Ok Photographers, How old are you?

[mabas9395]

I thought about keeping my old Pentax K1000, but I sold it for $75 which was enough to buy the nifty-fifty for my Canon dSLR.

Don't miss the K1000, it has been a long, long time since I've had to buy film. I remember telling my wife that switching to digital would save us money in film costs. And it has, but it has also cost us thousands more in lenses, flashes, tripods, bags, memory cards, filters, software, etc.

 

[YesDear]

This is really interesting. I had intended this to be a much different thread. I was hoping to get a conversation started about the Grey card and exposure. I figured younger photographers would not have a clue what it was.

As it turns out this thread is much more fun!

Several quick comments about several things mentioned here

Our first computer was an 8088 chip CGA dos computer that we paid over 2000 for in 1985. We paid extra for 640k in memory and the salesman said we would never fill up the 30mb hard drive!!! LOL

My next door neighbors dad invented the flip fash!

At age 53, I seem to be on the upper end of this group. I am sure most are more mature!!!

 

[dr_zero]

This was fun looking back at all the post and watching the times progress.

I remember the lunar lander game it was on a CPM Rainbow computer I used to play with.

Now I still have a timex sinclair in the box with the expansion pack a vic 20 a commodore 64 and a 128 with both tape drives and floppy drives a BETA vcr hooked to a commodore monitor no less LOL.

And if you want to talk video games I have 2600's all models even the sears version an original PONG and the coleco version. A coleco with the smurfs cart in the box! Atari 5200 Atari 7800 Atari Jaguar with CD. Nintendos up to the cube and Segas up to the Sega cd.
Joysticks did I mention joysticks oh lord I got cases of the the darn things LOL

I had intended to make a video game museum and have been collecting for years. I guess now with the digital camera I have excuse as to why I dont start cataloging all this stuff.

Oh and I still have blue army men!

Guess this should have gone under other hobbies I just forget sometimes all the stuff thats put away till you guys jog my memory LOL

 

[Tuffcookie]

Baby Brownie

Type: Solid body eyelevel rollfilm
Introduced: July 1934 (1948 in UK)
Discontinued: 1941 (1952 in UK)
Film size: 127
Picture size: 1 5/8 X 2 1/2"
Manufactured: US and UK
Lens: Meniscus
Shutter: Rotary
Numbers made: ?
Original Price: $1.00 UK Model: ?


It was discontinued in 1941, which means I inherited mine from my dad. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

TC

 

[DawnM]

Very cool! It actually reminds me of the box camera I made in high school graphic arts.

Dawn

Baby Brownie

Type: Solid body eyelevel rollfilm
Introduced: July 1934 (1948 in UK)
Discontinued: 1941 (1952 in UK)
Film size: 127
Picture size: 1 5/8 X 2 1/2"
Manufactured: US and UK
Lens: Meniscus
Shutter: Rotary
Numbers made: ?
Original Price: $1.00 UK Model: ?


It was discontinued in 1941, which means I inherited mine from my dad. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

TC

 

[gometros]

yeah you could take 4 photos in a row without burning you hands taking out the used flash bulb( and one of the girls in the video had on a houndstooth dress so guess that was when i was about in 5th grade )the flash cube was on my second camera, my first had the giant funnel shaped single bulb flash that was about as big as the camera but did have a button to eject the bulb, nothing but the best
tuff cookie mine was an ansco cadet ( knock of of the brownie i think)but do you remember what kind of film it took?

later version of the instamatic had a flash strip that could do more than four flashes.

 

[Abby's Dad]

This is really interesting. I had intended this to be a much different thread. I was hoping to get a conversation started about the Grey card and exposure. I figured younger photographers would not have a clue what it was.

As it turns out this thread is much more fun!

Several quick comments about several things mentioned here

Our first computer was an 8088 chip CGA dos computer that we paid over 2000 for in 1985. We paid extra for 640k in memory and the salesman said we would never fill up the 30mb hard drive!!! LOL

My next door neighbors dad invented the flip fash!

