Senja-fuda… “I was here”…
Calm…
Canon F-1 (1978 version) on Kodachrome 64. Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama, Japan.
More Kamakura… 1979
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Kamakura
Peaceful place. Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan… July 1979
Canon F-1 on Kodak Kodachrome 64.
Amboseli N.P., Kenya 1979
Mount Kilimanjaro as seen from Amboseli N.P., Kenya.
After endless weeks and months at sea (Indian Ocean), my U.S. Navy ship arrived in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya for a bit of ‘liberty’. As a Sailor on government pay (1979) there would have been no way I would have been able to go on a photographic safari in Africa – I might have had a better chance at going to the moon. But along with a few of my shipmates we were able to afford (with the Navy’s help), to get out of Mombasa (a good thing) and see sights we might never had the chance to see otherwise. It was November 1979 – just a few days before the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and more endless days, weeks and months at sea for me and about 25,000 other U.S. Navy Sailors.
I traded one distant horizon at sea for another on land – no contest. I can say that my two days touring Amboseli made up for two months at sea (well almost).
These images are but a few from the dozens that I have still need to scan. The film used was Kodak Kodachrome 25 and 64 shot with my trusty Canon F-1 (1978 version) and Canon’s FD lenses.
Kilimanjaro from our VW safari bus. Canon FD 80-200mm f/ 4 lens at 200mm and a bit of cropping.
This image was taken from outside the ‘safety’ of our VW bus. Billions of mosquitoes kept me from wandering too close to this beautiful elephant.
Amazing animals… not much more to say.
The exposure was off a tad but elephants and Kilimanjaro are not an easy capture!
Maasai tribesmen giving me his ‘best’ hunters pose. He was a pretty funny guy and we hung out for a bit until an elder butted in and wanted in on the action (cigarettes for poses).
I know I say this almost every time I post travel pics from the ancient days – if you ever get the chance to travel to Kenya and Tanzania on a photo safari then jump on it!
Thanks for your visit!
Chris
The often underappreciated Canon T70
One of Canon’s little gems! The T70 (1984) was a giant leap forward for Canon and for the entire 35mm camera industry. Coming off the success of the Canon ‘A Series’, the T70 (yes there was a T50 first but the T70 blew it away) was a giant departure from the norms established by Canon. Firstly, it didn’t look like any previous Canon SLR – distinctive style and color, built-in winder, multiple program AE exposure and two metering modes. If you wanted to add a data back, then Canon had a Command Back 70 ready to go.
This one is from April 1984… still, in our opinion, one of the neatest Canons of all time!
The rubberized right hand grip made the body super easy to hold and the incorporated power winder made manually advancing film a thing of the past. The ‘T’ bodies accepted all of Canon’s FD lenses without exception. Mated with the Canon FD (N) 50mm f/ 1.8 lens made the T70 a rather compact and user friendly camera.
Simple layout and clean design.
Optional accessory – the Command Back 70 replaced the often bulky data backs found on the F-1 and A-1. This one can date images until the year 2029! Of note – the common fault with these data backs are you’ll often find that the LCD will sometimes “bleed” the LC in the display. This one, for whatever reason, has escaped that fault.
If you want a great, and we mean great 35mm film camera to use, then by all means find a good T70 and fire away.
One of our all time favorites from Canon.
Thanks for your visit… your comments are always welcomed and so are your questions.
Chris and Carol ^.^
Enjoying the day together –
I realized that we haven’t posted an image of the two of us (from this century anyway), so we picked this one. We don’t normally run around taking selfies (nothing against them) so we don’t have a large image pool to draw from. We like this one the best. Attending a spring training game for the New York Mets in St. Lucie West (Florida). They have an awesome field and outstanding facilities there. If you get the chance to catch a spring training game then do so. You’re always close to the action and get to see pretty much everyone on the team. The Mets play at Tradition Field.
Canon F-1
First version Canon F-1 with its gorgeous chrome nosed FD 50mm f/ 1.4 lens.
