Dad's Old Camera

Last night, my dad gave me his old manual camera in preparation for my Black & White Photo class. It's a Honeywell Pentax. It's so old that they don't even make this camera anymore!

Well, I was getting the camera back into shape by taking pictures of mostly dead trees because I like the line work though the lens. I then ran out of things to shoot, so I started taking pictures of the bird. They must be camera shy, because they kept making that noise they make whenever they are saying "Back off!" After running up all the film, I then began to rewind it back into the container. Once I knew that was done, I had to open the back.

That's where my problem started.

According to the site above, there is suppose to be a locking mechanism that helps open the back to help me get my film in and out. Well, I couldn't find it. There is evidence of a hinge, but there is nothing as far as a lock as far as I can see. I called my father about it, and he thought I didn't know how to rewind the film. He told me how to do that instead of how to open the damn thing. The last thing he said when he knew what my problem finally is was that the only thing he remembered about the back opening is that it opened left to right. At least that's a start.

Now you tell me, what good is a manual camera if you can't get the film in or out of it? Yes, I know that's a rhetorical question.