My maternal grandfather, Jack, was a very keen photographer. He developed and printed his own black and white negatives and later moved mainly to shooting colour slides. He took many photos during his WWII service in what was then known as British Palestine. I have previously made a photo book of a selection of these fascinating photos.
I inherited many of Jack’s slides and negatives and several cameras, meters and duplicating tubes. I recently cleaned and tested one of his cameras and shot a roll of film, walking around the back lanes near my home. The camera, a Zeiss Ikon Continette, was first manufactured in the year of my birth, 1958. It is a simple manual 35mm camera with a 45mm coated lens and a distance focus ring marked in feet. I am old enough to reliably guess imperial distances and by selecting an appropriate aperture, most images can be recorded with sharp details.
Using a camera like this is a good reminder that photography is all about getting the right amount of light onto a sensitive surface through a lens set at the appropriate distance. I still like to shoot film and using a camera like this tends to focus the mind in different ways when compared to whipping out a smartphone.
The Continette was one of thousands of “miniature” 35mm camera models developed after WWII as the quality and range of black and white and colour 35mm film improved considerably. You can still find one on eBay for about $60. Some more information about this camera can be found here:
http://elekm.net/zeiss-ikon/continette/
In the 1970s Jack upgraded to a 35mm SLR camera, acquiring a Pentax K1000, one of the great workhorses of amateur photography. There will be another walk around the neighbourhood in future with that camera.
Jack died in 1983, shortly before our first child was born and a new generation commenced. I wonder what he would think about one of his grandchildren taking such an interest in his photography and putting another roll of film through his old cameras. He could be cantankerous at times, so I assume he would simply flash an enigmatic half smile, light another rollie and wander off to his beloved vegetable garden.
