I subscribe to a lot of photo stuff on the internet. Obviously too much because I can’t read and watch all of the material that washes up in my inbox. There are a few old standbys I always read and most that I just thumb through. And then there are those that go to the trash immediately. Sometimes going through the flood of news and adverts is annoying but what I learn along the way makes the effort worthwhile.
For instance, just last week I came across an auction catalog for a rare camera auction in Chicago. It is mostly Leica stuff but that’s OK. Being a true camera junkie I can get a “fix” from almost any brand of camera. And really fine examples of good cameras make my heart race and my mouth water.
But “good camera” does not have to mean “expensive camera”. I have
talked here about the Brownie Hawkeye which I picked up some time ago. (In fact, there is one on my bookshelf with a half exposed roll of film in it as I write this.) I picked up one for nostalgia reasons but now I have four of them. All are excellent to mint in condition and all working. This is a fun camera and the design is as pretty as any camera I have seen.
I have three other Brownies as well. Since these are not what I collect I have the luxury of not buying any that are not in first class condition and not cheap.
Of the Hawkeyes, I have the first unsynchronized version which I picked up just this week at the Vancouver Camera Show. I have the “Flash” model, one with the metal wind knob and the one with the grey plastic knob. And finally I found one that is identical but it is not called “Hawkeye”; it is called “Fiesta”. Turns out that Kodak had a plant in South America making these things and south of the border they called them the Fiesta.
I have these cameras for the sheer joy of looking at them, touching them, shooting with them. As I said, camera junkie!
It is for this reason that this catalog is fun: it sets the heart to racing and the mind to wishing. Have a look. If you read these pages and look at these images with longing then you too are a junkie!
