Families Who "Get It"

[bmattock]

As a confirmed vintage rangefinder camera nut, I don't expect anyone else in my family to completely understand my madness, much less consider it when or if they choose to buy me a gift.

However, for Christmas, my stepmother sent me a Yashica Lynx 5000 and a WWII-era "Hit" miniature camera. Both had film in them - unfortunately, the Lynx's film had been wound to the point of breaking off the cartridge, and hence was exposed to light when the back was opened up. I have no idea what to do with the subminiature film that is in the Hit camera. Both cameras appear to work, so that's fun.

Anyway, that was cool. She understands my illness! She didn't probe me with questions ahead of time, she didn't ask my wife to find out what kind of cameras I like, she just went with her instincts and she was dead on.

My wife got me a slave strobe and a new umbrella holder for my small-but-growing living-room photo studio.

Hope everyone else had a good Christmas as well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[dcsang]

heh.. ya.. it's hard for most (not all) women to understand the affliction I believe; more so than men - it's akin to how we men find it hard to understand why women need so many shoes 😀

In our family, my uncle and my dad understand - I see them look at the Leica and then they smile because they know that the camera was something that they too sought out but never attained. Living vicariously as one grows older seems to be as good as "being there" I guess 😀

Glad to hear you got some gear and had a good Christams Bill 🙂

Cheers
Dave

 

[GeneW]

Bill, what a lovely Christmas surprise! Very nice. We should put out a notice to all friends, family and acquaintances:

'All your old cameras are belong to us ...' 😀

Gene

 

[pesphoto]

Nice Gifts Bill. Enjoy the Lynx 5000, its a great camea in my opinion. I use mine quite a bit.
I consider myself lucky because my fiance is a photographer(weddings) so she understands where I coming from. Her affliction isnt rangefinder related, but rather Nikon F5's at the moment. She bought one off the Digital Wedding Forum recently. She is going to Vegas for their convention. To keep me busy shooting she juist bought me a Bessa R and 35mm Color Skopar for the holiday!

 

[physiognomy]

As a confirmed vintage rangefinder camera nut, I don't expect anyone else in my family to completely understand my madness, much less consider it when or if they choose to buy me a gift...(snip) ...

Hope everyone else had a good Christmas as well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

I'm glad you had a great Christmas Bill! I decided this year to give the RF disease to my little sister who's into photography... After visiting me last Christmas and seeing my 'collection' she's started picking up old Kodaks from thrift stores, so I figured it would be a good idea! I sent her a nice working Argus C3 Matchmatic (complete with meter & ERC). Apparently there were smiles a'plenty & even some tears (crying over a C3???), so it went down well... I'm sure it won't be long before she finds RFF!

Peter

ps No camera equipment under my tree this year, but I'm 'waiting for the mail' on a FED 2 (my first LTM camera) & a Kyoei Super-Acall 135mm... I did get a really nice guide to photography in Colorado though. Some cool hiking spots are in there, so hopefully I'll take some nice shots this coming year.

 

[RML]

I don't think my wife "gets" it but we recently bought a book case for the living room and she wants to display my cameras in it. So I put in the FED-2, the Zorki 4K, an Agfa Clack, the Kiev 4AM, 2 Lubitel 2's and the Golden Dragon. She was pleased but still found the shelf to be a bit empty. I don't have any more collectables! I told her I would buy more in the near future. No (and I mean none what-so-ever!) reply followed. Would that count as "she gets it"? 🙂

 

[bmattock]

Nice Gifts Bill. Enjoy the Lynx 5000, its a great camea in my opinion. I use mine quite a bit.
I consider myself lucky because my fiance is a photographer(weddings) so she understands where I coming from. Her affliction isnt rangefinder related, but rather Nikon F5's at the moment. She bought one off the Digital Wedding Forum recently. She is going to Vegas for their convention. To keep me busy shooting she juist bought me a Bessa R and 35mm Color Skopar for the holiday!

