Our cameras back then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, were the topic of endless discussion amongst my contemporaries. We would often debate the merits of different cameras but mostly our choice was based on what we could afford. We all had 35mm SLR cameras with manual controls and I think this was generally encouraged amongst budding photographers.
My friend Paul was a Canon man and he was known for being really careful about things, so that was definitely a reliable, solid choice. I think Chris also had a Canon but over the decades I have forgotten if this is right. Neil was also an exacting personality and from memory he had a Nikon but again I can’t remember what model. Likewise Wallie had a Pentax, as best as I can remember and knowing Wallie as I do, it was probably the thrifty choice in those days.
When we all met and became friends in 1980 (although Wallie arrived a little later) automatic exposure systems were new fangled things and reserved mostly for point-and-press cameras, the kind of cameras which were frowned upon by serious photographers. Our cameras generally had some kind of built-in light meter and we were also encouraged to know how to use a hand held exposure meter in those days.
Speaking of which, we were always expected to know what shutter speeds and f-stops to use just by instinct; exposure meters were for checking our estimates and fine tuning with the Ansel Adam’s Zone System in mind. A good technical photographer was assumed to weigh scenes up perfectly; to know the film sensitivity, the scene’s contrast range etc to choose the right exposure. Then the film development in the darkroom would be an extension of this with the right choice of developer, temperature and knowing whether to under-or-over develop a roll of film. Looking back, it seems quite a science, although for me it was often no more than a lucky dip.
Likewise zoom lenses weren’t thought of in a good light. They were generally expensive, had relatively high f-stops, were very bulky and produced poor quality images. So instead we all had prime lenses, starting with the bog standard 50mm lens, generally f2, give or take a bit. These lenses, known as “nifty fifties” nowadays, were always reckoned to be similar to the human eye in terms of the angle of view and, although cheap, were always of good quality. I used mine quite a bit.
However favourite lens of mine was a 35mm lens, as you can see in the above photo. This was a modest wide angle lens and always gave really good, sharp images. I always hankered after much wider lenses as I liked the sense of drama and intimacy they would give but could never afford anything else. This particular lens dated back to an earlier era with a different aperture coupling design having been made for the original Nikon F cameras. This meant that although the old lens would still fit the [modern] Nikon FM body, it was a fiddle trying to get the metering to work.
The Nikon FM was a decent camera but was, at the time, a step down from the professional Nikon F range which were the bomb-proof professional type cameras everyone fancied having. The FM was the amateur version and lacked the interchangeable viewfinder and was probably a lot smaller and lighter.
So rolling forward 40 years or so, I still have my Nikon FM camera. I haven’t used it for several years and yet I know it still works alright. It is one of those few possessions that I feel quite sentimental about, I would be quite upset if I lost it somehow. I have been abroad with it many times and it has been jostled and shaken on Africa’s bumpy roads, dropped and generally bashed about. And yet it still works and is a credit to those clever Japanese manufacturers in those days.
So whether we had a Pentax, a Canon, or a Nikon, they were all similar and probably all just as good as each other. And yet at the time we all aspired to have the best we could afford and in some way our cameras reflected our personalities a little. The mainstream, the thrifty, the exclusive, the…. well you get the drift.
I still have a few rolls of film; they’ve been in the fridge for many, many years. I might just dust of the camera and re-live that old fashioned film photography once again!