RECEIVED: 35mm SLR MANUAL camera for college kid

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
I was recently chatting with some you you wonderful NCWW people on a Sunday morning telling you about my daughter that's learning dark room techniques at college. Well, she bought what she thought was a manual camera and turns out it's just manual focus. So, anyone got a spare fully manual 35mm SLR sitting around they'd like to part with? I'll gladly pay you for it. She's in need of it asap! Let me know please! She's in Greensboro at UNCG so it would be great if it were somewhere between Chapel Hill and UNCG or at least near there. Thanks so much!
 

Bryan S

Bryan
Corporate Member
Will one of these do? Canon AE1 Program and an AE1

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The AE1program I got when I was in the NAVY and can be operated in full manual mode. I want to think I got it in Singapore, but may have been the Philippines. The AE1 was moms and she gave it to me many moons ago. They have both been gathering dust in the closet and have thought about trying to sell, but just have not done anything with them. Both cameras do work, there was one good battery between them. They use a small 6 volt Lithium battery and I would get a new one

As far as I remember had trouble getting the program one to recognize a flash. The Vivitar flash had corroded batteries in it and the Canon Speedlite had them removed when stored, but I could not get either flash to power up. They both used to.

You are welcome to try one out first and see if it is what she needs. The misses is a Sparton and I doubt she mind and if it helps out a young college student Great.
 
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Dee2

Board of Directors, Vice President
Gene
Staff member
Corporate Member
I've got a Minolta XD-11 and some lenses (Sigma and Minolta) that will operate in full manual.
 

Chris C

Chris
Senior User
Will one of these do? Canon AE1 Program and an AE1

View attachment 191675

The AE1program I got when I was in the NAVY and can be operated in full manual mode. I want to think I got it in Singapore, but may have been the Philippines. The AE1 was moms and she gave it to me many moons ago. They have both been gathering dust in the closet and have thought about trying to sell, but just have not done anything with them. Both cameras do work, there was one good battery between them. They use a small 6 volt Lithium battery and I would get a new one

As far as I remember had trouble getting the program one to recognize a flash. The Vivitar flash had corroded batteries in it and the Canon Speedlite had them removed when stored, but I could not get either flash to power up. They both used to.

You are welcome to try one out first and see if it is what she needs. The misses is a Sparton and I doubt she mind and if it helps out a young college student Great.

I have an AE1 that I used when on the high school yearbook staff many years ago. The battery may be a little hard to find.... I found one at Batteries+
 

Ed Fasano

Ed
Senior User
BTW, the Canon AE1s and the Minolta XD11 are cameras with automated exposure modes. The automated modes can, however, be overridden, allowing them to be operated in a manual exposure mode. Even so, some photography education programs disallow such cameras. They don't want the automated crutch present. This limits things to cameras such as the Pentax K1000, Nikon FM, FM2, FM3 and FM10 and a host of much older SLR cameras.
Glad she's got a suitable cmaera for her program.
Carry on.
 

Roy G

Roy
Senior User
Michael, don't have a camera but I wondered if your daughter or the school would like a Gossen Lunasix 3 light meter? This is definitely old school, even says it was made in West Germany.

Roy G
 

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
BTW, the Canon AE1s and the Minolta XD11 are cameras with automated exposure modes. The automated modes can, however, be overridden, allowing them to be operated in a manual exposure mode. Even so, some photography education programs disallow such cameras. They don't want the automated crutch present. This limits things to cameras such as the Pentax K1000, Nikon FM, FM2, FM3 and FM10 and a host of much older SLR cameras.
Glad she's got a suitable cmaera for her program.
Carry on.
Thanks for the info Ed! She didn't give me any specs, she just said that it has to have a manual mode.
 

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
Michael, don't have a camera but I wondered if your daughter or the school would like a Gossen Lunasix 3 light meter? This is definitely old school, even says it was made in West Germany.

Roy G
Thanks Roy, I'll check with her and let you know.
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
I'm a bit curious as to why they are still teaching a completely obsolete process, and why she even needs to learn it. Even our X Ray machines have gone digital today, and Kodak, the once undisputed leader in film technology, is all but out of business, because of the sudden loss of demand for film technology. Even Fuji Film is now discontinuing many of their film products and will likely close their film business within a few years.

The school should be teaching digital photography now, because it's the present, and the future of imaging. Manual mode in a modern digital camera of today works exactly the same as the manual adjustments of old film cameras, but the low light capabilities and dynamic range of the new digital cameras far exceed that of the best old film cameras and film technology. I work in "Manual Mode" almost all the time. Another benefit with digital is that you can see the image that was just taken "instantly", so if it isn't right you can do it again. My present camera sends each image to my computers via WIFI, so it's there seconds after I take it. My photo lights are radio triggered from a transmitter on the hot shoe of my camera, and I can make adjustments to each light separately through it's radio receiver, all from the transmitter on the camera. There are no signal wires running around on the floor of my studio to trip over.

My "dark room" is completely within my computers, and has been for over 20 years now. I still develop, edit, and print all of my own photos, and the actual process of creating and printing images is the same, but I do it with my computers and wide format photo printers now. I'm on my fourth generation digital camera, since switching fully to the digital side of camera technology back in 1998, and my old "dark room" has become a storage room for additional studio equipment.

