Cover Shot of Classic Cameras by Ivor Matanle
Toronto. You may have noticed that a small group of photographers continue to use film, preferring its ambiance over digital technology. It may be a novelty to you having old technology linger on, but this has occurred over the centuries as new replaced old in many other disciplines.
Hindsight of time shows the benefit of the new over the old, but at the time a change was introduced, benefits were far less obvious. For example, photographers who had an investment in daguerreotype photography were reluctant to spend more money and learning time on ‘new fangled’ ideas.
I noticed this overlap of old and new while digging into the history of our chosen art. While I can see the benefits, practitioners of old were far slower to adopt the new ideas – sometimes taking many years. A modern day quandary is here now! Digital technology has been around for a couple of decades and has generally improved to the point were the majority of professionals and serious amateurs prefer digital only processes.
But not all! There is still a small selection of totally or partially film based photographers. These folk are well served by PHSC events such as the coming Fall Fair on October 15th. Both collectors and users may find films, film cameras and film accessories ready for their collections and user gear.
The cover shot above is Ivor Matanle’s 1986 opus on ‘Classic Cameras’ which I bought directly from Ivor. In his 224 page book with 320 B&W illustrations – cameras and the photographs taken with them – he covers both collecting and using these mechanical marvels from the ‘golden age’ of minicam photography. Now out of print, you can track down a used copy (this soft cover printing is dated 1992) or try to borrow a copy via your local library.
