It is the July 4th weekend and I took a 1950s Petri 1.9 rangefinder camera with me to downtown.
As I was taking my first photos, I noticed a young man to my left looking at me with his phone in his hand. Then he approached and, very respectfully, asked:
“Sir, I could not stop looking at your camera – is that a retro-designed new digital camera?”
He seemed genuinely interested and I did not mind talking to him.
“In fact, it is a 65 year old film camera” I said.
I think he thought I was joking.
“Seriously, who makes it?”
“A company you never hear about” I assured him. “It was made in Japan in the late 1950s by a photographic tools maker, the Kuribayashi Company. It did not survive the competition, and disappeared soon after.”
I think he was still doubtful of my responses. But kept and inquiring.
“I have never seen a film camera, nor film” he continued. “And I was watching you adjust a number of rings on the lens before taking a single photo. I could have taken a dozen with my phone by then!”
“You are very observant. Yes, I have to adjust the aperture, the speed, and then turn the focusing film to accommodate the best combination for the light. And then I have to wind the film to get to the next unexposed frame.”
“Wow, the camera does not do all that for you? How do you adjust for the light?”
“By the Sunny 16 rule” I said. You couple the speed of the shutter to the speed of the film and then decide on the best shutter aperture to have a good exposure.”
At this point, he was lost. But I felt that he was curious and interested.
“Tell you what, here is my card. I will soon post a few photos where various combinations of shutter and aperture were used. If interested, check my blog. Till then, Google “Sunny 16 Rule”.
He said he will, and thanked me for taking time to chat with him.
“One more thing – can I take a pic of your camera? I will show it to my grandpa. He used to have film cameras.”
… Ok, I am hoping that the young man will indeed check my blog and perhaps get his grandfather to look at some photos, purely by nostalgia.
As a preamble to the photos, I would say that I use cameras covering the period from the 1930s to the early 1970s. Most do not have light meters, except the 1969 Nikon F and the same era Olympus OM-1. Even with those that have the old Selenium cell light meters, I use the Sunny 16 rule, since I learned photography that way. I have written about mechanical cameras and street photography at length, and the 50,000+ readers know my obsession with the concept of “the tool and the user should interact during the decision making for best outcomes”.
So, I quickly looked through my photo albums and chose five to illustrate the joy of producing street photography when in total control of all the parameters when using a vintage all-mechanical camera.
Ferrara, Italy. As an academic, I visited Italy and especially the Medieval city of Ferrara numerous times for a decade. Aside from teaching and research, I spent my time pursuing street photography. I often took a medium format camera along with a 35mm rangefinder, and the photo at the top of the page why a medium format camera can deliver what a 35mm rangefinder cannot during quick decision making in the streets.
This photo was taken just after sunrise, before I started my work day. I used a 1970s Mamiya 645 medium format camera with the glorious Mamiya-Sekor C 80, 1.9 lens. Even with the slow ASA 100 or 60 speed film that I used exclusively, the f1.9 aperture always gave my explorative mind the rewards I sought.
The photo is from the front of the Cathedral where two men were starting their day the Italian way – by a discussion. The medieval castle, Castello Estense is in the back, ghostly and fluid in presence, because I used a speed of 1/30th second with the lens full open at f1.9. Further I could not have obtained the same effect of the castle towering the street if I had used a rangefinder camera that needs to be held to my eye level – the Mamiya uses a waist finder that sit about two feet lower than my eye and helps to emphasise the angle of view.
Interestingly, I found this photo in my “rejects” file and hence I had never published it before. I do not know why…
Paris, France. I include this one, which has been published in different settings, because I took it with the same camera, same shutter speed and lens aperture, but passed sunset on the bank of the Seine River. The perspective is different as the young woman was atop the wall, and certainly the light was softer and dimmer after sunset (I made sure to capture the street light that had just come on to denote the time of the shooting).
In this and the Ferrara photo, an electronically programmed light
meter would have produced totally different (and less dramatic) results. Vive le Sunny 16 rule!
Barcelona, Spain. My goal was not only to capture the micro moment when the Chef was finishing his smoke and heading back to the restaurant kitchen, but to include the walking/vanishing man in the background in the right spot to give a depth of field perspective. More, I wanted to have a mixture of textures – the roughness of the stony walls, the smooth lines of the chef’s hat and uniform, and the shadowy ending of the street.
All this, in adjusting the speed and aperture, then focusing the lens on my 1969 Nikon F Photomic in a split second…
Singapore. I took this one with my 1972 Olympus OM-1. There were three variations of the ambient and surrounding light – the young lady was shielded from direct light, the seduction poster was in a dimmer light, and the bus was in the full midday tropical light of Singapore. Yet, I wanted to have these three focal views in focus and prominent.
Ignoring the light meter reading, I opted for an aperture of f5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/125th second, knowing that I will do dodge and burn areas of the photo under the enlarger.
The most challenging dodging attempts were in getting the face of the solder to appear on the back panel of the bus above the patriotic lines (it was totally washed out on the negative). After wasting quite a few photo paper sheets, I was able to have a relatively smooth tonal transition between the seduction poster, the young lady and the soldier’s face, because I used a wider aperture than the one calculated by the camera’s meter, giving me more light to play with during my darkroom work.
Somewhere in the U.S. Ok, I do not recall where I took this photo! I would guess it was somewhere in New England, but I can find no landmarks to help me be sure.
No matter, it is one with rather naturally organized tonal transition, although I have not done any darkroom work on this print. It looks like a cloudy day, and my guess is that I took it the lens opened to f8. However, given that some of those in walking action have less than crisp lines, the shutter speed should have been 1/60th second or less. And that makes it an interesting photo since the young man in tutu not only stands out in his white attire, but is perfectly in focus and very sharp.
Perhaps we should remember that the Sunny 16 rule was the golden rule in the Pre-WWII era when all cameras were mechanical with no light meter, and all film were B&W, and professional photographer did all the darkroom work themselves.
Porto, Portugal. I had to include this one to show the shortcomings of the Sunny 16 rule. It was morning coffee time in Porto, and I was walking to the local hospital to give a lecture. I had a 1954 Kodak Retina IIIc folding rangefinder camera in my backpack as it is small, although heavy, but very portable.
The scene of men getting together for the morning coffee, all wearing dark clothing, under a wonderfully textured stone wall was perfect for B&W photography. I remember setting the shutter speed at 1/125th second but do not recall what the aperture was. I was hurrying to take a shot before the men sat down and all motion disappeared. Well, whatever the aperture was, it was set too small as the stony wall was captured in great definition because it radiated the morning sun, but the men ended up looking like shadows. This is why this photo was also in my rejects file, for good reason.
That is why, when using the Sunny 16 rule and if the moment allows, one should attempt multiple shots of the same scene with different speed and aperture combinations. However, it is very rare in street photography to have such a luxury, especially when using all mechanical cameras that need at least 10 seconds to get set up anew.
There you go young and curious man, if you decide to visit my blog. These are the things we could have talked about but I was busy setting up my 1959 Petri 1.9 to take my next photo. You know, deciding on the aperture opening, the shutter speed, rotating the lens to have the rangefinder patches inside the viewfinder superimpose perfectly on the focus area I had in mind, and pressing the shutter release.
Then, winding the film to start all over again for the next shot!
July 2, 2023
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2023
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