I am not real clear on what part of this is so bizarre. I guess I look at this subject a little bit differently. I was 22 years old when my wife and I were married. In just a few months we will have been married for 50 years. A large percentage of our entire married life has been recorded on film that was exposed in a 35mm SLR that I bought about two years or so after we were married. I still own that camera and the 50mm lens that came with it and I still use it regularly. It has never failed to take pictures when I needed them. Sometimes I didn't do so well but that camera has recorded a LOT of our lives together. Children, houses, vacations, graduations, sporting events, cross-country moves, injuries, cars and on and on. If there is one camera in my life that qualifies as my "Camera for Life" it is that humble Pentax K1000 that I picked up at a pawn shop in Minneapolis in the late 70s. (EDIT - My wife says I bought it at a Pawn Shop in Reno in 1978 just before Xmas 😀) I have bought, owned and sold a lot of cameras between now and then, and still own several, but I still carry that poor little K1000 around with me regularly and I have no intention of ever getting rid of it. I have sent it in for cleaning and lubrication to Eric one time in that entire time period so I think I can absolutely testify that it is the most reliable camera I have ever owned.
More reminiscences.
Until the '90s the concept of owning one camera and a 50mm lens was the norm. Most of us had only the one lens, and we did everything with it. I was in my late 20s when I finally coughed up enough spare cash to buy additional glass, in my case two Hanimexes, a '35 and a '135 for a kit I took with me on a six-months tour of the Pacific and Asia. Somewhere along the way I acquired a zoomie, IRRC an Elicar 70-210 with glass I soon came to suspect was made from soft drink bottles. Used at f/11 it produced a few passably good Kodachrome slides, several of which I sold to stock photo markets.
Back in the day we didn't machine-gun film though our cameras, only the National Geographic honchos did that. Even if
Kodachrome processing was US $3 (in Canada K25 and K64 were sold process paid) and I could buy 120 film at a Kmart for a little over $1 a roll. The good old days, yeh.
For all that in the '70s in Canada and Australia films and processing were expensive. Many of us Canucks bought from discount photo stores in NYC and had our orders shipped by slow mail over the border, hoping Canada Customs wouldn't intercept the shipment and charge us duty, plus a penalty, which could be quite steep. I had friends in Maine and I used their address for my shipments and collected the stuff two times a year. Crossing the border back into Canada was an adventure, but I looked young and innocent and Customs didn't pay me any unwelcome attention. Once I was questioned about a camera (IRRC it was a well-worn Topcon SLR) and two lenses and a brick of film I had. I duly showed three exposed 35mm cassettes as 'evidence' that I had long owned the camera and I was let off. My criminal past now revealed...
I was in my late 20s and on a Pacific-Asia tour (this in 1974) when I decided to make the investment into additional lenses. In Sydney I coughed up the cash for two Hanimexes, a '35 and a '135, from Grace's pawn shop in Pott's Point - is that shop still in business? It was a treasure-trove for camera lovers, prices were reasonable and the older Mr Grace gave infinitely polite and good-mannered service to his customers. Later I bought an Exakta SLR and two Kodak Retinas from Grace's, the Varex traveled with me to Port Douglas in North Queensland and the two Retinas to Bali.
Movin' along, it wasn't until I landed a Pentax K1000 and two Takumars, bought from a passing traveler in need of cash to fund a flight to London, that I finally realised what quality glass was worth. In the late '70s I discovered Nikkormats, first an FTN, then an EL, finally two FT2s which I still have and use now and then.
In 1979 and 1982 I did cross-country trips across North America. In most US cities I visited many pawn shops where I saw an amazing quantity of quality cameras for sale at near-giveaway prices. Shelves of Nikon Fs and Nikon lenses, rows of Rollei TLRs, even in one shop an entire Speed Graphic kit with four lenses and film backs and even a copy stand on offer for $140. To this day I wonder where all this wonderful gear has ended up.
All my memories, all history now. Sepia-tinted with age - it seems like so many centuries ago.
Good cameras are good investments and with a little care and sensible use they last a long time. A pity it took me so long to realise that, but better late than never.
