Of Provenance and Time Travel

The weather was perfect when I went out to photograph the first of the dogwoods in bloom. On this occasion I was using the Nikkormat FS along with the period correct Nikon 50 mm f/2 lens. It is a fine combination to walk around with and practice your metering-by-eye skills. The camera is in like new condition and was very inexpensive to acquire owing to the fact that one of its previous owners had chosen to engrave their Social Security Number on the bottom plate. Hard to believe that was considered good practice back in the previous century. I suppose I could do a little research to determine something about the provenance of my old Nikkormat, but honestly, I am not keen to know more about a person who would mark up their camera like that! I tend to prefer imaginary time travel to historical research in the case of my old cameras anyway. I think what got me interested in collecting old cameras in the first place is imagining what the old masters had to go through to get images. So, as I walked through the neighborhood, I imagined myself taking photographs on an early mid-century modern Spring morning. This old dogwood was likely flourishing back then as it is now.

Good light to you this weekend.

Tasting notes: Nikkormat FS, Nikkor-H 50 mm f/2, HP5+, Sunny 16, HC110 B.

An old manual camera, Sunny 16, and stand development

Yesterday I shot a roll of Fomapan 100 through my newly acquired Nikkormat FS. You see, I'm going through a bit of Nikkormat phase, and I especially like the bare bones FS that comes without a meter. I had an old 55mm f/3.5 macro lens attached. I was using Sunny 16 and had an exposure index of 400 in the back of my mind. My plan was to go with stand development, using a combination of Rodinal and HC110, and I was expecting a boost in effective film speed. I've never tried combining two developers like that before, and dad jokes aside, the results were rather mixed. The negatives were too dense for my liking, and the contrast too high, but I think I can dial things in pretty easily. I want to settle in with a single film/developer combination for a while. So, I'm going to have to do a more serious experiment with a camera with a reliable meter. To be continued...

Working with the Leica IG

During the pandemic, I decided to stop going to the gym, and a daily vigorous walk has emerged as a new habit. If I stop to take a picture, my wife generally keeps walking, so I can't faff about as they say on the British TV shows we've been streaming lately. I've lost a little weight over the past eight months, so I think our system is working reasonably well.

On a recent outing, I brought along a Leica IG from the mid-1950s. These cameras were never intended for regular shooting; instead, they were made for a variety of technical applications, such as mounting on microscopes. Consequently, they have neither a range finder nor a view finder, and are basically a light tight box with a shutter. On the plus side, they have often been well cared for and not used to within an inch of their lives. Mine has a small, but very noticeable dent on the top that the seller told me rendered it 'uncollectible'. So I got it for half price. Yay! Other than the dent, my copy looks and functions like a brand new camera. For the walk, I added the 50 mm f/3.5 Elmar, also from the mid-1950s, and an external viewfinder. I was shooting a bulk loaded short roll of Ultrafine Extreme 400. For this set-up to work, you have to be comfortable zone focusing or shooting at the hyperfocal distance. Oh, and you should be okay with estimating exposure using Sunny 16. Very doable with some practice and it helps develop your craft. All part of getting your 10,000 hours in, if you believe in that sort of thing.

We live not too far from our local synagogue and we pass it pretty much every day on our walks. In the Fall, the children always build a tabernacle for Succos. This year, I thought their efforts turned out really well, and I especially liked the use of bamboo in the construction.

These days pretty much any camera can make sharp and contrasty images, and it is easy to take awesome results for granted. But, 65 years ago, when most folks were snapping away with box cameras, this kind of quality must have been truly jaw dropping.