Saturday, January 7, 2012

Kodak moments

Marijka (sp?) and Marjan
I'm always looking to capture what we used to call a "Kodak moment" on film. We had a new hiker who joined us last week, another woman from Holland. She and Marjan immediately connected and I got to eavesdrop on some Dutch banter. The picture was taken with the "low light" setting and I wasn't happy with how washed out the two ladies look, compared with the red of Linda's hat and the green of the trees. I'm going to use that setting sparingly.

My very first camera was a Kodak Brownie, similar to this one, I think. It was so long ago I can only remember that it had 127 film and had to be put into the camera in the dark. I pushed that little white button to take a picture and then wind the dial until it stopped, so I wouldn't end up with two pictures on the same film. Kodak, I see, is filing for bankruptcy, since nobody ever uses film any more. They tried to make the transition to digital but nobody bought their cameras. I loved my little Brownie but I don't know where any of the pictures are that I took way back when.

I have several pictures in my possession that were taken with a Polaroid. Judging by the way the pictures look and the time this camera was manufactured, it was probably a Polaroid 800. I was around fifteen or sixteen at the time, I think. I even took a few myself, my old Brownie by then part of the distant past. I've never been very good at keeping possessions in pristine condition, or even in any condition. They just fade into oblivion. What amazes me is that when I looked at the picture of the Polaroid, I could still remember the smell of the developer as we stood around waiting impatiently for the magic picture to appear. How far we have come from those days!

I had another little point-and-shoot camera during the time I lived in Boulder and went to Peru (that was 1981), but I've no idea what it looked like or what kind it was. I do have a drawer full of old negatives that I cannot bring myself to throw out. But it does seem that all those old slides and negatives will never be used again. I wonder if those old slides can be converted to a digital format. I am unwilling to toss them, so maybe I'll find some way to preserve those old memories. When I hold them up to the light and look at the images, many of them take me back to bygone days.

Today, however, I am totally converted to digital cameras. All my pictures that were on my stolen iPad are safe on my home computer, and the most important of them I have backed up in the "cloud." Before too long I'll have even more of my treasures stored there. Who would have guessed a decade ago that Kodak moments would no longer be captured by Kodak? Or on film at all. The company will soon join Studebaker, Pan Am, and even Pontiac, the last of which was built in 2009. The times are definitely changing. Digital cameras are one change that I love!
:-)

38 comments:

  1. i wont lie...i miss polaroids...they were so darn cool...but sigh, yes we are digital now...mostly with my cell phone...smiles.

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  2. Some scanners will allow you to capture slides and negatives so that you can computerise them. I know our CanoScan will.
    And yes, digital cameras are a huge step forward for me too. I can take many, many photos and ditch most of them.

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  3. I've been through a few cameras in my life, starting in the sixth grade. I enjoyed reading about your own history with cameras. I had a hard time accepting digital cameras. I so loved my 35mm. But now, I cannot imagine life without what digital offers. Being able to look at the photos, erase what doesn't work, is so much easier and fun! No, I would not want to go back to sending in film and waiting for oftentimes inferior pictures.

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  4. Yeah, I can remember loading film in the dark. I also remember developing my own film and printing it. It was such a joy to see the picture come out and learning when to stop it. I really did love the dark room and had forgotten about it until now. It was a passion for awhile there.

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  5. We have indeed come a long way. I love it. Would never have imagined all that's happened in my lifetime. Can't imagine what the future holds. Exciting.

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  6. Pictures of my first 12 or13 years were in black and white taken in an old box camera.
    The first camera I owned was 35mm automatic. I also have to get busy and digitalize my slides.

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  7. So said about Kodak. Their film was absolutely the best.
    I am almost positive you can convert the negatives because I believe one of our blogger friends has done that - - - - or someone I work with.

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  8. So explain icloud to me. I haven't figured out yet how it work!

    Love these Kodak memories.

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  9. DJan, don't throw those negatives away. There are indeed scanners which can convert negatives and slides into digital images, and I don't believe they're overly expensive. That's a project I'm looking to do myself at some point.

    I very much enjoyed this post. You took me back to early days. My dad had a progression of cameras as did my sister and I. All fun to look back on them now but I wouldn't trade my DSLR for anything.

