Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/06/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've told the tale before on the LUG. My parents, on the advice of a Pentax-totin' cousin, gifted me a Voigtl?nder Bessa on my 13th birthday in 1963; the camera was then 30 years old and I have it still today and, yes, it still works well, albeit it has been knocked around quite a bit over the years. I learned everything from the Sunny-16 rule to contact printing with that gem. I then did some 35mm work on borrowed cameras and did not buy another camera until the late 1970's, when I picked up a Canon AE-1 and, then, an AE-1P. These lasted me until I acquired my first Leica, a IIIc, in 1989; my first Rolleiflex followed a year later, and my first Hasselblad in 1993. I set up a full darkroom in 1990 and continued to use it until 2002. I still think about setting it up in the house I live in now; I have space in what used to be the Servants' dormitory in the attic (the old Schoolroom is now the repository for my parents' genealogy papers, and the old trunk room is a library). I probably will not restore the darkroom, as I REALLY get involved in processing and printing and will spend hours getting that perfect print. But I do know how to read even color negatives fairly well, an art of declining virtue in today's world. Today, my chemical photography is split between a Rolleiflex 2.8GX, my Leica M6 and IIIc, and a Hasselblad 2000FC/M and SWC. And, on occasion, I do use a Werra III and a Rollei 35S. I will go all-digital, I suspect, when a decent camera appears which can take RF lenses. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505