Steve

Photography History – A 50+ year hobby!

I’ve been taking photographs for over 50 years, quite scary when you work it out!

I vaguely recall my first camera is one my parents gave me that they had got as a free gift or similar. It was very similar to the ‘Diana’ 120 cameras we still see today in different guises. I don’t remember using that camera a lot or what ever happened to it.

On a trip to London I was gifted a Kodak Instamatic 25 camera, this used 126 cartridge film. I remember using this camera a lot. I still have it, but sadly it isn’t easy to obtain 126 cartridge film these days.

When I was about 14 or 15 I got friendly with another pupil at school who was also keen on photography, he made me aware of a shop in Liverpool that sold second hand cameras.

With my saved up pocket money we took a trip over there and I bought a Praktica Nova 1B a single lens reflex camera. I also had to buy an exposure meter because the Nova 1B didn’t have a built in meter. I bought a bag and flash gun as well.

I used this camera for a number of years, I left school in 1975 and started work the Praktica came with me and I continued to use it.

I joined a photography group in Milton Keynes and I learnt how to develop my own black and white film, as well as printing my own photographs.

I sold the Nova 1B to a friend of mine when I was offered a Praktica LTL3 and some additional lenses. The LTL3 had a built in light meter and was a more modern design compared to the Nova1B. I used this camera a lot through the 1980’s.

In the late 1980’s now married and with a young family I decided to look for a new camera and found an Olympus OM30 for sale in the local newspaper. The OM30 had a focusing assist mode, it basically had a contrast detection system and it indicated which way to rotate the focus ring and when the lens was in focus. It worked with any brand or type of manual focus lens.

The OM30 was used throughout the 1990’s and I continued to enjoy taking photographs and exploring new places with my camera fitted with a zoom lens.

By the late 1990’s I was on the look out for a newer camera. Digital cameras had started to appear but they were still expensive and low resolution. After a lot of research and trying different cameras in a local shop I bought a Canon EOS30 SLR film camera.

A few years later I was made redundant from my job and I decided to buy a digital camera, the Canon EOS20D APS-C DSLR had then become recently announced so I bought one of those with a 17-85mm zoom lens (27-136mm 35mm equivalent. I used this extensively for the next ten years or more.

Travelling with the EOS20D and zoom lens could prove a bit of a problem on budget airlines because of the weight. For a grand seven week adventure to Canada and USA, I bought a Canon EOS100D (SL1) this was considerably smaller and lighter than the EOS20D.

The 100D has continued to be my main camera alongside using my iPhone in daily use.

In the summer of 2021 I inherited a Nikon D300, it proved to be quite a learning curve to learn a different system. But it sparked my interest in older cameras again.

I also started using again my wife’s long put aside Canon Powershot SX120is compact digital camera.

I started using this compact camera after seeing the new keen interest in older digi-cams on various You Tube channels: One Month Two CamerasOne Month Two Cameras, Lucy-Lumens Analogue Adventures, Snappiness.

I also laid claim to my son’s Canon EOS600D, this was a similar age to my own EOS100D but a better fit in the hand.

I am enjoying using these various cameras on a regular basis.

In 2024 I’m hoping to try my hand again at film photography and also do some black and white photography for the first time again in few years. Although I no longer my processing gear so I will be using a film processing company in Paris.

Backing up your computer.

Far too often, I hear about people who have ‘lost’ their computer files. Happily, there are many ways to easily avoid such a disaster these days.

Firstly, how do you organise your files? Having tens or hundreds of them on the desktop is not best practice. Try to follow a ‘clear desk policy’, only keeping files on the desktop that you are currently working on or frequently (i.e. daily) need to access. All other files should be saved and stored in appropriately named folders on your computer hard drive.

Backing up your computer is essential! Hard drives are a commonly used method, but¬ – it’s a big ‘but’– they do fail after a finite time. However, you shouldn’t need to worry about that horror if you have a proper back up strategy in place.

I’ve always followed the ‘3-2-1’ back up rule. This means I have:

Three copies of each file, including the original,
On at least Two different drives,
And One copy stored ‘off-site’.

For example, I might have a document stored on my internal computer hard drive, a copy stored on a separate external hard drive, and the third copy synced to Dropbox.

However, whenever I change the copy on my internal hard drive, the copy in Dropbox (cloud storage) will be updated, and the second copy on an external hard drive will also be updated within an hour automatically via Apple Time Machine or if you are a Windows user there is a similar application such as Backup and Restore.

Therefore, at worst case I will have potentially only lost a few minutes’ work on a document should there be a drive failure or computer failure.

Going back to external hard drives, please do not use them for storing your original files and photographs on them as they tend to fail more frequently than the internal drive on your computer. You should use them only for backing up. The place to store your original files is your computer!

One back-up solution is to use two external drives to back up, with the system alternating between the two drives automatically. The likelihood of both failing at the same time is remote.

Check your back-ups are working from time to time. Make sure that the back-up drive is fully up to date, in the same way you have made sure that your applications and operating system are up to date.

