My cameras

The fully manual years

My first camera ever was an Olympus OM-1, circa 1975. I enjoy this camera, because I bought it from my electromagnetic fields II teacher for only $75. With that, I got a 28-105mm Kalimar lens, plus a 75-150mm "telephoto" and a 35mm close-up (f-stop 2.8!).

This camera is great for taking good nature shots, and occasionally artsy shots, because I don't want to lose it, but it wouldn't break the bank if I dropped it on the ground, or it fell down a cave shaft.

This camera is currently "on loan" to my sister, Arielle. Where's your webpage of pictures, Arielle?

If you want to know more about this camera, please check out The Classic Camera.

Now, automatic capabilities!

My wife bought this little job for me for Christmas 2001. I really wanted a Pentax, because I used my parent's Pentax in Europe and was really pleased with the results.

Not only was I pleased with the results, but a little imaginative thinking, and you guessed right...I can use my parents' lenses with this little jewel. Score, Jon!

Basically, this is a fully automatic camera, that can be fully manualized if I want it to be (yes, manualized is a word)(no, not a word in the dictionary).

Current Lenses

	Pentax SMCP-FA 28-105mm f/4.0-5.6. This little jewel is a great all-purpose lens. With a minimum focusing distance of around 19 inches, this little baby has all you could want (given you have high-speed film).
	Pentax SMCP-FA 50mm f/1.4. Wow. This lens totally rules. With an f/1.4, I can shoot my Velvia ISO-50 rated at ISO-40 in just about any light.
	Pentax SMCP--A 135mm f/2.8. I bought this lens on ebay.com for $5 and paid $6 in shipping. However, it was worth 10 times what I paid for it. Super low-light ability, plus manual focus gives me incredible power over the focal length, since the degree of turn for the focus is around 270 degrees.
	No name 500mm with Pentax mount. This is great for supershots, and super zoom effects. Optical magnification something around 8X, unfortunately with a minimum focus distance of around 25 ft, this is a great lens for getting up close to wildlife, or the tops of buildings. With the "lightest" f-stop of 8, though, you'd better hope your subject sits still.
	Fish-eye attachment. For $39.95, I ordered a fish-eye "wanna-be" that fits on the front of my lens like a filter. Fish-eye look, for 1/10 of the price.

The wondrous ZX-5n. More mechanized than the M, but more controllable than the ZX-7.

My 28-105 FA lens.

My Pentax 50 FA lens

Desired Lenses

	Pentax SMCP-FA 80-320mm f/4.5-5.6 Silver. Need I say more? A great zoom lens, with the ability for an f/5.6 instead of my 500's f/8 (albeit, at less zoom factor).
	Pentax SMCP-FA 28mm f/1.4. For super close-ups, and low-light conditions, it doesn't get any better than this.

Box camera

This was given to my brother by a church member who found it at a yard sale or in their basement or somewhere like that. What a cool camera!

It looks like its from around 1949 or 1950 from what little research I've done. It takes Kodak 620 film, which you can't really buy anymore. So, instead, you can roll you own film onto the Brownie's metal spools (which are probably worth more than the camera, since you can't buy them anymore either). I buy B&W 120 film, and then unroll the entire spool, and roll it back onto the "unexposed" spool for the camera. Each negative is around 60mm x 60 mm (roughly 4 times the size of a 35mm negative).

The major disadvantage, though, is that I have only one aperture, and one exposure length (unless I choose the B or bulb setting).

There is much more information on users of Kodak Brownie cameras here.

For more info on the Kodak Brownie, check here

Mine is the one on the left, not on the right (I have nowhere to plug in the flash sync, but instead "have" to use natural light all of the time (hey, you won't find me complaining about that!)

Zörki Rangefinder

I found this little jewel in a used camera shop in Vienna while on my trip through Easter Europe. It was selling for $85 (including a f/2.0 50mm lens) so I snatched it up.

What makes this camera so friggin' awesome is that it takes 38mm screw-mount Leica lenses. Since the most important part of the camera is the glass and not the body, I now have a very (very) cheap way to mount Leica lenses onto a rangefinder. [Translation: I do not have to pay $800 for a Leica rangefinder body-only].