Hello my friends. This week we get serious and l get my hands on my first proper 35mm manual camera, my first SLR and photography goes from hobby to school project and beyond.
Let’s explore and welcome back ☺️
Last week we looked at the various different film formats with their shapes, styles and technologies. They all had a few things in common. The point and shoot nature, easy film loading and minimal camera adjustments for taking pictures.
This would be my first 35mm camera:
The Konica Pop from 1982-85 and l would get mine around 1987. The cost was about £40 back then, (£155.00 in 2023 money), and it was a birthday present from my Grandfather.
His idea was that if l could use the Pop and get to learn the basics of 35mm camera loading, unloading, general cleaning, maintenance and get some nicely taken photographs, then using much more advanced cameras in the future would be a breeze.
He saw it as a training tool, not too advanced but it had enough to keep me going and perfect my skills and knowledge. Let’s look at what the Pop was all about.
It was a small compact camera that came in a number of bright vibrant colours, with mine being red.
It had a 36mm fixed focus lens, manual film loading and film advance. Manual film rewind by way of a small silver handle on the base of the unit.
A single shutter speed of 1/125th of a second, manually controlled ISO values of 100, 200 and 400 and a pop up flash that took two small batteries and it also had a tripod fixing attachment at the base of the camera.
Perhaps it’s most advanced feature was a small light metering cell that would warn of possible under exposure of a shot by way of a small red warning light that would come on next to the viewfinder when the shutter button was de-pressed half way.
This was entry level stuff but with that Hexanon lens, the resulting pictures could be very pleasing but this was, as l said a teaching tool for not only photography but the process and the respect for the medium itself.
My Grandfather and the Pop taught me how to handle film stock properly, how to load and unload the camera correctly and safely.
I was shown the basics of cleaning the internal compartment so it was dust free and keeping the lens and body in perfect condition.
I also started to assemble my first photography kit with a camera bag, appropriate supplies, different film rolls, “housekeeping” equipment and a telescopic tripod.
l also adopted the notebook method from my Grandfather of documenting each picture taken, what film stock was used, settings, location, time, date and even down to weather conditions for outdoors shots.
We moved onto to composing and composition when shooting. Looking at different angles and ways of showing a subject or a scene differently and just generally creative ways to bring these pictures to a whole new level of quality.
I remember he said to me once..
“People can have very expensive and sophisticated camera equipment but they lack the knowledge to use it but most importantly the passion. Photography is an art, you have to feel it”
..and those wise words l have never forgotten to this day.
Unfortunately my time with my Grandfather and the Pop was short lived as he passed away about 8 months after l got it.
If l am brutally honest, his death hit me very hard and l wouldn’t pick up my camera bag for well over a year after that. It was only after my Grandmother’s persuasion, that l went back to it and l put everything l was taught into practice.
We now move into my early teenage years so around 1988 and l make my own first camera purchase from paper-rounds and odd jobs.
The Asahi Pentax K-1000 was my first proper SLR camera and it was a beauty to me. Let’s see what the K-1000 was all about.
It cost me £290 with a 50mm lens back in 1989, (about £530 in 2023 money), and it had an all metal construction which made it feel rugged, robust and sturdy.
It used a focal plane shutter with a speed range of 1/1000 second to 1 second, along with Bulb and a flash X-sync of 1/60 second. It was completely manual and didn’t need the use of batteries unless you wanted to use the built in light metering system.
The ASA/ISO range was 20 – 3200 with a metering sensitivity of 3 – 18 EV. Of course, the biggest difference for me was the interchangeable lenses and this camera used any k-series compatible lens.
If the Pop was a Mini, then this was a Mercedes in its features, image quality and it was a big leap for me but a measured and planned one.
I was in high school at the time and my form tutor happened to be the head of the art department and my main class room was in the art block which was a separate building from the main school.
This happened to be a very fortunate turn of events as when it came down to exams and A-levels, one subject that l wanted to major in was art.
Part of my year long art project would be an overarching theme of “the moving image”
This would include various different techniques that you had to exhibit at the end of that year. These would include: art, animations, graphic design and photography.
I knew the school would be loaning students cameras and they just so happened to be K-series Pentax models which where a popular choice in the world of education for their tough construction and offering all the features required at a price schools could afford.
So, that’s how l made my choice on the next jump up from the Pop and it paid off. That was an exceedingly fun project overall and l got to do some timelapse photography, play around with shutter speeds and capture fast moving subjects with the goal to show the passage of time through a still image.
I also used animation cells and created characters that l would overlay onto pictures l had taken in a sort of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” style, (which was the big film that year), and then re-shoot those as an original picture.
As part of the graphic deign element, we were given a random product to make packaging, give a name too, photographs and advertising materials which had to be made into a foam board by presentation. I was given a car wing mirror of all things 🙄
The final element was a painting in the medium of our choice that conveyed the spirit of the the entire year long project.
Mine was in acrylic with a space cosmos background, a exploded giant clock face with the inner workings coming towards you in the middle and on one of the cogs of those inner working there was a marionette puppet being controlled with a set of invisible strings.
A lot of hard work and l got that A and in my notes for the project l dedicated the whole thing to the memory of my Grandfather as l feel it was the photography elements that really brought the entire project up to where l wanted it to be.
So, that was 35mm camera’s and my first experiences with SLR’s.
Next week, we will explore how l first encountered capturing moving images with 8mm cine film and those early days of video cameras.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this week’s blog entry and l hope you will join me for the next one ☺️
We don’t tape the top 40 
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