Wow! You have a real camera!

pachuco

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I had a good chuckle at what happened to my 11 year old daughter at camp this past week...... She had taken my Canonet with her to camp and several rolls of film. While taking pictures at camp kids kept asking her what kind of camera it was she was using. She told them what it was and how it worked (the matchstick needle meeter was really cool I am told). One kid told her "Wow! You have a real camera! All my parents sent me with was a crappy digital".

I will note that since she has come back, not once has she made fun of my "old cameras". :D
 
pachuco said:
I had a good chuckle at what happened to my 11 year old daughter at camp this past week...... She had taken my Canonet with her to camp and several rolls of film. While taking pictures at camp kids kept asking her what kind of camera it was she was using. She told them what it was and how it worked (the matchstick needle meeter was really cool I am told). One kid told her "Wow! You have a real camera! All my parents sent me with was a crappy digital".

I will note that since she has come back, not once has she made fun of my "old cameras". :D

Been able to get the Canonet out her hands since then? I has a similar thing happen several years ago giving my oldest daughter a Fujica ST 801 I had just acquired, to try and get her interested in something besides P&S cameras. Wasn't long before friends began complimenting her on her great professional camera. Haven't been able to get it back, and truthfully, don't want to.
 
nice :)

my kids (just turned 7) are still a bit small for a Real Camera. So I let them use my D70, 30D and my wife's 350D.

colin
 
My five year old daughter insists on using my R-D1 whenever I pull it out. I just put on the 15 heliar, set it to infinity and away she goes, cocking the advance lever, framing, clicking. She'd go on all day long if I let her. The two or three decent ones (out of a thousand shots) I let her print. She can bearly lift the thing but still manages to keep it reasonably still. She'll be showing me how to do it next.
 
My daughter (10 next week) has been fooling around with the Rollei 35SE, but not too intensely. She'll make a few shots then wait a few days and make another. Slowly she's getting through the roll of FP4, then we'll run & proof it.
 
When I pull out a camera my 5 year old asks "are you shooting film or digital, dad?", but she has not yet been able to master the viewfinder on a "real" camera. Once a week or so she picks up one of the digital p&s laying around and shoots for half an hour or so. When we review her stuff it freaks me out a little to see the world from her pov. She has a good eye - gets it from her mom.

OT - my 3 year old boy has started yelling "stop cheesing me dad!" when he doesn't want me to take his picture. Cracks me up.

- John
 
So over all these years, when I thought I was taking portraits I was really cheesing people?

It's more than a little annoying when people seem obliged to look straight at the camera and smile.
 
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My 3-1/2 years old daughter has started using her 1st film camera (Polaroid) sooting me!:D

DSC_0938a.jpg
 
Great story. Yeah, seems her Canonet made her "think" before taking her photos, while the "crappy digital" cams pretty much just encouraged snaps. I'll bet the results really show too.

pachuco said:
I had a good chuckle at what happened to my 11 year old daughter at camp this past week...... She had taken my Canonet with her to camp and several rolls of film. While taking pictures at camp kids kept asking her what kind of camera it was she was using. She told them what it was and how it worked (the matchstick needle meeter was really cool I am told). One kid told her "Wow! You have a real camera! All my parents sent me with was a crappy digital".

I will note that since she has come back, not once has she made fun of my "old cameras". :D
 
I love the choice of term-"Real"
These are not analog cameras, that was something electronic that used a video capture, I think nikon made one once. Calling a Canonet a 'Film' camera brings to mind motion picture equipment; so 'Real Camera' seems most fitting.
 
One of my boys has been after me to shoot a film camera...but I'm afraid of the expense.
I guess if I limit his film, there will be some good lessons in it for him.
 
Look at it this way. Cost of new quality digital, use by date,8-12 mths before next up-grade, with more bells and whistles = how much film?
 
dazedgonebye said:
One of my boys has been after me to shoot a film camera...but I'm afraid of the expense.
I guess if I limit his film, there will be some good lessons in it for him.

Do what my dad did. He gave me 2 rolls of 36 a week, that I had to process myself (one of the first things he taught me) and if I wanted more film, I could "buy" it by doing extra chores.

(edit - he also stressed that I shouldn't feel like I needed to save the roll. There was always more film available, but he wanted me to a> think about each photograph - and b> realize that there is a cost involved in a hobby like this.)
 
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Dfin said:
Look at it this way. Cost of new quality digital, use by date,8-12 mths before next up-grade, with more bells and whistles = how much film?

Cost of a last year's quality model is a laughing $100, new in box. Second hand they're even cheaper. So, to answer "how much film"... depending on what film you buy and where on this planet, including developing (yes, we're not all capable of doing that at home)... maybe 10-15 rolls. Add printing the photos and that number dwindles significantly.

Doing the digital dance is a great, efficient and economic way of introducing children to photography. And by the time they're interested enough to actually spend more than a passing moment to photography, they can use one of your own (digital) cameras.
 
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