My stepfather, Robert Henry Kane, was a hobby photographer.  He passed away in 2000, about five years before I took up the hobby myself.  Unfortunately, I never had a chance to ask him about any of his equipment or about his love for the hobby.  When he was alive I wasn’t interested in photography at all.

Bob Kane (1936-2000)

My mother recently came across his camera gear and asked me if I would like to have it.  I gratefully accepted the offer for the bag of gear and my Mom shipped it out to me.  It arrived the next day in careful packaging, perfectly intact.  I immediately dove in to see what I had inherited.

Bob’s Pentax SF10 SLR 35mm film camera came with a beautiful tan padded case, one 28-80mm lens, one 75-300mm lens, one 2x teleconverter, an external AF240FT speed flash, a Quantaray Foggilizer soft focus filter and a large number of high end Cokin filters.  I recognized the size of those filters!  I knew right away that all of his 58mm accessories would fit on my current Canon digital SLR cameras.

The camera still had a functioning battery and believe it or not, it was still loaded with a roll of partially exposed film!  With three images already exposed 13 years ago on a roll of 24 ISO 400 film, I didn’t expect much upon development.  Most old film that has been stuck in a camera for over a decade deteriorates to the point of being unrecognizable.

Somehow, I felt luck was upon me as I ran around the garden and throughout our house, snapping pictures to use up the rest of the film.  A quick trip to the one-hour photo and $3.80 later, I managed to secure the development of the very last photo Bob had ever taken some 13 years prior.  It shows a solemn winter scene of a birdhouse in their yard in Mio – fitting, so it seems.

With the mystery of the undeveloped film solved, I moved my attention to the many filters he had stashed away in his bag of goodies.  They are all high end Cokin brand filters that thankfully I can use on my current camera bodies: Close-up (A103), Pre-Shaped Frames (A397), Multi-Image (A201), Radial Zoom (A185), Champagne (A695), Sunset (A198), Warming (A027), Linear Polarizer (A160).

Having only played with these new-found toys for a few minutes I can already say that Bob has left me years of fun, creativity and adventure ahead.  I’m so lucky to have these!  I only wish he were here with me so we could enjoy them together.  Thanks, Bob.  I miss you.

Cokin Radial Zoom

Cokin Multi-Image

Cokin Multi-Image

Cokin Close-Up