Last week, I was talking about film, partially because I had film on my mind, and partially because people do ask me about it a lot. In the spirit of talking about cameras, I’m going to break down the types I have, in order in preference, because someone might wonder what they have in their possession.
The best is an SLR, or single-lens reflex. You look through the lens, assisted by some mirrors, and can see pretty much exactly what your eventual image is going to be. Older ones are inevitably manual focus, but they started getting automatic focus sometime in the 1980s. They were usually the higher end models too, so you get lots of features and options. Fun to shoot with, both with film and digital.
There are also rangefinders. Unlike SLRs, they use a viewfinder that doesn’t look through the lens, but instead give you a little window where you line up two images to put them in focus. They’re smaller than SLRs, often pretty good quality, and just plain fun to use. I love them and want more.
TLRs, or twin-lens reflex cameras, have two sets of lenses, one you look through and focus with, and the other which is used to take the shot. They’re really old fashioned, which makes them fun, but they’re also generally quite huge, which makes them a bit inconvenient and really only suited for when you’re really committed to taking some old-fashioned photos. They’re also typically expensive, being complicated and old.
Moving down the list is fixed-focus. They were generally the cheap cameras, if you got a camera for free in a promotion or at the last minute in a grocery store, it was probably fixed focus. I like them because they are made entirely out of limitations, and the photographer has to use those limitations to make something good. That’s why I like them, they force you to think about photography in a completely different way from something like an SLR, where you have all of the options in the world.
Moving down the list, auto-focus point and shoots, which were the go-to camera when I was a kid in the ‘80s and ‘90s. They focus for you, and pretty much do everything for you, the user just has to press a button. Why don’t I like them as much? You have less control, which is fine for what they were designed for, but can lead to more mistakes than something with manual focus. That said, they’re still quite fun, especially older ones that draw attention to the fact that they’re doing all of the focusing. Still, they have less appeal than most film cameras because their role has been effectively supplanted by the handy camera phone.
But the film camera with the least appeal is the zone focus camera. If you’re really good at estimating distance, you might enjoy them. I’m not, so every time I use one I find myself second guessing my settings. It’s the most stressful way to shoot.
The worst cameras, however, are folding ones with leather bellows, because as cool as they may look, the leather bellows is always cracked and I don’t know how to repair leather. That said, they all look incredibly cool. If you want a collection that just sits on a shelf, go with one of those.
But really, I love them all, and every camera has its own distinct personality. I suppose that’s why I collect them.