Canon F-1 from April 1972. This was the first version of the F-1 and it sports a rather low serial number. We’ve held this one back all these years with just occasional use (mainly in the studio). Our field tested F-1 (not pictured) was acquired new in 1978 (2nd version F-1) and it’s the one that’s traveled the world – getting seriously wet in Hong Kong, Japan and the US- dropped in a photographic safari bus in Kenya – slid off a train seat in Tokyo – and was briefly “lost” in Diego Garcia!
All original stuff from 1972.
Note that this super early FD lens does not have the SC or SSC markings on the lens ring.
I started 35mm SLR photography with a Nikonos II and then purchased my first Yashica (TL Electro-X) and then into Canon we went. We need to find some time to take this one out and put that classic glass to good use! Nothing like holding an old friend again.
Thanks for stopping by!
Chris
Custom Presentation Box for the Tower Type-3… 1953
1953 Tower (Nicca Camera Co.) Type-3 35mm Rangefinder with custom box.
This custom designed box is based on original Tower (Nicca) designed presentation boxes of the early to mid 1950s. The leather case, which is the original from 1953 was reconditioned – the leather was gently cleaned with saddle soap, some loose stitches were properly glued to prevent further separation and the felt interior of the case was also gently cleaned and refreshed. The case hinged flap had become separated so another piece of leather was attached and it’s as good as new. The entire case was conditioned to bring out the vintage patina.
The 64 year old leather looking great with a wonderful brown color.
Looking fine after six decades.
As collectors, Carol and I enjoy restoring vintage cameras and when necessary, reconditioning the often neglected leather cases. We love camera sets that include the original boxes, but when they’re not available we like designing custom boxes based on original designs and colors.
Thanks for your visit! We love comments so feel free to share yours!
Chris and Carol
My friend Jim… Hong Kong 1979
I’ve wanted to share these images for quite some time now here on this blog. They’ve been posted to my flickr page in an album titled ‘Liberty Call Hong Kong’- so time to move some of them over and provide a bit of a backstory.
I don’t consider myself a portrait photographer, in fact I’m highly critical of most of my attempts at portraiture over the years. It’s not that I don’t like it, I’m not good at it. I enjoy big vistas and wide open spaces way too much to be trapped in a studio taking pictures of people. Taking pictures of things (cameras, lenses, stuff) in the studio I do enjoy.
Other than portraits of my family, the image below not only means a lot to me but I think it’s one of my better people pics. It’s an image of my friend Jim while we were travelling north out of Hong Kong to the Chinese border by train in January 1979. It was a difficult shot – low light (and I was using Kodachrome 64), hand holding a Canon FD 80-200mm zoom lens and all while the train was moving. The sky was overcast so the light was at least uniformly dim.
North out of Hong Kong… 1979
My friend Jim was not only a US Navy Sailor like myself, he was also a very accomplished professional photographer and the most outgoing person I had ever met. Jim was a Nikon guy when shooting 35mm – Bronica and Mamiya medium format in the studio. I’m a Canon guy and that was always a source of friendly ribbing between us. Since Jim was a pro, he wasn’t the easiest to trap into having his picture taken. I remember he was saying that this shot will never turn out well because the Canon F-1 had a crummy exposure meter and used crummy (not his real word) glass in their lenses. I don’t think he ever saw this image come to think of it. He may have liked it. I still think the image has problems – shallow depth of field means I missed nailing the focus and the exterior of the train is a tad over exposed. I don’t have fancy post production software so for the most part this scan is exactly what appears on the original slide. Here again I’m being hard on myself and it’s likely the reason I don’t try more portraits.
Another photographer that I met here on WordPress is an outstanding photographer and blogger- her portraits are amazing and always so creative. She said I give her a bit of confidence with my positive comments on the quality of her portfolio, but in reality it’s me who has been given a little nudge to go out and try some portrait photography again.
