Rich & Anne Lavigne Photography Blog

This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of shooting the band Beatrix Kiddo at the world famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. They were playing in a contest to win a spot for the Bamboozle Tour on May 1-2. The afternoon was successful because we got some great shots in and around Asbury Park and because they were pushed through to the next round. You can check out their music on myspace.

BTK12

For this installment of the antique camera blog, I’ve got a Kodak Vigilant Six-20. The Kodak Vigilant Six-20 was produced from 1939-1949 and came paired 4 different lens/shutter combinations. I found this one at a local antique shop, and it came with the 100mm f/8.8 lens. This folding camera is significantly larger than the 1913 Kodak Vest Pocket that I blogged about earlier. Considering this camera is nearly 80 years old, it is amazing how well it has held up. These old Kodaks were really built to last. The other thing that strikes me is how technically advanced they are. This Kodak is significantly more technical than the Zeiss Box camera that I previously blogged about, despite the fact that they are from basically the same time period. This Kodak has adjustments for aperture, focus distance, and shutter speed. It even has a bulb and timer mode. I think that’s definitely proof of how Kodak was leading the photography industry during that time period.

You can see slider on the left hand side of the lens that controls the aperture, and if you spin the outside ring to line up the line with the numbers on the right side of the lens, that controls the shutter speed. The inside dial with the post controls the focus distance.

Look at the machining on the shutter button. They just don’t make them like this anymore. Such amazing attention to detail.

Again, more attention to detail. These are the struts that hold that mount the lens to the end of the bellows when it unfolds and extends.

This little window twists open so that you can see the film as you wind it, so you can be sure that you’ve advanced it enough before taking your next picture.

Its a rainy day here in New Jersey and since we didn’t have any shoots scheduled for today, I thought it’d be a good time to catch up on some antique camera updates.  I’ve acquired 3 new models since the last post and the first one I’d like to show you is the Canon AE-1.  I’m sure that I’m going to offend some people out there when I say that it is an antique, but the camera was first released in 1981.  Since then, Canon has released a newer lens mount system, which introduced auto-focus.  At this point, the AE-1 is definitely an antique.

I first became interested in the AE-1 when my mom got me the Kodak for my birthday.  She said that she was trying to find a Canon but didn’t know what to look for.  I searched my Canon EF Lens book and looked through the history of Canon and I thought that the AE-1 was just a beautiful looking body.  It is historically significant because it is the first camera to have any sort sort of computer chip in it to automatically control exposure.  This functionality really made it possible for the everyday person to get interested in photography.  Because of this functionality and a very large advertising campaign, Canon sold record numbers of the AE-1.  It should be easy to find one, right?

Well, I contacted several sellers that I found on Craigslist and no one was willing to budge from their asking price. I was telling my co-worker Chris (you may remember that he hooked me up with the Vagabond 120 box camera in an earlier post) that I couldn’t find one and sure enough, he had one sitting in his closet.  He brought it in the next day and there it was, I had my Canon AE-1.  There was only one downside… Chris’ AE-1 didn’t have the Canon 50mm FD lens that was standard for the body.  I have a bit of an obsession with 50mm lenses. To me, they are just the perfect lens, right smack in the middle of wide angle and telephoto and they are usually fast enough to shoot great natural light portraits.  I hopped onto one of my photography message boards to research 50mm FD mount lenses, and by the end of the day, I had one on its way. I have to give a big shout out to Pete Liukaitis from Canada, he sent me the 50mm FD he had.  At this point, I was pretty happy.  I had my AE-1 and the 50mm was on its way.  I was at my dad’s house telling him about the score and wouldn’t you know, he had a Canon AE-1 in his closet with a 50mm lens.  Alright, alright… enough chit chat.  Let’s see the cameras.

Look at that old school logo… so nice.

Mmmm… 50mm FD goodness.

Look at those aperture blades…

Can you say, bookends?