John Edwin Mason wrote:
> I like old things. Maybe it's because I'm an
> historian. Maybe it's because older products were
> often better built than their contemporary
> equivalents.
I like some old things. Some are just indefinably _cool_.
Others are sturdier, or simpler, or just _interesting_
because they're not like the more common recent versions.
Sometimes it's because a design _fashion_ changed to
reflect a shift in general consumer tastes but my personal
taste better matches the older style. (Other times, designs
change to be _more_ like what I want. It works both ways.)
> The French horns that I play most often are a 1952
> Conn 28D and a 1955 Conn 8D. Both magnificent
> instruments, far superior in craftsmanship and playing
> qualities to modern Conns. Or modern anything else,
> except exclusive handmade instruments.
Now I'm wondering when my father's Olds Ambassador trombone
was made... (Teaching myself to play horn is slow going, I
fear. I figured I'd start with valves first, so I'm using
a beat-up old Conn four-valve baritone horn (no idea how old)
that someone found for me at a garage sale. The mouthpiece
cost me more than the horn. Brass is so different from the
other instruments I play.)
The cameras I use most often are my KX and my Super Program.
I don't think of either one as old. My first Pentax was an
H3. I don't use the screwmount gear as much, now that I've
got a decent K-mount kit, but each of my working screwmount
bodies gets at least a few rolls a year through it, so I'm
still _using_ them. In fact, they're important parts of my
kit. As I've mentioned before, I often put HIE in a pre-Spotmatic
body, since I'm not going to be making much use of an in-camera
meter with that film anyhow.
I use the screwmounts when I want a focal length that I don't
have in K-mount yet; or when I know I won't be needing a TTL
meter (such as when shooting HIE or using auto flash); when
I want more bodies loaded with different types of film than I
have K-mount bodies for; when the K-mount body I wanted to use
still has half a roll of the wrong film in it; and once in a
while Just Because.
This past Sunday I wanted to shoot HIE and EIR, and my changing
bag was one of the things I lost in the burglary, so I loaded
two cameras in my basement and decided those two bodies were
dedicated to IR film for the day and would not be unloaded/reloaded
until I got home (rather than trying to improvise darkness in
the field without a proper changing bag). Instead, when I used
up the IR film, I just changed cameras. So an H1a got a roll
of HIE run through it.
Another thing I've mentioned before is that I get a perverse
kick out of being able to tell people the camera I'm using is
older than I am. :-) (True for some of my screwmount gear,
at least.)
> As for film, I shoot more Tri-X (35 and 120) than
> anything else and have since high school.
I shoot more Fuji Press than anything else, though I am rather
fond of Tri-X. Tri-X would be my most-used BW film, with TMZ
a close second...
> On the other hand, my second most used film is
> Ilford's decidedly modern Delta 3200
... Uh, yeah, like you. :-) (I consider TMZ and Delta 3200
to be so similar that I use them interchangeably -- it all
depends on which one is available and/or which is cheaper.)
> Cheers, John (in already hot and hazy Virginia)
-- Glenn, in pollen-encrusted
Baltimore
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