Vintage camera images

[rpcrowe]

Pinterest sent me a link to an amazing collection of vintage camera images... I have used some of these cameras but, have never touched nor even seen in person many more...

Such as this three lens turret Leica...



I have saved this link as a reference. Clicking on each image brings up several additional images along the same theme...

https://www.pinterest.com/spyrostsic...078&utm_term=2

This Bell and Howell, Model 70 DR was my favorite silent 16mm motion picture camera for hand-held work. My three lens combination on this camera was usually a 10mm Angenieux lens along with 15mm and 25mm lenses.



I liked to use three lenses which ranged in focal length from very wide to normal angle because I could hand hold them with better results than if I used a longer lens.

The Filmo was a spring operated camera which accepted 100 foot loads of 16mm film. Our standard emulsion during the late 1960's to early 1970's was Kodak 16mm Commercial Ektachrome which had an ASA (comparable to ISO) of 25 under tungsten lighting or 16 with the addition of a Wratten 85 filter (this gave use a normal exposure of f/8 to /11 in bright sun). I cut the gel filters into circles and placed then behind the lens, retained by a small circular spring, before the lens was mounted on the turret. When you rotated the lens turret, the objective turret was geared to rotate along with the lens. A problem could happen if the lens turret or objective turret got twisted accidently and independently. That way you could be viewing the scene looking through an objective showing the field of view for the wrong lens. That was very embarrassing when the footage was viewed after processing. Needless to say, that usually happened only once. After it happened, the cameraman was usually quite careful about having the lens and objective lined up properly.

BTW: this little (in comparison to other mopix cameras of the era) was virtually indestructible and the cameraman did not need to worry about having a set of charged batteries,

[William W]

Fantastic!

Memories - I got to use a Bell and Howell at College, that was in the late 1970, early 80's when I returned to study Cine and Television.

These were standard issue for Australian War Media too, (meaning that the US Media used them in Vietnam and so did we).

It was a fantastic cine camera: like yours, the one I used had a triplet of medium to wide lenses. It was indestructible.

Thanks!

WW

[xpatUSA]

Has the Mighty fallen? IOW - cheap crap made you-know-where:

[William W]

^... well, times change.

Local manufacturing costs and overheads go skyward and companies adopt off shore solutions.

I have pride in my Record Vices - I have three, one woodworking, two for metalwork all are made in the UK. I think their manufacturing changed around 2000. These are only two examples of many.

Estwing Hammers are bloody good, too. They're still US made, I think.

WW

[xpatUSA]

Ah, yes, vices. I have an old US-made one which is actually forged; modern ones are cast ...

On the other hand, I brought to the USA a cheap UK-made Stanley hand-drill when I moved here and it's absolute crap!

[William W]

Aside - in the USA - is it more commonly: 'vises' ?

[DanK]

In US English, vises are what you use to hold wordwork, while vices are the behaviors you would rather not talk about.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Pinterest sent me a link to an amazing collection of vintage camera images... I have used some of these cameras but, have never touched nor even seen in person many more...

Such as this three lens turret Leica...



I have saved this link as a reference. Clicking on each image brings up several additional images along the same theme...

https://www.pinterest.com/spyrostsic...078&utm_term=2

This Bell and Howell, Model 70 DR was my favorite silent 16mm motion picture camera for hand-held work. My three lens combination on this camera was usually a 10mm Angenieux lens along with 15mm and 25mm lenses.



I liked to use three lenses which ranged in focal length from very wide to normal angle because I could hand hold them with better results than if I used a longer lens.

The Filmo was a spring operated camera which accepted 100 foot loads of 16mm film. Our standard emulsion during the late 1960's to early 1970's was Kodak 16mm Commercial Ektachrome which had an ASA (comparable to ISO) of 25 under tungsten lighting or 16 with the addition of a Wratten 85 filter (this gave use a normal exposure of f/8 to /11 in bright sun). I cut the gel filters into circles and placed then behind the lens, retained by a small circular spring, before the lens was mounted on the turret. When you rotated the lens turret, the objective turret was geared to rotate along with the lens. A problem could happen if the lens turret or objective turret got twisted accidently and independently. That way you could be viewing the scene looking through an objective showing the field of view for the wrong lens. That was very embarrassing when the footage was viewed after processing. Needless to say, that usually happened only once. After it happened, the cameraman was usually quite careful about having the lens and objective lined up properly.

BTW: this little (in comparison to other mopix cameras of the era) was virtually indestructible and the cameraman did not need to worry about having a set of charged batteries,

Richard - I think that three lens Leica is just a fancy lens holder since that Leica model is an LTM. It does look pretty cool for keeping extra lenses handy albeit not very clean IMO.

[rpcrowe]

^... well, times change.

Local manufacturing costs and overheads go skyward and companies adopt off shore solutions.

I have pride in my Record Vices - I have three, one woodworking, two for metalwork all are made in the UK. I think their manufacturing changed around 2000. These are only two examples of many.

Estwing Hammers are bloody good, too. They're still US made, I think.