This was my second port visit to Hong Kong and both times Jim and I were out shooting together from sunrise to well after sunset. Here are but a few of the many that I like the most…
Image by Jim. Me negotiating a better deal with this sweet vendor. She was funny and a pleasure to deal with. I bought a fan for my wife Carol.
Jim negotiating a good deal with some nice ladies in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. We had a great boat ride around the harbor. Canon F-1 on Kodachrome 64.
Cute little girl waiting (with grandma) for the train out of Hong Kong.
Star Ferry sailor catching up on the morning’s news. Canon F-1 on Kodachrome 64.
Busy day on the docks of Aberdeen, Hong Kong. Canon F-1 on Kodachrome 64.
Very difficult shot. Canon F-1 with FD 80-200mm f4 zoom lens on Kodachrome 64 hand held while on a moving boat!
Hong Kong night life… 1979.
Bar hostess… Hong Kong. Canon F-1 on Kodachrome 64. Shutter set at 1 second f1.4
Not exactly Mickey. Watchful man and dog (lower left) couldn’t figure out why two photographers would be interested in his Mickey.
Jim and I were great friends – my wife Carol was great friends with his wife and children. As US Navy Sailors, Jim and I got to visit many interesting ports while stationed on our ship which was home ported in Yokosuka, Japan. He taught me a lot about photography and to be more outgoing while photographing people. Jim returned to the States before me and his professional studio really took off and was a great success through the 1980s and 1990s.
Jim doing what he liked best – making people smile and taking pictures! Late 1980s in his studio in Florida.
This is the last photo I have of Jim. It was taken by his wife who was his assistant (you can see why she was)… Jim and his lovely wife died in 2001 in a terrible plane crash. Not the ones in September of that year, but theirs were just before Christmas 2001. A horrible situation for his two grown children and all who knew them.
Every December I remember Jim and all the good times we had. I can still hear him tell me that my F-1 stinks! And I remember all the tips he shared with me on taking people pics.
Thanks Jim!
Chris
Pentamatic in ‘Explore’
This simple studio shot made it to Flickr’s ‘Explore’ group recently. It may be the first and only Pentamatic in ‘Explore’.
Natural window light on an overcast Florida afternoon. Camera used? Samsung Galaxy 4S. No post production by me but the Galaxy may have been on HDR. Sometimes simple is better.
Yashica Pentamatic 35mm single-lens reflex from early 1960.
Chris
Hit the Road 2016! Hello 2017!
Thank goodness 2016 is almost history! I’ve heard from friends in Australia that 2017 is going well (so far). Let’s not muck it up!
On a positive note – here on our blog, we’ve seen a significant increase in activity over last year (2015). Visitors to the site and views are through the roof! We (Carol and I) are thrilled that what started out as a repository of bits and tidbits of Yashima-Yashica information would gain the traction that it’s had. We thank you!
We enjoy the feedback we get and I can say that I’ve learned more than a few things from it. We’ve met some super talented people – photographers and bloggers that are out of this world amazing! We hope our readers got a little something special in return too. That was the goal of the ‘Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic’ -a sharing of knowledge about a silly camera that Yashica invented in 1959 that most people have never heard of.
This year’s favorite.
In looking through the hundreds of film and digital images that we shot in 2016, this one turns out to be our favorite. We believe that every vintage camera is worth preserving (in some way or another) – we think of cameras as holding the heartbeats of all who may have gazed through its lenses, pressed its buttons and then anxiously awaited the results. We can imagine the thousands of faces and smiles that were captured and the thousands of important events in people’s lives that were saved for the future. Classic cameras do that for us.
Don’t get us wrong… we love the world of digital photography but we also embrace the beautiful, often awkward analog machines of our past. We hope that photographers in the future will remember (every now and then) to pick up a classic camera, load some film into it and then set out to capture images with a camera older than yourself. Enjoy!
Happy New Year… we wish only the best for all!
Chris and Carol ^.^
Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris 