Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Me, and my photo! (and my camera)

This is topic Me, and my photo! (and my camera) in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-25-2003, 04:50 AM:

Yes, this ugly looking specimen is me; and this is the best picture I could find!

It was scanned from a Polaroid print, taken with my 1949 Speed Graphic, on the roof of the college where I work. Just bejind the photographer is a door leading to a loft where we store old equipment, and I store some of my film; that is why I am holding a can which I have just retreived from the 'vault'. This was a musical short, on its way to an archive.

I've never had much success with Polaroid film, but I do have some quite good shots taken with the Speed Graphic on conventional material. Are there any other members who collect classic cameras? A few years ago a picture I took with it did get used in a local newspaper in London; possibly the last use of a Speed Graphic as a genuine press camera?

I would like to record my thanks to Brad for hosting this site, and the forums, and to the other members for the valuable advice they have given me. I have now met six other members, four here, and two in the States, so my regards to Bernard, Peter, Leo, Darren, Bob and Bernie, and I hope to meet some more of you sometime.

I'm not working today, so I'm about to go to the NFT to book my ticket for the restored 'Metropolis'. Surprisingly, I've never actually seen the film, only clips on television.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-25-2003, 12:34 PM:

quote:
Yes, this ugly looking specimen is me; and this is the best picture I could find!

Hey, don`t worry, for an Englishman you are actually looking OK!

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-25-2003, 02:29 PM:

Thanks Michael! [Smile]

How is Germany today? It's a long time since I was there, I had a couple of days in München at the time they were building the Olympic stadum there. I think the Olympics were in 1972, weren't they, so it was probably 1971 when I was there. A lot has changed since then. I remember them filling me up with large quantities of Löwenbräu. In 1974 I went to Russia, in the middle of Winter, and there they kept filling me up with Vodka. When at home, I don't drink alcohol. I had problems getting a new passport, and, for many years, I didn't go anywhere, and thought I would probably not travel abroad again, but last year I made two trips to the New York/New Jersey area. Berlin looks like an interesting place; maybe I will get there some day.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-25-2003, 09:02 PM:

Mein Gott. So close and you haven't been in so long?

Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 01-25-2003, 09:24 PM:

The closest I have to classic cameras are two Kodak Retina 35s from the 50s; a Ib and a IIc, both with Schneider Kreuznach lenses. They take beautiful pictures. Also a Praktica SLR, which is built (and sounds) like a tank. The shutter firing scares people.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 01-25-2003, 09:47 PM:

History repeats itself [Cool]

--- the new Kodak EasyShare LS443 4-megapixel digital camera also uses a Schneider-Kreuznach lens:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/digital/easyShare/ls443/ls443.jhtml

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-26-2003, 03:03 AM:

Chris wrote:

quote:

The closest I have to classic cameras are two Kodak Retina 35s from the 50s; a Ib and a IIc, both with Schneider Kreuznach lenses. They take beautiful pictures. Also a Praktica SLR, which is built (and sounds) like a tank. The shutter firing scares people.

Chris, the Retinas were good cameras. Amateur Phtographer magazine over here did an article on them a year or so back.

When I worked in schools we used to use Practicas, they were reasonably schoolgirl-proof. The main problem we had with them was that take-up system with the two wires which grabbed the end of the film. I could never see what was wrong with a slot in the take-up spool, like everyone else used. Keep it simple.

My favourite SLRs were porbably the Pentax SP1000 and Spotmatic F, The Olympus OM-1 and the Nikon FM. These cameras seemed to me to be genuine improvmenta on what had gone before; since then they have become too complex, to gimmicky and too dependant on batteries from which they draw an ever greater load. Who needs a power driven film rewind, for example. What's wron with a knob?

You should hear the 5x4 inch focal plane shutter on the Speed Graphic!

John wrote:

quote:

the new Kodak EasyShare LS443 4-megapixel digital camera also uses a Schneider-Kreuznach lens

So does my Speed Graphic, two Xenars and an Angulon. I think most of these cameras had Ektars, but the Schneider ones were also quite common.

