My collection.

I like pictures. I like ones that I've taken, ones that have been taken by others, ones that have yet to be taken. I like the devices that take pictures. Personally, I generally only use one camera. I really want to break that habit. I find digital photography to be awesome, but as time goes by I long for the seemingly decreasing media of developed photos. This collection that I am starting, a collection of cameras, is partially to get me to use film more often (that probably won't happen for a while as film costs money and my digital doesn't) and partially to honor the beauty that is the camera.
Here is a brief history of prior cameras that I've owned: My first actual camera was probably the little Mickey Mouse camera (something like this but a bit less fancy) and in high school I owned an APS camera (remember these?) but I lost it. I then purchased a Canon Rebel G in college and that took me all the way to my first love, my Canon Digital Rebel. This is the starting point of my collection. I am sure you know it, so I won't waste time with it. (I had to use a stock photo as I don't have a picture of my camera and didn't want to set up a mirror. I'll work on it later, as my camera looks more used than this one. It has personality.)



Recently my grandmother gave me her old Kodak Brownie Junior (from the1930's) and I was very excited about this...oh, the possibilities! According to some, I can still get film for this, and though I've yet to try it, I am pretty excited about that idea. I've seen some of the pictures people have taken from their Brownies and I really, REALLY want to put it to use.



Not too long after that, my father gave me this old camera (Wards xp400.) I've taken pictures with it, and some of them turned out pretty good (I've lost those pics, but I remember I was surprised with the results.) I've searched the internet, but I've not found any info on it. I am sure it's nothing special, but I still like it. We'll see how much I end up using it.



My friend John gave me his camera (he got it from his parents some years ago, we had a fun day of taking pictures and I think that is the last time that he used it.) I'll probably use it a little, but it works so differently from my first SLR (a Canon, see the second paragraph) that it might take a little getting used to. I'm down with that, though, as I don't want to forget film. Seriously, people, DON'T FORGET FILM CAMERAS!



This last camera is something I was really excited to get. We have a flea market here and our family goes there pretty frequently. It's a fun place to be, there is plenty of crap to buy, especially when you don't need it. Anyway, a month or so ago my dad and sister and I were there. We were walking around, not really looking for anything, when I happened upon this camera. It's a Polaroid Land Camera, Model 80A. I must say it's a pretty thing. When it's open, showing all its glory to the world, it's a sight to behold for the person who likes cameras. The guy selling it said that he knew a camera man somewhere in Evergreen that still had film for it. (If he does, that'd be a good thing seeing asPolaroid doesn't have any film for it anymore.) Anyway, I didn't really expect to get the camera, there is no NEED for it, but my dad bought it for me anyway. I've found some reports on the internet about how to use 120 film in it (in case the random camera guy doesn't have any film for it) so that'd be a cool thing to experiment with. Even if I can never use it, I'm happy to call it my own. If I knew how to make film, I would do it so I could use this camera. I'm serious when I say this.



So there is my camera collection. It's not much, but, like I said before, I hope to keep adding to it. The cameras that don't work could be decoration, I suppose. I'm okay with that. Hooray for collections!