More, Old Meets New...

I get a feeling of nostalgia from these shots. It's fun playing with new toys, even if they are 50 years old..somethings just never die :)










Have fun and let me know if you give this a try yourself!

-Mark

Old Meets New

I was recently drooling over the new Nikon D300 camera reviews. This thing rocks, it seems to have it all -- to include a fat price tag! An unfortunate loss of an alternator on my car set my credit card back a solid $1300! Ouch! No D300 for Christmas for me!

I haven't picked up the camera lately as I've been super busy with other projects... yes a shame...Also in there somewhere was a tiny bit of creative burnout. :(

So yesterday I'm digging through my work's newsletter full of ads for old junk no one wants and lo and behold I see someone selling something intriguing. An Argus 75 medium format camera, made in the 1940's and 50's. Hmmm, that's interesting. I've always had some sort of fascination with antique gear. So with a quick call I arrange to check out this little contraption this morning.

I'm meet the seller in one of our break rooms and he's carrying the Argus 75 in a stylish white plastic Michaels craft store bag - of which he states goes with the camera :)

I reach in the bag and wow, practically mint condition! Still with the flash attachment. So cool! This little guy, is basically a box, with two lenses, one for the film and one for composition. Via a mirror, the image is displayed at a 90 degree, backwards on TOP of the camera. You basically look down at the camera as it shoots forward. I had to chuckle, with a $2 lens and mirror 50 years ago they achieved a real time 2 inch(high resolution) camera display we all crave for on our digitals :)

We chatted for a bit, gave him $20, told him my plans with it, and he wanted to buy it back!

So what are my plans? Why bring it to the digital age of course! With a nice sharp razor blade, I hack up a long rectangular "tube" perfectly fitted to the camera. On top, it's cut so that my D200 fits in with a 50mm f1.4 + a 12mm macro extension tube.

My poor dog, ever the subject of 2000Watt strobes and forced to sit in front of my camera for probably seems like hours in dog time -- he once again became my first subject with my dual camera contraption. Below are the first two shots! The square format through the viewfinder is a nice break from the 4:3 we typically shoot at.




So what's so interesting about this anyway? Vintage photography, through vintage glass, complete with 50 years of dirt, grit and bits still coating the lens. I'll never clean the lens on this thing as I believe it adds a huge amount of interest and texture. How unique! Especially, in our day and age of digital perfection, a bit of grime and vintage imperfection is rather interesting. I'm going to have fun with this one for a while :)

ok off to play!
-Mark