Wallace Koopmans Artlog

I was just finishing some art related errands when I drove past a local Abbotsford historic house and museum called the Trethewey House. What caught my eye was the giant wrench strapped to the back of a tall fellow. I was curious enough to pull over and have a look. Fortunately I almost always have a camera on me, okay I always have a camera on me. By the time I arrived things were winding down at a gathering with Steam Punk related activities but I spoke to a few nice people dressed in fun attire and took a limited number of portraits with my Pentax K-01. I’ve edited them on my coal-fired iPad. I’m pretty sure coal was used at some stage in the manufacturing of my iPad.

Queen Victoria on her Birthday weekend

Note the previously mentioned giant wrench and also he may be on to something, I could carry more cameras with suspenders like that.

I shot another roll throught the Nikon L35AF this time without the silly lens adapters.  Thats better, it’s now as good as all the rest of the 35mm focal length autofocus point and shoots hardly anyone remembers.

Most of the images were taken with the Vivitar 28mm 1:2.0 Close Focus lens.  The extra stop of light you get with this lens compaired to using a Pentax 28mm 1:2.8 might be useful in low light but it’s the ability to focus down to 23cm (roughly 9 inches) is what is the best thing about it.  It is a heavy piece of glass and metal though and outways the Pentax 28mm to the point where its almost too heavy on my Pentax K-01.  Otherwise if you can spare the weight it will deliver unique results.

Everywhere you go downtown Calgary there is the Calgary Tower.  It may not be the tallest building anymore but it sure ends up in a lot of pictures.  I was in Calgary for a week and during my down time I walked around taking photographs. Here are 28 pictures I took in downtown Calgary that include the Tower so that you don’t have to.

If your from Alberta yes I am kidding I like Calgary there just were a few things that surprised me.  Things like the downtown Tim Hortons being closed on Saturday and how the city center was so dominated by glass and concrete, but I will cover that in another post.  Most of these images were taken with my new Pentax K-01 with a few from the Pentax Q, my film is out to the developers.

Released in 2000 the Canon Z90W (Autoboy Epo) has a 28-90mm f4.5-9.9 lens which is  slow at the telephoto end but the quality of the optical system overall is quite good.  Being from 2000 its just new enough to find internet reviews from the time the camera was released.  The best part of this camera is the large mode dial on the back, with 7 different positions, the most interesting to me being ‘Personal’ which lets me configure the flash to be off at all times.  This is done be selecting Personal on the dial and then pressing the mode button then using the zoom buttons to toggle through the available flash choices; Auto,Red eye,Flash on,Flash off,+1.5 exposure comp.,-1.5 exposure comp., and slow sync flash.

Of the point and shoot film cameras with zoom lenses that go down to 28mm this is the best.  Used at the 28mm wide end it compares well with fixed focal length film compacts.

Using a half frame camera gives you 48 pictures from a regular 24 image roll.  It’s very freeing to have all those extra pictures but not crazy like digital.    I was shooting this roll of film to create in camera diptychs and these are just the images that were not in pairs.  Yes I know there is a fiber that shows up at the edge of all the images, someone should really do something about that.

I’m missing a major part of this camera which renders it a point and shoot in the strictest sence.  I can’t even over ride the flash.  originally this camera had a cover that also functioned as a controller that could be moved from the front of the camera to the rear or as a remote using IR.  It’s not a common camera, in fact mine is the only one I’ve ever seen,  so the prospect of finding one with the cover is low.  Once my limited supply of APS film is gone there may not be much reason to keep this otherwise interesting camera.

This is what APS film looks like if you were wondering, the scanner at the lab jammed and it had to be extricated.

I just picked up my Q to K-mount adapter so that I can use the lenses from my DSLR or Pentax K-01 as telephoto lenses.  The crop factor in terms of 35mm film for the Pentax Q is a whopping 5.5x.  What this means is that my 100mm macro becomes a 550mm equivalent lens.  Even a 50mm lens gives a field of view that a 275mm lens would on 35mm film or a “full frame” digital sensor.  When I choose to add photographic equipment I ask myself  “Does this expand what I am able to do photographically?”, the Q with this adapter certainly does provide me with something I didn’t have before.

I only had about an hour of fading light at a nearby park to make a few test shots but even in that short time I was able to see there are some new possibilities with compressing the view (extreme telephoto) and macro where the small sensor gives more depth of field.  All of this takes up very little extra room if you are already carrying the lenses for use on a camera with a larger sensor.   The limitations with the Q relating to its small sensor and high ISO performance are brought to the foreground with the need to use higher ISOs to achieve fast enough shutter speeds.  With further testing I’m sure I will find the point at which I can balance these competing parameters and achieve a result that I am happy with.  For now though here are images from my first foray into K-mount lenses on the Q.

I used the DFA 100 WR macro, the SMC Pentax-M 1:1.7 50mm and the SMC Pentax-A 1:2.8 28mm.

I love when cameras exceed my expectations.  You might, like me, think that a camera from 1960 with a programmed shutter and aperture would be questionable,  not in this case though.  The Minolta Uniomat has a selenium meter just bellow the shutter button that moves a galvanometer on the top plate. If you adjust the exposure ring around the lens it moves an arm also in the window with the galvanometer needle, when the arm and the needle match that is the suggested setting for the scene. When adjusting the camera like this you actually have no independent control over the shutter and aperture it follows a set program line. I’ve created this handy little chart which does actually give an indication of the aperture and shutter speed for any EV setting.

You can see in the pictures where I allowed direct sunlight to reach the lens that the images are quite washed out, I think quite a bit of this came from the original uncoated Minolta filter that I left on for the testing.