Wallace Koopmans Artlog

Sure there may be prettier cameras and ones with more personality but this Beauty has it all in one package.  This camera incorporates all the design and technology that the late 1950’s had to throw at a camera.  The 45mm lens has 6 elements in 4 groups with a fast maximum aperture of f1.9.  The selenium meter provides a needle displayed on the top plate (I have to admit to not using it though).  To trip the shutter the film advance lever needs to be left out slightly providing a shutter lock so it won’t go off in your camera bag.

The rangefinder patch is unusual in that it is a circle where most I’ve come across are squares rectangles or diamond shapes.

More on the Beauty Lightomatic here When Beauty isn’t subjective

The perfect pocketable medium format camera the Voigtlander Bessa 46.  When it comes down to it despite having many different cameras there are always a few that I turn to again and again and this is one of those.  I love the look of it and the results it gives.  I have literally walked around with it in a pants pocket and  when you consider the image it records is 4cm x 6cm it’s all the more impressive. Here are some more posts about the Voigtlander Baby Bessa

Did you know that Voigtlander is the oldest name in cameras?  The original optical company was founded in 1756.

Who knew a sardine tin could be used to take a picture.  The Fuji DL Super Mini (Fuji Cardia Tiara) (Fuji Discovery Super Mini) or ‘The sardine tin’ has quickly become my wide-angle film point and shoot of choice.  It has a decent amount of image making control and a really good lens.  Born around 1995 at what could be considered the pinnacle of film cameras, right before the death of film cameras, many of my favourite little cameras date from this time.  Cameras like the Ricoh R1,Pentax UC-1 and the Olympus Stylus Epic (two years later). It is small and slips in a coat pocket easily.  28mm isn’t always going to be the right focal length but isn’t that why you generally have two coat pockets?

More posts on this camera here:  Fuji Super MiNi (Sept 2014)  Fuji DL super Mini  (Sept 2013)

The Olympus SP35 Rangefinder has a fantastic 7 element lens of 42mm and can be used in either automatic exposure or fully manual.  additionally it has the unique ability to spot meter when you press the ‘Spot’ button.  The meter gives its readings in EV rather than shutter speed and aperture but its easy to convert that into a useful setting of the camera as the EV value for the ISO/Shutter/Aperture combination is displayed in a small window on the lens barrel.  As long as the combination you select results in the same EV value as what the meter indicates you will get a correct exposure (Of course you may want to deviate from that).  When you want to meter for something specific such as a face that is back-lit you can use the spot meter button to determine the correct exposure for the spot (the same area as the focus patch). You would then just let the background be over exposed as a compromise.

At  600 grams it isn’t a dainty camera but it is finely made with all quality parts and materials. The f1.7 lens is no lightweight either adding its share to the heft.  More post about this camera can be found here The Swap Olympus SP35

I would have to say the Olympus Sp35 has a very sharp distortion free lens from center to corners in the same league as the Canon QL17 and Yashica GX

One thing about one camera:  The lens is a 42mm 1:1.7 Zuiko and the letter G denotes that it has 7 elements as G is the seventh letter in the alphabet.  So if you see a Zuiko D it has 4 elements ect.

Having found a way of scanning my APS film that produced good quality images it only stands to reason that I would find a worse way to do it, after all it is APS film.  Okay this is easier to do its just that the results aren’t as good.  This is a cheap film scanner of the type you find in a business supply store or at a garage sale or laying on the side of the road.  This one has the ability to pull the film through it without cutting and that is the key to how this works.  Although the holder is designed for 35mm film the smaller APS film can be kept square against one edge.  Unfortunately it gives an image that looks like it was shot with a cheap 3 Megapixel camera.  On the positive side again the image is already converted from a negative and only requires cropping.  Ultimately despite the greater effort required I think I will revert to my macro lens flash system.

I shot these images with the impossibly small Canon Elph LT more from this camera here Canon Elph LT

One thing about one camera: Did you know that the Stylus Epic will  provide fill from the flash even in bright conditions if it detects odd wavelengths such as those from fluorescent lights? 

