User:Livestockgeorge

I'm George Parkins, bartender, amateur writer and vine-dresser. In the last year and a half I've gotten into film photography, especially medium-format. I very much like the sensation of shooting with a fixed-focus, fixed-exposure medium-format camera and still getting better results than a small-format with AE and autofocus. I re-spool modern 120 onto 620 spools, with mixed to positive results. My list of 620 cameras is pretty huge, thanks to the frequency with which they come up at thrift-stores for five and six dollars.

My opinion is that paper-backed roll-film is a perfect invention, one of those things that do not become obsolete merely because more advanced options are available. Bicycles did not make walking obsolete and motorcycles didn't make bicycles obsolete. Digital may be more practical for most applications, but film is a better artistic medium, and roll-film holds a special place in my heart as a solid, straight-forward piece of 19th/20th century engineering. No sprocket holes wasting film space, a built-in frame counter, no cumbersome cassette or cartridge to open before developing... it's perfect for what it does. Plus, there's something about the feel of a roll of 620 with the metal core.

Furthermore, I don't like plastic SLRs. I think you get less camera shake with a heavy camera that balances well back in your hand, and plus, it feels more real. I've actually been given multiple film-era EOS's by family members and I end up having a fun time with all the ridiculous special features and then never shooting a second roll. I do like using them to check the meters on my other cameras, though, and I suppose it's nice to have reliable backups.

I'm also into stereo photography, but I doubt I'll ever invest in a nicer 3d camera than my shitty old Delta Stereo, which has more than a handful of design flaws, in my opinion. Still, I lust after both the Kodak Stereo and the Stereo Realist, and I've recently run another roll of low-ASA B/W film through it that I've yet to develop. I have an affection for it as my first 35mm, if nothing else.

I develop some of my own color film with a daylight tank, but I'm still getting all the kinks out of it. I ruined my first batch of chemicals because I accidentally poured the stop back into the bottle of the developer, due to not maintaining an organized space. I'm considering a better daylight tank, because the "Yankee Clipper II" leaks something awful, and I don't like wasting the chemicals. I like putting fixer down my kitchen sink even less, in fact; it's not good for the septic field.

I have experimented with Caffenol, an alternative developer based on instant coffee and washing soda. For low-ASA B/W films it's an okay developer that's dirt-cheap, but it tends to fog any fast film at or above 400 ASA. Moreover, cross-processing color film in it has interesting results. Soon I'm going to try the version with vitamin C powder. My experiments are hampered by the fact that I don't own a film scanner, so I still have to pay someone else to get my pictures printed or on disc.

Cameras I Own:

• 135:
  • Canon AE-1 -- my baby, at least as far as small format goes. It's one of the more functional cameras in my collection, with approximately nothing wrong with it, besides the fact that its exposure values at box speed are always just a little low--probably not even by a full stop, but still, it leads to dull-looking colors. The problem is more than alleviated by shooting at half-ASA, though, which really, everyone should do. I love the physical-needle-style meter. I only wish it could take an action grip like the...
  • Canon AE-1P -- a hand-me down from Mom! While I don't love the LED meter, I must admit that it's a better all-around camera. I've just temporarily fixed the mirror squeak by gently applying valve oil to the gear in question via a syringe, so I'm fixing to shoot with it for the first time in ages.
    • My FD lenses include the 50mm 1.8, (two or three of these, I think) the 50mm 1.4 (equal to a Rokkor in my opinion), the 28mm 2.8, and a couple of long Vivitar zooms, one of which does macro focusing at a certain focal length.

