Todays Kit - Are We Spoilt?

it looks like a gun from a old james bond film haha classic, oh and your side burns are amazing

That’ll be a novaflex-pistol grip focus system. Very useful these days in Iraq and Afghanistan, or indeed on the streets of old London town during the changing of the guard !!

brian,

did you take many pictures of the fans on the terraces? there is a lot of interest in that 70’s terrace culture these days,the fashions,haircuts(your own is a fine example :))),etc etc.

dig out those old negs,you can probably flog them somewhere.(and if you covered upton park you might even find a young me being squashed between big fat blokes on the old north bank !)

The gun thing I’ve havent seen before, but is that a Canon FTb camera body? As for the hair, I used to have that hair and sideburns once upon a time; I even had the pet rock too, but I drew the line at the lime green leisure suit. The 70’s: been there, done that, got the t-shirt, dont need to go back to it.

Well, if you get too nostalgic Brian, you can always upgrade today’s stupid kit and pick up right where you left off. http://www.bushhawk.com/

Or go a step further, and have stupid fun with a Fulgurator.

Hi you lot,
Joe …... they ain’t ‘side burns’ .... that was an ultra trendy hair ‘style’ of the time!
Nope Akaky …... it’s not a Canon camera body …...
And Michael …. never did brave the Hammer thugs at Upton Park , but I was a regular target …... darts, coins and any other blunt object … at Millwall’s Den. Also covered Charlton and Crystal Palace and, of course, away games all over the UK.
Won’t comment yet on the lens …. except to say I did have a run in with some very curious members of Bill Clintons security posse at one stage!

Cheers,

brian

Cheers,

Brian

Ok Stupid ….... what the Holy F is that thing????
Brian

A Fulgurator. A camera, backwards. I could really have a LOT of fun with it: http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/fulgurator/doku.html

For starters, it would be superb to fulgurate “STUPID” onto the president’s forehead, during a press conference, thusly:

the camera body looks like many old bodies from the time, reminds me of an old pentax… the lens and pistol grip, I dunno. Too long ago for me! I did start shooting with old equipment though, my first camera was my late grandfather’s Exacta, then I switched to old Pentaxes with manual focus lenses. I shot a lot of gigs and concerts on these. But I dare say Brian is right, after shooting sport with super fast auto focus 600mm lenses, taking pictures with the ease of pressing a button half way to get focus and being able to continually auto focus a fast moving object I couldn’t imagine going back to manual focus to shoot sport, especially really fast moving action.

I guess it’s the same when trying to imagine a world without the internet, email or mobile phones…

c’mon, folks, some “antique” items don’t become obsolete, because there are no replacements.

Rolleiflex TLRs are a good example, as are Widelux panaromic cameras. there’s nothing like them being made today. Both those cameras are part of my regular kit and they get used as much as anything else.

or, on your new Nikon full frame digital cameras, you can mount your 1969 28mm f/2.0 or 1973 35mm f/1.4 lenses and get aperture priority - those lenses are very old at this point but will continue to work well for years to come - and, if Leica perfects digital M cameras, you can be using WW II era Summitars…

as for fast moving action, i dare say that the motor-drive is the more crucial part of the equation rather than manual focusing, which should be no problem if you have a bright focusing screen. and good motor-drives have been around since the early sixties…

Given a motor-driven Nikon F with the the Novoflex lens pictured above, and i’m sure most photographers would do just as well as they would with the newest and latest….

the main improvements to come will continue to be in each new generation of digital sensor. the lenses were essentially perfected by the mid-sixties —faster and faster - until they hit optical laws, at f1.0, depth of field is so shallow that there’s no point in trying to go faster.

Alan…:):):)

‘Looks like a Novoflex to me. A fairly short lens – perhaps a 240mm. If memory serves when the grip was released and “out” it was at minimum focus. Pull it “in” and it went toward infinity. HOnestly, I’m not sure on the body. I’m guessing it’s a Nikon product – perhaps a Nikkormat. It could be a Miranda though. Alan C’s probably got one kicking around somewhere. :-)

I agree with Alan. Few cameras can operate silently and have the quality of the TLR. I reguarly shoot a speedgraphic.

