Sears TLS 40 Years Later

[br1078lum]

When I was in high school, I got the photo bug while taking printing classes.  We built a process camera for the class, and I also was loaned one of the school cameras for a week to learn how to use it, and to process film.

So when I had a little money, I looked in the Sears catalog, and saw the TLS.  I had done a small bit of research, and decided to get the all black model, with the 55/1.4.  Then I added to the outfit with a 28/2.8, and the 90-230/4.5 zoom, and a 2x teleconverter.  A flash with bracket, some filters, and I was ready to go.  I had great fun using the camera, and learning the craft.  Some folks even thought I was a pro since I had the black version, and when I used the flash, it was always on the bracket with a coiled extension cord.  It did get me access a couple of times to places where the regular folk aren't allowed.

I traded it in while I was in the Navy for my first Nikkormat.  But I had always had a soft spot in my memory for the TLS, so I reconstituted my original outfit, along with a couple more pieces that had come along later.  This year was my 40th high school reunion, so I took it with me to shoot some fond old memories of my youth.  The weather, and time constraints limited me to one roll of Fujifilm 200 ISO.  I was not a portraitest, so all you get are landscapes.  And these will be the last photos I take with it, because it also reminded me why I got rid of it in the first place.  It will now go into the Retired/Collectable group of cameras.


Flower Garden by br1078phot, on Flickr
I stay with one of my sisters and her husband when I go back home, and this is part of the landscaping they have done in the backyard.


Sand Creek Tributary 3 by br1078phot, on Flickr
At the fork in the road where Millhousen Rd meets E600S.


Center Of Population 1890 by br1078phot, on Flickr
Monument erected as a prestige thing that was popular back in the day.


Westport Covered Bridge 3 by br1078phot, on Flickr
One of seven photos I took of the bridge that day.

If you want to see the complete set, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7699588@N07/sets/72157627823989470/

Nostalgia is nice, but it can get expensive.  I'm glad my first system was not some obscure, trendy collectable.

PF

[jamesmck]

Phil - I enjoyed your narrative and images, here and on Flickr.  Good for you to re-create your kit of yore.  That is a great bridge.

James

[Olypen]

Your pictures make a very nice send-off as you put the TLS on the shelf.  I thought they all were very good and I appreciated the variety of views of the bridge, including the inside framing.  A few years ago, I was given a Sears TLS (screwmount) and some of the same accessories you mentioned.  I only put one short roll through it and liked the results.  Your photos make me think I should dig it out; I remember that it was sturdy and gave great b&w  with the f/1.4 lens -  a 55mm, I think.

[br1078lum]

Thanks, James.  I've been trying.

Olypen, I wound up with an extra 90-230 while putting this kit back together (scrambled neurons will do that to you), and it's yours if you want it.  PM me with an address.

PF

[LarryD]

OK this makes me want to do something I have been wanting to do for a time. I too put together my original Kit from High School. A Prakica LTL 50mm 1.8 along with a 135mm and a 28mm along with a 35mm and the 400mm Preset. It has been mostly sitting in a shipping box since I moved.

[Murphy]

Phil. Great colorful shots. I think the Sears TLS was a re-badged Ricoh SLR from Japan. While it seemed to have been aimed at the amateur market, the performance of the camera and its lenses seems pretty darn close to something like the camera you replace it with, the Nikkormat, supposedly an entry level pro camera.

[br1078lum]

Thanks, Dave.  The Sears TLS is a Roebuck branded Ricoh Singlex.  Not sure as to the manufacture of the lenses, but they had some characteristics that even back then I didn't care for.  Cloudy days seem to be the best time to use them.

I chose the Nikkormat because of the system.  I had looked at Canon, and a couple others, but it just made more sense to get into Nikons.  To this day, they are still my favorite cameras.

PF

[Nick Merritt]

You said that using the camera reminded you of why you got rid of the original in the first place.  Can you elaborate?

[br1078lum]

Nick, it's the stop-down metering, and the screw mount.  I could live with the mount, but I just got tired of having to focus with the lens wide open, then turn on the meter.  Not conducive to shooting moving objects.  And the viewfinder was already a bit dark for my liking.

PF

[lesged]

Phil,

Thanks for giving us another excellent nostalgic thread. Your story caused a spooky flashback:

You learned your photo craft in a printing class at a high school in the 1970s, was given a camera to use by your teacher, referred to making a process camera. You could have been my student at Newton South H.S.in the 1970s.

I taught both advertising art where students used pens and brushes and graphic art, where students learned how to make plates for offset lithography. We used a process camera with arc lights and vacuum table that shared a common wall with the large darkroom.

SLR were all the rage and everyone was dumping their Vitos, Retinas, Sillettes and I bought these and other classic cameras in top condition at yard sales and thrift stores for $5 & $10 and loaned them to students over the weekends.  Later the city of Newton bought Pentax SP500 and SP1000 for my classes, but the students continued to use the other ones as well.

Thanks for the memories, Phil.

[br1078lum]

Les, you and my teacher from then would be about the same age too.  Although he may be a couple years younger.  He was the nervous type though, and gave up teaching.  I think the day one of my classmates didn't take his ring off while running the platen press started him on the downhill slide.  That's a sound I'll never forget.

PF

[Olypen]

As he suggested in a post above, Phil did send me the 90-230 zoom for the Sear TLS in October; I recently went to Como Park in St. Paul to try it out in the zoo area.  I though I might use the long focal length right at a fence in order to throw it out of focus and out of the picture; I didn't remember that in the best areas for photos there are two fences between the animals and the public-- I don't know if there's any way around that.  Anyway, I did get a good perspective on the upper dome of the conservatory plus a few views of the Snow Leopards and an Amur Tiger which I'll post here.  I think that the lens does a fine job even handheld as I was using it. A big "thank you" to Phil!









(Photos made on T-Max 400 Dev in D-76 1:1 using Sears TLS with 90-230 Sears lens)

[titrisol]

The cat pistures are great!   Those Ricoh cameras were very very good

[br1078lum]

You're welcome, Bill.  I'm glad to see it being used.

PF

[George in Georgia]

OK this makes me want to do something I have been wanting to do for a time. I too put together my original Kit from High School. A Prakica LTL 50mm 1.8 along with a 135mm and a 28mm along with a 35mm and the 400mm Preset. It has been mostly sitting in a shipping box since I moved.

Sounds the first SLR kit I had in the '70s, a Hanimex/Praktica LTL with 28, 50, 135 and 200 mm lenses, plus tubes, etc.  The Praktica LTL had the best implementation of stop-down metering I've ever seen - a spring loaded key just above the front panel shutter release.  Focus, and with your finger on the shutter, press the key to meter.  None of this mess of a switch by the lens mount.  Almost as convenient as full aperture metering.

The Praktica still works, even after having been bounced off a sidewalk.  All speeds okay.  The 50mm f1.8 lens has a slow diaphragm.  Not bad for a cheap East German box.  Pity it takes mercury cells, although I think it is a bridge circuit which shouldn't be bothered by a silver oxide cell.