What’s Inside a Camera?
“Can you see anything?”
“Yes, wonderful things.”
That’s a bit of a cheat isn’t it? It has nothing to do with cameras but the exchange between Lord Canarvon and Howard Carter upon the opening of King Tut’s tomb in February 1923 can apply to a camera as well. Wonderful things are can be seen inside the viewfinder.
A more literal person might be infested in the components, the parts, that make a camera. I love 1950s and 60s range finder cameras. I have owned several Yashica G series cameras and currently have at least three of these small range finders on my shelf waiting to have a roll of film run through them.
I also like taking things apart. There’s something about seeing the pieces that make of the whole of a thing. I my last posting, I gave a sneak peak of a project where I disassembled a Yashica Lynx5000 camera. I bought it as working and as it turns out it stopped working before I could run a roll of film though it. That’s when my curiosity about the insides of a camera took over.
Over a two week period I completely disassembled this broken camera. It broke down into over 250 component parts. I was struck that I should that this might make a good picture. So I cleared off a workspace and wrapped it in white butcher paper and laid out the parts. That took about a week to get things as “right” as I could get them.
Once I got the parts laid out, I went about setting up the Leica S with my widest lens - a Sigma 45mm f2.8 DG DN. My space is tiny and I just couldn’t get enough separation from the subject with the 45mm lens. At this point I was a little heartbroken - I had put about a month into tearing down the camera and setting up the shot only to realize that I needed a wider lens.
A lesser person would have realized that they could have stitched together a panorama from several shots, but I’m not a lesser person (also, I didn’t think of stitching together an image until it was much too late). I broken into the piggy bank and got my hands on a Sigma 20mm 1.4DG HSM Art lens for the Leica. This lens is a thing to behold. Mostly because it weighs in at over three pounds, which makes the hunk of steel and resolve that is the Leica S seem light as a feather by comparison.
As you can see, the resulting image is pretty good. I few years back I did a workshop making platinum palladium prints and haven’t really made any progress with because I have been lacking inspiration for subjects. Most folks who do that process make prints of epic vistas or beautiful portraits and neither of those subjects are for me. But, things on the other hand are for me and I think this image will make a good print and help me get reinvigorated for printing.