At age 53, I seem to be on the upper end of this group. I am sure most are more mature!!!

Have had various versions of the 18% gray card, but my most recent one is in the form of a microfiber towel for lens cleaning - as advertised, it is 18% gray, and folds away very nicely. Used a gray card a lot to get exposures off before I got my Sekonic incident light meter.

Age - I'm getting up there, 59 last birthday. Time will tell about the big 6-0.

Fred

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm so old, I remember before color was invented. The whole world was black and white.

As for grey cards, here's the basic story. They are good for two things - exposure and white balance.

You camera's meter doesn't no the difference between white, black, and grey. It thinks that white is brightly lit grey and that black is poorly lit grey. If you are taking a picture of something with a lot of white (a bride standing in the snow), the camera will underexpose the picture so that the dress and snow come out grey. If you take picture of a man in a black suit standing in front of a wall of black stone, it will overexpose the picture so that the suit and stone look grey.

To deal with these situations, you can either guess and adjust the exposure yourself or you can tell the camera to meter off of your grey card. The grey card is almost exactly the shade of grey that your meter is expecting, so it will get the exposure correctly. This is typically done by having your subject hold the grey card (so it is in the same light they are in), using your spot meter to meter off of it, and adjust your exposure in manual exposure mode.

You can also use it for white balance. You can take a picture of the grey card in the light you will be shooting and then tell your camera to use that for custom white balance. Alternatively, you could just include it in one of your shots, use your software to white balance that one shot, and then copy those white balance settings to all of the other shots taken in the same light.

You white balance by adjusting the color channels so that something that is supposed to be neutral (the same amount of blue, red, and green) actually is neutral. If you have something neutral in the picture (white, black, or grey), your computer can determine how much red, blue, and green need to be added or subtracted to make it neutral and then it can apply that adjustment to the rest of the picture.

You can tell really, really hard core photographers because they have an 18% grey tattoo on one palm and a color chart tattoo on the other.

 

[boBQuincy]

As a follower of Ansel Adams Zone System I don't have much use for gray cards for exposure. Metering from a gray card will give perfect exposure for... gray cards!

They are good for white balance as long as they are truly neutral gray, some are not from what I read. I suppose they didn't have to be in the film days.

As for the original subject, I am AARP+, spent much time with IBM punch cards and Fortran (yecch), and graduated high school while Corvairs (of which I had many) were still being produced. As for maturity, you can see from the thread on other hobbies that Peter Pan and I share philosophies!

 

[Groucho]

18% isn't obsolete yet, my microfiber cloth that hangs from one loop of my Op/Tech strap is 18% gray.

Still 39

Jack Benny would be proud.

Then there was the big (it was probably 2 1/2 ft long and a foot wide) portable computer he was able to bring home from work occasionally. It had a modem that we had to plug the phone into, not the phone line, but the actual old style phone reciever.

BTW, that's called an acoustic modem, if my memory serves. Probably 110 baud, maybe 300. (Today's models are 33,600 baud, or 56,000 baud if you could various trickery done to squeeze more speed out. And broadband is, oh, just a bit faster... out here, we get 10 meg which works out to about 300-400x faster than the fastest dial-up model! And yes, I do really get those speeds.)

And if you want to talk video games I have 2600's all models even the sears version an original PONG and the coleco version. A coleco with the smurfs cart in the box! Atari 5200 Atari 7800 Atari Jaguar with CD. Nintendos up to the cube and Segas up to the Sega cd.
Joysticks did I mention joysticks oh lord I got cases of the the darn things LOL

Sounds somewhat similar to me, though I have fewer duplicates... two Atari Lynxes, TurboGrafx/16 and TurboDuo (still my all-time favorite console), an NES somewhere, Atari 2600 (my wife's), and probably a couple others. I was really into the Atari computers mostly... modern stuff is a GBA, PSP, PS2, and 2.5 Xboxes (bought for dirt cheap recently, primarily for use with Xbox Media Center, and I will probably pick up another soon.)