• • Canon EOS 650 -- which I got out of an optometrist's automatic camera machine in a dumpster, in perfect shape but missing the grip. In many ways this was my most technically capable camera for a long time. The combination of this and my superzoom EF 28-90mm II lens can do just about anything my AE-1's can and more, but something about it feels fake. I dunno, I just don't like light plastic cameras. That lens, of course, has no DoF calculator, but who needs it when you can stop down? There's also an autofocus-based DoF priority mode on that camera, but I haven't had good results with it, and I prefer manual focus.
  • Delta Stereo -- funny story about this, but I doubt the man who sold it to me wants me to tell you. It leaks light badly and any ASA above 200 tops is useless in daylight with that slow shutter, but it's still such a cool format.
  • Argus C3 -- God, this is just the cutest thing. I've wanted one forever. Mine is a 1948 model (or something close), with a blue filter in the rangefinder, ASA-type film reminder and no "Argus" badge. It works pretty well, now that I've calibrated the rangefinder. I could imagine this being my main shooting camera. I'd miss sharp lenses like my FD's, but mostly I'd miss having a DoF calculator. Eventually I'll get the 135mm and 28mm lenses. Bought for $20 or thereabouts, from an amusingly grumpy antique dealer that I visit every now and then.
  • Kodak Retina IIF: I bought this for fifteen dollars at a thrift-store in a godforsaken part of the Gulf Coast, a joint that everyone avoids because they try to preach at you and they don't like you touching stuff, even if you're going to buy it. As a result, they have a lot of really interesting antiques sitting around completely unsold, with prices that they're just dying to negotiate on. The meter is dead and I can't open the battery compartment to see if the flashgun works, but otherwise it's in perfect shape and I've run a roll of TMAX through it shooting manual exposure, but then I miscalculated the developing time and ended up burning the hell out of it. I think this one is fixing to be my shooting camera for a while. It's so small and easy to use. Inside it was a roll of Kodachrome 64 (36 exp.), which is literally the film I would use exclusively if it still existed. I keep it with my undeveloped rolls as a joke.
  • Rectaflex: yeah, you read that right. It was $15 too. I'm more surprised than you are. Serial number in the 4000's, two flash sockets. It was in the same display case as the Retina, and they would have been twenty each but I'm an expert haggler and religious types dig me. It actually fires the shutter very crisply (jewel bearings in the mechanism, I'm told), but the trailing curtain is slow, extremely so at slow speeds, so that one side of the image will get more exposure than the other. There's lens-ferns all throughout the viewfinder optics, the split-image device looks like it never worked and the lens situation is weird. Essentially it's got some kind of adapter bolted onto it behind the bayonet plate for mounting a screw-mount lens of some sort. It has a weird lens I've never heard of: a "Dittar," which appears to be related to the Finetta Finetar or whatever. Coincidentally, the Dittar has the same specs as the Xenar on the Retina: 45mm f/2.8. I'd sell it, but it's in such poor condition that it's worth more to me as a shelf-warmer. Eventually I'll put a roll of expired film through it because I'm like that.
  • Praktica FX: I got it for twenty dollars on a whim with a nice lens. The only thing wrong with it was that the leading curtain was loose so that it would flip over on itself when it fired. I tried to open it up and something broke. Now it won't even wind. I dunno, another nice paperweight, I guess. Eventually I'll get a working camera with an m42 mount to use all these nice Pentax lenses and this Meyer 58mm Primoplan from the Praktika.
  • Canonet QL17 GIII: Yeah, this is another very functional piece. The only thing wrong with it is that there's a big dent in the filter ring so that nothing will screw on, which is fine because I don't have a single 49mm (?) filter. I do have a Minolta lens hood that would have fit, so I'm a little sore about that. Now, of course, there's the battery problem, but it's easy to compensate for by changing the film speed setting on the camera. I'm getting into the habit of shooting half box speed anyways, so it's not a problem to me at all.
  • Nikkorex_F: A wonderful find; apparently these are quite rare. I got it for $40 with a ever-ready case, a leather camera bag, a ziplock full of old camera gadgets and Kodak Series V filters, and both a pre-AI 5cm Nikkor-S and a ridiculously long Soligor 250mm with an f-mount adapter. I have a roll in it right now to test the shutter. Looking at the shutter beforehand, everything about 1/8th looked right, 1/8th seemed very slightly slow, 1/4th was a full second, and 1 second wouldn't let the shutter close until I turned the dial to "B." Still, that's all of two shutter speeds not working on a mechanical SLR from the 60's (B even works!), and I think it's a problem with the gearing for those speeds specifically. I'm gonna use this.
  • Minolta X-370s: I got this for sixteen dollars at a thrift store. Normally I would have passed on a plastic SLR like this, but I had all these MD lenses lying around from the time I bought a broken SRT-101. I actually like this a lot. I have a 2.8 28mm, a 2.8 35mm, two of those standard 50mm's, a 1.4 58mm and whatever that fast Rokkor 135mm is, all but one of which came with the broken SRT.
  • Certo Dollina II with Schneider 5c f/2.9: I bought this to repair. When I found it the shutter wouldn't cock or fire, but it was just gummed up and wiggling the cocking lever got it to work. I still need to fix the rangefinder. Still, what a find. It fits in my back pocket.

• 620:
  • Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash -- My very first camera, though I've since gotten one that works better, and my original has fallen apart from stripped-out screwholes attaching the light-cone to the front. Jeez, these are really good considering they're just box cameras with single meniscus lenses.
  • Kodak Brownie Bull's-Eye Flash (black model) -- The Hawkeye's big brother. You can see one identical to mine being used to photograph the dictator in "In the Time of the Butterflies," believe it or not. That movie is hard to watch, though. Bought for eight dollars.
  • Kodak Tourist (Kodet Lens, fixed focus) -- with a complete flash setup, no less. It ends up being trash, but it looks very nice. Bought for seven dollars.
  • Imperial Reflex 620 Duo Lens -- Lee Harvey Oswald's camera, but also a very functional box camera. Bought for five dollars.
  • Argoflex EF -- Problematic. The lens gearing is partially stripped, so it tends to lose calibration and it's a pain to collimate.
  • Kodak Medalist II -- I just bought this. It has a fault with the DoF calculator, which seems to have been repaired once already, but otherwise everything works, including the automatic frame spacing (though this can be temperamental.) The shutter is as crisp and accurate as the day it rolled off the assembly line.
  • Kodak Brownie Target Six-20: What can I say? It's cute and I find it easier to shoot on than the more finicky Bull's-Eye (which has a surprisingly narrow depth of field). Bought for $12.

• 120:
  • Diana (Original)
  • Diana Plus (missing the mask for 4x4) -- both gifts from Mom long ago, before I took up photography in earnest.

• 116:

• • Kodak Folding Cartridge Premo 2A: What can I say, it was cheap, in great shape and it's a sexy beast for a 90-100 year old camera. I think I can respool 120 to 116 easily enough.

• Instant:
  • Some variant of the Polaroid Onestep Flash. They made too many different models, man. I don't shoot on this one regularly because it's literally $2.50 a shot and the color response is shitty. Still, I made one perfect shot on it, long ago on a foggy day.

Cameras I lust after:

• Kodak Retina Reflex -- I almost bought one at a thrift-store (the same place where I bought the Imperial) and I've regretted missing the chance ever since.
• Horizont (Original)
• View-Master Stereo Color -- This would give me even more troubles with developing and printing (what with the tiny staggered frames), but it's so cool.
• View-Master Personal and pretty much any other 35mm stereo.
• Olympus Pen F -- What can I say? It's a cool little SLR and it's adorable.
• EOS 3: While I'm not huge on autofocus (or plastic SLR's, for that matter,) the idea of eye-controlled AF is pretty cool.
• Voigtländer Vitessa L: I mean, isn't this a sexy beast?