Show me a camera that has MOJO!

eIII

eIII

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i know some people like their cameras to look like they have never been taken out of the box. i am not one of them. i admit that i love the look of a well used camera with plenty of MOJO!

from what i have read, Leica M's, especially older manual M's, were built to last several lifetimes. (i, RF noob that i am, have yet to even hold a leica. keyword: yet. 🙂) same wih many classic nikons, contaxes, etc. it seems one would be hard pressed to convince some owners that they weren't made from glass.

it is akin to yuppie urban dwellers buying a hummer to go to the grocery once a week.

i am not talking about camera abuse, mind you. 6 foot test drops on concrete is not MOJO.

cameraquest has a little writeup/ pics on Gary Winogrand's last M4.

http://cameraquest.com/LeicaM4G.htm

now that is beautiful! i'm tearing up! 🙂 that camera tells a story!


so, who else likes the look of a 'less than mint' camera? better yet, post a pic of your well loved camera if you can. it is time to let the MOJO shine!

e3
 
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Reminds me of my first 'real' guitar. A nice instrument, but nothing special: one of the 'G' series Takamine acoustics, cost ~GBP350. I was 15 or so. I loved it I stored it in the office of the church where I was working (tiny little flat, no space for the instruments), and then went away for a fortnight. Came back to discover some... person with less specific knowledge... had left it beside a radiator turned up full for most of that fortnight. The glue on most joins had eased, and it remained a little soft. That guitar would not stay in tune for anything, and then the bridge-piece pinged off. Good only for the dump.

But that's not the story I had to tell. I had to tell this one:

When I got that guitar, I practically kept it wrapped up in cotton wool. I worried a lot. Then six months later I took it on a camp. It got left in a tent, it got flung into cars, it got filled with grass (the lawn kind), it got dropped and battered and bruised and had coffe spilled on and in it. And it was fine. Hardier than I expected, and still sounded great. From that time on, it was a guitar, a special thing for sure, but not a precious jewel that had to be coddled.

My Bessa R, when I got it, was handled with the greatest care. But I quickly found that's not conducive to shooting. These days, it gets flung into whatever bag I'm carrying, and allowed to rattle around at least a little. And despite the net-paranoia over its plastic construction, it has nary a mark on it. And yes, the RF is still spot on!

The M2 will not be treated with such kid gloves - it's made of stronger stuff anyway. It is absolutely a shooter.

I don't mistreat my gear, but I treat it as just that - gear. And I wonder if any of it will ever look like that M4, only becasue it takes a lot of time and use to do that to a camera.
 
Mojo and camera in one sentence makes me think of Hasselblad and Nikon. That's what Austin Powers uses 🙂
 
Years ago I was doing research in an ancient library, sometimes using books almost 800 years old. At first I was frightened even to touch them, but soon I was treating them like any other book - the alternative was to regard them as expensive insulation. It was deeply exciting to turn a page and come across a blank sheet, filled with a child's drawings from around 1500, or a self-portrait and message to the future from a 13th century monk.

The point was, the books were intended to be used - to use them was to keep faith with those who made them, dreamed them and had owned them in the past. What was the point in a book nobody read? It was simply a matter of respect. The same goes for cameras or any creative instrument. Unless, like me, you respect them too much and then have to send them to Oleg...!
 
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my pre-ww2 rolleiflex automat has plenty of marks, mojo if you want, have no photo of it but will try to make some - just for you.
Also the "new" contax iia has lotsa marks on the body and the leather on the front is worn alot, has seen more weddings that i'd ever see...some shots of it are in the camera and coffee thread, on page 124 or 125.
 
but i agree, i also like those cameras, prefer them instead of pristine, minty, like new in box etcetera versions. Also because i tend to be more easy on taking them anywhere for use..

Here's also a canonet ql17 Giii with plenty of mojo 😀 I replaced the front viewfinder window since, and straightened the top dent a bit, but the rest looks the same. Also there are some spots on the front surface of the lens. The 'flex i was talking about is there in the background, but not much to see on it.
 
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"Mojo" means sexual power. The question is, who is it you want to turn on?

