Just Plain Old

My mother gave me this really old camera that has pretty much amounted to nothing more than a paperweight until now. I can't recall if she'd said it was something she just had or if it belonged to my grandfather, I guess I should ask about that. Anyway with my recent experience with Emily's Nikon FA (of which I want to buy my own) I wanted to play with the old camera on my bookshelf. It turns out it's a Kodak Vigilant six-20 it takes Kodak 620 film and you have to special order the film AND send it out to a special place for developing. My mother told me the camera doesn't work anymore but I think that's just because you can't get film for it anymore. This camera dates from 1939-1949 and those things don't have quite so many parts the break and need repairs as the new cameras do.

Playing with the camera last night I decided I needed to learn how to use it. So, I went online today and looked up the manual, downloaded the pdf and printed it off...I'm dying to get home and play around with it some more. The thought of having to send the film of specially makes me wish I had my own dark room...one day when I have my own house I would love to have a basement or garage room or something to use as a dark room...that would be awesome. I learned how to develop B&W film in a dark room the summer before I went to High School but I think I'd need a refresher course since it's been about a million years since then. I remember how rewarding it was to be able to take pictures and then develop them on your own. Oh maybe some day I'll be able to afford something so lavish. But for now, I'd settle for being able to figure out this camera and see if I can take pictures with it!