One of the list members wrote about his journey into photography the other
day and what he said really started me off thinking about my own
experiences. I feel that some things he said were so relevant to our
situation even to-day that I would like to take up a little time in this
manner.
Well, I started off in 35mm photography with a Japanese 35mm camera which
had a really amazing spec. It had a focussing lens, yes you focussed it
by turning the front element and reading a distance scale marked
thereon. The f-stops were set by twisting a ring around the lens and of
course if you were unsure as to the exposure then you simply had to use an
exposure meter of some sort. No ways could you see the f-stop or the
shutter speed in the viewfinder, oh yes, the shutter had four (yes four)
speeds from 1/25 to 1/250.
Later I bought a Leica 3a and then a Leica 3b. Man were they bad: the
viewfinders were so small you had to have eyes on stalks and as for the
rangefinders well they did work if you could see them in the dark. And the
lenses- they screwed on and off. It took simply forever to change a lens
and then to go with it all the longest tele lens was 135mm and f4
IIRC. Man was it slow. You had more shutter speeds but the flash synch
came on at 1/40 sec on the one which WAS synchronised, the other
wasn't. You couldn't see through the lens either- so close-ups were not
on and long tele work was a field on its own which meant that for me it wasn't.
Then I bought a Pentax S1a. A new world opened up. I could see through
the lens now and I could do macro work. I could also buy any number of
great lenses of all sorts and focal lengths. But hey, I still couldn't
see the shutter speeds in the viewfinder so I never knew what speeds I was
using. There was no TTL meter either so I had to use a hand-held
job. Naturally f-stops in the viewfinder were quite irrelevant. And
hey, look at the slow flash speed. I don't want to harp on this subject
but changing lenses was a schlep. Man just try when there is a wind
blowing or it's raining.
Later I added a Spotmatic F and gained TTL metering. By now everything was
really marvellous. I had TTL metering and could ditch my hand-held meter
(fortunately I didn't) but those slow screw thread lenses were
really, well, undesireable. How I ever managed to take all the shots I
did over the years remains a marvel. I must have been a really marvellous
sort of person to get it all together with such primitive gear.
I say "must have been" since I must confess to eventually buying a Minolta
X700 which opened my eyes to the marvels of the new camera age. Hey
look, bayonet lenses! Change in no time. Hey look, TTL auto exposure
metering! No need to see any reading in the viewfinder any more, even it
was there. Things were now really looking up. It was at this stage that I
got misled and fell into great error and bought a Nikon F3. Well, does
anyone wonder why I haven't yet gone over to digital?
But now I'm not so certain about things any more. I see to my amazement a
list member of standing who doesn't crave a meter! I see he also uses a
Leica! No doubt a marvellous model greatly improved on mine. There are
also some people who use Pentaxes without meters, or even use hand-held
meters when they have Pentaxes with meters in them already. So somehow
anti-new. I can't think of a word to describe the situation.
Fortunately I still have my old Weston meter. And my S1a. When the brave
new order collapses I'll be ready.
Conrad Samuels
Kirstenhof SA
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