New Cameras

nikon90s · Sep 6, 2004

A month ago I got a BOX camera from a yard sale for 5 bucks and yesterday I picked up 2 cameras to add to my colection for $30.00. Last Year my Grandmother gave me a Rollie Magic. I thought I would post picks to show them off 8).

I can use the Rollie Magic don't know about the others but I will try. My biggest problem will tring to find film for the Kodak Retina.

Ant · Sep 6, 2004

Wow. Seriously retro stuff.

Do the photos they take really look much different to modern cameras or do you just collect them? I've no experience with film cameras.

ksmattfish · Sep 6, 2004

Beautiful cameras!

Ant said:
Do the photos they take really look much different to modern cameras

Photo quality from vintage cameras is often very good. The film wasn't always so great, so the lenses had to be great to compensate. If you ever have the opportunity to compare prints made from color ISO 400 film from the 1980's with a print from current color ISO 400 films you might be surprised at how far film technology has increased just in the last 2 decades. That's the beauty of film; I can upgrade to the latest image capturing technology for the price of a roll of film. :lol:

My Rolleiflex (1957) takes photos that are as good or better than the images taken with my Pentax 67II (1990's) which is a modern professional MF camera.

Some of the very old lens designs do have their issues, but it's usually limited to the edges of the image if at all.

Older lenses don't have the multi-coatings that modern lenses have. This means they tend to be more succeptable to lens flare, and are lower contrast. This can work to your advantage though. My photog buddy who shoots mostly E6 (slide film) love his vintage lenses, because they allow him to keep shooting even when the lighting is contrasty. I like the low contrast when I shoot BW with my vintage cams, because I'm not able to use fill flash with many of them, but the low contrast lenses make it unneccessary even in harsh sunlight.