Relic

While sorting through boxes of old slides, I came across this relic from my early days of photography.

My first camera was a simple 35mm camera, with a fixed 50mm f/2.8 lens, shutter speeds from 1/30th sec to 1/125s (plus "B") and with no focussing aid or exposure meter.  It was a fantastic camera to learn on and I became pretty good at estimating distances and judging lighting without the benefit of a meter.  However, some lighting conditions were difficult to cope with, so I bought this little exposure calculator (I couldn't yet afford an exposure meter).  It allowed me to calculate a correct exposure taking account of the time of year and time of day (on the reverse), the film speed and preferred shutter speed and the direction of the lighting.  It claims to have been compiled in accordance with the British Standard Exposure Table B.S.935/1957.

It was certainly an ingenious little device.  There are some hints to its age.  For instance, the fastest shutter speed it assumed might be available to you was 1/250th second (but that was faster than my camera offered).  Even more telling, the maximum film speed it assumed you could get was 400 ASA, but it allowed for films as slow as 5 ASA!  This was quite helpful, as my first colour slide film was 10 ASA.

I eventually replaced this device with a second hand exposure meter, and later with a Weston Master V.   It wasn't until around 1984 that I bought my first camera with built in (through the lens) metering.

Fun times.