Big Cameras

As a kid, I was fascinated by the technology of television production. Back in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up, you rarely got a glimpse of television cameras or other production equipment. Occasionally, directors would “break the fourth wall” allowing those of us at home a glimpse behind-the-scenes. Here’s Gene Rayburn getting testy with a cue card person on a Match Game program from 1976:

Match Game was produced at CBS Television City in Hollywood. The cameras you see in this clip were Norelco PC-70s. These cameras were manufactured by the Philips Company in Holland. When Philips wanted to sell their television cameras in the US, they were blocked from using the Philips name because its name was too similar to Philco, a US manufacturer of electronics. So, Philips used their Norelco brand (yes, same as the electric shavers) on cameras exported to the US. Ironically, some years later, Philips bought Philco. I was a pretty decent artist as a kid and remember spending hours with pad and pencil drawing television cameras from this era. These Norelcos were some of the first cameras I drew. I wish I had kept some of those drawings.

CBS used Norelco cameras in the 1960s and 70s because the other big television equipment manufacturer at the time was RCA. RCA owned rival NBC and there was no way CBS was going to put money into RCA’s coffers, so CBS bought a lot of Norelco cameras.

Over at NBC, you would occasionally get a glimpse of the cameras used by that network around the same time; the RCA TK-44. Here’s a shot of a TK-44 on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from the early 1980s:

My childhood fascination with television and radio broadcast production eventually led to jobs as a TV production assistant, TV cameraman, commercial producer and radio disc jockey. The first TV camera I ever used professionally was a TK-44.

Over the years, TV cameras got smaller and lighter. Today’s iPhone camera makes a much better picture than any of these early tube cameras, but I never lost my fasciation with them. So much so that around 2005, I got the crazy notion in my head of trying to see if I could find one of these old cameras to display in my office in my home in Arizona. I wondered, after all of these years, did any still exist?

After months of online archeology, I unearthed some old RCA TK-44 studio cameras that had been put away in storage and I negotiated to buy one. The shipping cost more than the camera. The one I bought came to me pretty beat up so I asked my Dad, who was retired and into restoring vintage cars as a hobby, if he would have a go at a cosmetic restoration of my TK-44. He agreed and did a fine job.

Restored RCA TK-44 studio camera in my home office

While doing all of the old TV camera archeology, as sometimes happens, one thing led to another. I ended up hearing about some more old TV cameras that were sitting in storage in Burbank, California. These cameras had seen duty at CBS and NBC and were close to being sent to the dump. The price was cheap enough, but these cameras and related equipment were far too heavy to ship. If I wanted them, I would need to move them myself.

The crazy continues as I find myself on a plane to Burbank, a cab ride to the Penske truck rental place and then to a storage unit near the Burbank airport. I ended up leaving that day with a Norelco PC-70, a RCA TK-47, two pneumatic pedestals, Vinten tri-pod heads, cables and some other odds and ends. As I drove all of this stuff across the desert in a rental truck to Phoenix, I thought…”what AM I doing?”

Norelco PC-70 from CBS (background) and RCA TK-47 from NBC (foreground)

Back home, I mounted the camera on their pedestals. The RCA TK-47 you see in this photograph was the successor to the TK-44 and was RCA’s last studio camera. These cameras are very heavy. It takes two people to lift them onto these pedestals. The camera bodies snap into heads that allow the camera operator to pan and tilt. Proper adjustment of the head makes the camera perfectly balanced so it can be panned and tilted with little effort. The camera body and pan and tilt heads sit on TVP P-50 pneumatic pedestal. With their tanks filled with air, the pedestals allow the camera to easily move up and down vertically. When everything is stet up right, operating one of these cameras is really quite fun.

For years I had these two cameras in the extra stall in my garage. My neighbors thought I was nuts. In retrospect, they were right, but it was fun. When I moved to California in 2010, my vintage cameras went to a broadcast museum.

The Nikon FM and The Joys of a CLA

For some time now, I have been on the hunt for a very nice, chrome, early edition Nikon FM 35mm SLR. There are lots of FMs for sale on eBay, but I wanted a copy with a serial number that started with a 2 and was a three-knurled-knob version. Why? Honestly, is there really any rational reason for those of us who enjoy analog photography and making pictures with cameras that are more than 40 years old other than…I just wanted one?

