Just for the enjoyment of it, or maybe it's Nostalgia

[Dogman]

I'm spoiled. I shoot digital only and I cannot find it in me to return to shooting film. I've tried. It was a total failure of intent. But I do shoot old digital cameras if digital cameras can be considered old--old Nikon DSLRs. D3 and D700 models with a gigantic 12mp resolution. They still produce the best damn images of anything I've ever owned. And I use and love old Nikkor manual focus lenses on these cameras.

As for nostalgia, yeah I got a lot of that. Many years of shooting with some great cameras. I hold onto several of them just for the memories. I still have the first new Nikon F2 that I bought in 1974 and used daily for many years and finally retired around 1995 (or so?). It's kinda ragged today, not worth anything to anyone but me. A pair of Mamiya C330 cameras I bought used because a C330 was the first medium format camera I ever used when I was a beginner. A couple of Pentax 645 cameras because I loved those cameras just so much at the time I used them and I still like the way they handle. Despite the weight. And a little Rollei 35S that I bought used. That camera still has film in it from the time I tried to get interested in shooting Tri-X again. I wish I had kept one of my M6 cameras but it would be wasted on me today.

 

[dexdog]

I vote nostalgia. I was out two weeks ago with Contax IIa, Steinheil Casca II, Bessa R4A and Canon L1. I I should get the film back from Dwayne's Photo this afternoon.

 

[neal3k]

I've shot both of these for nostalgia. I got an Imperial Debonair for Christmas when I was about 8 or 9. I bought my first 35mm, a Tower 57-A, with paper route money when I was 13. That was long ago. Both cameras were lost over the years and these are replacements.

My First Cameras by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

I've shot two rolls in the Debonair and a few rolls in the Tower but now, I take my time machines Leica I and Leica II and shoot those regularly.

 

[Darthfeeble]

Pure nostalgia, I came across a GAF LCM with the 50mm f2 that is the duplicate of my first "Serious" camera. Ran a roll through it and put it on the shelf.

 

[Muggins]

I've been shooting them for 20-odd years and I've yet to tire of opening the tank and seeing that first big 6x9 neg from a box camera. There's something very satisfying about getting an image out of something that simple.

 

[Pál_K]

All of my cameras evoke nostalgia and I enjoy using all of them.

However, I associate certain cameras with certain periods of time, place, or activity. For example, for simple hiking along lake or park trails, it's become my custom to take one of my Minolta cameras and use just the lens mounted on it (each camera has a different focal length lens on it).

 

[Coldkennels]

Oddly enough, I don't feel any nostalgia for using old cameras from the '50s... I wasn't alive then! To me, the act of shooting film is its own thing, disconnected from nostalgia or a certain time period.

However, I have to admit I can't let go of my FED 2. It's the first rangefinder I ever used, and I've kept it ever since. It's a tired old piece of machinery, and nothing like as refined as the cameras I use on a daily basis, but it still brings a smile to my face. It reminds me of being a poor student again, endlessly wandering through back-alleys with the thing in the day and heading out to house parties with a flashgun at night.

 

[JSteed#2]

fellow forum fans
Here is my camera view, which may apply to you as well. The object of getting older is to acquire what you wanted when you were a kid. Each one is also a memory of sorts, especially the Exakta (Dad gave me one when I was 13). Lusted for Leicas and Rolleis....Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Bolo Kukus]

Now in my mid-70s, my energy levels are dwindling, so I use mostly digital for convenience and ease - but I still get so much pleasure out of my old film cameras.

Nowadays I try to get out and about with my relics (the cameras, not the photographer) as much as I can. Nikons (F65), Nikkormats (FT2), Contax (G1), Rollei TLRs ('flex and 'cord). And a few others, somewhere in boxes in my second bedroom, one of these days I'll drag those cartons out and... well, you know.

By far my best times, photographically, are when I go bush walking with a 1950s folder - either a Zeiss Nettar 1950 6x6 model with a Novar lens and an albada finder, or a Voigtlander Perkeo When I with an accessory distance meter/viewfinder (also Voigtlander)

In my darkroom fridge I have 60+ 35mm cassettes, bulk rolls of Tri-X, Panatomic-X and Plus-X (these alone are worth a small mint, I know), and a few dozen 120 rolls.these are used up, that will be it for my film era (1961-??), if not for the rest of me.

