Vintage camera porn (Bored...)

[StepheKoontz]

A recent purchase.

Primo-Jr by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

These are one of the most well designed and constructed cameras I own. Just a real jewel of a camera!!!

 

[RLangham]

I don't own a good digital, so excuse the image quality, but this is a real beauty. A working photographer used the hell out of this. Look at that brassing. There's a bad dent by the winding lever but it doesn't affect functionality. I bet that strap was black and white once! The serial number is in the 77 range, meaning it could have been first sold with that DP-3 finder.

I find the curve of the body towards the sides very elegant and professional-looking, a testament to Nikon's excellent and distinctive tradition of industrial design.

The lens is the original kit lens for the Nikon F, an oddly retrofocal design with a nearly flat front element. It's the later and more common six-blade version with clickstops, and it doesn't have a reputation as one of the best Nikkors, but it gets the job done with its nice contrast and excellent color response. With a lightly pink-tinted UV filter (Rolev MG 52mm) it gives this warm vintage tone, but with the filter off it gives very lifelike rendition as well.

 

[Nokton48]

My Makiflex Cameras by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here are my four Makiflexes (three Autos and a Standard) ready for use. This morning I was out photographing a new flower arrangement on my back deck. I used the 21cm f4.5 Makiflex Auto iris Heliar, that the rig on the far left.

Bokeh at F16 with the Heliar is magnificent. I shot four 9x12cm HP5+ sheets in Voigtlander plate holders.

I really like this new camera. It's like an old friend, as comfortable as an old pair of favorite shoes

I have quite a lot of new exposed film to develop as I have time.

 

[BAC1967]

These are one of the most well designed and constructed cameras I own. Just a real jewel of a camera!!!

It is a very nice one. Comparing it to my Baby Rolleiflex the build quality is about the same but the operation of the Primo Jr is more like a Rolleiflex Automat. That’s one thing I don’t like about the Baby, adjusting the iris and shutter speed is not easy for me.

 

[btaylor]

Kodak Retina IIa. So well made.

 

[John Earley]

Ricoh 500 leaf shutter rangefinder 45mm f2.8 by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[John Earley]

Nikon N80 with 50/1.8G and AF-S 180/2.8 by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[wiltw]

The camera on the right is what my father bought for me at 15, the one in the middle was affordable to the average person (but not to a 15 year old with a middle class father), and the one on the left was made of Unobtainium at the time and the object of teen Lust.



I now own all of them.

 

[RLangham]

Nikon F and Smith Corona Skyriter with Coffee by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

I could reproduce this photo with my much more worn F2SB and discolored Remington Travel-Riter...

As you see above, I have the earlier Auto Nikkor-S 50mm, which is a full stop slower than the later S and is oddly retrofocal in design. I guess Nikon weren't used to the flange distance of an SLR when they designed their first normal lens for the F?

 

[John Earley]

Nicca 3-S with Nikkor H-C 50mm f2 by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[Ian Grant]

Nicca 3-S with Nikkor H-C 50mm f2 by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

I might have to put you on my ignore list John Some of your cameras are making me sick with envy !!!

Ian

 

[MattKing]

I think John Earley has the best Covid 19 project of any I have seen!

 

[Ian Grant]

I think John Earley has the best Covid 19 project of any I have seen!

I've been quite good so far during lock-down all I've bought has been a Half plate (7x5) reducing back for a Kodak 2D for £10 ($13), needs springs and glass clips but it'll fit my 10x8 Agfa Ansco's.

My National Lottery ticket win last month was unfortunately a tenth of what I need to buy the CZJ75mm f1.5 Biotar I'm lusting after . . . . . . . .

Ian

 

[John Earley]

I recently purchased this 14"f6 Veritar for my recently rehabilitated Agfa 8x10

Shop Made Gear Rack and Base on Ansco 8x10 by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[John Earley]

Three 9x12 Folders by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[RLangham]

Three 9x12 Folders by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

I have the Recomar 33. Got it for $40 with a shutter that had clearly been CLA'd in the last 20 years. It runs like new down to 1 second and has a perfect bellows, and just one site where the exterior leather has been patched.