  • During the production run of the FM from 1977 to 1982, Nikon released three versions:

  • The three-knurled-knob version which has knurling around the collar of the shutter release button, the ASA/shutter speed dial and the rewind crank.

  • The two-knurled-knob version, which has knurling around the collar of the shutter release and the ASA/shutter speed dial.

  • And the single-knurled-knob button, which has knurling only around the ASA/shutter speed dial.

The knurling on the shutter release collar, ASA dial and rewind crank knob make it easier to turn these knobs and…well, I just think it looks cool. There were some other refinements to the FM over the production run, but in this hunt, I was simply pursuing the cool factor.

Knurling around the shutter release collar and ASA/shutter speed dial

Knurling around the film rewind crank

The Nikon FM is a fully mechanical camera. It replaced the Nikkormat FT3 and was designed as a smaller more affordable option to Nikon’s professional F-series cameras which at that time was the F2. The FM has a built-in TTL light meter which is represented in the viewfinder as a series of three LEDs, one for overexposure, one that indicates proper exposure and one that indicates under exposure. It’s Nikon’s classic 60/40 center-weighted metering. It’s nearly foolproof. Just center the LEDs and you’re all set. Two 1.5 volt SR44 or LR44 batteries power the meter. The camera operates just fine at shutter speeds up to 1/1000th of a second without batteries.

I searched eBay for a while trying to find the version of this camera I wanted and a copy that looked well-cared for. I’ve bought enough cameras online that I can get a feel from the buyers description, photos and feedback as to whether or not I should bid or buy it now. None of the cameras I saw resonated with me. One day, one of the friends of this blog wrote me and said he was selling a few cameras, including an FM. I asked for pictures and there it was…a nice chrome three-knurled-knobbed FM!

When the camera arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was in cosmetically very good shape. The shutter speeds all sounded good and the meter responded to light and seemed fairly accurate when I compared it to one of my hand-held light meters. This was however a 46-year old mechanical device and since I intended to keep and use the FM, off it went to Jim Holman at International Camera Technicians for a complete service.

I have used quite a few different camera repair techs over the years and in all that time, two stand out as simply superb; Sover Wong, the master of Nikon F2 repairs and Jim Holman. Both Sover and Jim do more than repair cameras, they completely refurbish them and bring them back to factory specifications. And both of these gentleman take detailed photos of the work they are doing on your camera.

Sover only works on the Nikon F2. Jim has repaired several Nikons for me as well as a Canon A-1. He services many other brands of cameras as well as lenses. I have a Pentax K2 that’s next in line to go to Jim.

I really thought my FM was pretty clean. It is amazing how much gunk collects inside after four decades. Here are some shots taken once Jim opened up my FM.

And of course, in any camera of this vintage, light seals and foams have mostly disintegrated. A lot of this stuff is the debris you see when you look through the viewfinder of an old camera.

As you can see, the camera got a complete tear down. As part of the process, my FM got new front leatherette panels installed.

As Jim was working on my camera, he gave me a call to tell me that mechanically, my FM was in really great shape. He said the shutter was very strong, the meter was pretty accurate and after a thorough clean, lube and adjust, this camera would last me for many years. Jim knows how much I love minty cameras and he tossed out an option that was hard to resist. He said if I wanted an absolute mint ++ FM inside and out, he would replace the top and bottom covers with new old stock, essentially giving me back as next to brand new as a 46-year old Nikon can get! I bit.

My FM arrived the following week, securely wrapped, looking and even smelling like a brand new camera. Here she is.

Nikon FM with 50mm f/1.8 AI-s Pancake lens and a 1901 Eggleston leather strap

Top view of the FM. I added a Nikon soft release and Nikon BS-1 hot shot cover to trick it out

Shooting an old mechanical camera is such a joy. Shooting one that has been refurbished and brought back to factory specifications takes things to entirely different level. The shutter speed dial on my FM now moves smoothly with nice, reassuring clicks. The film advance feels sublime. The shutter sounds so good. The viewfinder is crystal clear without any dust or debris. And yeah, I know the new smell is caused somewhat by the Pliobond adhesive that is used on the light seals, but I find it pleasurable.