I agree that the Lynx 5000 is a nice little camera. One of the things not commonly known about them is that they sported a 1/1000 shutter speed setting (not that I'm saying really was 1/1000 speed)! This was quite uncommon on leaf-shutter type cameras. While the f1.8 lens is not as fast as my Lynx 14's f1/4, the camera is also a good deal smaller and lighter - so that's nice too. The viewfinder on this one is very, very, nice - great rangefinder patch and all.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[RML]

I agree that the Lynx 5000 is a nice little camera. One of the things not commonly known about them is that they sported a 1/1000 shutter speed setting (not that I'm saying really was 1/1000 speed)! This was quite uncommon on leaf-shutter type cameras. While the f1.8 lens is not as fast as my Lynx 14's f1/4, the camera is also a good deal smaller and lighter - so that's nice too. The viewfinder on this one is very, very, nice - great rangefinder patch and all.

Show us the loot, Bill! 🙂

 

[bmattock]

Show us the loot, Bill! 🙂

OK, I'll do it - but it will have to wait until this evening - I had to go back to work. I'm not sure why - this place is like a ghost town, but oh well. Must earn the daily bread.

I spent the last two days at home trying to organize my digital and digitized photos. What a chore! I've got a terabyte of hard drive space, and over 270 gigs of photos. Problem is lots of dupes, hidden in directories all over the place, named badly so that identical names do not necessarily mean identical photos, etc. I'm trying to cope with the whole mess in Perl - which helps, but I suspect I've got a lot of manual sorting to do as well. Sigh.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ChrisPlatt]

My stepfather sure never "got it".

As soon as I got my first full-time job he asked
when I would be getting rid of my cameras. (!)

Strange guy. I do miss him though...

Keep Chris in Christmas
-Chris-

 

[ch1]

OK, I'll do it - but it will have to wait until this evening - I had to go back to work. I'm not sure why - this place is like a ghost town, but oh well. Must earn the daily bread.....

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Bill,

Congrats on the "loot". Sounds as if you have the family well-trained! 😀

Ditto on the "ghost town" feeling here at work today. I suspect it will only get deader and deader as the week goes on. Oh well, gave me time to finally order the lens filters I've been intending to buy for the past month! Now to go look at the used equipment listings at B&H and Adorama.

They block eBay here so can't kill anytime over there!

Regards,
George

 

[RML]

They block eBay here so can't kill anytime over there!

Unwittingly they are spare you from draining your coffers. eBay and an empty office is just the ticket for some really serious money spending. I know. I've been there. 🙂

 

[bmattock]

They block eBay here so can't kill anytime over there!

Regards,
George

Yeah, here too. I work for a big bank - you do too, right? Anyway, just as well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ch1]

Unwittingly they are spare you from draining your coffers. eBay and an empty office is just the ticket for some really serious money spending. I know. I've been there. 🙂

Yes, I suppose I should be grateful. Think of all the money I'm saving!

But sometimes, when bidding on an item you're really interested in (and just have to have! 😉 ) "closes" in the middle of the day - and you just "know" your bid is going to get "sniped" - it really would be nice to ... oh well.... :bang:

 

[cbass]

There were no photo-related gifts under my tree this year until I experienced my own two-part Christmas Miracle.

Part One occurred when I sropped by my former local enthusiast canera shop (in NJ) to buy some rollfilm for my TLR. There in the used camera case is a cherry-looking Vivitar 35ES complete with mini bounce flash, original case and warranty card. The price is a reasonable $90. I don't know too much about this camera other than it's been highly praised by its owners. As I'm fondling it, my wife comes over and says "Hmm, $90...what are you waiting for?" The owner threw in fresh batteries, too.

Part Two occurred during our annual family secret Santa gift exchange when my brother-in-law surpised me with a Holga. It's now safe to assume that my family knows I'm a photo nut. They most certainly "get it." 😀

Hope you all had a nice holiday, too.