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  10. I love digital cameras too. Hardly have a picture at all as 'hard copy.' Everything exists in file form. Did you hear that Kodak was going to declare bankruptcy! How times change!

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  11. I love my digital, I get a half decent picture every time. I am not a photographer so never notice the little things other people do. Have a great Sunday.....:-)Hugs

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  12. My mom got a special scanner for slides once (it was shaped like a ruler), but I don't think she's gotten around to scanning the thousands of slides she has from the early years of their marriage and the travels in the '80s! Lots of work!
    And I'm sure a photo place would be able to scan the negatives...

    I've got drawers and boxes of negatives I need to go through too!

    It makes me a bit sad to hear that Kodak is going out of business... I hope someone somewhere remembers how to make film... we might need it in the upcoming zombie apocalypse everyone keeps talking about, when all our technology is useless! :p

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  13. While I look forward to getting a camera with 18 megapixels and great settings to produce high quality photos, I wonder how long it would take that to become obsolete. I try to imagine what will be the next wave of innovations in photography. As I obsess about quality of my pictures and compare them to my old Polaroids, we've come a long way in photography. Photoshop helps to clean up some of the problems I find with digital photography. I love that cropping tool.

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  14. All kinds of interesting conversion toys out there these days. Just go to Amazon and search the Electronics section for "negative and slide converter."

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  15. For example, the Veho VFS-002m is only $60, it converts both 35mm and 110, both slides and negatives, and it's compatible with both PC and Mac. :-)

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  16. Ya, and I like the fact that with the digital, you can take out the sd/card and go to any photo shop and actually have them cropped and printed as hard copies [or if you have a photo printer at home; that'll work] Long ago, you had to take what you got from the film. And leave it at that.

    By the way, my favorite player when Elway was QB was #87...McCaffery. LOL

    Thanks for stopping by for my week's Shadow Shot See you next time...and have a glorious week ahead!!

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  17. I, too, have a number of negatives that I've held onto. I recently have come into possession of some old family photos-I mean really old-and some of those are negatives as well. Perhaps it's time for me to look into purchasing something that will convert those negatives.

    It's a bit sad to see Kodak filing for bankruptcy. It seems I can appreciate moving forward but not without a bit of melancholy about what gets left behind.

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  18. I have an old Kodak Brownie sitting on the shelf in my kitchen. lol

    I love cameras and am on my second digital. But I have to admit, I miss the old 35mm...even tho my newest digital LOOKS like a 35mm wannabee.lol

    Kodak...the end of an icon...sad.

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  19. I love cameras even though I am not that good at taking pictures. My first camera was a 35mm Voigtländer given by my father as a gift. He was into German technology as the second camera he gave me was a 35 mm Zeiss Ikon. I still have both of them. My little Olympus Stylus which has nice touches, like taking pictures behind a glass or a document settings, broke a couple of months ago. I sent it for repair and it will cost me $90 to have it fixed. I had not decided to have it repaired and yesterday looked on eBay. The exact same camera was offered, brand new, and I got it for $66, so I am very happy. Last year my husband gave me a little instrument which converts slides and negatives to digital. I think he got it on eBay too, brand new, for around $80. It works well but I have only used it for a couple of pictures – some old ones in NYC for a post.

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  20. Got to admit, loved Kodak and all it represented. Owned some pretty kook cameras and all of what most of your commenters talked about. I was into all that zoom lens, wide angle, etc, etc, etc. Still have some of this polaroid moments and of course "Kodak Moments. Think where our world of photography started and I say "OUR", and look at where we are now. Remember the olde rolls of film and we got all the pictures on it and had to pay for even the worst ones. Now, we clip, ditch and keep, change backgrounds, add stuff, add people anywhere we want, etc,etc,etc. Sure makes one want to dabble n play - which is what I do. Keep em or ditch em - your choice.
    Great blog DJan and most interesting.