Charley
 

smallboat

smallboat
Corporate Member
I'm not going to get involved in a digital vs analog, future vs past debate - but I will point out that from an educational point of view there's a great deal of value in getting students to slow down and understand what they are doing rather than a full auto spray and pray mode of operation. You can take lousy, pointless photos either way and you can take great ones either way. My guess is these programs are trying to get the students to experience a workflow where they are forced to make conscious decisions that get them to an intentional result. It's a mindset not a tool set thing. And yes- you could create a program that follows that path with digital technology, but film forces everyone out of their day to day digital comfort zone and makes them think. It is a school after all.
 

nn4jw

New User
Jim
What Charley said with an addition.

Like Charlie I used to do "real" darkroom work and switched completely over to digital in the 90's.

A couple of years ago I was feeling nostalgic and managed to build a collection of old film cameras that mostly matched all the film cameras I used to own over my life as well as a few I always wanted. Then I attempted to revisit black and white picture taking on film. I never really did color in the day because of the chemicals required and having kids in the house. Not to mention the expense and time just to produce a single print. Anyway, today it is extremely difficult to even buy the film, as Charlie points out, and darkroom chemicals and paper are even more difficult to come buy. The few camera stores that even exist in my area don't carry fresh product and I only saw outdated film and chemicals and darn little of that. I tried to order some online and received outdated stuff.

On top of that I don't own an enlarger any longer and thankfully I didn't buy one before figuring out the futility of trying to shoot film today. The plan was to scan the negatives and do prints digitally first.

Bottom line is I gave up on the idea and all my film cameras are just shelf queens. I too cannot imaging why a college is still teaching film and darkroom techniques.
 
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nn4jw

New User
Jim
I'm not going to get involved in a digital vs analog, future vs past debate - but I will point out that from an educational point of view there's a great deal of value in getting students to slow down and understand what they are doing rather than a full auto spray and pray mode of operation. You can take lousy, pointless photos either way and you can take great ones either way. My guess is these programs are trying to get the students to experience a workflow where they are forced to make conscious decisions that get them to an intentional result. It's a mindset not a tool set thing. And yes- you could create a program that follows that path with digital technology, but film forces everyone out of their day to day digital comfort zone and makes them think. It is a school after all.

I understand your point. That said, I believe that the long history of photography has always been divided between professional photographers, advanced amateur hobbiests, and the vast majority of snaphot takers. (Sort of like woodworking, isn't it?)

The third category, snaphot takers, were always the majority and that's who all the point and shoot cameras, from Kodak Brownies and Instamatics to the cameras on cell phones have always been aimed at. So who is that college course really intended for?

Today's snaphot takers don't use fancy cameras. They use their cell phones and don't even own, or want to own dedicated cameras. Professionals have been using primarily digital high end cameras for many years now and do nearly all their work in the digital domain. Serious hobby photographers are mostly self taught (I'm guessing) and may be using old techniques or cutting edge digital. And that still sounds like today's woodworkers doesn't it?

Unless that college course is part of a curriculm in photography that spans what we know about it from this thread and continues through serious composition and modern digital techniques it seems strangely useless to me. Very academic and not particularly practical at all for a casual snapshot taker with a cell phone.
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
This is my studio and digital darkroom. I'll be adding 3 more backdrop rollers soon. I do both photo and video work from this studio. It's in an 18 X 26 room on the 2nd floor of my home. The hair/makeup area is adjacent to the studio.

I'm an hour away from Greensboro, but if she would like a tour and demonstration, I am willing. Just let me know when.

Charley



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TBoomz

New User
Ron
Hey all...can anyone recommend a NC store that carries a well stocked variety of fresh B/W 120 roll film and/or 4x5 sheet film - at reasonable prices.
Partial to ASA 100 - 160.
Would also consider any, out of state, store that isn't more than a 2 hr drive from greensboro. NOT interested in chromogenic film. Am leery of ordering online and getting outdated or poorly stored stuff.
 

nn4jw

New User
Jim
Hey all...can anyone recommend a NC store that carries a well stocked variety of fresh B/W 120 roll film and/or 4x5 sheet film - at reasonable prices.
Partial to ASA 100 - 160.
Would also consider any, out of state, store that isn't more than a 2 hr drive from greensboro. NOT interested in chromogenic film. Am leery of ordering online and getting outdated or poorly stored stuff.

I truly do wish you luck in your search. When I looked about 2 years ago EVERY store in the Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill area, and I looked in all of them, only had outdated stock they were hoping to sell off. Not one of them was willing to order fresh film, paper or chemicals for me at any price.

Maybe somewhere else in the state has good stuff, but.....
 

Ed Fasano

Ed
Senior User
Hey all...can anyone recommend a NC store that carries a well stocked variety of fresh B/W 120 roll film and/or 4x5 sheet film - at reasonable prices.
Partial to ASA 100 - 160.
Would also consider any, out of state, store that isn't more than a 2 hr drive from greensboro. NOT interested in chromogenic film. Am leery of ordering online and getting outdated or poorly stored stuff.

Speaking form experience in the industry, it's sad that there are only 50 or so true photo specialty stores left in the US. When there were close to 6,000 photo specialty stores, they relied greatly on the profits derived from photo processing, which died with the emergence of digital imaging and people abandoning prints. We can also blame the internet, but it was largely customers (us) who opted (and still opt) to shop for a better deal that made it more than a challenge for camera store to make ends meet. Survey after survey indicated that customers prized good customer service. However, reality proved that customers steadfastly refused to pay for it. On that note... We in several parts of NC are fortunate to still have woodworking specialty stores on which to rely. We will have them as long as we choose to support them.

Getting back to the question... You can rely on B&H and/or Adorama in NY or Service Photo in Baltimore to supply fresh film. They turn their stock of sensitized goods fairly regularly. Moreover, they will not jeopardize their reputations by shipping short-dated product unless is it discounted accordingly.
 

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