[rollei_list] Re: Collecting: (was Rolleiflex 2.8GX Japan Edition)
- From: Kirk Thompson <thompsonkirk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Rollei List <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:09:46 -0800
Thanks again, Marc, for a pleasant essay.
But only 62? That's not an advanced age for using all those film cameras! A
couple of years ago I ran into Lee Friedlander at one of his shows in San
Francisco. He's on his second wind as a photographer. In his early 70s he
feared he'd have to quit because his knees were giving out. But now he has
knee replacements and has provided for a long future with film. Not only has
he stocked a new freezer with film and paper; he heard that 'the Spottone man,'
the one-man producer of print-spotting colors, had died, so he's bought up all
the bottles he could find.
I don't understand the camera collector's passions very well, but I do know
it's great to take classic Rolleis out and use 'em! Case in point: when I
graduated from college (1956), I bought myself an Automat as a graduation
present. Today I'm going back to the campus to see a large show of Walker
Evans prints. I'll take along an Automat just like that one (it was stolen,
but I have one of its brothers/sisters).
Kirk
> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:30:25 -0500
> To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> From: marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [rollei_list] Collecting: (was Rolleiflex 2.8GX Japan Edition)
>
> I knew of Don Chatterton but do not recall ever having any direct
> contact with him. I also knew a Don Chatterton who was a Sergeant in
> the Army, but he was a Geordie immigrant and was certainly not the same
> person.
>
> Collectors are collectors. They collect the most oddball of items --
> there are probably collectors of toilet flushing balls out there,
> somewhere. Folks collect everything. I happen to accumulate cameras
> and accessories which suit me. Back in the day, when film was still
> available and I had a dark room, I used all of my cameras and
> insisted that they be in working condition (I do have a non-working
> Praktica FX-3, but, then, that is a project I have had on my agenda
> to tackle for twenty years). I have picked up all sorts of oddball
> bits and pieces over the years but, other than Contaflex SLR, I have
> never tried to accumulate most of the line, as I have always
> approached it from the angle of 'what can I use?' So, I keep my
> Kilfitt lenses as they can be used on my Canon Digital Rebel, and I
> keep my macro lenses, as I can use them with the Hasselblad Bellows
> on the same camera, with adapters, of course, but that is the way my
> convoluted mind works. Helll, I can use all of my M42 lenses on my
> digital camera, and I own a LOT of M42 gear!
>
> It is time for me to sell off everything and to quit playing cameras,
> I suspect. I am bursting with useless knowledge, of worth to few
> outside of the confines of this List <he grins> and, as Greta keeps
> telling us, 'my head will explode'. I really do love the Rollei
> system though I have never been a collector. Many of the versions of
> the Rollei TLR cameras have passed through my hands over the
> years. I have ended up keeping a Post-War Automat, Type 3, and a
> Rolleicord III, and a 2.8F and a 2.8GX, along with a bunch of
> accessories such as a Magnar and a Duoflex and both of the later CZ
> Mutars. And Proxars and filters and hoods and all sorts of
> things. I have a Prewar 3.5 Baby Black and a Postwar Baby Grey, and,
> yes, 127 film is still available. But, elegant as the Rollei System
> is, it is probably time for me to close station and to fold my tent
> and to wander off to the horizon, muttering strange mantras about
> 'Decamired Filters' and the like.
>
> I am embarrassed to acknowledge that film is now a niche product and
> so the accumulation of cameras will now be one for collectors and not
> for users. I guess that is why I suspect that it is time for me to
> check out. When I was in my tweneties, I could keep a number of
> foreign cars running well while serving as an Army officer. I am now
> 62, and the energy is sapping away. I look at my accumulation of
> camera gear, some worthy of merit (I own some Zeiss one-offs and a
> weird Leitz 26mm Photar, for instance), and I think to myself,
> 'myself, your wife does not want to dispose of this and your son
> lives a world away, in Alaska, so what to do?
>
> Idle thoughts for the middle of the night. The witching hour. This
> is a grand List with grand folks on it. Thank you all for being here.
>
> Marc
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