Documentary photography and communications.

Film & Chemistry

I started photography in the 1960s when it was still possible to buy glass plates. For practical reasons we all used film. 35mm was a bit grainy and poor quality, so those of us who were serious soon learnt to move up to cameras that took 120 film.

As a schoolboy on pocket money, I acquired this 120 folder. Nobody really wanted these cameras anymore. You had to wind on the film using numbers on the backing paper, guess the exposure, focus by estimating the distance, and cock the shutter. My old Zeiss Nettar is about the same quality as a Rolleicord, which is pretty good. It has all the controls the thinking photographer could desire.

It has has a flash socket to connect studio flash plus a depth of field scale, things many cameras today are not equipped with. It does not have autofocus, or a built in meter. I would estimate the shooting speed at 0.1 frames per second. It can take action photos, but simply one at a time.
I still use this camera occasionally. It is heavy, but not that big when folded up.