There is always something new. What is the oldest working piece of photographic equipment you have? I have a General Electric light meter, Model 80W58Y4 that is a reflective meter that is powered by selenium, if memory serves me. No batteries required. An internet search provided some information on the model W68, but nothing so far on the W58. I have no idea how old this model is. I used the meter, when necessary, to determine proper exposure when using 8 x 10 sheet film with bellows cameras, including field and studio models. Both my Father and my Grandfather used these meters before me, under the same circumstances. Cameras have had built in meters for decades now, and these meters are not of much use. Selenium meters degrade over time and accuracy would need to be tested, if it were to be put back in active duty. So I ask, what is the oldest working piece of photographic equipment you have?
My sensor uses Mk I electrons that are an estimated 30 billion years old. I also have a Zeiss Contaflex III that is about 50 years old and still in working condition. Cleaning the German marvel is a female doggy though. My Zenit-E is rapidly approaching 30 years (if not past it) and also seems to be made for eternity (ignoring the selenium light meter that is). Cleaning the pinnacle of Communist Commerce is a lot easier though. Comparing the Zeiss with the Zenit almost reminds me of the Tiger tank vs the T80 - German complexity (it's still a marvel after all those years) vs Russian simplicity ("throw it in the mud and it will still work") - I still don't know which of the two I like more.
Well, my brain is about 38 years old.... Other than that everything I own is failr modern. I have but do not use a Canon Ftb that I used as a kid when I first got into photography.
I collect good examples of old Canon cameras (see link in sig) and still try to use them occasionaly so the oldest I have is a Canon IVSB from about 1952 or 1953 Edit - After checking my own link in sig I see I forgot the Canon III that came in a big box with a load of lenses and accessories from that era. I think this is from about 1951 or 1952
I used to collect old cameras back in the late '70s of which I either sold, traded or just gave away. Now my oldest camera is a Minolta X-700 which I bought new back in '83. MikeT
My Ciroflex TLR and my Yashikamat TLR are both pretty damn old. The Ciroflex had a work reciept in it from 1957 (last time used) and it worked pretty well the first time I put a roll through it.
I have a Brownie Starflex from the late 50's that still *works* although the quality of it's work isn't so great. It's and old fixed focus *point and shoot* that I use for TtV shooting.
I unloaded my old Rolli TLR and other "semi-collectable" junk, so the oldest I have left is my first Nikon - a 1964 F body with 50mm f/2 lens. Back then the first two digits of the S/N was year of mfg. -- Russ
No.1 Autographic Jr. - KODAK [120 format] ca. 1928. It was my mother's and after closing a few holes in the bellows last year, I put a roll of film through it. Despite the fact that it has only one lens element, the result was wickedly sharp. My second experiment with a Voigtlander Prominent [?][620 format] of the same time period, which had belonged to my father, was a dismal failure. The 120 film spooled on to a 620 spool could not be held flat despite the cardboard strips I had put in the camera to guide the film. In principle though, the camera is in working condition. Doing the math, that makes them some 80 yrs old! When 620 became unavailable in the early 1950s, the "old" Voigtlander was replaced by my father with a Vitessa L. w/Ultron f2/50. By the way, yesterday I received a really neat looking Vitessa L bought at KEH. I had been searching for such a camera for several years.
I have my original owner Leica M4 w/50mm Sumicron I purchased in 1970 - Let's see - that makes it 38 years old?
A Calumet CC-400 16" monorail view camera circa 1962. It is a great camera and gives me some really good results as well as questions on "How do you use one of those?" God Bless, David
Polaroid...but not what you think! PDC 800 has two position lens (wide/normal), LCD monitor option (yes an option), VGA resolution (wow true 640x480), audio clip recording, and a half way decent built in flash. Think this is a Ricoh RDC 2 rebadged and sold to real estate agents for taking pictures of properties. This was my first digital and although very low resolution have some pictures from it that are real treasures. Unfortunately, it is a proprietary JPEG format which was common on early digital cameras. {}
