Old Technology - What have you Used Lately?

[dfx33]

I had a good friend of mine get married and I decided to shoot some of the day on Super8 reversal film. I found some old stock and a camera and shot 2 reels. I can't wait till it's developed and see what the footage looks like.

With technology moving so fast it's amazing how old your cell phone can look in a couple years.

So my question is: What is the latest old technology you have used? Did you happen to pull out a old walkman recently, original nintendo or do you still have one of those clocks that flips the numbers over.

[Petrucio1983]

I still have and use my walkman to listen to tapes, I have a working record player and I do play the original NES system from time to time.

[Delta]

I still use incandescent lamps almost every day. But many people do. Otherwise, I actually try to avoid many old forms of technology that are still in common use. I avoid paper (it is a hassle to digitize and pictures are not an efficient text storage), I avoid clocks with parts more mechanical than a speaker or a button (clockworks and mechanical hands produce noise I do not like) etc. .
I did use an i486-based laptop in the Pentium 4 age if that counts, though. Fun times with a friend from school and his Commodore 128, it was always great retro computing fun.

[chrisw91]

The PS2 seems pretty old now. I still play that as my xbox 360 is broken 

[davelemmo]

I ride a lugged steel frame road bike with "suicide shifters" as my primary bike

[jackc16]

I listen to vinyl records almost every day.

[Karla]

I've just come back from a week hiking naked around the Austrian alps carrying round several kilograms of medium format film camera. The body is dated 1975, a year younger than I am. I had a certain sense of self-satisfaction when one member of our party complained that his camera battery had died. My camera is completely mechanical and I judge the exposure in my head.

We actually have a digital SLR but I let Stuart use that. I prefer the Hasselblad. I find it more satisfying to use.

[Petrucio1983]

That's cool. I miss the old film type cameras. I always took the best pictures with an old Pentax. But unfortunately all of the developers around here closed a while ago. So now it's digital or nothing.

[dfx33]

I've just come back from a week hiking naked around the Austrian alps carrying round several kilograms of medium format film camera. The body is dated 1975, a year younger than I am. I had a certain sense of self-satisfaction when one member of our party complained that his camera battery had died. My camera is completely mechanical and I judge the exposure in my head.

We actually have a digital SLR but I let Stuart use that. I prefer the Hasselblad. I find it more satisfying to use.

Nice, I really want to get into med format photography. What kind do you have? Hasselblad, Rolli? 

[fsjm2112]

I was recently playing my N64 with some friends(Mario Party, Super Mario 64). Although it may be old, it will forever be the best system.

[Dan]

I use a straight razor.



Screw the shitty toy razors people use these days.

[ToneBender]

I've just come back from a week hiking naked around the Austrian alps carrying round several kilograms of medium format film camera. The body is dated 1975, a year younger than I am. I had a certain sense of self-satisfaction when one member of our party complained that his camera battery had died. My camera is completely mechanical and I judge the exposure in my head.

We actually have a digital SLR but I let Stuart use that. I prefer the Hasselblad. I find it more satisfying to use.

Awesome - I couldn't judge exposure if my life depended on it.

[Karla]

I've just come back from a week hiking naked around the Austrian alps carrying round several kilograms of medium format film camera. The body is dated 1975, a year younger than I am. I had a certain sense of self-satisfaction when one member of our party complained that his camera battery had died. My camera is completely mechanical and I judge the exposure in my head.

We actually have a digital SLR but I let Stuart use that. I prefer the Hasselblad. I find it more satisfying to use.

Awesome - I couldn't judge exposure if my life depended on it.

It's a lot easier with the Hasselblad because you only need to set the exposure value. You can then turn the ring on the lens to decrease  or increase aperture and shutter speed knowing that the photograph will have the same level of exposure. It's like the Aperture priority or shutter speed priority setting on an SLR.

Outside you judge the exposure value by looking at the shadows on the ground. Bright sunlight during the day with strong shadows gives you EV 15 (EV 16 for bright sand or snow). Soft shadows is EV 14. Bright cloudy without shadows is EV 13. Dark shade or very cloudy is EV 12 and a sunset is EV 11. Post sunset would be EV 10 etc. If I am focusing on a relatively bright object such as a naked body then I will increase the the EV by half a stop).

I also bring a table of values printed on an A4 paper that includes all the different situations that I rarely come across in case I need it, such as round a campfire (EV 8) and change it according to what I want to focus on. I find this far easier than using the light meter, which I always bring with me but very rarely use. And when I do use it generally ignore it anyway.

[NudeNathan]

My guitar tuner is well over 20 years old, absolutely nothing wrong with it, I use it all the time 

[ToneBender]

I like books - as in actual paper things that you read.