The Nikon FM is a minimalist, easy to use, easy to love film SLR. The FM often gets overlooked in favor of the FM2 which offers higher maximum shutter speeds and a higher price tag or the FE or FE2 which offer aperture-priority auto exposure.

I have some Kodak T-Max 400 loaded in the FM right now and I’ve been shooting with both the 50/1.8 pancake lens and my 55m f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. I just adore this camera!

Making pictures with a CLA’d film camera is pure joy! Photos coming soon.

The Nikon FE

I have a soft spot in my heart for cameras from the mid to late 1970s. It was then, during my junior high and high school years, when the seeds of my lifelong passion for photography were planted. These were the days when schools had camera clubs and we had a lively group of kids mostly shooting borrowed cameras from their parents or loaner cameras from the schools. I used my father’s Kodak Retina IIc rangefinder, but I lusted after Nikons.

Many people consider the 70s the glory years for Nikon. Their legendary Nikon F and the brand new F2 were the cameras of choice for legions of professional photographers. And in 1977, they introduced the FM, the first of the compact-F series designed to compete with the Olympus OM-1 and OM-2 which were romancing photographers with their compact size. In addition to wanting smaller, lighter camera bodies, the market also was moving towards exposure automation, so in 1978, Nikon introduced the FE.

The Nikon FE with 50mm f/1.8 AI-s pancake lens

The Nikon FE was essentially an FM with aperture-priority auto exposure. It’s a simple, durable, dependable camera with a top shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second. A camera made mostly of metal, available in chrome or all black, the FE was manufactured from 1978 to 1983 when the FE2 replaced it. The FE2 offered shutter speeds up to 1/4000th of a second.

I usually start my quest for a new camera on eBay, but on a hunch, I reached out to my friend Jim Holman at International Camera Technicians to ask if he had an FE for sale. Jim knows I am picky about the condition of the used cameras I buy and said he did not have a minty one in stock. He did however have a user condition body in the shop and would be willing to give it a complete overhaul and then replace top and bottom covers and other parts to essentially create a mint FE. That sounded sweet so I gave Jim the ok. The camera arrived a few weeks later, looking, smelling and operating just like it was brand new.

The FE and FE2 Nikons have my all time favorite viewfinder displays, just a simple analog needle readout that shows the shutter speed the camera has decided on for the aperture the photographer has selected. In manual mode, it’s a simple match-needle affair. Top of the viewfinder offers an ADR—Aperture Direct Readout, which is basically a little window that show the aperture selected on the lens barrel. Honestly, I think that the Nikon F3 would have been the world’s most perfect camera if it had the display used in the FE/FE2 and later FM3a.

The FE is pure simple analog joy to shoot. There’s a quality feel to all of the controls. The viewfinder is big and bright and easy to focus. The shutter sounds sublime. And it’s honestly hard to mess up a shot with Nikon’s classic center-weighted metering.

Cockpit of the FE: Everything you need and nothing you don’t

To round out my FE kit, I went looking for what has been called one of Nikon’s sharpest manual focus lenses; the 50mm f/1.8 AI-s Pancake. There are various version of this lens, but all of my research led to selecting the version sold originally only in Japan. These lenses have serial numbers starting with a 2. The USA version from the 1980s has more plastic, serial numbers starting with a 4 and only focuses to 2’ compared to the earlier version’s 1.5’. There was a also a much cheaper Series E version of this lens. All of the Nikon 50s are amazing lenses, but this one kept coming up as the sharpest of all. I bought mine from a trusted seller in Japan. I do love how compact this lens is…makes for a nice, lightweight kit. And it is really hard to beat the quality of Nikon’s manual focus AI-s lenses.

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AI-s Pancake Lens

I shot some Kodak T-Max 100 as my first roll in the FE.

