Nikon Nikkormat FT

The workhorse. My third SLR was a Nikon Nikkormat, so was my fourth, fifth and sixth.

Nikon Nikkormat - the workhorse

In fact I used Nikkormat cameras from when I bought the first one in 1973 to when I decided to go digital in 2002.

I was hooked on the Nikkormat the first time one of my friends from the Geelong Camera Club let me use his briefly. The view finder was much brighter than the SLR I was using at the time and the prints were sharper.

Over the next 29 years I wore out several bodies, replacing them when they couldn’t be repaired economically. I usually had two Nikkormat bodies in my camera bag, a black one for black and white film and a silver one loaded with colour.

Nikon made the Nikkormat FT from 1965 to 1967, then the FTn from 1967 to 1975. I had examples of both over the years.

I now have 6 large ring binders of negatives, all taken with a Nikon Nikkormat. My favourite camera of all time.

Petri FT

The Petri FT was my first SLR and my third camera.  I had been using an Agfa rangefinder for a while and was now interested enough in photography to want to start developing and printing my own black and white images. And it seemed that to be a serious photographer, I had to have an SLR.

Petri FT - my first SLR

I had no idea about SLRs, I had no one to ask and very little information available. I had been working for about 18 months in Melbourne and had saved some money so I started going to the camera stores.

One camera store was advertising ‘the perfect camera for the new photographer’, a Petri FT – $95. So I bought it. And so began years of learning to develop film, print images, mix chemicals, build darkrooms, enter competitions, trying to get better, disappointments, great expense and eventually going digital. And along the way I have met some fun and talented people.

The Petri is a Japanese camera. The company began making SLRs in the late ’50s and the Petri FT went into production in 1967. I bought mine in 1970, probably at the end of the production run. The company brought out several other FT models (FTE, FT EE, FT II) before going bankrupt in 1978.

It had a couple of odd features: the shutter release was on the front of the body and angled at 45 degrees but it worked well when you got used to it. That large lever beside the shutter release is the depth of field control, press it back to stop down the lens to check the depth of focus. I have never seen one like that before or since.

The Petri FT wasn’t a high quality camera, it was on a par with the early Praktika and Yashica SLRs, but it got me started on a life-long journey of taking pictures and producing my own prints.

Zorki 10

Continuing my interest in Russian cameras…

My Zorki 10 arrived today. I bought it from a man in Bulgaria, via eBay. The internet is a wonderful place.

Zorki 10

The Zorki 10 was a major depature from the norm for the Zorki people. The earlier models had been heavily based on the German Leica rangefinders. For this model they used a Japanese rangefinder camera for inspiration, the Ricoh.

The Zorki 10 was made from 1964 until 1978. It features an odd shutter release (the black handle to the left of the lens) and the film advance leaver is on the bottom of the body (just visible below and to the right of the lens). Once again it is a solid, heavy camera, no cheap plastic for the Russians.

Alfred Klomp’s camera site has some more information about the Zorki 10.

Zorki 4

So that I don’t end up with a cupboard overflowing with cameras, I set tight limits on my non-collecting. To get into the cupboard a camera has to be one I have owned, or one I would like to have owned, a camera I used in my brief professional career, a camera owned by a member of my family or one given to me by a friend.

The first camera to break this rule was the Zorki 4, but there is a reason. One camera I have always wanted to own is a Leica III. But they were and still are out of my price range. While reading about them one day, I came across the post war, Soviet-era Russian copies, mostly from Zorki and Fed. These sparked my interest, so I am contemplating becoming a collector of Zorki and Fed cameras. This Zorki 4 was also the first item I purchased from eBay.

Zorki 4

The Zorki was made by the KMZ factory in a suburb of Moscow. The factory began producing cameras heavily based on pre-war Leicas just after the Second World War. The Zorki 4 was made from 1956 to 1973 and more than 1.7 million were produced, according to the Guide to Russian and Soviet Cameras by J. L Princelle.