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  21. p.s. please excuse TYPO's - mind thinking faster than fingers. ha,ha

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  22. We uses a little scanner to scan all our old negatives...I need to take them all through my photoshop program..then they will all be digital! I believe the same thing can be done with slides.
    http://www.convertslidestodigitalimages.com/

    We have come a long way..I was saddened to hear about Kodak..but you can't put all your eggs in one basket..they were not real keen on digital..and film..well who uses film nowadays:(

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  23. My grandkids now have their own little digital cameras. they have no idea what film is!
    And yes, you can have negatives converted to digital photos. Costco, for one, can do it. but it is pricey, so select the photos you really want, and not all of them.

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  24. It has already been mentioned above but my scanner will take slides and convert them to digital images. It also does negatives but I haven't tried it.

    I have owned several 35mm SLR and remember well the days of loading film and manual settings with no presets. Photography has come a really long way. So has digital storage, glad to hear you are taking advantage of the cloud.

    You might now have to give up your low light setting DJan. What washed out the ladies was that white coat. If there is a lot of white in the viewfinder you need to compensate but not with low light. The white is going to reflect light back to the lens.

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  25. My very first camera was made in Germany and the instructions were in German. Uncle George, who was a US Army dentist stationed in West Berlin, sent it to me. I have fond memories of that camera and the photos I took with it. I was in the 6th grade.

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  26. Digital photos are easy and quick and so inexpensive. Like you, I appreciate this innovative change. Taking pictures used to be expensive and left to the professional photographers. Now there is not waiting and we can all learn how to take a good photo.

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  27. Yes, totally infatuated with digital, and yet that fabulous suspense of waiting for the prints is a joy I will always fondly remember indeed.

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  28. Well the irony about Kodak is that it was the originator of the digital photo imaging idea but could not manage to capture the market in it's favour. Reminds me of Nortel phones and now RIM and it's Smart Phone that it created first.
    Nice that a new person joined the group and you got to hear some Dutch :)

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  29. Exactly. And they are so convenient. Thanks for the kinds words. Mrs T is recovering quickly and the oncologists reports are all very good. Things are looking up here... :)

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  30. we have a very similar camera history :)
    except my digital is a Kodak
    their best model has a ton of options and was what I could afford
    I admit I miss film the way I miss LPs but yes, digital is so much more convenient

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  31. I love digital cameras too :) I'm tying to get better at taking "Kodak moments." It's hard though, my kids are so fast LOL!

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  32. When I was in Japan, we all used Kodak black and white film and then when Kodak came out with color we all used that. And it was super expensive to us soldiers. It had to be shipped to Hawaii to be developed and took two weeks.

    I am not surprised that Kodak is or was near bankruptcy. That is what placidity does to anyone or any company. On top of the world today but the Internet can and does put you sucking hing tit (farmer's expression as that's the tit the runt gets and that's why he is a runt). To get off the rear and onto the front and in the headlines, Kodak has to come up with something bigger than digital cameras. Which, by the way, they made a mess of their first ones.

    GM did the same thing. We got them out of bankruptcy and looks like they are back in the number one seat again. Just read that.

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  33. I love-love-love digital cameras!!! It was love at first sight on my computer screen. Even though I will have a soft spot in my memory for my first little black box camera...can't even remember the brand (Brownie?)...that I took black & white pictures of our trip to Yellowstone when I was ten in 1961. ;)

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  34. so true. digital allows us less-than-stellar photographers a way to learn without going broke. and wouldn't we be lost without the ability to crop, brighten, enhance with a few clicks of a mouse?

    congrats on your POTW!

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  35. I had each of these cameras, too - and now 2 digitals. I wouldn't want to go back to film, that's for sure. Congrats on your POTW!

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  36. I have been through a lot of cameras, looking at another.I shot film and slides up to 2003, I felt at ease with the medium and wondered how digital would take over.

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  37. Once I scanned my photos, I could toss the negatives I had. I'm still working on scanning. There's so much to do. It's consuming so much of my time now. Then there's the slides.....

    I was surprised at how much clearer digital photos are than the film camera photos.

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  38. Or, for high quality, if you can whittle your collection of slides and negatives down to those you’re pretty sure you might want to have digitized, www.digmypics.com will use a very expensive Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 to create 2500 DPI jpeg files for 39 cents each (slides) or 55 cents each (negatives), plus shipping costs (plus $6 for each CD or DVD you want returned to you; it appears they could put about 125 photos on a CD or about 850 on a DVD).

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