Old Cameras I Simply Cannot Afford to Give up!
Over the years I have had the pleasure and experience in using a large number of different cameras, both film and digital, and in this blog post I want to explore some of those cameras and my experience using them. Some of these cameras I have still got in my collection, and where possible I still try to use them; but inevitably in some cases their usefulness is at an end.
If you were to ask me which I prefer, film photography or digital? I would be unable to answer, because they are so different and each has its merits. There are qualities of both which I admire and I respect their limitations in equal measure, because all of the cameras in this post were once state of the art.
I also consider myself lucky to have been introduced to photography the right way, by my parents who were both amateur photographers and into their film photography back in the day. I first showed some actual interest in photography when I was a teenager, struggling with my art studies at school, which at the time was predominantly paint-based! Digital photography already existed and I had already developed an interest in computers and technology, but my parents insisted on introducing me to film photography and showed me how to develop black and white film. This was important because it begun the process of building a proper foundation in photography before graduating to the digital technology. And looking back, I would recommend this approach to anyone seriously considering getting into photography, because learning about film photography and how to work in a darkroom (even if it’s in a cupboard, cellar or attic) will make you a better digital photographer in the long run!
My much loved and still regularly used Pentax Spotmatic SP500 camera.
Much of my early film photography was done using one of my parent’s old Pentax Spotmatic SP 1000s, which they proudly claimed to be one of the first cameras with an in-built light meter. Eventually, I suppose it must have been as a birthday or Christmas present, I inherited this camera and continued to use for several years. For its time, the Spotmatic was a ground breaking camera, but could be a little slow to use compared with later film cameras because you needed to stop-down the lens to take an accurate light meter reading. The light meter, despite the camera’s name, was not actually spot meter (which registers a small area in the centre of the screen) and instead used a centre-weighted system. This meant you had to be careful when taking readings to make sure brighter or darker objects and subjects in the periphery of the frame did not become under or over exposed.
My Pentax Spotmatic SP 1000 however had an unfortunate demise when driving to Wensleydale with friends: we had stopped for fuel at Colsterworth Services when there was a serious road traffic accident on the dual carriageway and we were the first responders. Whilst helping several of the drivers, my camera was knocked to the floor, shearing off the shutter release button from the camera’s body.
The darkroom in the cellar at Huntingdon where I first learned how to process and print black and white 35mm film. The equipment was primitive and the cellar was cold, particularly during the winter months and this effected processing times which were increased. It was also very dusty, we had a nearby railway, and whenever a train past, dust would sprinkle down from the floorboards above!
As a replacement, my parents bought me a Pentax Spotmatic SP 500, which despite its title was not actually a diminutive model because Pentax did not know how to produce a cheaper version of their venerable camera and simply rebadged the SP 1000 as the SP 500 and removed any indication for its highest shutter speed from the dial! This camera I used, along with others, throughout my college years, and I still have this camera in working condition as part of my collection.
Around the time I went to college to study photography — having decided that I did not want to go into retail management training — I also got a Pentax ME Super, which like my Pentax Spotmatic SP500 I used throughout college, university, and still have as a part of my collection today. Compared with the Pentax Spotmatic SP500, the Pentax ME Super is a much smaller camera, but faster to use because its lens automatically stops down! Another nice feature of the Pentax ME Super is its light and roomy viewfinder, which is the biggest and brightest I’ve seen on any SLR camera.
After completing my studies at university, I moved to Moscow where I taught photography and graphic design at the British Higher School of Art & Design, unfortunately however I could not take any of my film cameras with me. So in 2011 I bought a Nikon F2 in Moscow’s premier camera shop! The camera came with a 50mm lens and a DP-1 viewfinder which uses a galvanometer needle to indicate the exposure in the bottom of the viewfinder. Throughout this period, and before I was reunited with the rest of my camera collection, which was safely boxed away in Sleaford, I used this camera whilst exploring Russia and Europe! The British Higher School of Art & Design had a reasonable darkroom where I would spend many hours in between lectures and on my days off printing photographs and processing film.
