A while back I was talking to a friend of mine about our continued neurotic bahavior in shooting film, particularly black & white film. I’ve heard all the arguments for moving towards digital, and I don’t deny any of them.

I had hit a low point in my resistance, and had gone as far as looking at digital cameras online instead of getting my Rolleiflex fixed. My behavior felt kind of dirty & traitorous, but I figured what the heck… it’s a dirty millenium.

Then out of the blue, a package arrived from a friend in New Orleans. In it was an Agfa Clack 120 shooter and a small photograph with a message on the back: “I think you will love this camera… Enjoy…”. I wasn’t familiar with the camera, so I went to google. The Clack was manufactured between 1954 and 1965. This one seems to have been from the late 1950’s. The Clack has a very simple design, it’s basically just a box with a lens and a shutter. There is no pressure plate, so the film is led around the curved back of the camera to create the maximum sharpness. The camera will give you eight 6×9 pictures out of a roll of 120.

Suddenly, I’m all excited about trying out the new camera and I’ve lost all interest in delving deeper into digital. I’ll bring this one along with the 35mm when I get Outside this spring. In fact, I have a friend here in the ‘Banks who has jumped with both feet into digital, and he now is looking to part with his Nikon lenses, which oddly enough would look great on my Nikon.

Sometimes it takes a good friend to unwittingly keep you on the appropriate trail.