All time passes, all things change. I've had a good day with my photography. At my age I've many more things to do than spending time processing/printing in my darkroom or for that matter scanning. For now. The plan for what future I have left is, in my old old age my final few years will be happily devoted to post processing the best of my 100,000+ negatives. Touch wood...

 

[JohnGellings]

I honestly feel more of a connection to the Fujifilm X-Pro series than any film camera I have owned. Weird but true.

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

I honestly feel more of a connection to the Fujifilm X-Pro series than any film camera I have owned. Weird but true.

Earlier this year I bought an NOS black color Fujifilm X-T2. Every time I hold it in my hand I get this nostalgic feeling of the good old days when I only shot with a Canon F1 - and I feel so happy 🙂. "Weird but true" I get it.

Mike

 

[besk]

Have two 35mm favorites. My Leica IIIf rd. It is so compact and I enjoy just holding it. And the shutter is very quiet. Second favorite is a Nikon F2 with the plain prism. Larger, heavier and loud. But it is a pleasure to use. And it has a full frame viewfinder.

My favorite 4x5 camera is my Busch Pressman.

 

[philslizzy]

I just love using old film cameras. My collection are mainly Leica copies, but I have folders & box cameras but I like my Pentax ME super, its small and light. Just perfect. I bought a Kodak Bantam 4.5 and that's got to be my favourite folder. Digital? I have some Sony stuff but I love using the old Nikon D50, works with the old film AF lenses

 

[Guth]

Are there any cameras that you shoot, just for the enjoyment of using that camera.

This pretty much sums up why I continue to use my film cameras in general. Much like I still enjoy playing LP's on a manual turntable, writing with a manual typewriter, or driving a car with a manual transmission. Though it is hard to describe exactly why, there is just something about certain interactions between man and machine that I find to be both engaging and endearing.

 

[mfunnell]

I'm spoiled. I shoot digital only and I cannot find it in me to return to shooting film. I've tried. It was a total failure of intent. But I do shoot old digital cameras if digital cameras can be considered old--old Nikon DSLRs. D3 and D700 models with a gigantic 12mp resolution. They still produce the best damn images of anything I've ever owned. And I use and love old Nikkor manual focus lenses on these cameras.

I've been thinking about this since I read your post (and this thread). I also have some nostalgia for early DSLRs, though mine were Canon rather than Nikon. I dragged out my old 30D and 5D (the original, not then called the mk I, since there were no others) which are the ones I'm probably most 'nostalgic' about. While I started digital photography with an IXUS II then the 300D (aka the original 'Digital Rebel' in the US), I probably shot more and learned more about digital photography with my 30D than any other digital camera I've owned. The 5D (which I bought late in the piece, 2nd-hand once the 5D2 came out) was my first "full frame" digital - which was A Big Thing, back then, and paired beautifully with the 50mm/f1.2L lens I bought along with it.

"Back Then" being about 15-20 years ago (which I guess is almost long enough for nostalgia 🤔🤷‍♂️).

Dragging those cameras out was (as always with photography 🙄) somewhat expensive. I found that most of my batteries for them have hit end of life (so I ordered extras). Once I'd taken my test shots, I found that my CF card reader had died the death (which is a problem, because my more recent DSLRs use CF+SD cards) so it was probably best I found that now, not in the field as it were (I bought two new readers, from two different manufacturers, just in case).

I then looked at my test shots - and was reminded (once I could extract them) that the files from these old cameras are rather less, well, plastic than more modern cameras produce - there's way less room to move if you get exposure wrong; there's enough noise at higher ISO to make raising the selected value worth resisting unless absolutely necessary - and having 12bits per pixel rather than 14 favours more, um, judicious adjustments in post-processing.

Nonetheless, they're still capable of producing good photos. The limitation is far more from behind the camera than in the cameras themselves, as has always been the case. Even the main technical limitation of file size isn't that big a thing - 12mpx from my 5D is more than capable of printing to most sizes I print - and even the 8mpx of my 30D can print nicely to about A3 size (as I know from photos I have on my walls). The older cameras also seem less "fussy" to use than their modern 'equivalents' such as my 7D2 and 5D4 - and I don't think that's just due to familiarity. I need to remind myself that I don't need to use the complexity in more recent cameras just because it's there. (And I can be glad of those things which let me do things I want, that the old cameras wouldn't do.)