I really enjoyed shooting the FE and with the little 50/1.8 Nikkor out front, it feels like a camera I could carry more often and make more pictures. That would be a good thing. My goal is to make more pictures this year.

As a footnote, prices for film cameras have skyrocketed over the past 18 months. It makes me wish I had invested some money and bought more cameras ten years ago when they were almost free so I could sell them today, get rich and retire. Oh well. That being said, the Nikon FE, as of this writing, is still a bargain with prices hovering around $100. Find a decent one and then invest in a CLA and this is a camera you could happily shoot forever.

Expired Kodak TMAX 400 In The Nikon F4

I am obviously not taking enough pictures these days because I found a few rolls of Kodak TMAX 400 film hiding in the back of my refrigerator with an expiration date of last November. Finding the film was a good enough reason to get the Nikon F4 out and give it some exercise.

Even with its 1980s technology, the F4 is always a joy to shoot. Easy to hold, easy to shoot, easy to love. I have always admired the way Nikon did such a wonderful job of combining that latest tech of the time with knobs and levers to create a camera body that would gently ease photographers out of the mechanical camera era into what SLRs and later DSLRs would evolve into. I love my F4.

I used my AF-D Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens with the F4 set on program mode.

An 18-week old Golden Retriever puppy makes a great subject…

My desk…

Me…

Film Rewind

Working on my photo book and looking back through lots of images. This one is from September, nine years ago. I was using my Nikon F2AS, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor on Kodak Tri-X. I was in Alamo Square Park in San Francisco, looking for a good vantage point to get a shot of the famed “Painted Ladies.” I lucked out that this couple was kind enough to provide some foreground interest.

I miss using the Nikon F2. For some reason, as my eyes have aged, I have been unable to find a suitable screw-in diopter for any of the F2 finders that give me clear enough vision to focus. It is the only camera that I have this trouble with. I am told that I could have an eyeglass shop make me a custom lens that I could fit into the Nikon diopter mount, but that seems like a lot of work. Oddly enough, my new-to-me Nikon F with a Photomic FTn finder with no diopter at all does not give me the same trouble.

Adventures with Eastman 5222 Double-X

I’ve had a few rolls of Kodak’s 5222 Double-X screaming at me from the refrigerator for a while now. Every time I go grab a roll of black and white film, I skip over the Double-X and go for Tri-X or HP4. I’m not sure why because every time I shoot this fine film, I love the results I get.

If you’re not familiar with Double-X, it was introduced by Kodak in 1959 as a motion picture film. It’s a 250 ISO film with reasonably fine grain that delivers what I consider a vintage black and white look. Over the years, it’s been used on some great films like Schindler’s List, Raging Bull, Casino Royale and Psycho. 250 ISO makes Double-X a pretty capable general purpose black and white film but there’s one caveat; Double-X does not have the same exposure latitude of other black and white films…maybe a stop over or under and that’s about it. Nail your exposure though and this film delivers.

I loaded up my Pentax K2 with some Double-X on a sunny Sunday late afternoon. My lens was the SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/1.7. I was grilling some chicken and playing with the dogs.

It’s alway nice to sip a nice glass of Cab while grilling.

I really like the tonal range of this film with nice inky blacks and bright whites. All of the in-betweens look very pleasing as well. It’s easy to blow out the whites if you’re not careful. The grain is definitely there, but it does have a cinematic look to it.

I had also forgotten how much I enjoy taking pictures with my Pentax K2. I need to use it more often and also need to stop reaching over the Double-X in favor of other films. There’s a reason Hollywood has been using this film for over 60 years.

Photographica

I became interested in photography in the early 1970s, shooting pictures with my Dad’s Kodak Retina IIc and dropping the film off at the corner drugstore for developing. Home darkrooms were a popular hobby among kids in those days and a few of my friends were developing and printing their own black and white film at home in makeshift darkrooms, so I set one up in my parent’s basement laundry room. All of the paraphernalia and chemicals bothered my mother to no end.

I put photography aside for many years to raise a family, getting bit by the bug again in the mid 1990s. I bought a Nikon N90s and built my dream darkroom in an extra stall in my garage. A divorce forced photography to the back burner again around 2000.