I have a quarter plate holder for it with 3x4 sheaths, and I have two packs of 25 (ish) ASA quarter plate from J. Lane/Nodda Duma in the mail as we speak. I've only shot two trimmed sheets of 4x5 and I've actually had it longer than my other two LF cameras so I'm excited to use it. Not to be a suckup to someone who might be reading this but I really like Jason's plates. I have underexposed a few because my Speed Graphic rear shutter ended up wound too tight when I CLA'd it, and subsequently undercooked a couple in old Dektol, but the ones I did proper jobs on turn out beautiful with such interesting tonal effects from the limited color sensitivity. Not just orthochromatic, very limited in terms of color sensitivity.

 

[John Earley]

Leica M3 with new leather strap by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Leica M3 with new leather strap by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

Nice! Really elegant. Is this the Leica that you will be selling to that guy on the other thread for $10? After all, he appears to be serious that some transaction like this will happen..... (one day)

 

[John Earley]

Nice! Really elegant. Is this the Leica that you will be selling to that guy on the other thread for $10? After all, he appears to be serious that some transaction like this will happen..... (one day)

I wish him the best of luck.

 

[Ian Grant]

Nice! Really elegant. Is this the Leica that you will be selling to that guy on the other thread for $10? After all, he appears to be serious that some transaction like this will happen..... (one day)

2 or 3 years ago I went into an antique shop and asked if they had any old cameras, the woman said we usually put them together and sell as a bundle, then said she'd sold a Leica for £20 the week before, an M3, later she realised it was possibly worth a lot more

There are bargains if you're lucky.

Ian

 

[RLangham]

2 or 3 years ago I went into an antique shop and asked if they had any old cameras, the woman said we usually put them together and sell as a bundle, then said she'd sold a Leica for £20 the week before, an M3, later she realised it was possibly worth a lot more

There are bargains if you're lucky.

Ian

I once got an Italian Rectaflex with no lens for 15 dollars and sold it for 110...

 

[mshchem]

The camera on the right is what my father bought for me at 15, the one in the middle was affordable to the average person (but not to a 15 year old with a middle class father), and the one on the left was made of Unobtainium at the time and the object of teen Lust.



I now own all of them.

Pre Nikon lust these were my dream cameras. My Dad bought an Auto 100, which I used a lot. I had a D1 for a while, then fell into the arms of a Nikon F2S. The Super D was the object of my desire of my youth. Meter on the mirror, how cool! Beautiful machine.

 

[John Earley]

This is the mint Retina lllC that I purchased at a flea market several years ago for $18. The person I bought it from asked me what I was going to do with it since they no longer made film. To my regret I sold it off for a substantial profit to finance the purchase of an M3.

Kodak Retina IIIC by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[awty]

I don't own a good digital, so excuse the image quality, but this is a real beauty. A working photographer used the hell out of this. Look at that brassing. There's a bad dent by the winding lever but it doesn't affect functionality. I bet that strap was black and white once! The serial number is in the 77 range, meaning it could have been first sold with that DP-3 finder.

I find the curve of the body towards the sides very elegant and professional-looking, a testament to Nikon's excellent and distinctive tradition of industrial design.

The lens is the original kit lens for the Nikon F, an oddly retrofocal design with a nearly flat front element. It's the later and more common six-blade version with clickstops, and it doesn't have a reputation as one of the best Nikkors, but it gets the job done with its nice contrast and excellent color response. With a lightly pink-tinted UV filter (Rolev MG 52mm) it gives this warm vintage tone, but with the filter off it gives very lifelike rendition as well. View attachment 249687

I think thats a little too hard core for this thread, I have that same same, the only thing more sexy is a brassed up black F with eye level.viewfinder.

 

[RLangham]

I think thats a little too hard core for this thread, I have that same same, the only thing more sexy is a brassed up black F with eye level.viewfinder.

If you mean a plain eye-level prism... I dunno, they look pretty good with some of the metered prisms too. I don't have an F but I do have a Nikkorex F from around the same time...