Inevitably if you are looking for an analog look in a digital camera you will end up looking at Leica cameras. You really try not to. The prices are eye-watering!
My main camera is a Leica CL. It produces large (A2) excellent photographs. My main lens is a Summicron. The no-compromise lens line from Leica delivers images that are what you would expect
You might see me with this tiny camera and wonder why I am using a point-and-shoot. It’s excellent in low light and unobtrusive for candid shots. I can print images from this camera up to A3 with no problem.
Film Camera
Olympus OM1
My favourite camera for a very long time and one that I still own. The Olympus OM1 is a fully manual SLR with astonishing lenses. When I point my current camera at you for a portrait there is a strong chance that it has the lens from this camera in on it. I rarely shoot film.
Previous cameras
Sony RX100 MkII
In 2017 I put some money down on a proper digital camera. The Sony RX100 is a fantastic little camera and it reignited my love of photography. The images were crisp but I found the colours a little clinical and the colours did not quite do it for me.
iPhone
Like most people, i was happy to use an iPhone for a while. After 35mm film, the quality of images was okay with the iPhone 4 but I didn’t really see a quality increase as newer and more expensive models were introduced. This is related to sensor size and there is no easy fix for this.
Minox 35GT
As I became more mobile this camera lived in my pocket. A tiny 35mm camera with zone focusing only. It was manual! Sat on it many times and eventually, it gave out on me. Great camera. Awesome lens
Pentax ME
My first SLR. Aperture priority only because you had to pay extra for the manual! Not a bad camera but one that never quite worked for me. The lack of manual control meant I had to learn to use the ISO dial to manipulate shutter speed.
FED 4.
My Dads upgraded to the Russian rangefinder camera. A 35mm camera with a big light sensor on it. It leaked light but I loved shooting on it because it felt so professional.
The Kodak Brownie
I think every family owned one of these. This was definitely the first camera that I was allowed to shoot one of the 8 film shots on the family holiday. it was very common to cut people’s heads off with this camera as you were not looking through the lens.
Lenses and you
I bet you never thought you would be reading anything with that heading:)
One of the hardest things to achieve with a camera and as a photographer is accurate skin tones. If you are as chalky white as me you probably haven’t noticed, but for the rest of the human race with varying degrees of melatonin, cameras ( and especially film cameras) have let you down.
From here on in, it gets a little technical, but the shortest wavelength of light is red. It is difficult to get enough red through a lens unless the optics are amazing. iPhones use software to approximate the red tones but that is what it is. A guess and that’s why you see that weird smoothing of the skin on your photos.
It’s all very well to be able to get those wavelengths through the lens but then they have to be put in the right place. This is where the accuracy of placement of the light on the sensor is so important. The Summicron is capable of laying light on the sensor precisely and without distortion.