Tag 35mm

Custom Presentation Box for the Tower Type-3… 1953

Chris and Carol 3 Comments
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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.

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The 64 year old leather looking great with a wonderful brown color.

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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

Fuji… just Fuji

Chris and Carol 9 Comments
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Mount Fuji from Yokohama.

That simple four letter word needs no other introduction. Known the world over for its beautiful conical  shape. We were lucky to live in the Naka Ward in Kanagawa Prefecture and would often have this view to our west on a clear evening. Carol and I never grew tired of looking for it whenever we traveled somewhere new – hoping to see it from a new vantage point. These images are but a few of the hundreds of images of Fuji. They are in no set order and all were taken from 1977 to late 1979. Primarily shot with a Canon F-1 (1978 version) and a Canon AE-1.

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Our go to film while living in Yokohama. Kodachrome holds up well over the years when properly stored.

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Freezing cold and crystal clear winter day near the base of Fuji.

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Carol enjoying the view and freezing to death while doing so.

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Canon F-1 with FD 80-200mm zoom lens at 200mm.

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Road trip to Fuji-san.

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A reminder that Fuji is an active volcano.

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Fuji sunset as seen from the hill behind our home in Yokohama.

We never had the chance to climb Fuji while we were there. The constant deployments of my Navy ship kept me on an unpredictable schedule and made it impossible to find the time during the climbing months. Maybe we will have a chance – we are always hopeful.

Many thanks for your visit.

Chris and Carol

Pisa… 1986

Chris and Carol 6 Comments

Pisa… a gorgeous city filled with unbelievable wonders. Photographic eye candy to be sure. In 1986, shooting with a Canon F-1 and Canon lenses on Kodachrome 25 was as close to “perfect” in 35mm photography as one could hope to achieve (sorry Nikon guys and gals). In appreciation of the all the imperfections and limits of film photography (just like vinyl records), analog photography still moves me. Sure I love digital – some images with digital were impossible with film (or nearly so), but film has a softness of color and detail that I love.

These images were taken in mid October 1986. They’ve received only minor post production after scanning – mostly small crops to remove the edges of the 35mm slide mounts and some occasional color balancing and brightness tweaks. Film used was Kodak’s Kodachrome 25 (perfect for bright lighting and known for its fine grain).

My Canon F-1 (1978 version) and three FD lenses were all that I had in my bag: 24mm f/2.8 wide angle, 80-200mm f/4 zoom and the 55mm f/1.4. The weather was perfect – bright sunshine, low humidity with mild temperatures. Visibility was amazing as a recent cold front had passed through the area and cleared the air of haze and pollutants.

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24mm taken on the south side of the tower.

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80-200mm zoom. Until you see the tower in person you have no sense of the dramatic lean. Just amazing that it’s stood since 1327 like this.

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The tower as a sundial. 80-200mm zoom

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In silhouette. 80-200mm zoom hand held.

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Holding the tower upright. 200mm

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Enjoying the view to the north.

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Pisa cathedral. 24mm

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Gelato and soda. 80-200mm zoom at 150mm

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Art in the streets. 55mm

An amazing city worthy of your visit.

Chris

Montauk Point Lighthouse, Long Island

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The lighthouse at Montauk Point, Long Island, New York is one of my favorite spots to visit ever since I was a child growing up on Long Island. As a kid, the main attractions for me were – the ocean, the countless rocks in that ocean (big and small), the hills (Long Islanders are hill challenged) and finally the lighthouse itself. As I got older, the main attraction was the lighthouse with the other ‘likes’ fading into the background. When I earned my New York driver’s licence, Montauk was my first long drive from my home by myself. When I became a certified SCUBA diver, the waters near the lighthouse looked tempting for a dive but the great whites known to frequent the cold waters off Eastern Long Island kept me ashore – so I headed to Florida instead.

While going through some of my many mountains of slides from my collection, I came across these images of the lighthouse. The first set of photographs are from August 1972 and were shot with my Yashica TL Electro-X mostly using the normal Yashinon 50mm lens. The second set of images are from 2002 when I traveled to New York with my family for their first visit to Montauk. The 1972 images show how completely the original Kodak Ektachrome slides have degraded over the years.

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August 1972. Yashica TL Electro-X with f/ 1.7 50mm Yashinon lens with 2x teleconverter on Ektachrome 64.

