DownUnder
Vamoosed (for a while)
Yes, another "silly little thread" as a party pooper commented elsewhere on this site. But we live in miserable times (= Covid) and a little fun is surely welcome.
With this in mind, let's go with a thought I've had about old photo gear.
What is the oddest, quirkiest, or most unusual camera you have ever used? Whether you liked it or hated it isn't a concern - the oddity, quirks or 'unusualness' of the beast will be the one and only rule.
For me, it was the Exakta Varex.
In 1974 I traveled to Australia - I now live here, but this was my first visit to the wonderful continent I have called home since 1976 - via a roundabout way, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu and a long, leisurely hop to Sydney via a half dozen Pacific Ocean islands, notably the two Samoas where I stayed the longest and enjoyed myself most. Also Guam, a long, long detour for me but so well worth the effort.
Anyway, when I flew out of Apia, the Samoan capital, I left behind my Rollei TLR kit and 40 rolls of film, at that time was my entire photo arsenal. (All the gear and film later returned to me in Australia, so it ended well.)
So I was in Sydney, without a camera. A friend took me to the legendary Grace's Pawnshop on Victoria Sreet, Pott's Point where for about A$100 I acquired an Exakta Varex II (or a IIb, memory is a little hazy after 47 years), a '58' (a Jena Tessar?), a few filters and an ancient leather camera bag with a sticker from a long-vanished Russian camera store in Shanghai, China. Les Grace kindly threw in ten rolls of ancient film (I think Ilford FP3) and directed me to a photo shop where I bought 20 rolls. All for not much money. The good old days.
I then acquired a 1950 Rover sedan with the dimensions and handling agility of a Sherman tank, and set off on a long drive to Cairns in what Aussies like to call the 'Top End' - 2500 kilometers one way, so twice that in all. Petrol (=gas) cos about 40 cents a liter then, and good seafood lunches at any pub in Queensland about A$2.
It took me about six weeks to get to Cairns in that awful car. Half a century ago (almost) Queensland was nothing like it is now, unspoiled and with eye-dazzling natural landscapes, mangroves teeming with bird life, palm trees and bamboo groves everywhere, not the soul-shriveling dormitory suburbs, shopping malls and retirement villages one sees now.
I shot all my film and bought more in Brisbane and also from small photo shops in the country towns - yo, those happy past times when buying film meant dropping into the local chemist (= drug store) for an assortment of color or B&W emulsions.
On the minus side, that Exakta drove me almost insane. One needed at least basic engineering skills to make sense of the quixotic (or idiotic) speeds, also at least one extra finger on each hand to comfortably use the beast. A third eye on one's temple would also have helped, with a retina magnifier to make good use of the squinty Varex viewfinder. Mine had the flip-up/flip-down Rollei TLR variant viewfinder and I had to either use the camera at chest level or flip up the direct finder and squint into a sort of mini-telescope.
I ruined my first few films and had to reshoot scenes on the drive back until I worked out to operate this crazy creature of a camera. To its credit, the thing worked best after I preset it and used it as a point-and-shoot. The lens was razor-sharp and made beautiful B&W mid-tones but not so great color negatives. I would have shot slides but even in 1976 E6 emulsions cost serious money in Australia and as for most of my life, I was on a restricted budget.
The 1000+ images I made print well to this day. I did go overboard on lovely landscapes of sugar cane and pineapple plantation and stunning sunsets on beautiful beaches.
Back in Sydney I retrieved my Rollei, sold the Exakta back to Grace's and went off to Southeast Asia via Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. I ditched the Rover and traveled by train across the Nullarbor desert, a journey I enjoyed back then but once was enough for this lifetime.
Being me, I sometimes wish I had kept that Exakta. It was one of few cameras that made me really work for my images. Truly, it was East Germany's revenge on the capitalist world...
With this in mind, let's go with a thought I've had about old photo gear.
What is the oddest, quirkiest, or most unusual camera you have ever used? Whether you liked it or hated it isn't a concern - the oddity, quirks or 'unusualness' of the beast will be the one and only rule.
For me, it was the Exakta Varex.
In 1974 I traveled to Australia - I now live here, but this was my first visit to the wonderful continent I have called home since 1976 - via a roundabout way, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu and a long, leisurely hop to Sydney via a half dozen Pacific Ocean islands, notably the two Samoas where I stayed the longest and enjoyed myself most. Also Guam, a long, long detour for me but so well worth the effort.
Anyway, when I flew out of Apia, the Samoan capital, I left behind my Rollei TLR kit and 40 rolls of film, at that time was my entire photo arsenal. (All the gear and film later returned to me in Australia, so it ended well.)
So I was in Sydney, without a camera. A friend took me to the legendary Grace's Pawnshop on Victoria Sreet, Pott's Point where for about A$100 I acquired an Exakta Varex II (or a IIb, memory is a little hazy after 47 years), a '58' (a Jena Tessar?), a few filters and an ancient leather camera bag with a sticker from a long-vanished Russian camera store in Shanghai, China. Les Grace kindly threw in ten rolls of ancient film (I think Ilford FP3) and directed me to a photo shop where I bought 20 rolls. All for not much money. The good old days.
I then acquired a 1950 Rover sedan with the dimensions and handling agility of a Sherman tank, and set off on a long drive to Cairns in what Aussies like to call the 'Top End' - 2500 kilometers one way, so twice that in all. Petrol (=gas) cos about 40 cents a liter then, and good seafood lunches at any pub in Queensland about A$2.
It took me about six weeks to get to Cairns in that awful car. Half a century ago (almost) Queensland was nothing like it is now, unspoiled and with eye-dazzling natural landscapes, mangroves teeming with bird life, palm trees and bamboo groves everywhere, not the soul-shriveling dormitory suburbs, shopping malls and retirement villages one sees now.
I shot all my film and bought more in Brisbane and also from small photo shops in the country towns - yo, those happy past times when buying film meant dropping into the local chemist (= drug store) for an assortment of color or B&W emulsions.
On the minus side, that Exakta drove me almost insane. One needed at least basic engineering skills to make sense of the quixotic (or idiotic) speeds, also at least one extra finger on each hand to comfortably use the beast. A third eye on one's temple would also have helped, with a retina magnifier to make good use of the squinty Varex viewfinder. Mine had the flip-up/flip-down Rollei TLR variant viewfinder and I had to either use the camera at chest level or flip up the direct finder and squint into a sort of mini-telescope.
I ruined my first few films and had to reshoot scenes on the drive back until I worked out to operate this crazy creature of a camera. To its credit, the thing worked best after I preset it and used it as a point-and-shoot. The lens was razor-sharp and made beautiful B&W mid-tones but not so great color negatives. I would have shot slides but even in 1976 E6 emulsions cost serious money in Australia and as for most of my life, I was on a restricted budget.
The 1000+ images I made print well to this day. I did go overboard on lovely landscapes of sugar cane and pineapple plantation and stunning sunsets on beautiful beaches.
Back in Sydney I retrieved my Rollei, sold the Exakta back to Grace's and went off to Southeast Asia via Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. I ditched the Rover and traveled by train across the Nullarbor desert, a journey I enjoyed back then but once was enough for this lifetime.
Being me, I sometimes wish I had kept that Exakta. It was one of few cameras that made me really work for my images. Truly, it was East Germany's revenge on the capitalist world...
