Photoclubalpha

Hello David and all you other folk – greetings from South Africa.

You probably won’t see too many messages from me – I generally remain an observer in forums. I daily visit dpReview, DK’s Profile on dpReview, and the onlinephotographer (my current favourite). Less often I visit Luminous Landscape, Dyxum, Digital Outback Photo, PhotoclubAlpha, and many others.

Being an observer doesn’t mean that I am anti-social, and if any of you are thinking of doing photography in South Africa please feel free to contact me.

Background – born 61 years ago. My first photographs were taken with my parent’s Brownie box camera. Comments as to my photographs always looking better than anyone else’s (although I was merely doing what they’d told me – “if you cut off his feet, cut them off at his waist”) spurred on my interest. Around age 13 or 14 (~1960) my folks bought me a second-hand Halina 35X, the best birthday present ever! This was a “miniature” 35mm camera with 45 mm F/3.5 lens. More importantly it had manually adjustable object distance, aperture and shutter speed. And of course there was no such thing as a built-in light meter – you had to estimate exposure. This camera was a great teaching aid – one quickly learnt the relationships between film speed, shutter speed, aperture, and depth of field.

Of course, back then I could not afford colour film, but had to stick to B&W. This left me with the attitude that, “when I can afford colour, I will never do B&W again”. This unfortunate prejudice persists to this day.

It was 1978 before I could justify buying a SLR, mainly as a result of working (moonlighting) after hours. I bought a Petri with M42 mount. I didn’t like it much and soon replaced it with a Chinon CM3 with motor drive (also M42 mount). I joined a photography club, doing mainly slide work. However, within a few years I started to become over-critical of my work. Every time I looked through the viewfinder I saw power lines or trash. I just wasn’t enjoying photography any more. In 1985 I bought my first home computer, and programming took over as my hobby activity. I basically ceased taking photographs except for the occasional family snapshot using my wife’s point-and-shoot.

In 2000 I was seconded to India for 14 months. We decided to buy a Canon Digital Ixus so that we could email photos home to the kids. One of my spectator interests is motor rallying. Attempts to photograph rally cars with the Ixus were highly frustrating. In 2001 I bought a Sony DSC S85 compact, and the photography bug bit me again. The wife and I spent a 5-week holiday in New Zealand and Australia, resulting in some great pictures.

When the time came to buy a DSLR I did not have any particular allegiance. I was looking around and had virtually decided on the Canon 20D. However, just after Photokina 2004 I handled a pre-production KM Dynax 7D and fell in love with it. I am a “manual settings” sort of person, and the ergonomics of the KM 7D suits me. I hope that Sony’s eagerly awaited new cameras are in the same league.

That’s it then. I’m a serious amateur photographer using a KM 7D and attending a photographic club once again.

Cheers – Peter Dewar

Welcome! Mr Haking's Halina company is owed much by photographers of your generation and mine, anyone who needed a usable camera in the 1960s. I believe his Paulette camera, which did incorporate a selenium meter and extended the shutter speed range to 1/250th, the lens to f2.8, was named after his wife. I always thought the 35X looked more professional and traditional. When I needed one of these, I could not afford one, and had to learn using my father's 1930s Zeiss Kolibri. I made a kind of enlarger for the 16 on 127 format, using the camera's lens which I removed each time to make prints. Then my uncle found his old Leitz Valoy enlarger in his attic, and gave it to me, so I had to have 35mm. The best I could afford was a secondhand Olympus Pen D, with an f1.9 lens, built in meter, and of course half-frame. It was a very bad decision (half-frame does not get you very far) but the small format taught me how to process with great care and make good enlargements.

I wonder - if I had managed to afford a Halina from the start, would I have learned as much about darkroom technique?

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:I believe his Paulette camera, which did incorporate a selenium meter and extended the shutter speed range to 1/250th, the lens to f2.8, was named after his wife.

That was my first 35mm camera and fortunately the light meter failed after about 6 months but then it did require care in use. Rather than get it fixed I bought a Weston Master V, which I still have, which came in handy later for situations where the SRT101s CLC was thrown. I drove the Paulette until the shutter died, had it repaired and passed it onto my dad who was still trying use his old 120 folding camera (I now have that around here) and it carried on for a few more years albeit at a slower pace.

I was never in a position to do much in the way of D&P, I had a go at B&W negative processing but there was no way of making a temporary dark room with my itinerant life style. In those days I did not drive and often had much other kit to carry around. I did do a small amount of D&P whilst at uni' doing my degree, taking the opportunity of using college facilities.

I'm the same age as DK and I had a Halina Paulette 35mm (the non "electric" version without built-in exposure meter). I used my Dad's old Weston Master Cine exposure meter. It was my first 35mm camera.

Prior to that I had used 120 folding Voigtlander Bessa (1930's) which had belonged to my grandad and I did my own processing with Paterson's kit and a plastic enlarger with opal glass instead of a condenser.

I did have a plastic Kodak Brownie 127 which I bought with pocket money on a holiday to Southampton and prior to that my very first camera at about age 9 was a tiny plastic camera that took even smaller film can't recall the format now - 625?. I think it was possibly called a 'snappy camera' and featured a metal shutter lever that you moved down for the first frame and up for the second and so on, remembering to wind on of course. Somewhere in my desk I still have the first photo's I took with the camera, which were of my Mum & Dad standing at the front door, and also another one of a girl school friend.