hold•life•still
The camera collection continues. The box above in one of my latest additions, is the oldest and largest in the collection. It is from 1899 and is nothing more than a box with some guides and a shutter. I picked it up last fall at Brimfield Fair.
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The second round of photographing my collection. Some favorites in here. I always loved the look of this the Nikkormat – a Nikon “light” camera that Nikon produced for consumers, not pros. My workhorse of a camera the Nikon D700, one of the best cameras ever made. MY Nikon D80, my first real dive into digital SLRs. My first real camera the Pentax K1000, and my Grandfathers Canon AE-1, just a classic camera, and his Argus. Which is at the top of the list of favorite cameras. It an awesome ranger finder that is just a brick, square, sharp, dials, and class. I named my dog after it. Plus, some others that I have picked up over the years. Still, plenty more to go. You can check out round one here.
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The Polaroid SX-70 is one of my favorite cameras. The design is so cool, collapses to a small brick, but when expanded, the lines are intriguing. It looks like it is never fully open. It was produced primarily in the ’70s, 1972 to 1981. I just found out today it was nationally released in the fall of 1973 – just like me. I have a few in my collection. This one is an SX-70 Alpha, and I have an SX-70 Sonar. Both were given to me recently for my mini camera museum I have in my studio. (Thanks Sean) When I was a kid, I read that they were used on the SkyLab by astronauts to document the sun. which fascinated me. My neighbor had one on his shelf, and I loved looking at it, he let me open and close it a few times – simple things to impress a kid.
The one below, well, that is a different story. A Kodak Disc 4000 camera, not the jewel of my collection and one of many Disc Cameras I have. I had this very model as a teenager. It was bad. The good news was it fit in your pocket, bad news people took it out and shot photos with it. I used this camera on my trip to Plimoth Plantation. I still have the prints they are just as bad now as they were then. I found online that the original price was listed at $66, there is no way my parents paid 66 dollars for this camera, so I am chalking that up to don’t believe the internet. The SX-70 went for $180 (over $1000 in today’s money), and in good shape, they are still worth decent cash. They have a huge cult following and can still be used with some very expensive film. The disc camera makes a very nice door stopper.
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I have seen a variety of floating objects in photos for years, and recently I ran across one that had a camera floating and thought it was pretty cool looking. Now I am unpacking the studio. I have built some shelves to house my camera collection, pushing fifty on display with more to be found and added. So why not start a series of camera photos since I have easy access to them for the first time in decades. This one is a 1940’s Kodak 35 Range Finder, one of the first 35mm cameras Kodak manufactured in the states.
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