No Rewind Knob

There was probably a time back in the beginning of the digital era when all the mechanical mathematical calculations performed say in a day was still more than what those large room size computers could compute. I imagine armies of one armed Burroughs' office calculators all across the planet unaware of what was coming. Sometime during the early seventies things started to change. It's hard to imagine something like the airline industry running today on pencil and paper or for that matter the airline reservation system running like that. It almost seems that one begot the other. The shear size, volume and immediacy of such an industry co-evolved with the digital revolution.

When I used film, loading a camera was an important moment; I should say loaded 35mm type film. Sheet film had its own special concerns and I never had a problem with roll film. Anyway, early in my photographic training I learned to pay attention to the rewind knob as the first frames were advanced. One time I had loaded a 35mm camera and it failed to catch on the take up sprocket. Needless to say I had no pictures. That was a long time ago though. After that incident I paid attention religiously to the loading process. Actually, I would always pretension the film, back wind it, taking up the slack inside the film cassette before closing the camera back. So on the very first stroke with the back closed the rewind knob would turn and I would know the film was engaged.

Just like the chemical fumes and aroma of my darkroom past, the rewind knob is a fading memory. I have 2 DSLR's now. There's a small smooth spot where a rewind knob might have been . . .a healing of sorts. The new concern is electric power. Where as my old semi-auto Nikon would still fire if the battery failed, these new cameras won't. That's nothing new though, everything runs on batteries today. That's why I have an extra one for both cameras. They've saved my butt a few times.