Back in the late '70s, my father decided to bring home an Atari 400 instead of a VCS (later known as the 2600) and that's how it all began for me. It had a whopping 8k of memory and a cassette drive - but already, it has 128 colors and 4-channel sound, enough to completely shame pretty much anything else at the time. We later got an 800XL and a 130XE - these had 256 colors and were really amazing computers. My 130XE is actually still hooked up on a TV behind where I'm typing, bristling with toggles switches (it has 320k, three OSs, and various other hardware mods), and my PC runs a program that emulates a disk drive, so the 130XE thinks that it's actually connected to a real drive. Very slick.

We started with a 300 baud model, eventually going to a 2400 baud by the end. Local BBSs were all the rage and Atari vs Commodore battles were standard (I still say the Atari blew away the Commodore - 1.79 vs 1.0 mHz, 256 vs 16 colors, 4-channel vs 3-channel sound, vastly quicker "smart" disk drives, lots of neat accessories like MIDI... the Commodore couldn't even do full 2400 baud!) I did a bit of programming back then, too.

Later I went with an Atari 1040ST and it was quite good but never quite inspired the love that I have for the original Atari 8bits. I even spent a bit of time working with TOSEC (The Old School Emulation Center) on renaming Atari disk images for organization. Finally I went "serious" and got a custombuilt (from an ad in Computer Shopper) Pentium 90, 8 megs, 700 meg hard drive, 2 meg video card, 24.4 modem, etc... pretty high-end for the time, I had to take out a loan for $2,300 to pay for it!

And if you want to talk old online services... we were CompuServe (or Compu$erve as we called it) subscribers for many years, I still have their magazine that talks about the brand-new picture format they came up with called "gif" (graphics interchange format in case you didn't know, and it is pronounced with a soft "g", like "jif"). I actually still have tractor-feed dot-matrix printouts of WDW information that my Dad printed out years ago when researching it on a CompuServe SIG (special interest group - the "forum" of the day.) Later we went with GEnie for a while. The first real ISP I used was Netcom, as in username@ix.netcom.com.

I guess I never touched the original question... I'm 36 for a couple more months but people who meet me usually think I'm younger (ukcatfan's wife chopped a good 10 years off my age - I said that when I was that age, I still had all my hair!), people who talk to me on the computer often think I'm older. I spent most of the '90s listening to oldies stations, I love old-time comedy (Buster Keaton is a god to me, and obviously Groucho Marx too - I still think Groucho was the funniest guy ever to walk the planet), and still regularly listen to Jack Benny radio shows, listen to Cab Calloway and Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson, read biographies of WC Fields, George Burns, etc... and if I hit it rich suddenly, one of the first things I'd buy would be a Stanley Steamer or similar steam-powered 80+-year-old car.

Photography-wise, I do remember that my first camera had the 4-use flash bulb on it... I also had a Disc camera and Kodak's short-lived instant camera. (Being in Rochester, it was pretty much mandatory to go with Kodak whenever possible!) Like with other things, I have an appreciation for the older stuff, and just recently picked up a 47-year-old Pentax SLR with four lenses, which I still need to get some good photos of to post (and finish the roll of film that I put in it!) I do love that I can take these decades-old lenses and mount 'em right on my brand-new DSLR, marrying the old and the new.

 

[matthew_hull]

OMG, this thread reminded me of an old game the geeks could play in a back room of the high school on an old unused Wang computer. This was back in the PET, Trash-80 and C64 days. Anyway, it was a text-based Star Trek game where you would flit about trying to find the klingons and "shooting" them with photon torpedos. There was no movement, no graphics, no sound -- just text commands typed at the command line, and "ASCII art" for the user-interface. Man, that was an age ago.

Anyway, these days we have the Internet, and Google, and brave souls who have kept the flame of these old computer games alive, and Google found it for me. I haven't seen this game since high school, but I was able to find it, download it, install it, and play it within a few minutes. Man, this brings back some memories! If interested, the golden link was: http://almy.us/sst.html

Thanks for jogging my "old" memory!

