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The Vintage Camera Club Thread

Joie DeVive

One Too Many
Messages
1,308
Location
Colorado
I read through the thread and didn't see one, but does anyone here happen to have a Miranda Sensorex (circa 1960 something)??
 

Scuffy

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
Shores of Lake Erie
Okay ladies and gents! This isn't a camera per say bit it's got a great story! The majority of this takes a personal turn because it's an excerpt from my journal. The book in the pictures is special to me in the fact that, well... read for yourself!

Where to start....

Okay, my gf has been riding and training quarter horses for the past 16 years. The barn she does this through is owned by her friend's mom. This mom recently was diagnosed with cancer and only has a year or so to live. That's a whole other story. She has moved out of the farm house on the barn property to live with her husband in a house on the adjacent property. Thus leaving her son and her brother,the uncle living in the family homestead. Clear so far??

This uncle has been through hell and back- several operations on his lungs, a multitude of things that just can't be cured including dementia. In the past year his health has declined rapidly to the point where he rarely if ever makes it down to the barn. Now a couple of years ago he would hay and grain the 22 horses according to what their owners specified. This past year the dementia kicked in and he was giving 2-3 times what they were supposed to have, trying to fatten them up and calling them "milk cows"! So it was a bit better that he did step down from feeding duties.

Len, the uncle, was a musician in the army. He played trombone and met 3 Presidents while in the band. He trained many talented musicians over the years and that was his passion. Music. Period. He was a talker. Most didn't like to hang out at the barn because he would talk their ear off. Even to the point of walking next to their vehicle as they pulled down the looooong driveway- gabbing all the way. I for one liked talking to him. He had some great stories! Sometimes a little embellished but none the less fun! I digress.

Len was supposed to be checked on by Roger, his nephew every day. Well Roger, who happens to be my boss at the station, has been "too busy" with planning a ridiculous hillbilly wedding to do this. Hasn't been by since Saturday. Well last night Roger's bride to be went down to the farm house and found Len, lying face down in a pool of blood, dead. Nobody knows when the poor man died or how. Did he have a coughing fit and fall, hitting his head on the way down? Only Roger knows most of the details of the scene. He isn't telling even the family members anything. HE happens to be a egocentric control freak. It makes him feel special to know more than others. And this is in all parts of his life. As for the Len and the land owner's brothers and sisters- no one cares about what happened. They were all called and one is too busy fishing on vacation to stop up. Another who lives 20 minutes away doesn't know if she can find the time to come around. No one cares about Len! Hell, Roger is fairly relieved because after the wedding in two weeks he, his son, his wife and her three kids are all moving into the farm house. It's less bickering between family members that he has to deal with.

The whole family is very self centered. They literally don't realize that other people have feelings, that there is a world out there that doesn't revolve around them. It's aggravating that non family members, my gf and me, saw him and interacted with him more than his own flesh and blood and we care more than they do! It's disgusting honestly. One of the nieces and a nephew were laughing last night while at the house with the detectives and coroner about who had more info on Len's death. That is sick!!!

And now the Sheriff's Dept. has said that it looks as though there may have been a struggle so it could be a murder so everything is now taped off, Len has been transported to Cleveland for an autopsy. And now they are getting a search warrant for the property because Roger won't let the detectives look around.

(In the end it was decided that there was no fowl play. Just a heart attack and fall resulting from it.)

I just want to scream it makes me so mad. Len is just going to be swept under the rug and nobody in his family cares. This man was so passionate about life. He's got a whole room the size of an average bedroom full of nothing but sheet music and volumes of music in piles, on shelves and in boxes. It'll all be tossed out, as well as his instruments they way things are going. His pictures too. And all of his writings. The man had gorgeous handwriting, as close to calligraphy as anyone could get nowadays- minus the correct pen. It was simply breathtaking! He'd write letters to his friends, some living and some that had already passed, and he'd continue to write and refine them- making sure each was perfect before sealing it an envelope. Most he never mailed though. He had so much to share with the world and he was just ignored as the eccentric old man at the farm. He died alone and probably pretty sad.

I found that he also kept a secret room in the old hay barn on the property. It was above in the hay loft. Inside were some of his most dear possessions... a writing desk with a few homemade quills and a variety of basic pens. His old arc welder. A small dresser with many small treasures inside- 70's vintage button down shirts (still in the cellophane wrapping), a selection of mouthpieces for his trombones, his class ring and even various bits and pieces of his military uniform. Nothing is worth anything other than being steeped in memories- which is just fine for me. I have held on to these items because they really didn't matter to the family. I'd rather see them appreciated than taken to the Goodwill or just thrown out like the massive amounts of other personal effects that a normal family would keep. It's depressing to think of how they viewed Len.

