A tangent

I've developed a sudden romantic attachment to film cameras.

It all started in December. I'm in the habit of perusing Craigslist and a few other places for camera deals. I'd been watching for a decent price on a second strobe to complement my SB600 and a fast lens with longer reach than my 50mm 1.8. Late December, I stumbled across a man selling his backup kit - which included a SB25, and 85 1.8. Besides a few other interesting lenses, it included a Nikon F4s (all for $450). I was instantly hooked.

A few weeks later, I went on a film photostroll with the Seattle Flickr Meetup group. While I had a blast with the F4s (and continue to do so), I was intrigued by a pair of photographers with an eclectic collection. Looking back, I realized that all my photography had been with either a simple viewfiner camera or 35mm SLRs. I wanted to explore.

I quickly stumbled across another deal on Craigslist - a Rolleicord IV for $35. Suddenly I was hanging out on APUG, a film photography forum, getting exposed to even more types of cameras - and so many of them were so cheap!

Around that time, Ali expressed an interest in a Polaroid camera. With the demise of 600 film, we found ourselves researching older Land cameras. We eventually went with a 450. The research leading to this choice fueled an interest in rangefinders.

And that leads to my current position - fascinated by rangefinders and rapidly collecting them to try different models. There is a wealth of information on the internet about interesting models. I'm still early in the process of exploring them. More on this coming soon.