Alright, before I begin here I have a confession to make – I haven’t touched a roll of film for shooting in 11 years. Yup, 11 years. And I’ve been happy to do so as well, no complaints here. I got my first digital camera pretty much right at the start when the quality started to become useful. It was a Fuji Finepix MX-700, bought at Best Buy for $799, and that didn’t include the two 16mb SmartMedia cards or the USB reader and floppy adapter for them, which brought everything to just under $1000. Did I mention it was 1.5 megapixels, too? heh

But there was a method to my madness – namely that I was going to be going to Japan for school for a year and didn’t want to pay for film and processing the whole time, let alone have to bring back all the prints. Smart move, and even though the pics are a bit rough by today’s standards, they’re still quite good. Also, while everyone else was going broke taking pics, I was using my money for tasty food and buying lots of CD’s and video games instead.

In any case, when I got back I bought another digicam, a Nikon Coolpix 880, which I actually posted about a short while back when I bought another one recently for old time’s sake. That camera lasted me for seven years, then was eventually replaced by various DSLRs, which brings us more or less to where I am now. Almost. Today I shot my first roll of film in 11 years.

A few years ago, I had an uncle pass away, and as part of clearing his house out to get it ready to sell, the family got together to go through everything and take what we wanted from the house for ourselves. For myself, I took a few vintage radios, some sundry items that caught my eye, and then this too:

Just like it says, it’s an Argus 75 twin-lens box camera, and it came with a case and a flash too. It takes 620 film, color or B&W, and is like a poor man’s medium format camera. I never bothered with it really other than thinking it was cool simply because I figured I couldn’t get film for it. Wrong, as I found out recently you can trim current 120 film down to fit and it works fine. Well there you go. And after stripping it down and cleaning it completely the other night, it now sits on my desk with a fresh roll of film in it. But this is not what I shot today (soon enough though).

Prompted by futzing around with the Argus, I also pulled this out, which I’ve had for years and was my dad’s from when I was a baby, and before even.

It works fine, and other than needing a battery and some film, which Fuji still makes, it should fire up and get to business with no effort at all. But this also is not what I shot with today, though it’s on my To Do list for the next few weeks.

So . . .

Can you say, “CHEAP!”? I sure can, as I picked this little darlin’ up and one more like it, both in pristine condition, for $3.18 at the local Salvation Army shop here in town. (I make a run there every now and then for treasures to sell on eBay). Now before you laugh too hard, I have to say, it’s a pretty sound little camera; made cheaply but well, needs no batteries, and does panorama format shots too. And apparently there’s a following for these on Flickr and other places due to it’s lo-fi picture quality, which has a lot of character. Score 1 for me! I figure, why pay more for a Holga et al when this is dirt cheap. In fact, I gave one to my son today (3 1/2 yrs old), loaded it with some 400 ISO B&W, showed him how to use it, and we took a walk where he proceeded to go through the roll in about 10 minutes. He had a blast, more so than his kiddie digital, and hey, the pics might be good. This too, however, is not what I shot with.

Which brings me to my last two finds, one of which did pop my 11 year film cherry today walking around shooting with the Ape.

The first one is an Aires 35-III L 35mm rangefinder from ’57-’59, and the second is a Petri 7S rangefinder that’s a bit younger, coming into play from ’63-’65. The Petri was my cherry-popper. Both are made in Japan, and for the Aires in particular, are darn sturdily constructed and say, “Camera!” when you handle them. Not unlike my D3 in many respects. I picked them both up for a song at a local shop today while looking for a winding knob for the Argus above. The Aires needs a little work and will make a nice project camera, while the Petri seems to have all its marbles in order, which is why I put a roll through it today.

But why the sudden run of film cameras, you might be wondering at this point? Well, I’ve been thinking lately that since I take so many shots of vintage cars, because that’s what’s mostly in the shows around here, wouldn’t it be cool and authentic to take some of those photos using a period camera to give it some true period character that my current DSLRs just can’t provide. Not that I don’t like my DSLRs or can’t simulate the look, but it’s just that – a simulation. Digital by far is the better format in so many ways, but there’s just something that only these cams can do I feel, so I thought why not give it a try and see how it turns out. Considering I started with film many years ago when I had a mohawk and much, much more angst, it’s familiar territory.

Look for shots from the above cams to show up here in the near future, both for personal and work use. And if you have shots of your own from some film cameras, post a link in the comments and spread the lovin’ around. Let’s together happy film camera life enjoy, desu yo ne~!