Friday, January 21, 2011

My First Serious Camera

My first serious camera was the Zeiss-Ikon Supercontaflex, a hand-me-down from my father.  I had an Agfa rangefinder before the Zeiss that I had to use a separate  light-meter and telemeter.  I can no longer remember what it looked like.

I had Super-Contaflex model, but same looks as the picture, though.  It was a consumer grade camera that competed very successfully against the very expensive Leica M2 and M3.

The Contaflex was a very interesting camera and I believe the first of its kind. It was an SLR, with a leaf shutter, and  without an up-and-down or rapid return  mirror. Therefore, only the front element could be interchanged. The advantages were a smaller and quieter SLR. The main disadvantage was that the lenses focal length ranged from 35mm - 115mm. 

The Zeiss Tessar 50mm f/2.8  was a very sharp lens.  I used to blow the slides up on a massive screen and they never lost resolution.  On the other hand, when I "upgraded" to the Canon A1 and AE1 system, in the mid 70's, the photos taken with the Canon 50mm f/1.4 , projected on the same screen, lost resolution, they were not as sharp, and the color rendition was not the same. 

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Purpose and Reason for My Blog

I really do not know why anyone but me is interested in reading my blog,  on a regular basis, because it is a very self-centered collection of ramblings.  I think of it as my "Electronic Diary." In addition, I do not believe that I'm qualified enough to present meaningful and objective reviews.  

The real purpose for my blog existence is twofold. Firstly, I use it as my home page.  I have all my links that I can access from my main computer, Netbook, or any other computer away from home. Lastly, it is the place I write articles or explanations of what I do and the reasons for it.  I always refer to my blog's articles when I participate in the different forums.  In this way, I only have to write it once and above all, I will not go off-topic in the other forums.