This was fun looking back at all the post and watching the times progress.

I remember the lunar lander game it was on a CPM Rainbow computer I used to play with.

Now I still have a timex sinclair in the box with the expansion pack a vic 20 a commodore 64 and a 128 with both tape drives and floppy drives a BETA vcr hooked to a commodore monitor no less LOL.

And if you want to talk video games I have 2600's all models even the sears version an original PONG and the coleco version. A coleco with the smurfs cart in the box! Atari 5200 Atari 7800 Atari Jaguar with CD. Nintendos up to the cube and Segas up to the Sega cd.
Joysticks did I mention joysticks oh lord I got cases of the the darn things LOL

I had intended to make a video game museum and have been collecting for years. I guess now with the digital camera I have excuse as to why I dont start cataloging all this stuff.

Oh and I still have blue army men!

Guess this should have gone under other hobbies I just forget sometimes all the stuff thats put away till you guys jog my memory LOL

 

[JR6ooo4]

Old enough to remember 8-Track tapes and only-three-channels-on-the-black-and-white-TV.

~YEKCIM-the-Ancient

We were in the chicago tv area so we had 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11. then UHF came a round and we bought a converter at the flea market for the two TVs. Put the TV on three and turn the dial on the converter.

Funny you should mention SMB - I was rockin' out to "Fly Like An Eagle" on CD on the way to work this morning. Ain't nothin' like 70's classic R&R, regardless of the recording medium! If anyone disagrees with that, I'll bonk you with my cane!

~YEKCIM-the-Ancient

tell me about it. I just ripped all my old CDs to my library. something like 30 hours of music. Now I have to do all the vynil!!! That will take a little longer.

Your first computer had a Hard Drive....

LUCKY

I just turned 40

I remember Remote controls were called "clickers"
My first VCR had a WIRED remote
My first internet bill from prodigy was like $200

Ya, My first dial up experience at work, we learned about something call "local long distance". I was dialing out to a number over 8 miles away to get a fast line. And leaving it on because I thought I was on my unlimited local plan... $430 for the first month! CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL!!!

Our first clicker had metal rods of different lengths and would produce different tones. When you pushed the button it snapped a spring loaded hammer striking the each rod. But the on off button was the same tone as the dogs tags, and when she would run through the living room or scratch, the TV woudl turn off!

I also remember wired remotes.

I remember a friend having a garage door opener with no batteries. It was the size of a rubicks cube and had a button that stuck up about an inch or two. then when you pushed the button is was geared to spin a generator enough to create its own electricity!

what else,
gas pumps that did not have enough digits to charge more than 99 cents a gallon. when it went higher than a buck they started charging by the half gallon.

my dad letting me spray the fruit trees with mathalathion(sp) insecticide.

not wearing seatbelts in the back seat

parents bought a brand new ford sedan for $3k

the first calculators that came out with extended functions, like square root and other basics...

lawn darts

wood burning kits - for kids

I am 44 this year and I bought my first grey card one year ago.

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Donny & Marie



Mikeeee

 

[gometros]

OMG, this thread reminded me of an old game the geeks could play in a back room of the high school on an old unused Wang computer. This was back in the PET, Trash-80 and C64 days. Anyway, it was a text-based Star Trek game where you would flit about trying to find the klingons and "shooting" them with photon torpedos. There was no movement, no graphics, no sound -- just text commands typed at the command line, and "ASCII art" for the user-interface. Man, that was an age ago.

Anyway, these days we have the Internet, and Google, and brave souls who have kept the flame of these old computer games alive, and Google found it for me. I haven't seen this game since high school, but I was able to find it, download it, install it, and play it within a few minutes. Man, this brings back some memories! If interested, the golden link was: http://almy.us/sst.html

Thanks for jogging my "old" memory!