Okay two things: Did you know that the Stylus Epic uses spot metering when you select spot focus?

Three but that’s it: Did you know the Stylus Epic has 400 autofocus distance zones to provide great focus accuracy?

These and more things make the Epic well…epic.  The fact that so many were produced means that they are readily available and cheap and everyone shooting film should consider having one or two or three.

The Fuji Instax mini 90 is a fun camera to play with and because the final result is a physical object it opens up the idea of sharing beyond the posting of an image on the internet.  You can actually give someone a photograph.  The Mini 90 adds much more control over image making than is offered by older Instax models.  Things such as multiple exposure, bulb mode and exposure overrides, my favourite though is the ability to suppress the flash.  Instant photography isn’t cheap but if you consider the fact that you are also receiving a print it’s a lot more reasonable.  I recently brought the Mini along on an outing for a highschool photography club and they all seemed to love the novelty of it as they immediately took pictures of the pictures with their cell phones.

Here are some resent sample images from the Fuji Instax Mini 90

The Cariboo gold rush of the 1860’s is a seminal event in the creation of the province of British Columbia.  The idea of finding gold essentially laying within the gravels of an ancient creek bed captures the imagination even today.  Placer gold like that though is not the only source of the precious metal.  It is also found trapped within rocks elsewhere in British Columbia, mining of this type is refered to as ‘hard rock’ or ‘lode’ mining.

An example of the interesting geology found around the area

The Carolin mine sits in such a location near the Coquihalla river.  While small quantities of gold were removed in this area during the early 1900’s it wasn’t until the Carolin mine operated beginning in 1982 that a significant amount of gold was removed.  43,500 oz are recorded for the 27 month period of operation.  Since that time there have been a number of owners of the mine claims and small amounts of assessment work but mostly the mine buildings and tunnels have been left to decay.

The surrounding area is beautiful though marked by human hands through logging and mining. Of course without either it also wouldn’t be accessible.  It’s never a good idea to go inside an old abandoned mine but it’s clear that the tunnels here are quite stable and do not require any shoring aside from the portal area.

That being said I still left my motorcycle helmet on.

I have since learned that the different levels of the tunnels are interconnected which also explains the cool breeze traveling through the mine delivering fresh air.

The above image is from the New Carolin Gold Corp.

On a photography note, when deciding what camera gear to take I had to balance weight verses capabilities.  Choosing to use the Pentax K-3 for its resolution and low light capabilities was easy but I had a more difficult decision with what lenses to take and which to leave behind.  In this case I opted for the lighter weight Pentax DA 18-55 WR and HD DA55-300  WR lenses as opposed to the faster and better optics of the DA*16-50 and DA*50-135 but with their greater weight.  (The DA* lenses together weigh 608grams more. If the differnece was gold it would be worth about $26,000 CAD).  608 grams may not seem like that much but it can be the difference between carrying an additional lens or a couple small film cameras or the difference between a sore back or not.

After 35km of riding around on some pretty rough roads I was pleased with my choice though I did miss the wider angle and the extra light gathering ability especially being without a tripod (those are pretty heavy too)

It’s no secret that this is one of my favourite little blocks of steel.  It’s hard to believe sometimes that this camera is nearly 60 years old when you see the results.  My favourite characteristic of the images though has to be the film mask with its wavy edges.  It gives each image a postage stamp like look and proves that you didn’t crop your image.  More images and information about this camera can be seen here Super Paxette Photographers dont crop Paxette More Images Braun Super Paxette (Part 1) Braun Super Paxette (Part 2)

Because of the number of images I will break this into two seperate posts as well but here are the first 20.  There was a lot of smoke from forest fires so many of the landscape images relect that.

The full-sized SLR lens is just there to give some scale for the Q7 and the 02 zoom lens.  There may be some overlap with my film shots mostly because I use my Q7 as a lightmeter as well as a camera.  These pictures are just some fun snaps of signs from a trip earlier this year.  For many things the Q7 is perfectly adequite as a photography tool and there is no denying it’s diminutive nature can be a real advantage both in size and inconspicuousness.