Creative Cameras to calm an Autistic glitch ?

[deeslexia]

Until I was 50 , I struggled with everything , like being a lost kid in a bemusing world , which has not changed , other than being aware .

I was facsinated with my Dad's 1957 Praktina [ don't touch ] and the magic pictures on the wall . A camera seemed like magic , shiny chrome and glinting , reflective lenses .

My 1st SLR was a Chinon / Prinzflex STTL in 1971 , which opened up a new world for me .

I tend to ' see ' in snapshots , but all senses are affected , most can smooth out the snapshots to create a film , but to do so the brain must have a sense of ' I ' to be able to decipher those elements crucial to ' I ' and discard the noise . If you were to stop a film , you will find it blurred , with details missing ' discarded , so I tend to recall more of the inessential background , which is exhausting .
Seeing ' car ' it's like snapshots / details from all angles [ inside and out as my brain mixes up ' before and now ' pictures ] put on the wall as a kind of crazy montage . Only holding a scale model of ' car ' gives any sense of a complete ' car '.
It's also like a shutter opening and closing many times a minute ... as if my brain shuts down and awakens .

Boy/girl/me issues did not help with defining ' me ' and uncorrected childhood high frequency hearing loss accentuated my visual acuity at the expense of ' listening '. .

My clunky Prinzflex , with it's 50mm lens helped me to discard the periphery , and , literally , focus upon one point .
Quite automatically , I began to see in a 50mm frame , and do so today .
Even 35 mm adds a kind of distortion or uncomfortable ' wrongness ' I am kind of OK with my 45mm Rokkor and my Contax adapted Leica M8 is set up with a 50mm Jupiter 3 or 53mm Helios cropped to 67mm and 70mm approx which I love .
I could , and still do , stay behind the camera , which most who know me understand and don't try to draw me into socialising .

Recently , I discovered the pre-war Contax / Kiev clone rangefinders which blew my mind . Hands and eyes never come together to embrace a camera as my 1st Kiev 4 CLA , new selenium cell . Cyrillic script , however , creates that little coloured wheel which my puzzled Mac loves showing . KNeB is Ok , but the script is difficult .

The rangefinder offers a clear , consistent view - and helped me realise why I don't cope well with zooms , which not only change with focus , but with focal length .

I wanted a Contax , and was offered a box of Contax II parts - non matching back / body which the amazing ex-Arsenal techs put back together with a 'new' Kiev II shutter. Brian Sweeney gifted me with a 1959 J3 in a Contax mount for my Kontax .
I love constancy and continuity , and my Kontax offers continuity from 1935 through the 50s of my 1951 / 1952 KNeB II 1956 Kiev IIa to my 1976 mint boxed , UK imported Kiev 4 . However , the remodelled body of the Kiev 4 / 4a , create some ASD disturbance 'cos something is right or wrong...

Having found that rough / dead Conatx III are not so expensive , I had one rebullt from two donors .

Long awaited from Kiev , 'cos my agent had personal problems , are a genuine rat Contax II ,with polished metal and tan leather , now working sweetly .

Plus two fantasy cameras , the Contax III body , with Kiev 4 meter etc , and a Kiev IIIa adapted with another Kiev 4 top plate and KNeB facsia , which means that I can enjoy my prefered Kontax with compact meter and controls .

This will give me the ultimate ASD ' sets '- KNeB II / III / IV and Contax II / III / IV all finaced soley from recycling 50s Dinky Toys via e-bay !

Will I use them ? Maybe , I love creating colour slides and the vintage feel of the Jupiter lenses , but it is less important than having ' safe ' toys close at hand ... and those Dinky Toys were entirely passive too ! Just handling and ' clicking ' the shutter helps enormously - something a child must have discovered 60 years ago .

It's not always about ' photography ' I just take considered snapshots for my own release / relief .

dee