Maintaining Older Cameras.

I have a monthly routine of checking over my cameras to make sure they are all ok.

Here are some simple tips you can follow to make sure your camera is always ready to be used.

Battery and Memory Cards
Every few weeks take out the battery and memory card. The simple action of removing them and putting them back in will clean the contacts without any additional work. Contacts can become oxidised over time and the simple action of removing the battery or card will clean the two mating surfaces and remove any oxidisation.

Charging Batteries
If you have more than one set of batteries, there’s no harm in cycling those as well at the same time. Charge up your spare set before putting them in the camera. Don’t worry about charging up the set that have just come out of the camera, it is best to store batteries partially charged and then charge them to full before use.

Cleaning and Maintaining the Exterior
For the exterior surfaces, some plastics can become ‘sticky’ as they get old. I use a car product that is recommended for use for maintaining dashboards and other black plastics. I don’t spray it on to the camera direct as it might find its way inside the camera, instead I spray it on to a microfibre soft cloth and then wipe the plastics with the cloth. Only use a small amount of the spray, you can always go over the surfaces a second time if required.

To get in to the small spaces I spray some of the liquid in to an aerosol cap and use a cotton bud to get in to the nooks and crannies. It really does bring up the shine again on hand grips and feels less ‘sticky’ after treatment.

I did the same thing on the rubber focus and zoom rings on a lens too.

You only need to do this sort of renovation treatment about once a year if that.

Visual Checks
Take some time to look at all sides of your camera and check for any damage, cracks in any plastics etc. Catching these faults early can be a blessing in the long term.

Clock setting
Check the clock setting in the menu to make sure the time is correct, the built in clocks on cameras are not renowned for their accuracy! I always set mine to local time when ever I’m travelling. It will then tie in with any photos I take on my iPhone and the iPhone will also record the location so the two sets of photos are easier to synchronise when you get home.

Your camera should be ready when you need it at short notice.

Take care and keep taking photos.

What camera should I use today?

Anyone who is a fountain pen user (and I am one too) will know the issue. You have far more than you can sensibly use at once!! The only difference with cameras is that it doesn’t matter if you swap from one to another every day or week!

Except may be for film cameras, imagine having several cameras loaded up with different types of films and then trying to remember which one had what film in it. You could dedicate a Filofax to keeping track of all of your cameras!

In the last few weeks I’ve been cycling through my cameras as the mood has grabbed me.

I’ve loaded up my Canon EOS30 with a roll of HP5 black and white film, I really need to get a move on and finish off the roll, I have another unused roll in my bag to use as well. I’m a rather infrequent user of my film camera these days. The cost and the challenge I suppose.

On the digital front my EOS100D has seen quite a bit of use with the 28mm pancake lens. That with a simple wrist strap makes a great ‘guided tour camera’. We went on a local history tour last week, exploring the history of the railway in our town here in France. It was a big employer in the town once upon a time, not so much so these days sadly, although we do still have a passenger service.

Following the publication of this video about the Nikon D700, I used my Nikon D300 for a few days. Although I’m less familiar with that camera, I still do enjoy using it. It pushes the grey matter a bit to do so, but I love the results I get with the camera.

Please do watch that video even if you aren’t a Nikon shooter I’m sure you will appreciate the cameras a lot more.

I didn’t realise that Lucy and her partner were such big fans of Nikon cameras as well.

Do follow Lucy on Instagram and of course here on Substack, she is a great inspiration to me when I’m looking for new ideas of photos to take, to try and get myself away from photographing the same scenes all the time!

Then a few days ago this video was released

That made me dig out my old Canon EOS20D of similar vintage to the EOS5D. The 20D is quite a weighty beast a bit like the Nikon D300

Steven Heise did a great video review of the EOS 20D about a year ago:

His channel is excellent if you are looking at older DSLR cameras or even older mirrorless cameras.

Keep that lens cap off and keep taking photos.

Take care

Scan in those old slides

‘Slide shows’ are a little outdated in the modern era of sharing images on the internet. But in the days of analogue photography, a correctly exposed slide image is just about as good as it came.

I was recently looking for some old slides of my own taken in the 1970’s from the early days of my photography hobby. I didn’t find them. However I did discover a box of slides I had completely forgotten about from 1978 and some more from 1984/85.

I set up my flat bed scanner to be able to scan slides which it can do 4 slides at a time. After a bit of experimenting I managed to get it to do them unattended. Pop in the slides, hit scan and it would do a two pass scan and then save the individual images.

Seeing the images again for the first time in over 40 years has brought back a lot of happy memories. I’ve shared a few on line as well and been contacted by several old friends from back then as well. It has been a wonderful memory filled week.

Get out your old slides and live on the memories again.

A house I lived in Cyprus back in 1983. Some old cottages in Bebington. A new housing complex in Milton Keynes I lived in back in 1978. And me…..yes with significantly more hair than I have now, taken with my first car in about 1978.