17 signs that you were alive before digital photography

Still have my Watson bulk film loader. Still have the film canisters. Don't have any bulk film. Don't have any film cameras. Think I'll get rid of the loader. Thanks for reminding me.

Still have my Simmon-Omega D2-V enlarger, because no one want it. And a dozen Kindermann stainless-steel developing tanks and reels.

I remember all of this stuff and owned quite a bit of it but I think it just means you are OLD :-(. Great trip down teh old "memory lane".

A Watson 200 bulk film loader, I presume. Not my favorite way to load because it dragged the film through the cassette felt an extra time encouraging scratches.

I know what all are and have used nearly all of them, but that was looooooong ago.

OMG, I still have these things! I'm waiting for it to come back! lol In fact my 35 mm film loader still has Plus-X (125 ASA) in it!
There was a certain romance about photography with the old time approaches, certainly less instant, certainly much less inconvenient, but it had a charisma all it's own that is frequently lost in my download/upload, instant red eye fix world. I miss that more and more these days.

-Also, my "wet" darkroom has now been donated to a community college where the instructor won't let anyone go into digital until they have mastered film.

-I first developed my own film 60 years ago, still miss it, but would never go back from digital, although I still have some bricks of 120 Verichrome Pan, Tech Pan and Panatomic -X in my freezer, such great materials!

-A few other possibilities, focusing optics, aids...timers and density readers... analog thermometers...film washers (mine was a 32 oz. plastic pitcher with a hole at the top for a hose, and a hole at the bottom to drain), Photo Lab Index? (a darkroom Bible!), and on and on.

-Polaroid coaters were a great varnish good for many other uses...still have a bunch, they never dry out!
-My burning tool was always a black painted funnel used under the enlarging lens; dodging tool was a coat hanger with a piece of exposed, fixed sheet film cut to shape.
-Does anyone remember "Crone C" additive to reduce grain? And 2 solution Diafine to increase speed?

-

Oh, yes, I was definitely around for all this. But I don't miss waiting for pictures to be developed; I don't miss going through a half box of paper to get the print I want; I don't miss emerging from the darkroom smelling of toxic waste. Simply going to film scanning and Photoshop in the late 1990s was liberating. I do miss some of the cameras; in general, they were smaller, lighter and more tactile than what we have now. And I also miss the excitement of the surprise of finding days after the fact that yes, you really did get that great photograph.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

I used every single one of those things at one point or another. I still remember the awful smell of that Polaroid black-and-white print coater! I remember the smell of a fresh lamp turned on for the first time in a slide projector, too. Oh, and the smell of Tri-X film as I put a fresh 100-foot roll of it into my bulk loader.

I don't miss any of these 17 items, though. Film was a great development in the world of photography, but with all the excellent digital equipment around today, there is little reason to use it any more, unless you're taking an art class from a misguided school that persists in insisting you learn film photography (sigh...), or you just have to have a view camera for the swings and tilts.

All this nonsense about how wonderful film is. I never missed it once after going digital. Best thing ever in photography. With weddings I had to wait to see if the pics were OK, or not! With digi I knew straight away if they were good, or not! Or any work. Ask any wedding photographer what they prefer to ,use. Retired for 9 years now so only
used digi for 3 years. Hobby only
now but no desire to use film. As for
young people using film, it's
something different. Once they start
taking photos for a living they'll use
digi. PS. Used some of those items. Regards from the UK.

Looks like this tool has at least 3 uses.
1/ Dodging prints
2/ getting the film tongue/leader back out of the cassette when a power drive has wound it all the way in.
3/ Coffee stirrer
4/ Micro fly swat

I had to make one when using Kodak 2475 high speed recording film as the end caps were glued on for better light security!
Strange, .... I never saw light leak out?
Same as waterproof watches, I never saw water leak out of them as well?

Got me on the PS Icon too?

Baz Cheers

I still use many of these. My film photo shots are much cooler than my digital ones and more satisfying too. See for your self danwagnerphotography.com These were shot with Rolleiflex and Tmax film and developed myself.

I must not be as old as I thought because I have no idea what #11 is.

And then there is the "B" setting on shutters.

I didn't do my own developing, so some of those items don't mean anything to me, but what I have that my younger friends and relatives don't (and that my older relatives have a LOT more of), is (heavy!) boxes of photos developed in Boots, Snappy Snaps or WH Smith, and their accompanying strips of negatives. Oh, and a unwieldy pile of photo albums!

Every year or so I try to start scanning them in, but give up because it's such a hassle, so going to wait for a fully automated system that can scan multiple photos at once and automatically (accurately!), fix, crop, date stamp and tag (with names, places etc) each photo, before uploading them to the cloud at full resolution.

This can be done today, but the process is still too unreliable and reliant on human input. I think HP and Google will manage to pull this off at some point.

Anyone want my Hope 32" print processor. You will need to bring a truck with a lift.

Stupid article since it do not say what the displayed articles were for. More frustrating than informative IMO.

Long ago got rid of my bulk film loader, changing bag, tank & reels, enlarger, etc. Did anyone else ever use a pipette for measuring liquid developers like Kodak HC-110? Love what that can do for Tri-X.

Still have my Pentax Auto 110 and a couple of lenses though

That's a delightful blog post/article. Thanks for pointing it out.

I miss film. :(

I opened my first studio in London era 1966, (I guess I’m old) and I’m still working…..On some of my jobs when I get asked what camera is that, I end up talking about something else and when I mention about when I used to shoot 4x5 film for my weddings, they become very interested about learning more, but I’m working and I don’t have the time to talk longer.
I think it was a privilege for me to have learned my trade from some of the great photographers…..some still living….some not.
Great article ;)-

I never thought I'd say this but I miss color temp meters and filters.

While this is humorous it could be a better article if it had captions and said what replaced it, and how the end result now compares with the previous effort.

Of course that would require some effort beyond a catch title and clip art.

We aren't all old-fogeys who had silver spoons in our mouths.

Good old days, here smells like vinegar..

Read the article and recognized 16 out of 17 (missed No. 15)- then when I looked at No. 16- I realized what No. 15 was used for. I guess we all used one or more of these items. I think I used some version of them all at one time or another.It was fun realizing that that I used an item just like that huge 250 shot (probably) Nikon back- but I used it with a pre-dated Practina. Still have the back- still have the camera. These days I get 8000 shots- from an SD card. Still amazes me.

The AGFA daylight developing tank - the best !

The late, great Bernard Hoffman- referred to it as a "Schmoo stick" I always think of that when I use PS. I call it "Schmooing". P.S. Bernard Hoffman was one of the great Print Makers and laboratory owners of the 60's and beyond.

11 times yes :)

Ahh....the bad old days.

;-)

I used a lot of that stuff but Canon instead of Nikon. I still use my F-1s, AE-1s and Canonet at times as well as Pentax and Mamiya 645s but I lost the disc camera. Still, my favorite picture is one I took with the Disc camera.

I still have my bulk loader, cassettes, film loading dark bag, and of course my beloved Paterson steel 35mm reels and tank.
I have used everything except for the Big White 600 or 800mm manual focus lens, the ultra-huge motorized film advance, and loading the 4x5 film cassettes pictured. (I did use various sizes of radiographic film in paper cassettes for research).

I'm glad you only limited it to 17 items since I'm sure I would have know the next 17 more that you could have come up with and you didn't really go all that far back (I'm 49 years old).

I still have some film stuff left over, not because I'm collecting it, but rather I just haven't bothered to get rid of it yet.

My kids look at some of my old slides on a slide table and they can't understand how you make a big picture of them on a computer.