Ken Larson Images and Art
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Ken Larson Images and Art
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I bought my first real camera in 1976. I needed a camera for a design class that I was taking at Cal Poly, Pomona. It was a simple 35 mm Canon with one fixed lens and few manual controls. About two years later, I realized that I needed something better. I bought a Chinon with three lens and manual overrides. When the Canon finally died, I bought a Nikon pocket camera, again a simple automatic camera with built in flash which I could use more casually. These were my two primary cameras for about a decade - in fact, the Nikon lasted for two decades. When the Chinon died in the late 1980s, I bought the first of two matching Contax cameras with four lens and good manual overrides. Most of the older photos in this Photo Gallery were taken with these two Contax cameras. About 1989, I bought a Stereo Realist 3D camera. I don't mean it as a pun when I say this adds a new dimension to photography. These slides need to be mounted by myself. I do not include them here as my slide scanner can't handle these unusual mounts and I don't wish to remount them. Besides, you would have to place your nose on your monitor and cross your eyes to view them. I may include them some day if I can learn a better way to dispaly them. In 2002, the Nikon began to develop problems so I replaced it with another pocket camera, a Canon. In August, 2004 I replace this with a digital Canon camera , giving the pocket Canon camera to my wife to supplement her Advantix. The first two Contax cameras were getting old and I was starting to spend too much money on repairs, so in 2003 I bought a new Contax body which uses all the old lenses and accessories. In August, 2004 I bought my first Digital Camera, a Canon SLR with 6.3 megapixels. It is a nice starter digital, but the resolution is still less than my film cameras when used with the slide scanner, so I hope to upgrade in a year or two. On March 6, 2005, my beloved irreplaceable Stereo Realist 3.5 camera (with a cracked lens cap and broken front shutter speed bakelite assembly, and slides of Amboy Crater inside), my Contax 135 mm lens, my Tamron 60-300 zoom lens, and all my Realist and Contax accessories were stolen from my car in a parking lot in Ranch Cucamonga, California. The worst is the thief will probably throw the Realist away not knowing this old camera was the most valuable item stolen. The thief also stole my Independence Day crew jacket which is irreplaceable and the only one of the few crew jackets I've been given that fit. Anyone knowing their whereabouts, please contact me. In fall of 2005, I replaced my 6.3 megapixels digital with an 8 megapixels digital. It had a better lens, but was impossible to keep the sensor clean. About May 2008 I bought a new digital camera, a 12 megapixel that cleaned the sensor every time it was turned off. It used the new high capacity DS chip. The person at the camera store didn't know this and sold me a card reader that didn't read these cards. I week later as we traveled to Utah, this became a problem. I could only download the chip by connecting the camera to the computer which took a lot longer. When the camera was about 370 days old, while on a trip to Arizona, the camera broke. Fortunately I had the older 8 megapixel camera with me to finish the trip and Canon repaired the camera under the one-year warrantee. I still use the three Digital Rebels, the oldest for work and the second as a spare. The film cameras have bene packed away for years and you can't easily get film anymore anyway. I do occasionally use the replacement Realist. |
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This site maintained by Kenneth A. Larson. Copyright © 2004 - 2023, Kenneth A. Larson. All Rights Reserved. Website content including photographic and graphic images may not be redistributed for use on another website. |
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