Yeah Guys …... it’s a Novoflex squeeze focus ….. and the body is a Minolta SRT101. (yes Stupid … as in the Fulgarator!). I used to get really worn out actually ‘winding on’ between each frame …...... and squeezing the grip to obtain focus. At various times I had 200mm, 300mm, and laterly a 400mm with interchangeable head to 600mm and 1.5 and 2x teleconverters. If you used them constantly as i did for years and years it was amazing how quick you could instinctively focus accurately. Of course no motor drive so your one shot had to be sharp. I couldn’t possibly have done sport in those days using conventional manual focusing lens …. the Novoflex’s were tops! (as were the SRT101’s ….... I wore out three of them!).
I’ve still got the 400/600 etc but it now sits in humidity cabinet in retirement. It’s one claim to fame was really pissing orf Bill Clinton’s security when he was playing golf in Port Douglas Australia. They literally pounced on me when I pointed it at the President ….. and I had to take it apart in front of them to prove there wasn’t a projectile inside!!!
Eventually changed the Minolta’s for Nikon FM2’s etc – which of course still needed the use of your thumb!
Interestingly Alan I do still have a Widelux …... wanna buy one !!!!

Brian

good stuff - but FM2 had a very decent motor drive - the MD-12. in which i replaced the 8 heavy AA batteries in it with 4 lithium CR2s, made it very lightweight…

the problem is that it’s loud, with that distinctive motorized noise. last-generation film cameras like the F100 are a lot quieter and faster with their motors….

Oh Yeah Alan …. it’s coming back to me now why I ditched the worn out SRT’s and went over to Nikon. YOU”RE SO RIGHT!! !!!!!!!
The MD12’s (a slight temporary alcoholic fog obscured their vast significance).
Yup … I didn’t need that pesky thumb anymore …. my apologies ….. delete the line above which says “which of course still needed the use of your thumb!”.
Magic beasts … but please refresh my memory … how fast did they really advance the frame rate??

Brian

the FM with a MD12 has a frame rate of 3 or 3.5 fps, not as fast as a F3 with the MD4 that could get up to 4 or 4.5 fps, but cheaper and smaller and lighter.

You know what that thing really is? It’s a reason for a Secret Service guy/ cop/ security guard/soldier/heavily armed Third World militiaman looking for an excuse to shoot you full of holes first and ask questions about your intentions afterwards to act on their gut instincts. It’s definitely not something you would want to bring to an official function.

You could easily make the Fulgarator look less gun-like and more camera-like, I think….does it really need that pistol grip?!?

That said, agree with Akaky….”oh!....that was just some gizmo he was pointing, not a gun…so sorry!” And the inquiry results include the word “justifiable”...

Brian…great shots from the archive! That image as your profile pic speaks volumes :)

No argument out of me for making the Fulgurator as invisible as possible. Lose the crappy gun association altogether and it will have some seriously stupid applications!

Andrew …... Hi …... not quite sure how to take this …..........
“Brian…great shots from the archive! That image as your profile pic speaks volumes :) “

....and Akaky ….. yeah … the lens in the pic was bad enough and asking for it ….. but you should see the big one with the 600mm head!! Nice big missile launcher!!

Brian

Brian – sorry, meant entirely as a compliment – when I saw that shot I got this instantaneous feeling of looking at someone who has seen and photographed many things, in many situations…

And the “shot” should have been singular :)

best,
A.

......most of us have to be content playing paintball instead

What ever happened to the bright eyed young snapper with hope in his heart and a replica missle launcher on his shoulder , again a sign of more innocent times ,when if something looks like an rpg ,it probably was’nt.

oh happy day… too young to remember this… :P