WW

I have a wonderful U.S. Made framing hammer (I think made by Black and Decker) which I was given as a birthday present many eons ago. This hammer includes a tuning fork (inside the fiberglass handle) which absorbs much of the vibration as the nail is hit. At first, I thought it was a gimmick but realized that at the end of a day framing out a yard shed that my hand was not as sore as it might have been...

[Ken MT]

[QUOTE=xpatUSA;751261]Ah, yes, vices. I have an old US-made one which is actually forged; modern ones are cast ...

What is a US vice?, makes the mind really think. Vice or vise

[xpatUSA]

Ah, yes, vices. I have an old US-made one which is actually forged; modern ones are cast ...

What is a US vice?, makes the mind really think. Vice or vise

Ho ho ho. LOL.

[Manfred M]

Has the Mighty fallen? IOW - cheap crap made you-know-where:

And this looks nothing like the official Bell & Howell logo.




Logos do change over time, but given that Chinese companies rip off popular trademarked brands to put on their own products, I would be very surprised to think that this product has anything to do with what the USA based company does.

[Manfred M]

Time to throw in my vintage camera shot... I did this last years to demonstrate what a low key shot is. There is a large group out there that figures low key is just an underexposed image...






Of course at one time there was a Hasselblad mount and evenyone knew what that was. Now I have to remember that this camera is a "V-mount".

Come to think of it, this vintage camera maker has fallen too and is now owned by the Chinese drone maker DJI.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/05/dj...amera-company/

[rpcrowe]

One of my favorite of all time viewing systems was the 6x6 cm Hasselblad with a "chimney" magnifier. https://www.ebay.com/p/1308153683

You viewed straight down which took some getting used to but, the clarity of the viewed image was second to none.

Until... This viewfinder on a Canon 6D Mark-2 (using live view)



However while the Hasselblad with "chimney viewer" was very compact, this setup was rather cumbersome. It also was difficult to use touch focus with the setup.

[xpatUSA]

Time to throw in my vintage camera shot... I did this last years to demonstrate what a low key shot is. There is a large group out there that figures low key is just an underexposed image...

... which has lots of real black ... Just kidding, Manfred!

Here's the only vintage camera I ever owned:



Blurry image courtesy of https://www.lomography.com/magazine/...hat-goes-click

[rpcrowe]

The M-42 mount Practica lenses work great on Sony mirrorless cameras. I especially like adapting these lenses using a Kiron M-42 to e-mount focal reducer on a Sony APSC camera. This focal reducer eliminates the need to consider the crop factor of the APSC format and increases the aperture by approximately one stop.
That would result in this being an equivalent of about a 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.2... Pretty nice for portraiture...

[xpatUSA]

The M-42 mount [Praktica] lenses work great on Sony mirrorless cameras. I especially like adapting these lenses using a Kiron M-42 to e-mount focal reducer on a Sony APS-C camera. This focal reducer eliminates the need to consider the crop factor of the APS-C format and increases the aperture by approximately one stop.

I use Kipon M42 adapters and wonder if that's what was meant? A quick Google tell me Kiron is/was a lens manufacturer, so I'm not real sure ...

... what is a "focal reducer"? perhaps that's what I am missing.

[rpcrowe]

Ted: Kipon makes at least two general types of lens adapters.

The first is called a dumb adapter which simply allows the lens to mount on the Sony camera. This adapter has no glass and is simply a spacer with a female mount for the Canon lens at one end and a male Sony E-mount at the other lens.

The second adapter has glass elements and is called a focal reducer or speed booster. This can be used when adapting a full frame lens to an APSC format camera. The Kipon M-42 to NEX (e-mount) focal reducer will reduce the focal length of the lens, to the point that you effectively do not need to consider the crop factor when mounting the lens on the camera. In other words, a 135mm lens on a crop sensor adapted with a Focal Reducer/Speed Booster will give you very close to what that lens would give you on a full frame camera. Additionally, in reducing the focal length, it magnifies the amount of light passing through the lens/focal reducer combination, effectively giving you an extra f/stop. In the case of a an f/2.8 lens, the effective f/stop would be f/2.0. That is why they are also called Speed Boosters.

Here is a post I did about adapting an Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8 M-42 mount lens to my A6600 with the Kipon Focal Reducer. 135mm f/2.0 Equivalent

I have a Kiron M-42 to NEX dumb adapter which I use when adapting M-42 lenses to full frame Sony cameras. I also have the Kiron M42-NEX focal reducer and still have a Viltrox Canon EOS to e-mount focal reducer which I neglected to sell when I was liquidating my Canon gear. I am waiting until the COVID-19 cools down a bit before I list any more gear on eBay.

Here is the result of the Viltrox EOS to E-mount focal reducer used with a Canon 135mm f/2.8 SF lens (no soft focus dialed in) on a Sony A6500.



In my testing, the Viltrox did a pretty darn good job adapting Canon EOS lenses to Sony APSC cameras. It kept the auto focus functions with longer Canon lenses which was not great when I adapted the lenses using a Sigma MC-11 adapter.

[xpatUSA]

Thanks Richard. So, if I understood correctly, both Kiron and Kipon made M42 to NEX dumb adapters and focal length reducers.

[rpcrowe]

MY BAD -- I should have written KIPON, not Kiron.