Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Josh's own Yashica

If you've read the previous posts about the camera stuff, you will have caught that the camera I've been using is Jae's. She was fine with me using hers, but I made the mistake of looking on Ebay, and got myself my very own 35 MM YASHICA FX-3 SUPER 2000 CAMERA. It's exactly the same camera. Including shipping, $65, which I think is pretty good. It's used, obviously, but is supposed to be in great condition, and this camera has a reputation for durability.

I paid for it out of the proceeds from selling PDF downloads of my networking tutorials, which I've been letting slowly accrue in a separate account, so I don't have to deal with too much guilt for spending the money when we have a bunch of new expenses coming up.

9 comments:

JimII said...

So you took your valuable technical skills and converted them into an artistic outlet. Well done.

Matt Dick said...

I have had three new cameras in my life. I had the first ultra-mini camera (the Kodak Disk Camera) when I was very little. I loved that camera. It was very small, and took pretty darned good pictures for a point and shoot.

My second camera was new to me, but was not new. I did what you did -- I got a replica of the first camera I ever learned on -- that was the K1000 I mentioned in the earlier post. I loved that camera, took mostly black and white and eventually learned how to develop my own shots.

The third camera is the Pentax Digital SLR I have now. I went from a fully manual camera that was 25 years old, to a leading edge digital. And all the great lenses from the K1000 fit the new one. Right down to the third-party lenses from Sigma.

In some cases I'm taking pictures with a 1 year-old camera body and a 30 year-old lens.

It also lets me shop ebay for ancient lenses that are great quality, but very cheap.

I can't express how cool it is.

Josh said...

That is excellent about your camera taking the lenses. One of the reasons I decided to buy was that I figured there is a bunch of undervalued analogue photography stuff out there, with the huge move to digital that's going on .

I need to do the developing myself. 2 reasons:

1. It's half the fun, literally.
2. Wow, I dropped off my first roll of B & W film at a specialty place yesterday and I have serious sticker shock. Part of it is I need to shop around. This place came highly recommended, and they are probably too good a quality for me at this point.

I've done the dark room thing before. My problem now is space. I don't have room for a permanent setup, so I'll have to work out a temporary setup that I setup and tear down each time I develop.

Have to start watching for good deals on used enlargers.

In the meantime, I think I'm going to run with the pinhole camera thing. I think its going to be cool, and I don't need an enlarger to do the developing.

Matt Dick said...

If what I understand is correct, B&W chemicals may actually become hard to find. There's just zero money in it for any company large enough to produce them. And lifetime buys don't work with perishables like that.

Darkroom work might be coming to an end within 5 years.

I did enjoy the process though.

Josh Gentry said...

I don't think dark room will be extinct in 5 years, but it will probably get more exotic and expensive. Sigh.

Josh Gentry said...

More on the future of analogue B & W. As far as big brands, I think much of the hope rests with Ilford.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/home.asp

Matt Dick said...

I think the cost of chemicals for a large company makes total darkroom extinction actually quite possible.

Matt Dick said...

Depressingly, of course.

Josh Gentry said...

Well, like any predictions, we'll see. I think it will be la ong time before its extinct. You can still by hand tools for woodworking, rather than power tools, for example. Not at Home Depot, not made by Craftsman, and not cheap, but you can get them.

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