I’ve shared the camera that started it all for me; now it’s time to show you a couple of the more unique cameras I own.
This is a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) medium format camera. The leather carrying case is a little rough from years of use, long before I acquired it at the turn of the millennium, but the camera is still a magnificent workhorse.
Unlike Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras, like the Nikon FE2 featured in my last Ode to Film, TLRs have two lenses that serve different purposes. If you recall, an SLR lets you view through the lens via a mirror and prism directing the image to an eyepiece. When you activate the shutter, the mirror moves out of the way to expose the film as the shutter opens, meaning you lose your view of the subject while the film is exposed.
Both lenses on a TLR are the same focal length and mounted to the same focal plane. The top lens bounces the image off a mirror onto a piece of projection glass on the top of the camera. A hood pops up around the viewing glass to protect it from ambient light, allowing you to view the image for composition and adjusting focus.
The bottom lens directs light to the film plane when the shutter is activated. 35mm film cameras typically have a curtain shutter—a series of horizontal leaves at the film plane that retract up—but this camera uses an iris shutter inside the lens. The separate lenses means your view is never interrupted, even during exposure.
Using this camera is just plain fun. Everything is adjusted with levers: thumb rockers on either side of the lens plate adjust focus, aperture and shutter adjustments slide around the lens. Your exposure settings display on a gauge atop the lenses, visible to the photographer while looking at the focus screen.
Between the readings for aperture and shutter speed is a red number. This corresponds to the light value shown on the meter at the side of the camera. The light sensor above the lenses controls the red needle on the light meter, providing a light value reading.
Your film speed setting determines the placement of the light value numbers along the gauge. The corresponding red number on the settings display indicates the shutter speed and aperture combination that will give you a middle grey exposure. It’s a really clever system and works well for a built-in camera meter.
So maybe you’re asking, “other than looking funny and being fun to use, what’s the big deal about this camera?” Well, the medium format film used by this camera offers a considerably larger frame than 35mm. It’s a crude comparison, but if 35mm is equivalent to 20 megapixels, then medium format is 400 megapixels. You can see why some professional photographers still use medium format film, as even the highest grade professional DSLR doesn’t offer such high resolution.
Also, medium format made square frame photos cool way before Instagram.
Green lines added to highlight the size of the film frame.
More of my shoddy digital negative transfers. The fun thing about this collage is you can see the different contrast characteristics for three different types of film. I remember loving that ILFORD HP5 PLUS.
The next camera I’d like to share is very out of the ordinary. The Polaroid SX-70 was released in 1972 and became extremely popular. It looks like it could be a prop from an old science fiction TV show. It collapses, making it very portable, and provides instantly developing images from preloaded cartridges.
To deploy the camera, you grasp the top portion and pull up, revealing the viewfinder section.
Moving your grip to the rear part of the viewfinder, you can pull the camera fully open, revealing the lens and controls.
The camera folds back up just as easily as it opens: push back on the metal support bar and it folds right up. A small red button on the other side of the frame drops the front section, allowing you to load a film cartridge.
The form and function of this camera is enough to make it special, but there’s an amusing bonus: the protective covering on the emulsion prevents the picture from fully curing for a long period of time. This means you can manipulate the images after they spit out the front of the camera, drawing on them with a pointed object.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any examples of my own to share, since the instant developing and sketch-like manipulation made it enjoyable to give the pictures away or post them up on the photoroom corkboard.
Polaroid ceased production of the film cartridges for a long period of time, meaning they were only available on secondary markets at incredibly inflated prices. However, it seems Polaroid has recently restarted production of eight-photo film packs for the SX-70, but the price is still pretty steep. I haven’t tried out the current version of the film, so it’s unknown if the modern chemistry provides the same ability to modify the images.
A modified SX-70 image from WikiCommons
I hope you enjoyed this look at a couple of wonderful cameras that offer a different photography experience. Since I don’t process my own film anymore and the cost of SX-70 cartridges is high, I don’t utilize these cameras anymore. Perhaps I will someday. I especially long to use the medium format again. Pushing the colors and drawing on the image of an SX-70 picture is also a lot of fun.
The next time I’m feeling nostalgic and conjure up another Ode to Film post, I’ll share about how my love of photography transitioned into the realm of cinematography.