I did notice, though, that compared to the cameras I've been using more recently (eg. my M240 and X-Pro1) the DSLRs do seem rather "great lumps of things" - something that hadn't bothered me before, but surprised me on "going back" (not that I haven't been using DSLRs recently - it's just that I've been using them with long telephoto lenses, which are unavoidably large regardless of camera body). More so than their simple physical dimensions suggest.

...Mike

 

[yanchep_mike]

I shoot old film cameras all the time, they feel like home, warm and fuzzy. One of my favourites is my Zeiss Ikon Contessa built in 1955 my birth year. It works perfectly after all this time (better than me) I love to go out and take shots of all sorts and have fun. But all this is a period of work. At present, I have a love affair with an Olympus OM-2n It's small really compact and its handling is fantastic and the lenses are very good too. But i long already for the plain finder Nikon F. Thats me always a different camera every week, but always film and the same in any (PolypanF) I tried Digital from about 2005 to 2010, wasn't my gig. Still have D3 and XT-2 sitting in the cabinet like orphans nobody wants.

 

[Godfrey]

All of my cameras, film or digital, produce satisfying results ... I wouldn't buy (or keep) a camera that didn't. I've dumped all the digital cameras that didn't feel like "real" cameras as well ... I can't really articulate what a "real camera" feels like very clearly, I just know it when I handle it. My Leica M digital cameras feel like, well, Leica M cameras. The most avante garde of my digital cameras now is the Light L16, which feels right but works much like a cell phone.

Picking up a Hasselblad 500CM always feels nice, so does opening a Polaroid SX-70 or the Kodak Retina IIc or Voigtländer Perkeo II. Picking up any Leica, or Olympus, or Pentax whatever ... all feel good. The Nikon F plain prism always feels like the heavy hammer it always was, the MiNT TL-70 Plus is a little plasticky but still has that "feel" thing.

I guess I'm not very nostalgic about the feel of "the old worn out shoe." I don't have any, I just have a number of different shoes, old and new, that I like. I wouldn't own them if I was not pleased in the way they fit and feel.

G

 

[Bolo Kukus]

Every now and then, for the fun of it I take out one of my "oldies" (my cameras, not the photographer), load up whatever film I find quickly in my fridge (often Ilford XP2 or HP5 but it could be any brand, even ancient Panatomic-X), and go walkabout with it.

My two favorites, as they fit comfortably in a coat pocket and aren't obtrusive, are a 1950 Zeiss Nettar with the now-legendary 80/45 Tessar and an albada finder, and a 1952 Voigtlander Perkeo I with an 75/3.5 Color Skopar. Marched with a Weston Master V, set at ff/11-f/16 and sensibly used, both easily make negatives like fine engravings and print easily to 8x10" if I feel inclined to go that big. I'm not one to make many largeprints, usually 5x8" suits me just fine - an 8x10" sheet cut in two pieces- or more often,4x5", the latter means more work in the dark and post-printing but with an accurate enlarging meter (Jobo) and using qualify FB paper, I end up with prints I'm always happy to give away as gifts, which my family and friends enjoy and keep.

My second fave is a Rolleicord Vb with a 16 exposure kit. By carefully winding films I squeeze an extra image from each 120 roll, so 17 in all - once I got 18 but it was all a bit too much and that last negative was chopped off at the top so I cut off a friend's head, so I no longer try to set new Olympic records with my films. The 'cord has a Schneider Xenar which produces beautiful tones. Ditto my Rolleiflex Ts which also have 16 exposure kits permanently affixed. My 1966 3.5E2 nowadays mostly sits on the shelf, but I try to take it out at least one time every year to give it a good workout and a bit of TLC. I bought it as a demo and it's my favorite (if least used) film camera, and it will probably outlast me.

My Nikkormat FT2s get toolittle use I've just written myself a note to take them out and exercise them (along with myself).

Occasionally my partner diplomatically suggests I should give away all these relics (my cameras, not the photographer) or sell them. Which I equally politely decline,and change the subject. They have been with me so long, and with the low value of film cameras on the market these days, offering them on Ebay or at camera fairs is not worth the bother. Also I love them...

Our old cameras take us back to a different era, time and place, in a good way. To relive happy past experiences is such a rare pleasure now. We need more of it and our cameras do so much to help us.