Canon LTM Teaching my son to use the QL17

Canon M39 M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
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undies

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My 15 y.o. son expressed some interest in photography, so I taught him some basics and gave him a roll of BW400CN to run through my QL17 GIII. He got a couple of interesting shots, not bad for his first roll!

I learned the basics on an early 1960s-vintage Minolta (IIRC) that my dad loaned me. It had manual aperture, shutter speed, and focus (no rangefinder, no SLR, just guess the distance!), and I had to use a handheld light meter. So compared to me my son is quite spoiled with this Canon. :angel:

I suspect that most kids his age will "learn" photography with simple P&S digital cams, and never learn about f-stops and ASA. I was worried that my son would find the experience too complicated and old fashioned, but he enjoyed the experience and is bugging me for more film :cool:

A couple of his shots:
 

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Your son is lucky to have someone who is willing to show him how to do things properly. Hopefully you will get to spend some time together making photographs.

Off topic, but, where in Oregon do you live?
 
Im sorry but that cat is ugly as hell.

It gives me the heeby geebies. Haha.

Your son is learning quick though. Keep us posted with more images. :D
 
Your son bugging you for more film is a good sign and I agree with jbf..."That is one ugly cat..."
 
undies said:
My 15 y.o. son expressed some interest in photography, so I taught him some basics and gave him a roll of BW400CN to run through my QL17 GIII. He got a couple of interesting shots, not bad for his first roll!
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I think it's really great that he's taking a serious interest in photography! That's about the age I started getting interested in it from a serious point of view.

I suspect that most kids his age will "learn" photography with simple P&S digital cams, and never learn about f-stops and ASA.
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Or worse, cam phones! :(

I'm curious if he had any experience with something simpler, like a P&S before? When I was in my early teens I did have a camera and used it regularly, a Brownie Starflash, which was really the P&S of those days. The thing is, I WANTED to learn about ASA and f-stops and shutter speeds and such. My dad did have a couple manual folders and trusted me with one of them at times.

When I did get my first 35mm (Mamiya SD) I had two must-haves. One, it had to be 35mm, small and lots of exposures on one roll. To me, 8 or 12 shots was just not enough. Also a fast lens so I could do inside without flash.

I was worried that my son would find the experience too complicated and old fashioned, but he enjoyed the experience and is bugging me for more film
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If he's serious enough to want to learn f-stops and such, he's probably serious enough to want to learn how to use the camera to its fullest.

When I was in my teens, most of my friends had cameras, mostly box cameras, Instamatic types, Starflash/Starflex/Star-whatever, but a few did get interested and wanted better cameras.

Now, if I may make a couple suggestions ... First, please let him make his own mistakes and learn what works and what doesn't, even if he wastes some film in the process and muffs some otherwise good shots. Let him develop his style. I'm sure you're constructively critiquing his work. Also, please encourage him to show off his photos and not his gear. :)
 
Nice work...Can't wait to have a son...or daughter to show them the ropes. They will be learning film before anything else. At least that's the plan.

So yeah...about that poor cat......My cat just got scared and ran from my lap. Seriosly what kind of cat is that?
 
dmr said:
I'm curious if he had any experience with something simpler, like a P&S before?
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Not really. Five or six years ago he took some family vacation photos using a disposable, but it was long enough ago that I'm not sure it counts as "experience."


If he's serious enough to want to learn f-stops and such, he's probably serious enough to want to learn how to use the camera to its fullest.
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Agreed. I think I'm also going to put some batteries in my Minolta X700 and let him play with that too. It seems to have a computer problem when shooting in A (aperture priority) mode, but it works fine manually and the internal light meter still seems to work. That will probably give him some good lessons.


BTW, regarding the cat: Yes, it is a cat. It is a hairless cat that my brother-in-law recently adopted. Apart from being, uh, not very cute, you can be assured that having a "hairless cat" around is an endless source of jokes. :rolleyes:
 
That's great. My dad used to own a commercial photo lab, and growing up, life seemed to revolve around the business. I think because of that, I never got into photography. As a young teenager, I spent lots of time working there. I still blame my dad for bright sunlight being painful to me. ;)

A year ago, I got into fixing digital cameras for friends. Now I do it as a hobby, and to support my eBay habits :D. I built a camera out of spare parts, and took hundreds of pictures with it on vacation. Then came the dSLR, then came (hopefully soon...crap shipping from Canada suks) my Canonet rangefinder. It's funny, but I also bought my dad an old Pentax Spotmatic, and gave him a Sony digital camera from spare parts. I think I'm actually the one getting him into photography again.
 
The Canonet is a great place to start. Great for beginners and even pros use them. I have two and need to give them more work to do.

Oh - and that was a cat? Are you sure?
 
jbf said:
Im sorry but that cat is ugly as hell.

It gives me the heeby geebies. Haha.

Your son is learning quick though. Keep us posted with more images. :D
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LMAO yeah, poor cat was dealt a rough hand..

..uhh but anyhow, fantastic shots! He's searching for the shots, you can see it. It's great you're teaching him, even greater he is willing to learn! :)
 
Great your son is interested in photography and yeah, cat is great too - I'd love that if they would be more weather-and-what-else-proof.
 
my daughters are almost 7 and they actually have their own canon digital cameras which they love. it's great to watch them find enjoyment in photography.

however, they've expressed an interest in "daddy and papa's photography" (film) so i was thinking of dusting off my very first camera...a mamiya 1000TL and an old spotmatic for them to experiment with. i was seriously thinking of contacting the people at cameraleather to see if they could get me some custom pink and/or purple covers for those cameras. my girls love to accessorize.

it will be quite a shock to them to discover that they wont have the ability to take hundreds of pictures. knowing that they'll have only 24-36 pictures available, they'll have to learn some restraint and shoot wisely.

think they're too young to teach them to use the 4X5 and discuss reciprocity failure?

- chris
 
Thanks folks! Trust me, it's a cat :rolleyes:

Chris91387... there is definitely value in teaching kids with digital because it allows them to do a lot of trial and error on the basics. But yeah, there is a tendency to just use the digital cam as a photo hose. Film would force them to be more selective with their shots.

You know what you could do is install smaller memory cards in your daughters' cameras. If the memory card will only hold 20-30 pictures, then just like film they'll have to be more selective.
 
That only works until they find the delete button. ;)

Kim

undies said:
You know what you could do is install smaller memory cards in your daughters' cameras. If the memory card will only hold 20-30 pictures, then just like film they'll have to be more selective.
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