Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Digital Imaging & California Typewriter

The Kodak 1A Stylus gave me my start in collecting old Kodak cameras. The 3A is similar, but larger.
Back about 1990 or so my Grandma was clearing out what remained of my Grandfather's belongings.  One of the things she gave me was his old Kodak Stylus camera.  Long before Olympus made the Stylus 1 Kodak made real cameras with real styli. The stylus camera came with a nice metal stylus that was held in place by 2 mounts on the back of the camera beside a door that could be opened and the photographer could then sign the film if he wished.

I have several cameras from the late 1800s and early 1900s that still work fine. I adapt 620 roll film to use them except for my Eastman View-2 that uses 4 x 5 and 5 x 7 sheet film. There will NEVER be a digital imager that works when it is over 100 years old. We are lucky they last 20!




The old and the new.  For the longest time I have been using the old OlympusCamedia 3.2 Mp imager for most of my on line imaging.  For the Olivetti and digital imaging typecasts I used the 5.1Mp Kodak.

Neat lens that doubles as a front body cap for the OMD.  It is fully manual and is fun to use doing street photography.  I really like this lens in crowded places because most people think I left the lens cover on my OMD or I forgot to remove the body cover and install a lens.  Great for in places where it may seem too obvious I was imaging someone.

As with all my photographic gear and digital image gera...it must be cleaned.  So I'm cheap and buy my microfiber cloth at the dollar store where I get 2/$1.00 and the sable hair brush also from the dollar store for $1.00. It is a super soft ladies face paint installation tool that works great for cleaning lenses and other things.

All of my OMD lenses and body fits an old Tamrac 35mm SLR bag I had. If the strobe fit, it would be perfect.  I do have bigger bags, but for the micro four thirds they are way too big, but the strobe would fit.


Being cheap as I am, I love to pick up these free koozies at trade shows.  They are padded and make great lens covers.  For my camera lenses I use the hot pads with a pocket in them.  I think I bought a few dozen of them at Wal-Mart several years ago.  Shown above is my 40mm to 150mm M. Zuiko zoom lens for the OMD.

One of the nicest camera bags by Tamrac is this (no longer made) Explorer 100.  It is made for MFT cameras and a spare lens or two and works great for street photography.  The center divider is padded and attaches to the inside with velcro so it can be moved to fit.

Holds the Stylus 1 and auxiliary telephoto lens.  The aux. lens adds about 750mm f2.8 to the main 300mm f2.8 lens.

California Typewriter arrived Monday.  I spent Monday evening watching it.  Fine movie.

This is the No. 6 with today's typecast.
I planned more photos of some of my MFT equipment, but I do not know what I did with the files.  I've been getting things together for Saturday's Type-In so blogging has been on the back burner.  I have not decided if I will post more digital imaging on this blog or start a new one.  I do plan on posting more.  One thing I am avoiding doing is calling digital imaging photography.  I thought it was just me, but since I got the OMD I have been doing more reading on line and find many other photographers refuse to call digital imaging photography so in my own Luddite way it is nice to not be alone.

By the way all my old Kodaks do work and I have used them when I lived in VA where I had a dark room.  I did all B & W with them due to the plain glass lenses that were not coated for color film because back in the late 1800s and early 1900s color film did not exist.


3 comments:

  1. Looks like you have quite a few of the same lenses as I do Bill. I really hope you learn to love your OMD, I've read that many professional photographers use them these days with excellent results. I've never really been of the opinion that it's the camera that takes a good picture, it's more the person taking the shot! I've seen some incredible photos taken with pin hole cameras when modern technology was but a dream, that are totally amazing!

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  2. Good to see you having the chance to blog vigorously again. I do like that telegraph-typewriter stationery!

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    1. The telegraph letterhead is one of my favorites. It combines brass pounding (ham radio) and typewriters.

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