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Thread: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

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  1. #1
    I have no idea where I am now.
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    You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    I was talking to my mother and she looked at my old Speed Graphic and told me I needed to restore it. It's dusty, and worn, but works just fine. I do have an older Speed Graphic that is in wonderful shape, and is my back up press camera. The older one most its time on display. It has some history, and I would hate for it to get damaged. (But I did that that one to Africa.) That's why I got another one. She felt that I should fix up the camera more for display and balked at the idea of stripping it down or leaving it in its less then pristine condition. She also felt I should get "some other" camera to replace it. I wonder how many people feel that old cameras should just be fixed up and displayed only? I wouldn't own a camera I couldn't use. It seems pointless to me. Has anyone ever told you need to stop using your camera and just put it on display?

  2. #2

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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    I restored my Deardorff V8, right after I bought it. So much of the finish was missing that it was neccesary, and a few little things here and there needed attention.

    I didn't restore it for display, I did it so I could continue using the camera without it deteriorating.
    One man's Mede is another man's Persian.

  3. #3

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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    IMHO, very few Graflex cameras are rare enough to worry about leaving them in their unrestored condition. If you want to restore it then do. If not then don't. If I'm properly reading your mother's words "between the lines" I'd say she's asking that you either retore the camera to a presentable state, in her home, or hide it away.

  4. #4
    Steve Smith's Avatar
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by Old-N-Feeble View Post
    If I'm properly reading your mother's words "between the lines" I'd say she's asking that you either retore the camera to a presentable state, in her home, or hide it away.
    No, she's saying 'why don't you get a modern camera so I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you'.


    Steve.

  5. #5
    unixrevolution's Avatar
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kav View Post
    I was talking to my mother and she looked at my old Speed Graphic and told me I needed to restore it. It's dusty, and worn, but works just fine. I do have an older Speed Graphic that is in wonderful shape, and is my back up press camera. The older one most its time on display. It has some history, and I would hate for it to get damaged. (But I did that that one to Africa.) That's why I got another one. She felt that I should fix up the camera more for display and balked at the idea of stripping it down or leaving it in its less then pristine condition. She also felt I should get "some other" camera to replace it. I wonder how many people feel that old cameras should just be fixed up and displayed only? I wouldn't own a camera I couldn't use. It seems pointless to me. Has anyone ever told you need to stop using your camera and just put it on display?
    I've been told precisely once, by a know-nothing meathead, that I need to "Trade that thing (A Super Graphic) in on a Digital."

    I produced an instant print from it right after he made the remark, which then turned my "old hunk of junk" into "The coolest thing I've ever seen."

    As for display....No. Cameras are meant to take pictures. A camera that can't or doesn't make photographs is not a camera.
    Please, call me Erik.
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  6. #6
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by E. von Hoegh View Post
    I didn't restore it for display, I did it so I could continue using the camera without it deteriorating.
    I feel this is a smart thing to do. While my camera is a beater, it will serve me well in it's present condition. But I would restore it if I felt it would allow me to use it even longer.

    Quote Originally Posted by Old-N-Feeble View Post
    If I'm properly reading your mother's words "between the lines" I'd say she's asking that you either retore the camera to a presentable state, in her home, or hide it away.
    I don't live at home, and I was visiting her when she told me this. I keep my cameras out of site unless I'm using them. So was telling my I needed to display the camera at my house.

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Smith View Post
    No, she's saying 'why don't you get a modern camera so I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you'.
    If she ever hassled me for using old technology I would remind her that she turns her classroom into a huge camera obscura for her optometry class. And that is far more out dated then a Speed Graphic.

    Quote Originally Posted by unixrevolution View Post
    I've been told precisely once, by a know-nothing meathead, that I need to "Trade that thing (A Super Graphic) in on a Digital."

    I produced an instant print from it right after he made the remark, which then turned my "old hunk of junk" into "The coolest thing I've ever seen."

    As for display....No. Cameras are meant to take pictures. A camera that can't or doesn't make photographs is not a camera.
    I've been questioned a few times as to why I use and old camera. I normally have a developed negative with me to show why. I have also had a few others remark that I'm using something that belongs in a museum. But I totally agree with you that "a camera that can't or doesn't make photographs is not a camera." Much like a car should be driven, not just displayed.

