Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 21/9/00 12:08 am, Dan Cardish at owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us wrote: > The first relatively serious camera I used as a teenager was my father's > Voigtlander Vito Automatic (which I still own). I then borrowed my > brother's Ricohflex twin lens reflex (sort of a very poor man's > Rolleiflex). They certainly were not very fancy from today's standards, > but they didn't hold me back. Of course, the camera I lusted after was my > high school friend's M3, and the ~ $550 M4 (with 50/1.4) listed in the > Toronto Camera catalogue for 1968 (which I also still have, the catalogue > that is ;-) ). > and at 02:07 PM 20-09-00 -0700, Brian Reid wrote: >> Twice in my life I've bought a rangefinder camera for a teenager who was >> learning photography, and both times I've regretted it. It didn't help them >> learn to be better. These days I get a Nikon FM or a Pentax K1000 for such >> purposes, and it works better. On the other hand, I gave my young nephew a >> Rollei 35 and it changed his life. I got my first camera - a Kodak Bantam ColorSnap 127 roll film - on my 9th birthday. My father's ploy was to give me incrementally better cameras when I came up again technical limitations or quality problems I could identify and understand. I think I remember the order - Agfa Parat, lovely little Minolta P&S, Pen D (half-frame wonder camera), Exa 500 with Domiplan lens, Praktica with same Domiplan. At this point I was told to start using my camera to make some money to improve my equipment. With some earnings from shooting rock bands, wedding candids, school plays etc and birthday money I had a Nikkormat FTn by my 14th birthday. The much longed for Micro Nikkor came later as I was content to use a 50 f2 my Dad had picked from a batch of lenses borrowed from our understanding camera shop - yes there were quality differences. Point being I had a far better camera than any other kid my age but I knew why, I knew I had earned at least some of it, and I knew how to use it. Today I teach photography as a volunteer to both adults and 5th-8th graders. The kids use both Pentax IQEZY-R P&S cameras with 38-70 zooms on home assignments and Pentax ZX-M manuals with Pentax 28-80 zooms on field trips with us. There seem to be fewer focus problems with the SLRs. For those who don't know it the ZX-M is a worthy successor to the K-1000 being a true manual with DoF preview and built in motor drive (2fps). - -- David Prakel dprakel@rochester.rr.com