Retro Pleasures

[JohnMichael]

While technology is rapidly advancing and becoming a bigger part of our lives I find some old fashioned designs a nice break.

As many of you know I enjoy my turntable not just for the music it reproduces but for the physical interaction from playing records and tweaking the design. Installing a cartridge, aligning it, and setting tracking force are hands on experiences I enjoy.

Mechanical wristwatches instead of quartz watches are of interest. Watches have been built this way for several hundred years. Winding a watch and seeing the second hand sweep instead of jump to the next second is fascinating. No batteries or electronic circuits just springs, gears and jewels.

In this day of digital photography I enjoy pulling out a mechanical camera that requires that I focus, set exposure, load and advance the film manually.

These are some of the things I enjoy when I am ready to take a break from modern devices.

[Feanor]

While technology is rapidly advancing and becoming a bigger part of our lives I find some old fashioned designs a nice break.

As many of you know I enjoy my turntable not just for the music it reproduces but for the physical interaction from playing records and tweaking the design. Installing a cartridge, aligning it, and setting tracking force are hands on experiences I enjoy.
...
In this day of digital photography I enjoy pulling out a mechanical camera that requires that I focus, set exposure, load and advance the film manually.
...

Well, for me the the little tasks necessary to keep the vinyl spinning are the very things I can do without. When I can quewe up an evening's listening on a playlist, I don't miss these rituals.

But classical mechnical devices can be wonderful. Though I haven't owned one for years, something I dearly love to own and, (I think), use would be a Leica M3 rangefinder camera. Introduced in 1954, it was an all-mechanical, all-metal device -- no electrionics and no plastic. For a few months when I was young, I owned a one and have always regretted selling it. It was the most most beautifully made and nearly perfect device I've ever owned. M-series Leicas are still made today that look almost identical to the M3, including the all-mechanical MP model. Too pricey for me at US$3500 for the camera body only.
...

[trollgirl]

For all the advancements in technology, self-loading, smokeless powder, optical sights, etc, etc, the most fun I EVER had shooting was with a muzzle-loading, black powder, cap-and-ball single-shot pistol. Loading the thing was a gas, and the pay-off was the ROAR and smoke on firing the thing.

I have had a number of multi-speed bikes, but some of my fondest memories were made on an old [1950's] coaster-brake one-speed with fat tires. I was bombing down trails in the woods here in Missouri with the thing about the same time the Mountain Bike was being invented in Marin Co.

Laz

[ForeverAutumn]

I can't think of a damn thing.

I don't have a turntable or a tapedeck.
All my watches and clocks are run by battery.
My car is only two years old.
I have two cameras, both digital.
I don't own a typewriter.
We have an electric keyboard, not a piano.

We do have an old phone with a dial in the basement...but we only use it when the power goes out because all our other phones are cordless.

The closest things to retro that I can come up with are an acoustic guitar and a large collection of books. But those aren't really mechanical are they?

[trollgirl]

I can't think of a damn thing.

RetroTech is not for everyone. We all draw the line somewhere - I don't own a PDA or an iPod but I don't chip flint, either...

Laz

[JohnMichael]

Well, for me the the little tasks necessary to keep the vinyl spinning are the very things I can do without. When I can quewe up an evening's listening on a playlist, I don't miss these rituals.

But classical mechnical devices can be wonderful. Though I haven't owned one for years, something I dearly love to own and, (I think), use would be a Leica M3 rangefinder camera. Introduced in 1954, it was an all-mechanical, all-metal device -- no electrionics and no plastic. For a few months when I was young, I owned a one and have always regretted selling it. It was the most most beautifully made and nearly perfect device I've ever owned. M-series Leicas are still made today that look almost identical to the M3, including the all-mechanical MP model. Too pricey for me at US$3500 for the camera body only.
...

The Leica is a perfect example of what I was talking about. Manufactured by very skilled hands and the photographer would need to have a fair amount of knowledge to operate it.