Recently I was given a camera owned by my maternal Grandfather, a Voigtlander Bessa 66 that he probably bought in the late 1940s. It’s been a long time since I shot photos on actual film, but there were a lot of aspects of this camera that made me want to give it a whirl.
First, it’s just a neat-looking camera. Fully mechanical, the intricacy of the engineering is very engaging. Just opening and closing the lens is fun. Second, it shoots 120 film, resulting in a huge negative — 6cm x 6cm. This gives you photos that can be blown up and retain a crisp resolution.
And, of course, there’s the sentimental reason as well. I don’t remember my grandfather ever using this camera — I don’t even remember seeing it until a couple of weeks ago — but the fact that he owned it (and took great care of it) gives it sentimental weight.
So I bought a couple rolls of film and tried to remember my high school photography class. First I shot a bunch of photos of the dogs, of which these two are the least terrible.
The others are way worse. Blurry, double-exposed (the camera offers no protection against double exposure, which I like until it bites me in the ass), mis-framed (no SLR here), etc. But, hey at least the lens seems to be in good shape.
The second roll I shot at this year’s SurlyFest. Those photos are not good. My skills aren’t up to taking photos at an event like that with a camera that requires so much attention.
Because buying and developing each roll of film costs about $20, I don’t think that I’m going to be using this camera all the time. But I do want to use it for special occasions. Once my daughter is born in November I’m sure she’ll be posed for quite a few photos taken with her great-grandfather’s camera.