Bob Locher Loc: Southwest Oregon

Back in the "Good Old Days" when I started, serious photography used cut film holders and darkslides. A portable camera was a Graflex. $500 US was enough to buy a good but rather minimal outfit capable of serious work, just like today. Except then $500 was about a quarter of the price of a new car.
We have come so very far since then.
Cheers
Bob Locher

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Through the '70's, '80's and '90's I used a Nikkormat and yes, it was simple. The ASA (ISO) was "fixed" per film roll so taking a shot required attention to only speed, aperture and focusing...all easily adjusted with a twist of the wrist. When I digitized my old slides a few years ago, about a third were a little over- or under-exposed, blurred from a slow speed/low light or suffered from high contrast areas. On my Nikon DSLR, I would say less than 10% of my digital shots suffer the same problems and they are easily adjusted in Photoshop. I agree manufacturers seem in a race to offer more adjustments and menu items with each year's model no doubt counting on GAS to keep sales up. Think about it; my Nikkormat was pretty much state-of-the-art for 30 years and now we feel obligated to purchase a new model every 4 or 5 years just to to "keep up" with technology advances. I've probably adjusted/set up about 50% of my DSLR's menu items and settings; the rest I'll probably never touch. I wonder how many menu items and setting are ignored by even the professionals?

bookman Loc: Southeast Michigan

I bought my first camera BECAUSE it was all manual - Canon F1. The tide was just starting to turn to cameras that were electronic this and automatic that. I wanted to learn photography from the ground up. Still have the F1 sitting forlornly in my closet.

Ancientdave

A shot with a 40 year old Canon 7 with film dated 2008, developed in the bathroom, scanned with an Epson V550 and shot by a 91 year old photographer 2019

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Back in the day I wanted an F1 Canon, great system for it, could never afford it, oh well, I'm passed wanting one now, always preferred Canon to Nikon.

Bongoman

I agree 100percent,I also usually keep my digital cameras on manual a good portion of the time I'm shooting.film cameras are still my Passion!!!!

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

There was little to understand. Aperture shutter speed and ISO. Know how those three were going to interact, frame and focus and your shot would come out (when you got your slides back from the drugstore.) I like the Fuji cameras for that same simplicity. They can be automatics like all the others, but they can also be as simple as my old FM. All the controls are on the body, no menus necessary once you have the camera set up. You can use the little meter in the viewfinder to expose, just like you did in the fM. Only difference is you can, with the Fuji, set any ISO you want, which you couldn't with the FM.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Technocricy has no bounds. Agree and there is "the magic" of knowing how to make a good photograph, no matter what camera you have, knowledge acquired, film and those "simple cameras" made photographers out of many of us. The cool part, once you understand how the modern cameras work, that knowledge is still "golden"!

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I wish you had checked Download Original so we could see the tonality.

n4jee Loc: New Bern, NC

Ahh yes, the good old days;
Having a 36 exposure roll of Kodachrome ASA 32 in the camera and needing Tri-X for the shot I wanted.
Trying to apply the Zone System to roll film when it was designed for sheet film.
Making 8-10 prints, individually dodging and burning to get the print just right.

It's tough being able to set the ISO to any thing we want on a frame by frame basis. To set the camera to take 3 different exposures that can be combined in post processing (or right in the camera in some cases.) To be able to "Undo" in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Yes, I remember the good old days. I have a Kodak Baby Brownie Special (1st camera) Kodak Pony 135 (2nd camera) and Argus C44 (3rd camera and high school graduation present.) They all remind me of the good old days.

JHC-NOLA Loc: New Orleans

Yes indeed, I remember the good old days of no batteries or electronics on cameras and hand held light meters where you actually had to think about every shot you took. Since my light meter was an old Weston selenium cell unit and not a CdS meter, even it didn't have a battery. I also have many fond memories of the anticipation of seeing your image appear in the darkroom.

However, I still feel you can't beat being to see your images instantly on the camera monitor, and sometimes only minutes later on a computer monitor. I still use several of my old, pre-digital Nikkor lenses, so I always shoot in either manual of aperture modes. One of the things I like best about digital photography is the flexibility of being able to change ISO (remember ASA!) instantly.

rabbitslayer Loc: NW Iowa

I purchased an Agfa sillette from Air Force bx in1961, took many rolls of slide films up until about 1973. When the flash triggering device inside the camera quit working I foolishly removed the lens assembly to try and repair it. I ruined the lens assembly in the process, a local photo shop said it would cost around $150.00 to repair it. Money was tight then and I only paid $35.00 for it so I kept it around till a few years ago when I threw it away. I regret that now, what’s done is done. I got a slide scanner for Christmas so I’ve got all my slides in the cloud now. The years have either faded the colors or I just made a lot of lousy shots. It is nice to review shots with my dslr, but getting films back from developers was like opening a Christmas present.

rabbitslayer Loc: NW Iowa

PS, I didn’t have a light meter, so all my shots were by guess and by gosh.

dick ranez

When my son was young and playing hockey, I would come home from a game with a roll or two of exposed film, wait a day or two to have them processed and then find one or two "keepers" from the envelope. My grandson played in an all star little league game last night, I came home with a sd card with nearly 200 pictures, spent several hours combing through them --- and found one or two "keepers". Ahhhh, progress!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Every time I do that pick up an old camera routine, I’m reminded why I don’t use it any more!

Bits beat atoms about 15 years ago for me.