I always bought Kodak color film at the drugstore/supermarket and got upset if my wife or daughters bought Fuji!

Looking back at the old negatives now, the Kodak actually did hold up better over time.

Cheap 1-hour mini-labs where popping up everywhere and their processing and prints have NOT held up over time. The stuff I sent out to Kodak labs for processing and prints is still beautiful even today. Especially the prints.

I sure wish we could get color lab prints on that same paper! The stuff was perfect - not like the sh** (er.. junk) of today.

Wayne · Aug 5, 2013

(1) Top most-used camera?

Busch Pressman D with 120 film back. My Wista 45sp didn't come until 1989.

(2) Top most-used color film?

Oh gosh-maybe Fujichrome 100? If they made that then? I also shot some Extrachrome. A few polaroids.

(3) Top most-used paper?

Oriental Seagull, Kodak Elite

(4) B&W enlarger w/ color pack, dichro color enlarger, or somethine else? - Bonus points if you can you remember the model!

Omega DII with cold light head with 162mm Raptar, IIRC

Pinecreekboy · Aug 5, 2013

Let's see in 1988 I didn't have a darkroom--I had one from 1973-1985. I would have been shooting Kodachrome in my F3HP using a 24mm f/2.8 or and 85mm f/2.0. Occasionally I would shoot Tri-X but it was killing me to not be able to process my own film.

Chan Tran · Aug 5, 2013

In 1988? At that time I only have a Minolta SR-t 101 with a 28mm a 50mm and a 70-210mm zoom. I bought the whole set for $45. I was broke at the time. Don't have any other equipment. I started to buy equipment in 1977 and my first camera was a Nikon F2AS and then I added the EM and the F3HP and then the Olympus XA. I got the Beseler 23CII with the dichroic head and use Kodak ektacolor paper and EP2 chemistry. I managed an 1 hr lab in 1983 so I do most of my processing there and only the enlargement at home. In 1984 my F2AS got stolen and I sold the Olympus XA to a co-worker who never paid me. I went broke in 1985 so I sold all of my equipment then. I used the Minolta SRT way until 2002 when I bought the Nikon F5 and then several others after that.

Scandium · Aug 6, 2013

In 1988 my primary color film was ECN 5247, ISO 100. I began transitioning to ECN 5297, ISO 250 that year. I used a Canon F-1n and a pair of FTbs.

Time-travel back to 1988...what were you using?--Color

lancekingphoto

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