Learning Photography In The '70s! 

Dear FRIEND: I've only just got started viewing this weeks video offering, BUT let me say THANK YOU! I was learning the "Art and Science" of Photography 📸 nearly 18 years earlier then you, BUT every one of the "Basic Principles" were the SAME ! And, for folks like us, "Photography", REAL, GENUINE PHOTOGRAPHY 📸 will always be something very special! It is sad, but young folks today will never get the Thrill we did when, after a few days, or even a full week, we got our developed film and "Prints" back from the "Lab" tore open that sealed envelope and started ooh and aaw ing at the results! That print of Grandfather with his fishing pole in hand! (The one that turned out to be THE very last photo anyone had the chance to take of him because he died, very suddenly soon after.) Or the "snap-shot" of your best friend sharing an ice cream cone with the Gal that eventually became his wife of 50 years!!!! All those golden memories that come flooding back whenever I start thinking 🤔 about; "What it was like, way back then!" With camera, flash, film and notebook. To this day, and I'm now in my 70's, that "Thrill" remains pretty special. Today? With a "Digital Image Capture" device built into every smart phone? And the ability to VIEW that "captured image" immediately? Well........ It's just NOT THE SAME. And, to be honest? I sometimes wish such "Technology" was never invented OR that it had remained so EXSPENSIVE as to be rare and almost unheard of among "the masses"! So, my Friend: THANK YOU just for bring back these wonder and precious Memories of what "GENUINE PHOTOGRAPHY" was and still is. Something very special. An Art and Craft to be practiced only by us, very special People.

I learn photography in 1972 when I started my first job with a film company I learnt on a Nikon F and a Pentax spotmatic, Later in the mid 70's I was taught lighting by a great British cinematographer. As the company I worked for mainly made movie films

I'm 74 and started my photography in the seventies with yashica, I had this camera for quite a few years and learned a lot about photography from it. Fast forward and I upgraded to a minolta 7000, a very different camera to the yashica, electronics abound, top lcd screen that gave you you more information than you were ever used to. Then I migrated to nikon cameras, an f801, was totally blown away by it, but digital was on the horizon, I held off for as long as I could, but I finally succumbed to this new technology,, Now I fully embrace it, I'm still with nikon but have gone from a nikon d50 to nikon d80 to nikon d7000 to nikon d7200 to nikon d700 to nikon d4 and finally think i have arrived at my destination with the d4, I have tried mirroless cameras as in the fujifilm x-e1 and x-t2 but for me the d4 is my go to camera. Over the years I have gone through all the years of camera technology and embraced it all, but the d4 has it all for me

A Zenith EM with the Helios 44-2 was mine. Bought new for £36 from a camera shop in Sunderland, sometime in the early 80s. I heard it bounce down the road when it fell out of my rucksack one day cycling to school. Picked it up, wound it on and took a shot. All good! Loved that camera.

New to vintage lens photography,this has got to be the best videos for this subject,fantastic.

Nice story. Well done. I still shooting with old filmcamera's today. I link shooting on the old fashion way nicer then digital.

Ha Ha - same story for me, but a Zenith B with hand-held meter. Bought in in 1972 when I was 16, from Brody & Hicks. I had to save up for it from my after school job, sweeping up in Littlewoods, Romford. As you say, it gave a great understanding of f stops, shutter speed and focal length once I got a 135mm Helios portrait lens. Set up a darkroon in the bathroom for b&w printing. The camera came with a great book by Ronald Spillman, a press photographer, with lots of tips for budding snappers like me. Now I use film-era lenses on my Sony bodies in Manual mode so I'm still using the skills.

I was 21 in '71 and had just started my life as a dental lab tech. I bought a Konica Autoreflex T. ( 50mm f-1.8 ) Still have that camera. I shot as much as I cared to process. Should have learned more about it. I had been shooting with my dads little Kodak Bantam. It was 828 roll film and was fully mechanical. Hooray for sunny 16 rule. The Konica had an EE setting but I played with F stop management and learned by the seat of my mistakes. Great fun back then. I recorded the story of my life with that one camera. I will never willingly let go of it. At one point my wife and I were ordering 50 rolls of film at a time from Kodak. That is almost hard to believe. I miss the time of shooting like that,

I too learned then - used a Zenit E.

for me photography begun with a 110 camera age 14 1974 which my uncle bought me for my birthday soon moved onto 35mm film. with I think it was called a Patri 500 SLR which was about as heavy as a set of weights ha ha and a 50mm lens but I learned a lot from that camera. happy days we now have Sony and Fugi to keep us busy with our interest.......

