One of my most treasured possessions is my dad’s old camera from the 1950s. It’s a Braun Paxette and you can see a picture of it here. In fact there are a few pictures of it in last week’s post. This beautiful old camera is mostly functional however the focussing part doesn’t work too well. The focussing ring is ok but you can’t quite tell if you have got it right when looking through the viewfinder. Anyway, the camera is very special to me and I have finally had the opportunity to get out and try and take some photos. I tried a colour film and am definitely going to give black and white a go. Not all the photos in the roll turned out that well as focussing was an issue. It was quite strange setting the camera up with film and then taking the film out, taking it off to get developed and waiting for the results.
Probably the best shots that I took were of a house as focus was the sharpest with them. I am posting a photo of the cat though as there is a direct comparison between this photo and one I took at the same time last week with a much more modern camera (Fuji X100) which you can see here. While there is a massive difference, the old Paxette still manages to take some quite pleasing shots and could do much better in the hands of a better photographer.
Shooting with film and especially with an old camera adds a real dimension to photography and gives you an appreciation of just how good some of these old photographers were. I am lucky enough to have some (scanned) photos taken with the Paxette from the late 1950s and early 60s and they are magical images.
