A crazy curiosity

[naruto]

It's been nagging me ever since I got my M4 off Justin Low (here on RFF). Every time I use it, I find myself asking where did this camera come from? Who were the previous owners?

Have you ever had that thought?

BTW, Justin got it off someone on RFF, named Tim. So, Tim, if you are reading this, are you the first owner of this lovely beast? I am obsessed with finding its roots.

 

[steamer]

The one I really wonder about is a 1934 Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta that came from a seller in Slovakia. What has that one seen and who looked through its finder? Oh yeah same for my 61 Iskra from what was once the CCCP.

 

[oscroft]

I wonder the same about my M2. I got it last year (from a Famous Auction Site), in well-used condition but great working order (it had just had a CLA). It dates from 1964, has deep brassing round the strap lugs, and has probably had thousands of rolls of film through it. And I do wonder who has had so much use from it over the years.

 

[usagisakana]

I wonder that about my hi-matic. It looks like it was hardly used- I wonder who bought it and stowed it away, and where it was kept.

 

[zuikologist]

How about a permanent thread here on RFF where old guys who still have cameras they've been using for 40 years can leave a history of the camera associated with the camera's serial number. Or even second owners who know the history of the camera.

A repository of camera history. That would be a valuable asset.

I am not SO old, but I've had my SLR for 30+ years.

 

[Livesteamer]

Or my M3, 802280. I bought it in 1990 from Don Chatterton, seven months later DAG had to fit new shutter curtains because of improperly glued replacements. It took me years to realize my M3 was much reworked. It's a single stroke, modern speeds, small round strap lugs, perfect vulcanite, a very beat up back door and a late model rangefinder with dof notches which is probably because of the dent around the main finder window. I'm sure many of these cameras have interesting stories if we could just find out. Joe

 

[varjag]

Now what if it initially belonged to Charles Manson? Think about it, all joy is ruined!

 

[henryp]

Funny, but I rarely gave that a thought about used cameras. Maybe it's because I bought them when I was a full-time pro shooter and they'e tools. OTOH, I own a lovely used Telecaster and I wonder about the tunes it producted before I got it almost every time I pick it up.

 

[Don Parsons]

I wonder that too.

I wonder that too.

I've had the same thoughts about some of my equipment and especially regarding my airplane. Though I know who has owned the airplane as records were kept.

It's really interesting to use older equipment and ponder it's past.

don

ps....Hi and Welcome Henry.

 

[kshapero]

I picked up a lovely Leica IIIa from an "old timey" camera store in Richmond, VA. I became very curious about its past. Expecting to hear about an Indiana Jones type of ride through history, I found out that the Camera was bought new by a farmer in rural Virginia in 1936. he owned until his death in 1987. His wife kept it in a non functioning freezer in a barn until 2008 when she brought in to this camera store. oh well, still kind of cool.

 

[naruto]

OTOH, I own a lovely used Telecaster and I wonder about the tunes it producted before I got it almost every time I pick it up.

I had similar curiosity towards my violin. After a week of painstaking research, I found that my violin is a Stradivarius design, manufactured out of Germany in the early 1900s. The inscription in it (inside the hollow) puts the violin (as compared with online references) to have come out of the factory sometime in 1910. These were violin makers licensed to use the Stradivarius name on the instruments.

I can trace it back to 1950~60s, during which time my guru obtained it from a German priest settled in the Malabar region of Southern India. Subsequently, he gave it to me in 1985, by which time he felt I was worthy of having it.

To date, the instrument produces the most beautiful sound, unlike other violins I have heard. A fellow musician who heard me play, was surprised by the slightly deeper notes it produced. Though, I cannot get away with slip-ups in the notes.

Yeah, I would love to know it's stories in those missing years.

 

[iamzip]

I have a Zeiss Ikon 521/16 folder, which had a roll of film in it when I won it. Got the film developed, looks to be from roughly the 50's or 60's, which means the camera hadn't been used in a very long time. Pictures of someone's kids at christmas; I would love to find the owner or the kids and give them the pictures, I'm sure it would be a wonderful surprise.

I also have a 1940's era Gibson ES-125, given to me by a friend who unfortunately had some substance problems. He got it from someone he knew. when I received it it was just a body, no hardware or anything, and I have since rehabbed it (tho not restored it).

 

[drewbarb]

My first rangefinder cameras were gifts from my great uncle, who is now almost 92 years old. He worked for the U.S. State Department for many years, and has traveled all over the world. In 1955, he bought a Kodak Retina IIIC and it's auxiliary wide and tele lenses to document his travels. He spent about 18 months based in Singapore during 1959 and 1960, and in June of 1960 on a trip to Hong Kong he bought new a Leica M3 and several lenses. He carried these cameras everywhere, and photographed some incredible places with them. After his retirement, be basically put them away, and hasn't taken a photograph in 30 years. He gave me the Retina when I was in college, and the Leica he gave to me after I began my career as a photographer 14 years ago.