I moved to California in late 2010 and one night, while browsing eBay, just for fun, I started looking at old film cameras. I could not believe how inexpensive they had become. Just for kicks, I bought a Nikon FE2 for I think $60. That FE2 got me back into film photography. Over the past 12 years, I’ve been fortunate to have been able to afford, acquire, use and mostly sell for a profit, lots of legendary film cameras. These were the cameras I drooled over as a kid, while flipping through the pages of Modern Photography magazine. I never could have imagined that someday I would own the cameras I lusted after then.

Over the years, I have photographed many of the cameras and other photo gear I have owned. I’ve used the photos on this blog, on social media or some I’ve just shot for fun. A few are hanging in my den at home. Some of these I shot with whatever iPhone I had at the time. The others were taken with either the Nikon F2 or FM2n and the fabulous 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor on Kodak T-Max 400 or the original Fuji Acros. These are some of my favorites.

The FE2 that started it all

A walk in my garden

I had some Kodak Ektar 100 in the refrigerator that was nearing expiration. To put it to good use, I took a walk in my garden with my Nikon FE and 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens. I suppose if I really had to sell all of my Nikon lenses and hold on to just one, this 55 would be that lens. Its macro-photography capabilities are amazing and it’s also a great, fast walk around normal lens.

Kimmie, our Golden Retriever, hung out with me and mostly napped while I shot these. She woke up momentarily to let me snap this photo. I imagine it must have felt good to snooze in the cool grass on a warm, late spring day.

I always finish my rolls with a mirror selfie. Helps me remember which camera and lens I used to shoot a roll.

I love Ektar 100 and would shoot it more often if it wasn’t so crazy expensive.

Point Arena, the Nikon FM2n and Kodak Tri-X

I have decided to make Kodak Tri-X my primary black and white film stock this year. I haven’t shot Tri-X consistently enough to really get to know it well, so this is a good exercise for me.

A few weeks back, I took a road trip up the coast to the little town of Point Arena, California and brought along my Nikon FM2n, 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor AI-s lens and a few 24 exposure rolls of Tri-X. Here are some of the shots that pleased me the most.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy taking pictures with my FM2n. It’s a manual everything minimalist SLR that really gets out of your way. I almost sold it late last year because prices for these bodies have really gone up. I’m glad I didn’t.

Boomerang Cameras: The Canon A-1

I have bought and sold a lot of film cameras over the past 12 years and as I wrote a few blog posts ago, there are a few I have regretted selling. One is the Canon A-1. I bought my first A-1 from a photographer friend in Alameda. He was dumping his 35mm gear and taking a giant leap into large format 4x5 photography. I shot a few rolls in the A-1 and, deep into GAS, put it away and moved on to other cameras.

When I finally decided I had way too many film cameras and wanted to reduce my collection to just a few that I loved and shot regularly, the Canon A-1 didn’t make the keeper list. Thinking back, I am not sure why I decided to sell my A-1. It was a pleasing camera to use; small, lightweight and capable. And I got very good results from the camera and the FD lenses.

A few months ago while browsing eBay, a nice Canon A-1 popped up in my feed. I dove into the listing and saw a nice camera from a seller with good feedback. Prices on A-1s, on many film cameras for that matter, have jumped up considerably the last few years. This one was a bit more money than I wanted to spend, but it looked well cared for and the seller seemed honorable. So I bit.

Of course, having sold off all of my Canon FD gear, I needed a lens. While I waited for my camera to arrive, I went shopping for a 50mm f/1.4 Canon FD lens and found a nice late version for a decent price. The camera and lens arrived within a few days of each other.

I popped a battery into the Canon, fitted the lens and put the camera through its paces. Everything seemed to work just fine, but the camera had the Canon squeal, an annoying sound that A-1s,AE-1s and similar models make. Doesn’t seem to affect operation, but the wheezing of the shutter drives me crazy. So I packed up the camera and lens and sent both off to Jim Holman at ICT for a CLA.

My camera was back in a flash from Jim, relieved of its cough and fully serviced. I loaded up a roll of Kodak Color Plus and took the Canon for a test drive.