Talk about old text based games, anyone remember what game this was an answer to?: XYZZY

 

[matthew_hull]

Ain't Google a wonderful thing?! http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/c_xyzzy.html

Talk about old text based games, anyone remember what game this was an answer to?: XYZZY

 

[jann1033]

We were in the chicago tv area so we had 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11. then UHF came a round and we bought a converter at the flea market for the two TVs. Put the TV on three and turn the dial on the converter.


tell me about it. I just ripped all my old CDs to my library. something like 30 hours of music. Now I have to do all the vynil!!! That will take a little longer.



Ya, My first dial up experience at work, we learned about something call "local long distance". I was dialing out to a number over 8 miles away to get a fast line. And leaving it on because I thought I was on my unlimited local plan... $430 for the first month! CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL!!!

Our first clicker had metal rods of different lengths and would produce different tones. When you pushed the button it snapped a spring loaded hammer striking the each rod. But the on off button was the same tone as the dogs tags, and when she would run through the living room or scratch, the TV woudl turn off!

I also remember wired remotes.

I remember a friend having a garage door opener with no batteries. It was the size of a rubicks cube and had a button that stuck up about an inch or two. then when you pushed the button is was geared to spin a generator enough to create its own electricity!

what else,
gas pumps that did not have enough digits to charge more than 99 cents a gallon. when it went higher than a buck they started charging by the half gallon.

my dad letting me spray the fruit trees with mathalathion(sp) insecticide.

not wearing seatbelts in the back seat

parents bought a brand new ford sedan for $3k

the first calculators that came out with extended functions, like square root and other basics...

lawn darts

wood burning kits - for kids

I am 44 this year and I bought my first grey card one year ago.

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Donny & Marie



Mikeeee

these 3 are all still around, you just might not recognize them due to the yrs of "surgical enhancements" ie Donny somehow developed an unmovable face

 

[figment52]

Well I just had a 25 year class reunion a couple years back if that tells you anything but I remember pascal, Dos, CPM and Hard Drives that had platters bigger than dinner plates

I keep telling them at work though Im too young to be this old LOL

I remember Fortran, punch cards and mainframes that needed a sub floor to keep the air circulating all around the unit so it would not overheat.

My 40th class reunion will be in less than two years, if we have one.

 

[tinkbutt]

I am definitely not that old but have I think three 18% grey cards and know thats what they are for! but I did get these cards from my textbooks while earning my BFA so I should hopefully know what they are!!!I some times believe for my age I am old though I was the only one of my friends who knew that get smart was a tv show first! I also know Girls my age who don't know who Audrey Hepburn is ???(come on girls thank her for the little black dress!!) And I love older tv shows I love lucy, ZORRO ...on and on!!!! when did TV become so crude? now for a disclamer I am 23 and I think that TV is allowing way too much!

I love all the old time ways I bought a Nikon EM (manufactured in 1979) just for the film crank feature!!! but I must say I also bought my Nikon D 70 that same day so I now have two film cameras and one very nice Digital(all Nikon!!!)

 

[whitepearl]

Too Old.. LOL

 

[dr_zero]

I love all the old time ways I bought a Nikon EM (manufactured in 1979) just for the film crank feature!!! but I must say I also bought my Nikon D 70 that same day so I now have two film cameras and one very nice Digital(all Nikon!!!)

Rock on a film girl! and Nikon to boot!

This one sounds like a keeper for you young whipper snappers out there.

Seriously you dont see many younger people shooting film they go straight to digital, when you shoot film you have to get creative and think more about the shots cause you dont want to waste the film LOL.

Congrats on getting some good kit now show us some pics

 

[jbart610]

29 here... atleast for the next two weeks. I remember my first camera was one of those little kodak APS (?) cameras with the flash strip. Nice. A bit different from my D200 and 70-200. But I still have some pictures off of that thing.

Oh, and my first computer... I think it was a Franklin, then an Apple II, then a IIgs with 256K of memory... huge add-in card so we could use Paint, then a no-name Wintel with a Pentium 60 and a 400MB hard drive and a whopping 16MB of RAM. Wow that was huge.