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Lessons Learned
Photography
Over many years, I have tinkered with old cameras, often needing various repairs, and in several cases using the cameras to see how they work. More often than not, the repair merely makes a defective camera more defective. But sometimes, the result is a camera that allows the earlier times of photography to be revisited. For several years, I had a basic darkroom setup, allowing development of film and printing of images. This extra work required to go from the exposed film to the print left the strong impression that creation of a strong image using a classic camera requires patience, thinking, and good luck.

Now that I have completed the transition to digital cameras, it all seems too easy. Take 100 pictures as fast as you can and then sort through them to see what may be useable. Then, with the perhaps useable images, start working on repairing them with photoshop. However, there were many accessories developed for older cameras (including many capabilities for specialized cameras like view cameras) that provide results not achievable with Photoshop. As a result, my interests have transitioned from using old examples of cameras to adapting their accessories to the new digital SLRs, creating a hybrid of the old capabilities with the technologies of the new cameras.
The image to the left was taken under rather low light conditions with a vintage Kodak 620 folding camera. The camera used was the "Senior 620", similar to the "Junior 620" shown to the right. The Senior 620 was manufactured in the late 1930's. The large film size in combination with a reasonable lens (a Kodak 105mm Anastigmat lens) and reasonably accurate shutter provided a picture that would have been difficult to reproduce. The camera was hard to use (viewing "screen", etc) but the results worth while.

The 620 size film (which provided an image size of 2 1/4 by 3 1/4 inch) is no longer available. This size is the same as the "medium format" sheet film used in press cameras but provided in the convenience of a roll. Today's 120 size film can be adapted for use in these old cameras (e.g., instructions here).