 

[enochRoot]

luckily a couple of people in my familly "get it". my wife is the one that actually has a photography degree, so that is great. and i just gave my little brother a fed 5c for christmas, as he has always loved my cameras, and has taken the time to learn what i'm doing (not bad for a 14 year old). i'm amazed that in this day and age he took the time to learn about exposure metering, and setting the aperture and shutter speed. he loved the gift. we'll probably head out sometime this week on a photo spree together! that said, no camera related gifts this year...at least not from others 😀

 

[jan normandale]

As a confirmed vintage rangefinder camera nut, I don't expect anyone else in my family to completely understand my madness, much less consider it when or if they choose to buy me a gift.

However, for Christmas, my stepmother sent me a Yashica Lynx 5000 and a WWII-era "Hit" miniature camera. Both had film in them - unfortunately, the Lynx's film had been wound to the point of breaking off the cartridge, and hence was exposed to light when the back was opened up. I have no idea what to do with the subminiature film that is in the Hit camera. Both cameras appear to work, so that's fun.

Anyway, that was cool. She understands my illness! She didn't probe me with questions ahead of time, she didn't ask my wife to find out what kind of cameras I like, she just went with her instincts and she was dead on.

My wife got me a slave strobe and a new umbrella holder for my small-but-growing living-room photo studio.

Hope everyone else had a good Christmas as well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Bill, reading the note about both cameras containing film, it would be fun to see what was on those rolls! Hope you can save some of the exposures.

Jan

 

[bmattock]

Bill, reading the note about both cameras containing film, it would be fun to see what was on those rolls! Hope you can save some of the exposures.

Jan

Well, no such luck on the Lynx 5000. The film had been overwound, tearing it off the cartridge and bunching it up on the winding side. One would have to have known there was film in the camera and opened the back in total darkness to manually retrieve the film and stuff it back into the cartridge - which I did not realize, since the rewind lever spun freely. So I opened the back - whatever was on those frames is lost to history now.

The film that is in the Hit camera remains in it - it seems to have been used, there was a paper backing in the red window with a number on it, and when I turned the winder, it advanced past the end of the roll like 120 roll film does. But this is subminiature, I think maybe something like 16mm. I can open the camera back in darkness and retreive the film, but then what? I have no reel to process it with. I guess I can try to rig up something...

I've purchased cameras off eBoy in the past that turned out to have film in them. Some I've processed or had procesed (C41 color print) and gotten usable images off them. But in the back of my mind, I'm always afraid there will be a murder or something on one of them someday....LOL.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

FYI, the HIT camera my stepmother got me appears to be the grand-daddy of all the imitators that came later. It's a genuine "HIT" brand, not one of the many copies. Like finding an original Diana, only more rare. Here's a link:

http://www.subclub.org/shop/175mm.htm

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[reagan]

Oh, my wife gets it alright ~ sometimes better than I do. As mentioned in an earlier thread, she bankrolled the Elmar from hoot for a Christmas gift. She frequently goes into the study and brings out some pic to show to friends or has me email some shot to family in Texas. She's constantly on the look for bargain frames and even came home not long ago with a small cabinet that's just right for containing my little gaggle of FSUs and related items. So about the time I'm thinkin', "Yep. She gets it. Got 'er goin' my way now!" she zings me with this conversation ~

"That's a nice shot there."
"Thanks hun."
"So, which camera did you take it with?"
"Uhhh, yeah, the Zorki 1 you bought me for Father's Day. Great shooter, that one."
"And the lens?"
"Let's see, that was a Jupiter 8, the '55 model I think. Hard to beat an ol' J8."
"Uh huh. Sure is. I can see that. ....... So if you can take pictures that look this nice with that camera and that lens, what is it that you need the other four or five or six cameras for? And the eight or so lenses in the drawer over there?"
[As I slowly drown in a dead silence, madly searching for a logical answer, nothing enters the brainbox but a dial tone.]
"Aaaah, ha, ha, ha! That's a good one hun. Ye he he! Boy, you are a funny one! Had me goin' there for a sec. And that's why I luv ya! Welp, better get goin’. Things to do.......... Hey, has the mailman run yet?"

😉​