    One more reason I like having a beater camera is that I travel a lot and tend to end up in some dodgy places. I feel that having a ugly old camera is not as much of a target for thieves. And if it gets destroyed it's not that big of a loss. I can pick up another one cheaply.

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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    I collect cameras as well as shoot with them. One of the criteria for any camera I add to my collection is that I be able to buy film for it in the event I want to use it. This afternoon, I had my Minolta XG9 out for a walk taking pictures with that. Last week, I was using one my Nikkormats and on another day an old Moskva 5. I have a perfectly good Chamonix that gets the lion's share of my 4x5 work and a Canham that I use for 5x7. I have had both my Crown Graphic and my Eastman 2D out shooting within the last month or so. When they're not being used, they are in a glass display cabinet in my den.

    I have no problem with people who display cameras. Some of them look downright cool. To say that a collectible camera is not a camera unless it is used is akin to saying that the arrowheads in your collection are not arrowheads unless they're used. Still...I do want to be able to take out to play now and then.
    Michael W. Graves
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Suggestion: smile and nod politely. If she says it again, kiss her. That sould distract her for a while. Repeat as required. Eventually say "Yes Mom" and promptly ignore her.

  9. #9
    unixrevolution's Avatar
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Graves View Post
    I collect cameras as well as shoot with them. One of the criteria for any camera I add to my collection is that I be able to buy film for it in the event I want to use it. This afternoon, I had my Minolta XG9 out for a walk taking pictures with that. Last week, I was using one my Nikkormats and on another day an old Moskva 5. I have a perfectly good Chamonix that gets the lion's share of my 4x5 work and a Canham that I use for 5x7. I have had both my Crown Graphic and my Eastman 2D out shooting within the last month or so. When they're not being used, they are in a glass display cabinet in my den.

    I have no problem with people who display cameras. Some of them look downright cool. To say that a collectible camera is not a camera unless it is used is akin to saying that the arrowheads in your collection are not arrowheads unless they're used. Still...I do want to be able to take out to play now and then.
    I have nothing against displaying cameras that are not currently being used. I have about 2 dozen cameras. I can't possibly use them all at once! But by the same token, they are all users, and they all get their exercise. I own some because they're neat, I own others because they do something well.

    I know that a camera on a shelf not taking pictures is still a camera, but a camera that never gets used might as well not be one. A car that can't start and never moves isn't an automobile, it's car-shaped iron furniture. Cameras that can't take pictures aren't cameras because they don't do what cameras do. Cameras that don't ever take pictures will soon become cameras that can't take pictures.

    My dad and I both collect firearms. One of his guns is a never-fired, Nazi-marked Walther P38. It is a gun. It is a perfectly functional, working gun. But since its condition means I can never fire it without destroying what makes it special, it isn't a gun because I can't actually put ammunition through it. It is, functionally, not a gun.
    Please, call me Erik.
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  10. #10

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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by unixrevolution View Post
    ...
    I know that a camera on a shelf not taking pictures is still a camera, but a camera that never gets used might as well not be one. A car that can't start and never moves isn't an automobile, it's car-shaped iron furniture. Cameras that can't take pictures aren't cameras because they don't do what cameras do. Cameras that don't ever take pictures will soon become cameras that can't take pictures.

    My dad and I both collect firearms. One of his guns is a never-fired, Nazi-marked Walther P38. It is a gun. It is a perfectly functional, working gun. But since its condition means I can never fire it without destroying what makes it special, it isn't a gun because I can't actually put ammunition through it. It is, functionally, not a gun.
    By your logic, the Space Shuttle that they are putting in the Smithsonian is not a Spacecraft, A locomotive at the park for kids to play on is not a train, and so forth. I also used to be a gun collector, and some are just too rare to shoot just so you can "prove" it's a gun. One of the biggest farces being pushed on the American people is what I see when an antique gun is brought to the Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, and similar TV shows. The supposed "expert" at the pawn shop (though he always has to call in a real expert to give a real appraisal) always says, "Well, this gun will be worth a lot more if it actually works - let's go to the range!" I've seen them trying to shoot old Blunderbuss muskets, and a lot of other rare guns. Many made of 200 year old steel that should not be tested. Every gun collector knows you don't have to shoot a rare Patterson or Dragoon to "prove it works" to some imaginary yahoo that might buy it. But it most assuredly is still a gun.

    There are many beautiful or fascinating artifacts from our past that some of us like to preserve, including cameras. Let's not judge the preservationist.

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