I speak of it often….the value of ‘tactile’ or tactility, if a word exists. I speak of it for I live it, daily. Every day when I take my film camera’s out for a walk-about, I get all tactile inside.
Let me just take one aspect of the tactile movement as it relates to my cameras. The film advance. Taking my right thumb and moving the film advance lever is a remarkable soothing action. Pure mediation comes into my mind with that simply physical act.
The beauty is that this ‘action’…..the feel of that tactility, will vary with my cameras. For instance, when I shoot my Leica’s, oh boy…..melted butter comes to mind. My thumb movement just slides. The sound is an adorable soft mechanical blurrrrrrrr…….. Heaven comes to mind. As stated earlier, this is where my meditative process begins to sink in. Thumb action…..soft blur…….a moan
My Olympus OM’s differ depending on the OM model. The OM1 differs slightly from the OM2. Together the sound and feel is greatly different from the Leica’s. The OM’s are more stiff….audibly more mechanical by nature. Inherently they provide a deeper tactility than the Leica just because they lack that butter smooth Leica movement, a movement I am sure was carefully crafted by Leica engineers. None the less, the OM’s offer tactility but on a different plane.
I possess other cameras as well that equate with a different range of Tactility. IE…my 1915-1920 Kodak Brownie has this soft difficult knob to turn and I have to view to see how far to turn. Am I there yet? Is the film advanced? My Kodak Retina has this odd reverse sided film advance that is placed at the bottom of the camera as opposed to the top. A different finger placement is needed all-told but the meditative effect is high just the same. I have older Leica’s such as my model A. (circa 1929) where I turn the sprocket knob to advance film. The knob is metallic and has a pull to it, not preventing advancement but as a photographer, I do know I have to turn it about one complete turn of the dial as I can visually see the film number gauge move from 1 to 2 or 5 to 6 etc.
In every and all cases……I go out….shoot….viola….I am in love.