This book is from Len's father, who used to own a small camera shop in downtown Ashtabula back in the 30's and early 40's. Inside I found his signature and date. Also I came across a sheet of notebook paper folded in quarters. It has hand written directions for mixing up a grainless developer. And as a side note- I had mentioned lens writing earlier in this post, his was even more scripted than his fathers. Quite nice!


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And I hope that this post wasn't out of line folks. If it was please remove it. Just though that it might be appreciated by the photo-minded amongst us!:eek:
 

EraserGirl

New in Town
Messages
1
Location
methuen, ma
newbie

This is my first post and I figured I'd dive into the deep end.
Here are only 2 of my vintage cameras - i probably should spend more time shooting them.
I don't shoot 127 as much as i used to as I have to ship the negatives to a place that can develop it using the old dip and dunk method, and they ship back the negatives via UPS. So I try to shoot it in batches. Usually i shoot 35mm with my old canons.

Here's a 1920/22 Kodak vest Pocket Autographic, i took 2 cameras apart to make one good one.
391511231_e30fe9c015_m.jpg


and a 1959 Baby Rolleiflex
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spim

New in Town
Messages
24
Location
NorCal
I came for the hat info but I also collect antique cameras. :D

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EXPO watch camera c1905, produced for about 30 years. Disguised as a railroad pocket watch.
 

leicanthrope

New in Town
Messages
20
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
As you might be able to surmise by my handle, I'm something of a camera buff. I'm running far too low on energy after a long day at work to photograph the whole collection tonight. I'll try to get a few up this weekend.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

1939 Leica III w/ a 1937 Summar 50/2
III.jpg


1936 Contax II w/ a 1937 Sonnar 50/1.5
ContaxII.jpg


...and yes, I do use 'em:

15-copy.jpg


SN150691-copy.jpg


CR2.jpg


278529.jpg


SN151602-copy.jpg
 

leicanthrope

New in Town
Messages
20
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
As promised, a few more:

To start out with, a few of the more interesting box cameras.

brownie.jpg


beau.jpg


green_brownie.jpg




Some Bakelite goodness.

bullet.jpg


genos.jpg


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A Kodak Retina I from 1936. The first American 35mm camera. Made when Kodak didn't think the new fangled "daylight loading cartridge" was going to last, and thus farmed the design out to Nagel-Werk in Stuttgart to avoid the expense of building it themselves.

retina.jpg




An obvious derivative of the Retina, a camera made by Welta in Germany in 1941. Oddly enough, with the English name of "Watson" and an English language hyperfocal chart mounted onto the back.

watson.jpg




An Argus C3 Matchmatic.

c3.jpg




The Kodak 35RF, one of those cameras that people either love or hate. I'm some where in the middle. I love to look at it, but I hate to use it.

kod35rf.jpg
 

leicanthrope

New in Town
Messages
20
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
A 1941 Soviet clone of the Leica II, the FED-NKVD. The lens is good, but the body is going to require some service before it sees any real use. Still, how often do you come across cameras named after nasty secret police organizations?

fed.jpg




An early Filmo - 1929 I think.

filmo.jpg




A wartime Speed Graphic in need of some further TLC. It's missing the nomenclature plate unfortunately, but it's a former Army Air Corps C-3.

sg.jpg
 

David Conwill

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,854
Location
Bennington, VT 05201
kodak_brownie_hawkeye_flash.jpg


I just missed on one of these at the local thrift shop. I saw it, went home to think about it, came back in a couple days and it was sold. It looked to be in awesome condition. Oh well, I"m not sure I really wanted the challenge of trying to re-spool 120 film onto Kodak's proprietary rolls anyway.

Now if somebody would just make a digital camera that looked like this...

-Dave
 

spim

New in Town
Messages
24
Location
NorCal
You have some nice cameras leicanthrope. I especially like the Genos Achromat you don't see many of that model, and since it takes 120 it's a shooter. :D
 

leicanthrope

New in Town
Messages
20
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
spim said:
Here's a flea market find for leicanthrope. :D

Hey, if you want to make a quick buck, I'll double your money on it. :D

What makes that one even more painful is knowing that you're in the same neck of the woods. Knowing my luck I probably drove right past that same flea market, craned my neck as I went past, and dismissed it thinking they didn't have anything interesting. You've got a 1935 body and a 1936 lens, so there's a chance that might be the original lens.

I haven't had a chance to shoot the Genos yet. The shutter is kinda sticky, and I've been putting off working on it.
 

spim

New in Town
Messages
24
Location
NorCal
I collect subminiature cameras too.

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Petal camera by Kogaku, Japan c1948 w/box and instructions.
 

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