Besides 35mm cameras, when first studying photography at Huntingdon Regional College, I also purchased at Pentax 645 medium format camera. This purchase was made impulsively having used several of the college’s Bronica and Mamiya cameras, both in the photo studio and out on location. I loved using medium format cameras — which produce exceptional quality images — but struggled with their waist level finders, which were tricky to use because the image in the viewfinder was mirrored! What I liked about the Pentax 645 was that it was of the few medium format cameras with a built-in pentaprism, meaning that you could use it just like any other single lens reflex camera with a pentaprism viewfinder. I still have my Pentax 645 medium format camera and occasionally take it out to use.
Early Digital Cameras
I think I was first photographed with a digital camera when I was in primary school, it was early-summer 1995 and a teacher from the secondary school which I was due to attend in September was visiting to get mugshots of the students for their records. They had us gather in the hall where we were lined up and had our photographs taken. Although I can’t be sure, I remember the photographs being black and white, and of course very low resolution.
Around the same time, my father got his first digital camera, which was a Fujifilm DS-7. In standard mode the camera produced photographs of 640 x 480 pixels (0.3. megapixels) and saved its images on to SmartMedia cards. I remember using this camera extensively on family holidays and eventually inherited it when my father upgraded his camera kit.
Most of the work I did in college was done using 35mm, 120 and 4x5 film cameras; with some of these images being scanned for use in Adobe Photoshop and digital outcomes. When I did shoot digital, it was with small compact digital cameras like my Fujifilm DS-10 and my Oregon Scientific DS6639 which produced 2 megapixel images. The college did however have a Nikon D1, which were in used condition and only regularly available to the second year students. I remember using the college’s Nikon D1 several times, but I did not really become properly acquainted with this camera until after college when I started working for the local press.
My old Nikon D1 which I purchased when I was a photographer for the local press in 2005.
After completing my studies at college, I worked for the local press as a photojournalist, where I was given a used Nikon D1 and several lenses. I immediately fell in love with the camera, which was fast and had professional controls (something I not really experience with digital cameras until now). Although the camera was capable of photographing in RAW, I remember being instructed by Rowland Hobson — who was the senior photographer at the Peterborough Evening Telegraph — to photography in medium quality and to save the images as JPEGs. This was because the department had a number of photographers and if everyone was photographing in RAW quality it would quickly overload the computer systems and photo archive. The department was based on the top floor of the Peterborough Evening Telegraph’s offices in Priestgate, which I would frequent when not working out of the Town Crier Series offices in St Neots. Next to the departments workstations — where we would download, caption and edit our photographs — was the old film archive, which boxes of old negatives dating back several decades!
I really enjoyed my time working for the local press and photographing with a Nikon D1, so much so I decided to invest in a used Nikon D1x and another D1 (which actually belonged to me). Both these cameras I used throughout university until they started to show their age. I still have my D1 and occasionally take a couple of photos with it for old time’s sake! My Nikon D1x I eventually sold on eBay several years after returning from living abroad.
At the time, the Nikon D1 and its later models was a ground breaking camera, and for me the first proper digital camera which I used. The build quality, control layout and speed of the camera were the most important things to me as a photographer. Something which the previous early digital cameras which I experienced lacked. I subsequently had a Nikon D300, Nikon D4 and currently shoot with a Nikon D850.
Dominic Righini-Brand photographing with his current Nikon D850. Photo credit: Evgeniya Righini-Brand
These are just some of the camera I have photographed with and used over the years. Of course, there are many more, too many for this article; and then there’s pinhole cameras, which have been an ongoing obsession since college.
If you would like to learn more about photography and its technological history, then we have a Skillshare class specially for you where I explore the camera’s journey through time! We also have a Skillshare class specially for pinhole camera lovers where I show you how to make your own matchbox pinhole camera using tools and materials typically found around your home.
