On Dec 24, 2018, Paul Schlyter wrote
(in et):

On Sun, 23 Dec 2018 18:30:49 -0600,
wrote:
Way back in the late 70s early 80s I did, for a while, try photography with
my scopes, but otherwise I have been strictly a visual observer. I cant
believe the great stuff that we have these days. I am not really a fan of
digital photography in many ways, I loved shooting film, and that was how I
did astro photos back then.

You can still shoot film if that's what you enjoy to do.

The camera stores near me hardly carry any film anymore, except for 4x5 or
8x10. And I have gotten out of the habits I used to have. I love my smart
phone for its ability to grab shots that pop up unexpectedly. I also have a
very nice Leica digital camera (about 17 years old now. But I can never find
the charger for it half the time. My first camera was picked up in Hong Kong
when my ship stopped there in 1972. I picked up a fair amount of film, and
the battery died two days after we pulled out. This limited me to either .125
of a second, or Bulb. No light meter either. I picked up a couple of extra
batteries and a light-meter as soon as we hit Subic Bay a few weeks later.
That light meter was the second best buy I ever made.

What I really loved about my favorite film cameras was that they were grab
and shoot. I picked up in San Francisco’s Wolfes Cameras a couple of old
Leicas, one a red-dial 3F (I think) and a black-dial somewhat earlier model.
One was just the body, the other had the usual collapsable 50mm. I ended up
putting that lens on an old Canon B-2 I picked up as a much cheaper
alternative and found a couple of lovely Nicon screw-mount lens, one a 85mm
and one a 38mm. One was F 1.2 and I think the other was F 1.1 (Thank you for
holding those for me until I got back to shore, Ciddy). We are talking about
some big, heavy glass here. The 85mm was literally the size and shape of a US
hand grenade and just about as heavy. But it took beautiful photos. A big,
heavy, polished chrome hand grenade with a huge glass center.

I kept the Leica collapsable 50mm on the Canon B-2 as my “I am only
carrying one camera” "And no, I am not a camera geek” camera. “See, I
can practically put it in my pocket." Running around on a ship at sea you
don’t want to carry your favorite that might get damaged slamming into a
round-down or soaked in seawater. (Or strapped to the front of a bike or
motorcycle, which I did a lot riding through the hills of California.)

I find few cameras these days that do what I like to do, night-photography,
or as I used to call it, Available Darkness. This was nothing like those
wimps who did available light. ;-) That is where The Prints of Darkness in my
sig comes from, partly. I have been a printer for decades, mostly as a night
worker, I am a night person to begin with, I love astronomy. And I printed up
a lot of available darkness photos I took. Some even turned out pretty good.

Just about 18 years ago I found myself seriously thinking to buy a brand new
Voitlander (spelling?) A near copy of my old 3F. I had to step back and
really think about that and when I did I sadly passed on it. Lovely, but even
then I could see what was happening to film and I just could not justify it.
So a few years later I bought the digital Leica, if I had only waited a few
more years...

--
Harry F. Leopold

The Prints of Darkness (remove gene to email)

“(B)iological evolution is a team sport.“-Louis Friend