Question for old people- how did you take pictures before digital cameras? Also, have you ever used a?

Question

typewriter? Thanks, I'm doing a history report on old people who are still alive.

My mom just told me to apologize for calling people old. Sorry old people.

Answer 1

Oh Goody, I love questions like this. I am 72, is that old enough? I got a brownie camera in 1949, and that Christmas my parents bought me a Royal Typewriter. The keys were covered so I could not see the letters. And I learned that each finger was responsible for a certain amount of letters. I became quite good at this and I type at around 80 to 85 words a minute. I used to call my Mother on a telephone that had an operator on the other end, give her my mothers number at her office and the operator would plug in the telephone at the switchboard and my mother would answer. some of those long distance operators had really hard jobs, they had many, many cords and plugs and they could put you in touch with just about anyone.
When the first electric typewriters came out, I bought one, but I soon found out that the plastic keys did not hold up as well as the metal. I kept wearing the boards out. But I love my computer. I have pictures of my Grandmother and Grandfather and their children and everyone looks so stiff. But that is because you had to hold still for a minute or two for the photographer to take the picture.
You know man has always tried to leave his history behind, cave men took charcoal and drew animals being hunted with arrows thought their bodies, on the walls of caves.

Answer 2

I would venture to guess that I'm not much older than you are, but I'll still bite.

First of all, yes I have used a typewriter. The old Singer portable that my Dad used in college still works quite well, and I have on occasion turned in a paper typed on it. Sure, it's a little bit more work, but I find it quite enjoyable to use. This is a completely non-electric typewriter.

Back a couple of years ago when I was filling out college applications, the old IBM Selectric got a good workout. Since my handwriting is horrendous, a typewriter is a godsend.

As for before digital cameras-there's this great thing called film. It consists mostly of silver halides suspended in gelatin and coated on a flexible plastic support. Believe it or not, it can actually give better resolution than any digital camera on the market.

Answer 3

It was time consuming and the results were in black and white, but you didn't need a computer.
You have a camera with a ground glass plate for focusing, and a good rapid rectilinear lens f16 down to f64. When you have focused on the ground glass plate the camera has to be kept perfectly still on the tripod. You then put the cap on the lens and replace the ground glass plate with a dark slide containing a panchromatic plate. Open the slide so the plate is facing the lens; take off the lens cap; count three and put it back on again. Close the dark slide and take it out of your camera. Then take the plate to your dark room and develop it in a dish until you see the negative image appear.Move to another dish containing fixer so the image is stable when exposed to the light. Put the plate to dry. When it is dry you can lay it on photo sensitive paper and make contact prints. These are developed and fixed in the same way as the plate. That is all there is to it.
[Or after 1925 you could just buy a Leica 35mm]

Answer 4

Gee kid! You really know how to make a person feel great! I hope I qualify ... although I'm only 64! But I AM still alive ... at least I was the last time I checked!

My wife - who, believe it or not, still thinks I'm sexy! - likes to say that I'm older than dirt (She's seven years younger than me.)

Before digital we shot film. In the almost forty years since I bought my first serious camera - it was a Pentax, and it didn't even have a built in light meter, I've taken pictures with 35 mm, medium format, and 4x5 view cameras.

Today, of course, I shoot only digital! Film is still great. I just don't need it any more. All my film cameras now occupy places of honor on a shelf in my studio.

And yes, I've even used a typewriter! In fact, a MANUAL typewriter that wasn't even electric.

Hell, when I was in Viet Nam, I even communicated using Morse Code.

Being old ... and still alive ... is a good thing.

And isn't it amazing to think how much our technology and tools will have changed by the time YOU get old?

Thanks for asking. OH! and thanks also for writing your question with NO misspelled words and in the form of a well constructed sentence?

added: (ref. your mom chiding you for calling us old) hey, I don't mind being called old. It's a heck of a lot better than being called a "senior" or "elderly."

Old is GOOD!

Answer 5

for old people, this question is so rude, geez. For your information people have taken photos for a very long time, staring way back in the early 1900's so when you ask how did you take pictures before digital that's opening a whole plethera of options. 35 mm, to wooden cameras.
And just to let you know, most of us have typed on Typewriters, you don't have to be old to have used a typewriter, there are lots of them around also. From the type with round keys to the electric typewritter which was still being used to teach people how to type well into the 90's and are probably still being used today.
Your questions pegs you as a rude little punk, if you are serious do some research on line as to the types of the above items your refering to and then go visit a nursing home in person. Speak to some elderly people (politely) I'm sure they would be happy to tell you stories about what they remember.

Answer 6

Photographers have to know how to use ANY camera under any conditions anywhere. Today that can mean using a 4x5 view camera and sheet film as well as using the latest and greatest DSLR. All the deadline assignments really require a digital camera, but if you have the time to get your images to your publisher, by all means shoot film. What has happened though is many of the magazines I work for, no longer are set up to use proper film, so they just end up scanning any transparency I send them and go from there.

Answer 7

:}

We used to use a grossly inefficient, low resolution, grainy substance called film to capture images in reverse so that we could use chemicals and fancy projectors to invert the image, scale it to size and put it on to paper. Nowadays, we just use that experience to jump start our work with modern technology.

I used to have a manual typewriter. You didn't even have to plug it in. It was a noisy thing that wouldn't fit into a phone but you never had problems with the wi-fi connection.

In order to create "machine text", truly old people used large, unwieldy objects called "printing presses" and actually set the individual letters into place by hand. Of course, this did give them the ability to make several copies of a thing before the "press" needed repair.

...Before that, people used sticks and made marks by hand directly on to paper. {or sand, rocks, etc, etc.}

/:}

Answer 8

We used to have this little box, made of stone. It the box was a little bird, much like a woodpecker. We would point the box at each other and the bird would peck out the image on a stone plate and hand it out to us when it was done.

Answer 9

Your mom should make you play outside for a week. Without your cell phone or any other device that uses batteries.

Next week we're all coming to your house to throw our walkers at you.

Answer 10

Well personally I used to scratch images and text on tree bark using a sharpened stick dipped in my own feces before 1988, but I can't speak for anyone else.