Another charming episode. I so enjoy your approach, research and presentation - and that relaxing voice! My memories of my past photo equipment are strong. Ansel Adams "Natural Light Photography" gave great guidance that I still apply in digital imaging.

Great memories. I started with my dad's Zenit-E (not sure of the lens). I'm sure he got it from Grattan's catalogue. Then quite a few years later I moved on to a Practika I got from my brother in Law. I've moved on a fair bit since then (Minolta, Nikon and now Fujifilm) but those early days were so good as a learning experience.

It is sad that many of the camera manufacturers and lens brands mentioned are unfortunately “extinct”! I am happy to see Praktica, Pancolar, Helios, FED, Kiev mentioned here. But my sharpest lens is the Zeiss Tessar 50 mm f2.8 and this manufacturer/brand has thankfully survived!

Great episode, thanks for that

I still use my Praktica MTL5B to this day. It is an absolute workhorse and almost indestructible. Sure, it's missing one or two electronic features but that never bothered me. Good video, thank you very much.

H Ngel Thanks for a great personal insight.

I can’t imagine why anybody should say ‘stop wasting film’ as a justification for this video. If you don’t waste it you don’t learn photography. What does accumulating knowledge mean to scientists or photographers, other than it means 99% of the things you experiment with won’t have any worth until it stops being an experiment and you start working with the knowledge you’ve accumulated.

Brilliant… started with a Zenith B and Helios lens in 1975 (new at £57)… did bits but only started again last year .. Have the Sony A7 and XT-1 plus vintage lenses … such fun 👍👍👍

Great shot, it's an Austin Allegro!!

Thank you for another fabulous and interesting episode which every week l look forward to watching. I am from a similar position with my outlook to photography from which l had my first camera on my 13th birthday in 1965 being a Kodak Brownie 127 film size, l was hoping for a 35mm camera from Boots the Chemist when at the time they used to sell the Beirette, which l eventually had a year later. After leaving school in 1968 l had a SLR which l thought was the Bees knees being the Zenith 3M with the Industar 50m f3-5. This as my starting point in this great hobby and my interest even in today's market have not dwindled since. I still go out with my digital camera on a regular basis and try to keep in touch with the modern techniques. By the way l have a small collection of classic cameras which l can not be separated from.

WOW! That looks like Wythenshawe Hall at 2 09 min...

Kind of surprised we didn't go full circle and end up with the Leica Q3

Nigel In the 1970's I too preferred 400 film Mainly Kodak it was more forgiving than 200 film. I remember when 1500 film came out it had just came out when I photographed the Sistine Chapel with 1500 film and I still have the pictures all these years later something you can no longer photograph

I know you're a Fujifilm fan so I'm surprised you've never tried an X-Pro. My X-Pro1 is on paper pretty much the same as my X-T1 but in use they are a very different experience.

good

anyone who drove an Allegro is OK in my book 🙂

Was the image at 11.42 of a younger you?

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I started slightly later with my trusty old Fed 3 with a Jupiter 8 50/2. I knew the 'sunny sixteen' rule and how to set the shutter speed at 1/125th - and leave it there! That was it. There were no photographers in my family. I knew nothing about depth of field or bokeh. Luckily my hometown was regularly overcast with intermittent sunshine so my aperture was almost always between f5.6 and f11. As a 19 year old, I did what most guys do when they start using a new piece of kit, I didn't bother reading anything about the process/instructions. My pal bought himself a Zenit TTL with a Helios 44m lens - a complete eye-opener but I couldn't afford one. He actually took a photograph of me using my Fed 3 - it's a cherished memory from 1981. 10 years later I was using a Pentax K1000. 😊 Here I am now with a Sony A7ii, a Fujifilm Xe3, a Sigma DP2 and over a hundred vintage lenses. Thanks for all the lens tests and your backstory.

Left on a hillside by the former Mrs Z?

Urotherapy for longevity! Grow younger, and do lense reviews forever!!!

Unfortunately photography will eventually die out, with the way Ai is going.