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August 1972. The lighthouse in need of a serious restoration. I believe it was still under the control of the U.S. Coast Guard at that time. It’s obvious that 40+ year old Kodak Ektachrome didn’t hold up well – even when stored properly. Most of the vivid original colors have faded and the slide lacks depth.

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July 2002. The lighthouse and grounds were looking much better after the restoration. Canon F-1 with FD24mm f/ 2.8 lens on Kodachrome. My son is the little one climbing up the hill (as I had done hundreds of times before).

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July 2002. Canon F-1 with FD24mm f/ 2.8 lens on Kodachrome.

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T.J. on the rocks… just like me in the 1950s.

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The automated light of 2002. Wonderful view from up top too.

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Captivating views from up top.

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Gotta love the rocks!

If you ever get a chance to travel to Long Island, then the Montauk Point Lighthouse must be on your “to visit list”. It’s very photogenic and lends itself well to the digital age. There are images that a good camera phone today can capture that were a serious challenge to film photographers just 15 years ago. Happy shooting!

Chris

 

Kamakura Daibutsu

Chris and Carol 2 Comments

My wife and I lived in Yokohama, Naka-ku (Honmoku) from the Summer of 1977 to early Spring of 1980. We totally enjoyed our time in this wonderful country and are hopeful we will be able to return again. We had our favorite spots – Sankei-en and Kamakura being two of our most favorite. As with any well known attraction, the Great Buddha at Kamakura has been photographed from every angle imaginable. I’ve always enjoyed exploring angles that may not have been tried before.

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July 1979. Canon F-1 with FD 24mm lens on Kodachrome 25.

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Kodachrome 25. Bright sun. Canon F-1 with FD 24mm lens. It’s what film photography was (is) all about.

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More traditional view of the Great Buddha. Steaming hot July day on the Kanto Plain. Yashica TL Electro-X on Kodachrome 64.

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Gotta have a tourist shot! We love the antennas on top of Mt. Fuji!

So many things will have changed in Japan since we were last there but they’ll be plenty that will stay the same… forever. Kamakura is one of them.

Thanks for the visit!

Pentamatic bling!

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A little eye candy for all the Pentamaniacs* out there!

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Some original Pentamatic packaging items. Yashica kept a theme of the pentaprism design on the presentation box and the instruction booklet.

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The red box on the right is the outer or shipping box. Once again Yashica kept the pentaprism design going.

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More Pentamatic toys.

If you’re looking to collect a really interesting camera (that’s also a joy to use), then give the humble Pentamatic a try. First available for sale by late Spring 1960… never sold in large quantities so it’s a bit of a challenge to find. The viewfinder is bright and appears very large (no needles or other stuff in the way), and the normal 5.5cm lens is big and bright – easy to focus too.

*Many thanks to a reader for the suggestion of ‘pentamaniacs’. ^.^

Thanks for your visit. Questions and comments are always appreciated.

Chris

Fujica ST701 Part 2… getting closer!

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Definitely on our “to shoot with” list – and in the very near future we will! Now that the atmosphere in Florida has transitioned from nuclear hot to just a pleasant warmth, time to dust off the collection and put them to work.

Here’s a nice ST701 from the Fuji Photo Film Company of Tokyo – no battery for the meter but on a nice sunny day who needs one! Seals are a bit of a mess so we’ll keep the bottom half of the case on for a little extra light tight security.

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Our ST701 from 1971. About to get some field testing.

We’ve heard good things about the Fujinon 55mm – of course the fact that it’s a M42 mount helps too. Since we’re such big fans of everything Yashica, we naturally collect Fujifilm too because of the M42 connection. My very humble digital camera is a Fujifilm FinePix S9900W – it’s not going to blow the socks off the big boys but with 16 mp and a killer long-ass zoom it does pretty well.

Another Fuji friend is our Instax Wide 300 instant camera. We occasionally enjoy a instant picture or two and we choose the Wide 300 for the extra image size over the credit card sized mini format. We’re waiting to see if Fujifilm will bring out some black and white Instax film for the Wide 300 especially since the B&W Instax mini format has been so well received.

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Fujifilm Instax Wide 300. Lots of plastic but it gets the job done.