[ 01-26-2003, 05:24 AM: Message edited by: Stephen Furley ]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-26-2003, 08:53 AM:

quote:
How is Germany today?

Germany is completely messed up. There are lots of financial and social problems and nobody knows what to do or has the courage to bring changes about. The costs of the reunion have ruined the country. Berlin is broke with 30 billion Euro (1 Euro=roughly 1 Dollar) debts!
The cinema business is also very bad now. We had (still have) a cinema going boom over the last few years but the big exhibitors have built too many multiplexes, often in close proximity to each other, and now most of them are broke. Great management! Everyone knew that it was going to be like this, but they still built all those cinemas because they all wanted to become market leaders.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-26-2003, 12:12 PM:

Hi Stephen,
We ought to start a cameras thread on this forum!! Something I've been involved in since I was seven years old! Photography has been alot of fun over the years for me, but I've gotten away from 35mm lately and have gone digital for my general stuff. I used to be a Camera Repair Tech for Canon and worked on all the cameras they made....AE-1, A-1, F-1,FTB and alot of the TV camera lenses they made.....that was back in the late 70's that I worked for them. I still have my F-1n and set of lenses, as well as the underwater housing for it. I still use it once in a while. For my outdoor and other type photography I use a 6X9 Galvin View Camera which is a hand made minature view camera that weighs only 2 lbs. I also have a Cambo 4X5 studio view camera that gets its fair share of usage. With a fine grain film like Fuji Velvia...which is my favorite color film, I get excellent results out of the Galvin......but with the 4X5 format grain is non-existant. All of my lenses (5) are Rodenstocks and interchangable between both cameras....I've gotten by far the best results with them. Have had Schneiders too, but have never gotten the same look I get with the Roadies. I rarely shoot B&W anymore as there is too much color out here to capture....
Mark @ CLACO
www.clacoequipment.com

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-26-2003, 12:46 PM:

I have an early Canon AE-1 and a Nikon F2a (25th Anniversary...quite rare)...both of the above with a collection of lenses and filters.

In the darkroom...a Bessler 23CII with color head and regulated power supply. I did B&W or color...slides, negatives, and either to prints...thems was the days.

Steve

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-26-2003, 01:24 PM:

Michael wrote:

quote:

Germany is completely messed up.

Sounds like England!

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-26-2003, 03:15 PM:

Steve,
Thems are still the days....enjoy them while you still can....I still do some Ilfochrome at home, but the lab that prints all of Tom Till's photos is near my house and by going to them I end up with a display quality print...not just an enlargement. So I end up there more than in my darkroom. Those not familiar with Toms work go here to see some of it...
http://www.tomtill.com/online/shop.cgi/pages=index.html

Even though I worked for Canon I still prefer Nikon glass over any of Canon's glass. I had an F2 till I dropped it off a 400 foot cliff near Moab, UT. Someday future scientists will unearth its fossil......The body was pretty beat, actally had begun to fosilize already, but still worked great, the thing I miss is the 24mm Nikkor that went down with it [Frown]

!
Mark

Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 01-26-2003, 04:26 PM:

Stephen,
Im sure I shal get to meet you soon, gona be bobbing to bradford to catch the Widescreen weekend in March if your going at all.
But you should come to York as you can catch a 70mm show, as we screen them all year around.

Leo will also be coming to Bradford to see whats on offer this year.

Darren

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-26-2003, 07:01 PM:

I generally preferred Ilford for B&W work. I used Kodak for color negatives and prints. Cibachrome for slide -> print.

I could/can go up to 16 x 20".

Steve

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-26-2003, 08:57 PM:

I definately agree that Ilford has some really good B&W paper. Agfa stuff always looked nice too. Haven't had time for about a year to print any of my own stuff now.....
Mark

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 01-26-2003, 09:36 PM:

I've been pretty satisfied with my Pentax K-1000, one I've had since the '70s. Never had a problem with it...and it has a manual rewind. Heck, it's ALL manual!

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 01-26-2003, 10:54 PM:

I still have and use several Exacta 1951 bodies with a set of match Zies and a set of Angeneux lens

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-27-2003, 12:07 AM:

Stephen wrote:

quote:
Sounds like England!

Oh yes, now the only difference between England and Germany is that we have decent beer. And that we can actually play football (soccer for American readers). On the other hand, we have the Euro and we have to live with that.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 01-27-2003, 01:48 AM:

quote:
It was scanned from a Polaroid print, taken with my 1949 Speed Graphic, on the roof of the college where I work.

Wearing your Loew's Jersey t-shirt!

Somehow, the cameras which I use have boiled down to the Nikon FG first adapted for vertical ladders by replacing the strap with one of those clips used to clip mongo key rings to a belt loop; & a Ricoh XR-something I forgot with a long zoom, short zoom, & tiny tabletop tripod all in one of those new small soft vinyl padded approx 10"x8"x2" lunchboxes. I happily bang them around everywhere; all the other stuff seems to never leave the house any more. One of those Calumet 4x5's in the fiber case is the sturdy base of the pile in the closet.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-27-2003, 06:59 AM:

Michael wrote:

quote:

Oh yes, now the only difference between England and Germany is that we have decent beer. And that we can actually play football (soccer for American readers). On the other hand, we have the Euro and we have to live with that.

But Michael, that's not saying much; every country on Earth plays football better than England! I'm not a football fan, so I'm quite happy to admit the truth on that one.

I'm told that some of our small, independant breweries produce some good beers, but the big ones don't have a very good reputation.

As far as cinemas are concerned, I think too many screens are being built here as well. A fair number of our very early cineras are still open as art house type venues, and are doing quite well. Nearly all of the big 1930s ones have gone. Of the modern multiplexes, we don't seem to have as many of the really bad ones as America seems to, I think most of them are reasonable. Among the best is probably the 'Picture House' chain, I know that several of their staff are members of these forums.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-27-2003, 01:15 PM:

quote:
But Michael, that's not saying much; every country on Earthplays football better than England! I'm not a football fan, so I'm quite happy to admit the truth on that one.

It is very courageous of you to admit that, but not quite true: US football (=soccer) is even worse than English.

The cinema situation is very similar here, and I think that the multiplex boom occurred in England a little earlier than in Germany where it took place mainly in 99-01. We still have a few arthouse type cinemas which are doing OK, but most of the smaller arthouse and neighbourhood cinemas in Berlin are in trouble because they started playing a lot of mainstream in the early 90s. When the multiplexes came, they took away the mainsteam audience because they were technically better equipped for blockbusters, big screens, boomy digital sound etc. Meanwhile, most of the traditional arthouse or repertory audience was gone because the small cinemas had neglected to care for the specific tastes of that audience. So it is almost impossible to see classics in cinemas here.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 09-28-2003, 03:26 PM:

Well, I've finally got round to sending in a new picture. This one was taken with a Nikkormat FTN. The camera I'm holding is an early Pacemaker 5x4 Speed Graphic c.1949 which took my previous black and white picture.

I bought this camera about five years ago, cheaply, but with many parts bent, missing or broken. It still needs more work done on it, but it works now, and I've taken some good pictures with it on conventional film, but never had much success with Polaroid.

This new picture was taken with a Graflite flash, similar to the one on the Speed Graphic, but the smaller two cell version, and fitted with the five inch reflector. A number M3 bulb in an adapter was used, with a diffuser.

ps. If anyone knows where I can buy a Focus Scope for a side mounted Kalart rangefinder, please let me know.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-28-2003, 10:57 PM:

Nice camera. For the last couple of weeks, I've been having great fun with a 1960s Super Speed Graphic, which is more or less the same basic design, but with a metal body and a 1/1000th leaf shutter (no focal plane shutter like the earlier Speed Graphics). Mine has the "standard" 135mm Optar lens. I have the same flashgun as Stephen does, as well as a box of flashbulbs, but no sync cord. The shutter will do X-sync, though, and a modern flash unit should do just fine as soon as I find the right type of connector to plug into the body.

In addition to Polaroids, I've been shooting Tri-X (TXP...not the same thing as the 400TX that is available in 35mm), with good results, though I haven't had any genuinely large prints made yet.

I wish I had enough space to do the whole home darkroom thing, but that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 09-29-2003, 06:13 PM:

try Paramount Cords, in the Bronx, for cables, they do them to fit just about anything. They are here:

Super Speeds are rare here, as are Crowns, Speeds, of various vintages, and formats, are more common. There is a British made press camera, the Micro Press, made by MPP (Micro Precision Products), which is very similar to the Speed, but slightly more modern. It's not as historic, but for use, rather than display, I think I prefer it to the Speed. If I could find one for a reasonable price I would buy one.

I took the Speed to a 1940's weekend at the Severn Valley Railway (preserved, mainly steam operated line) last year. Next year I'm going to try to hire a '40s suit to go with it!

I've got about 3000 flashbulbs, of various sizes, they still make the large, screw cap ones in Ireland, but they are very expensive. I've never dared to fire one that size, I need to find something really big to photograph.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-30-2003, 10:13 PM:

Stephen,

Try photographing Steam Trains at night!!! That should be a large enough subject for those screw base bulbs.

You've got enough flashbulbs there for you to be the British counterpart to O. Winston Link for quite a while!! He too used a Graphic camera but it was the straight view camera version. Link and his assistant sometimes strung miles of wire to link up all the flash bulb reflectors he frequently used. With as many bulbs as he used, the flash had to be about as bright as the flash of an atom bomb.
Here is a link to Mr Links Museum.....
http://www.linkmuseum.org/
Mark

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 10-01-2003, 02:41 AM:

Steam trains don't run at night, but I have got four 'posed' shots, taken at the Photographers' evening at the Didcot Railway Centre, which somebody else here mentioned recently. The're not taken with flash though. Also, firing flashes, of any type, at moving trains is an absolute no no now.

When I can find the time maybe I'll scan them and put them up here.

About half of my stock of bulbs is M3 and M5 types, another 40% is AG1s, and the other 10% larger types. I have about 150 of the big ones.

I don't often use bulbs, but the can be useful at times. Even an AG1 puts out more light than my Nikon electronic flash, and the flashgun which takes them is both smaller and lighter. I've got enough to last me for as long as I'm around, and to leave plenty for people who come after me to try.

The 'M' sized bulbs are useful in the graflite 5 inch reflector, because, in their adapter, they are the same length as a No. 5 or press 25 bulb, so they align correctly with the reflector, but they are much cheaper, and easier to find. Bulbs are also useful when you want to show movement in a shot, due to their much longer burn time.

The people in Ireland who are still making bulbs are here

Here is one of the pictures:

The detail in the original transparency is amasing; It loses rather a lot as a low res jpeg.

I have mixed feelings about this picture. I like the lamp on the left, the details of the shed roof, smoke vents etc., which show up much better on the original, and the reflections from the wet York stone slabs in the foreground, again, the shadow detail doesn't show up very well in the jpeg.

I don't like the posttion of the loco, it looks too central, but if I cropped the picture on the right it would be running out of the frame, and if I cropped on the left I would lose the wagon and the lamp. I couldn't include more on the right, as there was a load of junk just out of frame.

This was one of my first pictures with the Speed, three years ago. From memory, exposure was about four minutes at f:32 I think. Film was Fuji RTPII, 64 ASA tungsten, rated at 50. Foreground slabs were 'burned in' somewhat in the camera by means of a card held in front of the lens. Lighting was a mixture of tungsten lighting which the centre rigged for the evening, not very bright, and light from the windows of the refreshment rooms behind me.

[ 10-01-2003, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: Stephen Furley ]