A Weekend With The A-1

While the A-1 has several shooting modes; shutter priority, aperture priority, manual and program, I love just setting this camera into the full program mode and using it like a point and shoot. On Saturday, I took the camera on a hike at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, CA. The 1400 acre park, on the slope of Sonoma Mountain, features some wonderful trails, historic structures and the ruins of Wolf House, a 15,000 square feet home Jack was building for his beloved wife Charmian that burned just before they were set to move in. It was a delightful day with warm sun and a cool breeze.

The park has a variety of trails, from open meadows near vineyards to shaded strolls along stands of California Redwood.

I learned a lot about Jack London that day. He was an interesting man…a novelist, journalist, photographer, explorer, farmer…and he deeply loved his wife Charmian. In Charmian, he found his true love. His soulmate.

The next day, we packed up some snacks and loaded our dog up for some fun on the beach. Kimmie loves a good game of fetch.

There were gale force winds that day on the Sonoma Coast. Kimmie demonstrates.

I enjoyed my reunion with the Canon A-1. While I am more of a Nikon man, I really do like the Canon FD lenses and I think the A-1 is the best FD platform for me. You never want to say never, but I am pretty certain I won’t be selling this camera anytime soon. I like it and it’s nice to use a copy that is functioning as- new.

Some other observations from this weekend of photography:

  • I enjoy shooting the dogs at play, but I think I need a telephoto lens. I am considering the Nikkor 80-200mm AF-D or AF-S zoom (not the latest versions for sure, but best for my budget) to use on my F4 and F100. It’s a big lens, but manageable. It has a built in tripod collar and has good reviews. I want an auto-focus lens to properly capture the pups at play. Let me know if you have any input for me.

  • I’ve been ordering film from Amazon. They seem to have my favorite film stocks, especially Kodak. Prices are decent and I get my film the next day. I have had good results from the Tri-X I bought off of Amazon, but so-so results from color. As is the case with lots of Amazon stuff, you really don’t know where the products are sourced. In the case of film, storage is important and who knows how or where when it comes to Amazon. I am thinking I will go back to buying from B&H, Freestyle and the Shot On Film Store. I feel they take more care.

Rediscovering Kodak Tri-X

As a teenager in the 1970s, I shot a lot of Kodak Plus-X and Tri-X black and white film. Both were readily available at the corner drugstore, inexpensive and easy to home process. When I got back into film photography in 2010, I gravitated to the tabular grain emulsions of Kodak T-MAX 100 and 400 because I wanted finer grain in my photographs.

I guess I carried it around in my head that Tri-X was more suited to gritty street photography or documentary style shooting, so I’ve done most of my 400 speed black and white work these past 12 years on T-MAX.

With film getting more and more expensive these days, I keep looking for bargains and saw some Tri-X online for a decent price…three rolls for 24 bucks, which seemed pretty darn good. So I bought some.

I shot my first roll of Tri-X since forever in my Nikon F3HP with the 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens. Most of what was on this first roll were personal shots, but I finished the last few frames during a Sunday afternoon of wine tasting at Grigich Hills Estate Winery up the Napa Valley in Rutherford.

If you are into wine at all, you know that Mike Grigich gained international recognition when the Chardonnay he produced at Chateau Montelena blew the competition away at the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, basically putting California on the map as a top wine-making region. Grigich later partnered with Austin Hills (of Hills Brothers Coffee fame) to establish Grigich Hills Estate.

I am not a big white wine person, but the Grigich Chards are pretty incredible and their Cabs are some of my favorite reds. While tasting, I clicked off a few shots with my Nikon. Yes, glasses are empty because Mike’s wines are delicious.

Stopped to walk around Oakville Grocery on the way home. I’ve shot this sign many times before.

The late afternoon sun was playing off of some pillows when I got home. The 55/2.8 lens is tack sharp I think.

There is some grain in these photographs, but not nearly what I had imagined there would be. And the tonal range is quite impressive. The results of this roll have changed my mind about Tri-X. I am going to shoot more of it. The price has gone up to $34 for three rolls. I bought more anyway.