More life thru a lens...

At some point my parents bought an Exakta 35mm camera for my mother. That went so well they decided maybe I would like to have a newer camera. My mother had an Exakta but they bought an Exa for me- made in the same factory and I'm not familiar with the exact differences between the 2 cameras except that the Exakta supported an interchangeable lens system while (iirc!) the Exa had a fixed single lens.

My Exa probably looked just like this- a fixed lens reflex camera
that shot 35mm film

 

The Exa was a reflex. And that was a little like moving back to my grandfather's old Brownie box camera I'd used for awhile: you looked down at the top of the camera to see the reflected image of what was in front of the lens. Unlike my Argus C3, however, the Exa showed the image as it was about to be recorded since it had passed thru the camera lens. If the image was out of focus, that's what you saw on the frosted glass screen so you could refocus. My mother's Exakta was similar except she later bought an accessory which allowed her to focus & frame at eye level instead of waist level. And the Exakta allowed additional lens choices so she was later able to add a telephoto lens.

Getting the correct exposure required a light meter so you could set film speed, aperture and shutter speed. It was a light sensitive device with connected meter and settable dial to adjust the scale to display correct exposure for the speed of the film being used. The greatest improvement given the photographer in modern digital cameras is the elimination of the ^!@%&$ light meter!

I had a hand-me-down GE light meter similar to this.

Later on I replaced the GE meter with a Norwood Director light meter with its signature incident light collector over the light sensor. It was intended for filming movies but worked great fot my still photography-

An old Norwood Director light meter with incident light attachment.
I used one similar to this till I ventured into digital photography.

I made one last change in film cameras and that was later in about 1980 when I bought a Minolta interchangeable lens 35mm camera. I'm sure it was a Minolta and I think it was the XG-9. It came with a 50mm f/1.7 lens- the brightest lens I'd owned. I'm pretty sure I ordered it from a camera dealer in Oregon which may seem odd for a California resident but Oregon didn't charge sales tax at that time.

The XG 9 (if I have the model right!) was my first auto-exposure camera. Well- auto-exposure if you remembered to preset the film speed! And it was the first time I had a camera with an extensive array of lenses to choose from- a little overwhelming!

Before I bought the XG 9 I had accepted I was most comfortable shooting still objects. Pointing my camera at a person felt intrusive; and mountains didn't blush and look away. Which was an issue since at this point we had a young son and I needed to record that part of our history. "Better get over it dude!" So I shot the photos but the reality is I never did get over it and prefer framing a shot of landscape or a still image.

 

And then they invented digital cameras...