Project 365 - Day 40

Simplicity.

First a photo from today's walk.  This came out quite a bit better than I had expected.  I have shot this 'tunnel of trees' before, as I like the way it looks to my eye, and at this time of year, the sun comes through the trees.  Today was quite overcast, and I wasn't sure the sun was going to be bright enough to make this look like the magical glow that I saw, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Uncertain of how the above photo was going to come out, and having had a day trying to distill complicated analysis into a mostly understandable methods section for a paper I'm working on, I was craving some simplicity.

Enter my new-to-me Kodak Tourist camera.  Not only is this camera a cool addition to my collection of old, inexpensive cameras I've purchased off eBay (a little patience and you can get some amazing old cameras!), but it is quite special because it came with the original box and manual. I'll have more photos of the camera and the box, but the manual was the selling point for me, and it helped me find some simplicity.

For comparison, here's the manual for my Panasonic 27-270mm camera, and the manual for the Kodak Tourist.  All the numbered parts for the Panasonic, and, well, not so much for the Kodak,

Ignore that this manual is in Spanish - it was was the first one I grabbed.

And the 3 (count 'em, three!) parts on the front of the camera.

Admittedly, there was another diagram that had a few more parts explained, but really, that's it.

You'd think the back of the camera actually did something, but no. This is the guide to help you figure out the appropriate aperture for your shutter speed, (or vice versa) based on the light conditions, with the options of 'bright sun', 'hazy sun', or 'cloudy' and you subject is either 'dark' or 'average'.  (I'm not even going to speculate on that.)

The explanation they give you in the manual is actually quite helpful, and there is another page (I'll shoot it tomorrow) that give you a visualization of what the various aperture settings are.  You probably wouldn't become Ansel Adams from the manual (although I'll let you know if that happens once I read the manual), but it seems to give the average person who bought this camera enough information to try out their first roll (or several) of film and then have the anticipated excitement of seeing what the developed photos look like.  I do like that the 'basic setting' for an average subject in bright sunlight is f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. (I'm not sure I can hold the camera steady at that slow a shutter speed!)

And for reference, here's the back of the Panasonic.  Just a wee bit more complicated.

I am not certain that the Kodak actually works, which makes the Panasonic a bit more useful, but I LOVE the manual with the Kodak. And the camera itself is beautiful.  But you'll see more of that later.