Monday, September 28, 2009

Starting my vintage camera collection

I started fooling around with photography around 1992-93 and had real gung-ho aspirations to be a photographer since then. I inherited an old Yashica SLR from my father and went shooting with my buddies Romeo, Disney and Kelly.

*Not the exact Yashica but a photo from Wikipedia

I remember we all had old cameras and mine would always jam up, and finally on a climb to Mt. Kinabalu, it finally gave up on me and the mirror never came down..it was stuck for good.

So I requested, I think for my birthday, for a camera from my sister, who gave me a 2nd hand Canon SLR.

*again, not the exact Canon. Mine had an all black body.

I think I only managed to use it once for a body-building competition at Kiulu, then the same problem happened, the mirror got jammed. This time it was sent to a technician to be fixed but it really conked out.

I was without a SLR camera for a long long time, till I got my first DSLR in 2008, a Nikon D200.


Coming to Australia has it downs for me, not being able to work in my chosen field of Photojournalism. The pros is, however, endless. I can now shoot without pressure to deliver to my editor or client.

I was chatting online with fellow Sabahan, Flanegan Bainon, who is in Melbourne studying Photography and he told he had started collecting vintage cameras. I found that really interesting and kept an eye out for old cameras at thrift stores and garage sales.

This is my first vintage camera I bought at the Salvation Army store. It cost me AUS$15.00. The Minolta Hi-Matic G was made in 1974, the year I was born, and still works. There was still a roll of film inside when I got it. I changed the battery and the meters went 'alive'! I think I got a good buy.













4 comments:

Ekanthapadhikan said...

Very interesting. I can very well relate to your desire that you had for an SLR. I'm at the stage that you were when you were still without an SLR.

I too am interested in vintage cameras but haven't thought about collecting them.

Wendell D. Gingging said...

Hi ekan, ya..i think i am not at that stage actively looking for cameras, but the kind thats 'oh..an old camera' when and if I see it.

Rozy said...

Vintage cameras are great! I too have only started my collection last year. The only downside to shooting with film is that it's so expensive! Not only is the film expensive, the developing costs are a pain! I still love them tho!

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