Old cameras

I bought a new camera. Okay, well, I bought a camera, but it is anything but new and that is not a bad thing, in this case. It's an old Sears TLS 35mm SLR with a f1.4 lens, circa 1970 or so. It was made for Sears by Ricoh. Bought it from my fellow product specialist, Bob, who also has an appreciation for these old mechanical cameras. Now why would anyone buy an old 35mm film SLR camera with absolutely no automation in this day and age of electronic and digital everything? The thing weighs a ton.

I bought this old manual Ricoh SLR with its old screw mount lens for what it does NOT have, instead of what it does have. It has no computer or automatic programs - in fact, it has no electronics of any kind except for the simple light meter. It has no plastic. It has no autofocus. No auto rewind. No auto film speed reading. No auto anthything. In other words, I get to do everything, myself, and that's exactly what I wanted. That's part of the fun. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing aginst digital SLR cameras or electronic cameras and, no, I don't buy into the notion that all mechanical means more reliable, blah, blah, blah. I've had enough experience with both old mechanical film SLRs and all modern digital SLRs and everything in between to know better. Today's digital SLR cameras are about as reliable as it gets.

What I wanted is a camera that could take me back to another day and time when I could take a great shot and know that it was me, not the camera or software in the camera that worked all the magic, made all the adjustments, correctly estimated depth of field, correctly focused, did it all. I want to do the thinking and the work. That's what makes photography fun for me. I want to slow down, challenge myself, again, and go back to my earliest days when I carried an old Pentax SP with a broken, non-functional light meter. I want to relive that moment when my borther-in-law handed me that old SLR Pentax camera and said, "Here, this old Pentax will teach you all the basics of photography if you take the time to understand what it is doing. If you can take more good pics with than bad with a roll of film, you will be a photographer." Wow! I'm going to the store to buy film, again. Who says you can't go home?