I used a portion of my Bar Mitzva loot to buy a camera. It was a Yashica C, a twin lens reflex that used 120 roll film. For anyone concerned, that ment that I got 12 shots to a roll. Call that the beginning of my learning curve.
The camera came with a nice leather case and a book of instructions that I finally understood to be a rather free translation of the original Japanese. It was my first 'real' camera, selected on the advice of a dear and knowledgeable uncle who told me it was a 'pretty good copy of a Rollie.' A real Rollie (as in Rollieflex, a very expensive and very German camera) was of course out of the question. This camera was still a major purchase. Well, maybe not so much in the dollar amount I managed to convince my parents to let me spend – although that was a major battle – but in what was to come.
Over the next years, I shot a thousand rolls of black & white film with that camera. I developed every one of them. The first in our bathroom where I had to hang blankets on the window and still wait until it was dark outside. The last few rolls were run in one of the studio darkrooms I worked in a goodly number of years later.
The camera came with a nice leather case and a book of instructions that I finally understood to be a rather free translation of the original Japanese. It was my first 'real' camera, selected on the advice of a dear and knowledgeable uncle who told me it was a 'pretty good copy of a Rollie.' A real Rollie (as in Rollieflex, a very expensive and very German camera) was of course out of the question. This camera was still a major purchase. Well, maybe not so much in the dollar amount I managed to convince my parents to let me spend – although that was a major battle – but in what was to come.
Over the next years, I shot a thousand rolls of black & white film with that camera. I developed every one of them. The first in our bathroom where I had to hang blankets on the window and still wait until it was dark outside. The last few rolls were run in one of the studio darkrooms I worked in a goodly number of years later.
In time I gave that camera away. As I recall, the self timer stopped working, the case was long gone and there were probably a few dings in it, but the lens was sharp as ever and it was still in fine working shape. It might still be in use someplace out there.
3 comments:
Prunes with coffee as a menu item? How restaurant menus have changed!
Glad you didn't spend your bar mitzvah money on penny candy and girlie magazines!
The writing is as well-composed as the picture. Thank you for you many talents.
Didn't say I spent ALL my Barmitzva Loot on that camers..........
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