Spinning Cameras
I very nearly bought a Pentax MX last year. I’ve wanted one for ages, they’re small, cute and take a nice picture. This one was going to be paired with a 50mm f/1.4, and would have been my sixth 50mm on 35mm SLR combo in my collection, which is probably overkill.
I’m aware that my collection represents an embarrassment of riches, and the way I try to justify it is to use each bit as much as I can.
The resulting cyclical rotation is guilt-powered and it drives me from one camera to the next, hampering the intimate knowledge of each that crave. I bounce through the collection like a plate spinner, using each camera briefly before moving on to one that I’ve neglected.
It is this cerebral morass that causes me to threaten to sell my Leica three times a week, to feel anxiety about my 4×5 camera and to recently refocus my attention on my Canon F1.
Frictionless
I’ve had the F1 for a few years now, I bought it with a broken meter and have used it with a combination of forgiving emulsions and guesswork. A few months later I bought a FD 55mm f/1.2 for it that has lived on the camera ever since.
Having arrived just before I bought my Leica, it got left behind in my attempts to get to grips with rangefinder focusing. A string of short-lived affairs with other cameras has also limited our time together.
The sad thing is that the F1 is, like my Leica, unmetered, and the 55mm is a superior lens to the lenses I have for the Leica, the results I get tend to be better, and yet I have neglected it for over a year.
The addition of the EOS1 to my collection has further muddied the water. The F1 feels as though it were hewn from a single piece of brass, it manages to seem heavier at 1.4kg than the EOS1’s 1.5kg (when weighed with my f/1.2 lenses).
For recent excursions I have been shooting the EOS1 with the much lighter EF 50mm f/1.8. This pairing has an overall weight of just over a kilo. Lighter, more ergonomic, and offering both autofocus and autoexposure. In comparison with to the F1 the EOS1 feels light, frictionless, and new.
Photowander
In 2017 I took my my favourite selection of photowalk images to date with the Canon F1. Driven by guilt and remembrance of things past I opted to take it on another photowalk at the beginning of December.
This one was in Worcester, my home town, which made it strange. Photowalks in new places are easier to shoot on. Knowing the locations fairly well, I’d shot most of them before, coupled with flat and waning light left me short of inspiration.
I had also packed my Olympus MJU because it had ‘beaten’ the EOS1 for keepers on a recent outing to London. Having lazily loaded both with fresh rolls of Portra it quickly became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to finish both.
After a few attempts to get the rolls finished in good time I gave up and dispatched the them to the lab part finished and the results, with the exception of a couple of frames, were bad.
They reflect both my level of inspiration and investment and the speed and consideration that they were taken with. They’ve reminded me that even though in my league of photowalk cameras, (EOS1 beats F1, MJU beats EOS1, F1 beats MJU), location, light, and inspiration are more important than the camera you carry.
Appraisal
One thing I have decided is to start spending on the collection again, but rather than adding to it I want to start investing in it. My cameras need to be CLA’d (Cleaned, Lubricated, Adjusted). Most could do with a service and at some point I’m going to have to have clear out.
The first thing I’m probably going to do is spend the money I didn’t spend on the Pentax MX on getting the meter fixed in the F1.
(I should also note that the MX I didn’t buy had a silver top and bottom plate, I’ve always wanted one in black. Should an all-black example cross my path then who knows, maybe I’ll get one anyway).
Addendum – 28/01/20
The bad news is that the meter on the F1 cannot be repaired. The electronics for the meter are baked.
It might be possible to sacrifice a working but tatty F1 to resurrect my foxy one, but that seems pretty daft. It’s on its way back to me ready to continue its life as an unmetered camera.
The good news is, I can spend that MX money on something else without feeling too guilty, perhaps even a Pentax MX…