Tuesday, May 26, 2015

I founds ol' camera

I finally felt nostalgic enough to re-purchase my very first serious camera, the Konica TC.
It feels delightful. It was a period of great spiritual/mental growth in my life.
It's also just a charming camera which "feels good" in the hand, like some things do.

It's shockingly simple, particularly compared to the million-feature cameras of today.
It also has a fully non-electronic shutter, it can shoot without a battery. It came in 1976 or so, just before the electronic camera revolution of the insanely successful Canon AE-1, the first camera with a chip. After that, it was a sign of professional ambitions if a camera had *any* non-electronic shutter speeds and did not become a door stop if you removed the battery.

The TC though was part of the trend towards compact cameras. It was not at all easy to do, it takes very skillful engineering. I think it took like six years before anybody (Pentax) replicated the ultimate small size of the Olympus OM-1 from the early seventies. The TC was not that small but was noticably smaller than previous generations.


(Yes, it really is me, and my Konica, not (yet) a viral Net object. I added the catz meme just to class up the joint.)

8 comments:

John D. Linn said...

The image in the mirror behind you is amusing. The cell phone as camera has replaced the film camera (for most) so as a reflection there must be some meaning.

I still have my Pentax Spotmatic (circa 1967) that works fine, but I can no longer find the mercury battery for the meter, not that I have a desire to use film... spoiled by the immediacy and ease of digital.

Russ said...

I had an auto-reflex T4. One of the main reasons for purchasing a Konica body is so that you can use those stellar Hexanon lenses!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, the Hexanon lenses had a very high reputation in certain quarters.


John, thanks for noting the camera phone. I thought it was amusing that it was in the shot.

Funny you mention Spotmatic. A reader gifted me one, and that sparked my interest in oldish cameras, see:

http://eolake.blogspot.co.uk/2006/03/new-old-camera_22.html

I think the Spotmatic is a beautiful camera. It had real design, more than the bare functionalism common in those days (and now I guess).

Raúl Hernandez said...

Your hair is now a little grayer than in your profile pic, Eo.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, quite some.

But it looks more also because it's long now, so the light is reflected in the grey hairs from the side. When it's short, the reflections are much diminished and I look much less grey.

But I've gotten used to it slowly. Imagine this: I started have stray grey hairs in my early teens! And since it's just been coming slowly and steadily. Unlike my mother's side of the family, where they got white pretty young, my uncle was white haired before 35!.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

... Of course, that profile pic is now a decade old.
I just like to use them because they were taken by my pal, pro photographer Laurie Jeffery, and they are so darn good.

Josephus Dickus said...

Well, now I guess you're a silver fox! ;-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thank thee kindly!

Well, I still have my admirers, so that's all right. :-)