I’m (Chris) still spinning my wheels a bit with close-ups with the Wide 300 – so far the Fuji is 0 for 4 in that department. I’ll have to start using the close-up attachment and see what happens. The autofocus for close-ups needs full sun otherwise it defaults to what looks like infinity. I’ll get it.

Off to use some film…  ^.^

Thanks for your visit! C&C

A little Fujicolor to brighten our day!

Chris and Carol 2 Comments

I’ve always been a fan of Kodak film. Living in the United States it was hard to find anything else to buy at the corner stores – even in New York. Every now and again I’d pick up a roll of Fujifilm and was always impressed with the results.  I’ve always liked the little green boxes too… they catch my eye.

While our main collecting focus has been Yashima-Yashica cameras and gear, there’s always been a little offshoot into the world of Fuji. Partly because we lived in Japan – Yokohama to be exact, and Fujifilm was more available and there were labs nearby to process the film. Kodak processing was via handy but slow mail back to Palo Alto, California if I remember correctly.

So on this end of the week Friday, we thought a little Fujicolor was in order.

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We’re thinking of a color. Can you guess?

The 12 exposure Fujicolor 100 rolls are all expired (2010) but they usually produce good results if you treat them like they’re ASA50. The Acros 100 is a fresh roll and you can’t beat it for good looking black and white prints. The little XP100 is our go to all weather camera. It has a bright screen (for the beach) and is great in the surf for some wave pics. 1080p video and stereo sound too.

We’ve added a nice Fujica ST701 and Fujipet to our collection but I think were done. Oh, I almost forgot – my primary digital camera is a Fujifilm FinePix S9900W so that’s another Fuji. Oh and I bought my daughter a Fujifilm XP too. Okay, but that’s it. No more Fuji Photo Film Company cameras for us die hard Yashica fans. Well except for a nice Fujicaflex TLR, and the Fuji Photo GS6x9 sure looks great. I’d better stop now!

Thanks for your visit! Comments and likes are always appreciated.

Chris & Carol

Pentamatic S and friends…

Chris and Carol 4 Comments

We’ve recently found a nice looking friend for our collection… well, friends. Like almost all collections, ours doesn’t need more friends – more space maybe, but no new friends. This flash came as an accessory to a recent purchase of a Yashica twin-lens reflex camera (from 1956). After a quick cleaning we attached it to our S to see how they would look together – smashing we think! The Kodak Kodachrome is from 1959 and adds a nice touch to the set up. We’ve always loved the bright yellow and red metal film cans from Kodak.

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We put our Pentamatic S, from early 1961 or so, and the Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 (late 1950s?) together. Sadly the flash takes a now defunct battery and has a capacitor so not much we can do except enjoy the view.

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They make for a handsome display. All are age appropriate too.

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With the flash tucked away in its hard plastic shell it takes on an interesting look.

Hope you enjoyed your visit and if you care to, please leave a comment or suggestion for us. Of course if you know more about the Zeiss Ikon flash or want to contribute something about the Pentamatic, please do so!

Many thanks again… Chris and Carol

You can find us on flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/127540935@N08/

Yashica’s Little Gems

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Pentamatic’35’ and J-3.

They couldn’t be more different – the Yashica Pentamatic was Yashica’s first 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) camera and the J-3 was Yashica’s first SLR with a built-in exposure meter. In this example, the black J-3 was Yashica’s first SLR in what we call ‘Pro-Black’ finish – all black body with matching black lens.

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Lovely little gem from Yashica – the J-3 in Pro-Black. Made in limited quantities and came with the matching black Auto Yashinon lens.

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The Pentamatic’s clean simple lines makes it one of the most attractive cameras of the early 1960s in our opinion.

As was the case during the early 1960s, both cameras would be quickly replaced with upgraded models with more advanced features and a wider array of available lenses. Not all of these changes were for the better… in the case of the Pentamatic, the model II and the model S, the changes did little to attract more buyers as their upgrades were too few and too late.

In the case of the J-3, it was the building block to Yashica’s success throught the mid 1960s and beyond. The ‘J’ series of SLRs, which included the J-5, J-4 and finally the J-7, were respected cameras with excellent optics at a great price which sold in the ten’s of thousands. Quantity meant that Yashica could afford to advance its technology and deliver some groundbreaking SLRs by 1968 and beyond.

As always, thanks for your visit and your comments are appreciated. To see more about Yashica, stop by our flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/127540935@N08/

 

Chris and Carol Photography