Last week I was visiting him at his house in Maine; while helping him do some cleaning, I came a across a big box of old Kodachrome slides, all labeled and dated between 1955 and 1968- Northern Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Belgian Congo, Indonesia. One that really caught my attention was labeled "President Kennedy, November 1963". I looked through these slides and saw pictures he took of JFK's funeral procession, of the bearing of his flag-draped casket to the Capitol building. He said he shot that event with the Leica, as he did pretty much everything after he bought that camera.

He asked me to take that box of slides home with me and look through them and help him organize them and keep them for the family. I have yet to go through everything, but so far I've found some very beautiful pictures, as well as some fairly mundane ones. I look forward to spending more time going through these old Kodachromes- to see his pictures of where he was, to see those places as he captured them in the 1950's and '60's. This adds yet a new dimension not only to my love and understanding of him, but to my appreciation of his old cameras, now in my possession. I have always cherished them, both as gifts from my uncle and as beautiful and functional tools. I shoot with them regularly- especially the Leica, which is sitting on a table behind me as I write this- and I have always known something of their histories; but looking through these images has already added even more to my appreciation of these lovely cameras and of his gifts to me.

 

[Livesteamer]

Like it or not, it seems many of us are holding pieces of history that continue to record it. With film, you know that's what was seen but with digital, is it recording history or altering it? Joe

 

[Ronald_H]

Yes, I wondered who has owned my M2 (1 068 391). It came from a camera collector in The Netherlands. With modern communications and eBay it could have come from just about anywhere.

It's 'just' a plain M2, with normal wear and quite a lot of marks on the top plate, suggesting someone who used a meter on it and removed it many times. It needed a CLA and my repair guy said it had never been opened before.

As the shutter was way off, I imagine it hasn't been used for years. Yes, I bought it to use it. It will probably outlive me too. If I have 40 odd years left, the M2 will be close to 90 years old. Will whoever gets it when I'm gone be able to use it still?

I have been thinking of recovering it, but it seems somehow sacriligeous.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Between my house and Loudun there's a ruined farmhouse. A mile or less from rhere, there's a whole ruined hamlet: half a dozen houses. I often think of the young couples that lived there, the children that were born and grew up there (and perhaps died in the Great War), the happiness and sorrow the house has seen. But then, the oldest parts of my own house -- not quite in ruins -- are centuries old, and the castle I can see from my study window will soon be 1000 years old. How can you not think of those who went before us?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Seele]

Last week I was visiting him at his house in Maine; while helping him do some cleaning, I came a across a big box of old Kodachrome slides, all labeled and dated between 1955 and 1968- Northern Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Belgian Congo, Indonesia. One that really caught my attention was labeled "President Kennedy, November 1963". I looked through these slides and saw pictures he took of JFK's funeral procession, of the bearing of his flag-draped casket to the Capitol building. He said he shot that event with the Leica, as he did pretty much everything after he bought that camera.

He asked me to take that box of slides home with me and look through them and help him organize them and keep them for the family. I have yet to go through everything, but so far I've found some very beautiful pictures, as well as some fairly mundane ones. I look forward to spending more time going through these old Kodachromes- to see his pictures of where he was, to see those places as he captured them in the 1950's and '60's. This adds yet a new dimension not only to my love and understanding of him, but to my appreciation of his old cameras, now in my possession. I have always cherished them, both as gifts from my uncle and as beautiful and functional tools. I shoot with them regularly- especially the Leica, which is sitting on a table behind me as I write this- and I have always known something of their histories; but looking through these images has already added even more to my appreciation of these lovely cameras and of his gifts to me.

Makes you wonder: if digital photography was around he would have those images stuck in huge stacks of punched tapes (or worse) and they would stay inaccessible.

 

[manfromh]

My Fujica st705w has a sticker on the inside of the film door that says this:

Bocock-Stroud CO.
Camera Show Case
Winston-Salem, N.C.

Im guessing this camera was part of a camera show in North Carolina.
Google tells me that Bocock-Stroud sells sporting goods. Hmm...
This camera has travelled through half the world. Made in Japan, went to USA, somehow traveled to England, and got sold on ebay to me. Now it lives in Estonia.

 

[oscroft]

Makes you wonder: if digital photography was around he would have those images stuck in huge stacks of punched tapes (or worse) and they would stay inaccessible.

Indeed - that's certainly one of my reasons for sticking with film. A couple of years ago I spent a few days with my great-uncle, who's 86, and we were talking about various ancestors (I do a bit of genealogy). He dug out a big box of his mum's photos, and we spent a couple of hours going through them - there was some great stuff in there, and I borrowed a lot to make copies.

I then thought about something similar happening in 50 years time - if someone stumbled across an old had drive containing all my photos, would they have any chance of recovering them? I reckon they'd have no chance at all. And it made me happy that all the photos on my HD are scans and the original negatives and sides are all filed away.

If you don't print -- your digital work will be lost -- either through deterioration of the media or inaccessibility of the media in the future

And what's the chance that inkjet prints, printed using cheap inks on cheap paper, are going to last 50 years?

 

[ron1945]

what has it photographed

what has it photographed

i wish sometimes that the images on all the old cameras iown could be retrieved. silly thought i know, but if it was old toilet seats would i want to know whose rosy cheeks had been framed in them.