My oldest Canon F1 was my backup, abused badly for years, kept loose under a car seat (screw on lens cap). It was recently CLA'd for $160. I trust it, it's bronze-looking, but it's still just a trusted friend, like my grandmother was. No mojo there.

My IIIC Leica, mint, turns men on, but do I want that?

Women like my moustache and generally cuddly demeanor. Is that mojo? Dunno. I've not hit on women since my current/longterm big score.

Them wimmen do like to look good in prints. Odds aren't good unless you happen to know where a given woman is coming from. This argues for serial monogamy...you can't figger em' out, but you can observe closely as you sample the wares, hoping to get it right.

Like I said, men get turned on by old Leicas. Most women couldn't care less about cameras, hence "no mojo".
 
djon said:
"Mojo" means sexual power. The question is, who is it you want to turn on?
Click to expand...
I know that "soul" is something intrinsically connected to the spirit, and highly debated between philosophers and religious circles. But when people say that a song has "soul", it doesn't mean that it's "self-aware" or literally alive in a Biblical sense.

Same here. It doesn't necessarily mean it "has to have sexual power"; it's the sense of it and the sense of it. Slang is not literal; it would be paradoxical for it to be so.
 
How about this one. Early IIIC that's been through a war and has the battle scars to prove it. Chrome worn off in several places, one of the rf window trims has been lost the other one seems to have been attacked with a pair of pliers and the vulcanite is in about half a dozen bits. When I got it there was a very musty smell coming from its innards and the shutter barely worked at all. In spite of all this once I'd given it a service (as if it hadn't been through enough already) it actually works very well albeit with a blob of liquid electrical tape on one of the blinds; does anyone sell red shutter fabric? The camera came with a Summar which looks as if the front element has been cleaned with sandpaper. I'l see if Arax can salvage it. If only it could talk...
 
you know, every time I take out one of my cameras I wonder about it's history and where it has been. Even the trips they have taken through the mail to get to me make me wonder...All of my cameras have vast reserves of mojo.

Using older gear is an exercise in connecting to the past for me, a way to imagine what it was like for contemporaries of my gear to shoot and make images. I often have tonnes of time to think about stuff like this as I wander arround looking for photos...
 
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Franco Zecchin M6

Franco Zecchin M6

Hello:

See p96 of #139 responses photo. A M3 and a photographer who have been there.

yours
Frank


My 111b (atavar) has been around since october 1939. It must have seen a lot.
 
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MOJO?

I don't know, it's worn and still working.

Bought new in 69 - never CLA - lately I have bought a 55mm 1:1.2 for it - BTW it's a 65xxxx Red Dot

And it's NOT for sale!


Jacques


MOJO - makes one think about Muddy Waters.
 
My last Leica was a black paint M4 that I bought when the M4 came out. The paint was worn completely off in several places, and it had little dents on the top and corners, and the strap lugs were worn into ovals. It required a CLA and speed adjustment every year.

:bang: During a period of dire unemployment, I sold it with the first 35mm F1.4 lens for $250 to a college professor.
 
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Crown Graphic Mojo

Crown Graphic Mojo

This my old Crown Graphic. All its superfluous parts have been cut or yanked off with pliers and tinsnips. Even the little metal tongue on the inside bottom, YANKED off - took me a good hour or so and lots of muscle to pull off what must have been the strongest piece of metal ever. I cut the stops on the rail so that they would go back further and not interfere with the hinge, used screws to hold in the ground glass after losing the parts for it. It is bare bones. And I want a Cooke soft focus lens for it. But not till I pay off my RF645! And it smells like cigars.

As far as sex goes, we'll just have to wait for the RF645. But considering the punishment I've given this camera, it performs really well.
 
i must say that i have never been turned on by a camera. but the thought of an M2 with a 50 'cron DR does make me RANDY! yeah, baby YEAH! 🙂

actually, the camera/ instrument conection is spot on. when i think of MOJO and guitars i think of SRV's strat, Jaco's 'bass of doom' jazz bass, or Springsteens tele/esquire.

great pics so far. those boxes have been around! keep 'em coming!

e3
 
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