From what I can work out, my camera was produced somewhere in the late 1960s. It is a classic rangefinder with a few quirks. It’s heavy and solid, made out of serious metal, not plastic. I think they made them out of war-surplus T-34 tanks. The shutter and the shutter speed dial are interconnected, so you have to cock the shutter before setting the shutter speed.

The old Zorki has had quite a few films through it over the years but it is still in good working order. There are a few wear marks on the body and a scuff on the front lens element but apart from that all is good.

Reviewers have claimed that the images from the Zorki and the other Russian Leica copy, the FED, were as good as an image from a Leica.

And the Zorki has the added advantage of a Leica-compatible screw mount lens, so there is no reason why you can’t put a Summicron on the front of it.

I can’t afford a genuine pre-war Leica, but a Zorki isn’t a bad substitute.

My Grandfather’s Camera

This is one of my favourite cameras in my small cupboard collection. It is a Kodak Number 2 Folding Autographic Brownie.

It also completes cameras owned by three generations of my family and represents the first of three generations of popular Kodak entry-level cameras owned by my family.

My Grandfather's Kodak folding Brownie

Kodak made the Autographic Brownie from 1915 to 1926. But based on the changes to the design over time, my grandfather’s camera was made between 1917 and 1919.

As grandad spent the years from late 1914 to October 1918 at Gallipoli, and in Palestine, Egypt and France, my guess is that he bought this camera just after he returned home.

My Father’s Camera

This is the first camera I got my hands on and it is the first camera I took a picture with; of my toy soldiers all lined up in battle order if I remember correctly. Or it could have been of the cat. And it is the first camera to take a photograph of me.

My father's Kodak Brownie 'C'

I remember playing with the camera as a child (very carefully and under supervision, of course). I was fascinated by the dim images in the viewing screens. Because the camera took 6cmx9cm negatives  on 620 film, it could take an image in either portrait or landscape format and had a viewing screen for each one (the two little portholes above the lens). It was virtually impossible to make out any detail unless the subject was bathed in bright sunlight.

This camera is the start of my photographic story. I took my first photo with this corroded old piece of family history.

Kodak made the Brownie ‘C’ from 1946 to 1957. In 1953 the design of the front plate changed slightly, making my father’s camera a pre-1953 model. In fact, judging by some of the photos, he certainly owned it in 1949, so it is an earlier model. It still has its original canvas carry case, although the strap has broken.

My First Camera

Let me be clear about this. I am not a collector. I just happen to have one or two cameras that aren’t currently being used. So, OK, maybe more than one or two.

Most of these have just turned up over the years, family members have handed over a few because they know I like cameras. Some I have owned and kept when they were no longer used. Unfortunately, some of the ones I wished I still had were traded in when I upgraded. If I see one of the lost ones on ebay or in a junk shop, I sometimes adopt them and put them in the cupboard.

Kodak Instamatic 25 - my first camera

This Kodak Instamatic 25 was my first camera. Kodak built them between 1966 and 1972. I received mine as a Christmas present from my parents in 1967. I would like to think that mum and dad were trying to nurture my budding photographic talent, but I think dad was just tired of me ‘borrowing’ his box Brownie when he wasn’t looking and using all his film.

It came in a box with a plastic lid (not unlike a shirt box) along with the strap (not attached to the body), a film cartridge (126 format), a flash cube, an extender to raise the flash cube above the camera and a small instruction book.

It has two shutter speeds: full sun and shade/flash. Apart from the film advance, the only other control is the shutter release.

I put a lot of films through this camera, I think I still have them all. It is hard to explain to people of the current generation, but cameras weren’t that common in the ’60s and ’70s. Very few of my friends families had cameras, and I don’t think any of my close friends did.

I consider myself to be very fortunate to have been given a camera so early and to have had a chance to find out how much I liked making pictures.