Wallace Koopmans Artlog

It would have been a lot better story if it had ended as the simple trade of my Canon AE-1 for this Olympus SP35 Rangefinder but things never seem to be that easy.  I suppose I should back up and start from the beginning.  Back as a teenager I bought my first brand new camera a Minolta X700 (Yes the story goes back that far)  Saving you from further boredom I will  jump ahead to this year.  I acquired a Canon A-1 which made my Canon AE-1 superfluous so I decided to sell it and a few others at the local flea-market.  A fellow approached and was looking at the cameras, he too had a camera in a case around his neck.   After a brief discussion it turned out it was an Olympus Sp35 a model which I had never seen before.  It also turned out the wearer of said camera was a photography student and wasn’t happy with it for several reasons one of them being the rangefinder focusing.  He wanted an SLR and I love rangefinders so we did a straight trade, the Canon for the Olympus, and that’s the point at which the story should have had a happy ending but unfortunately didn’t.  I think he hardly got through the first roll before the Canon jammed which isn’t conducive to completing photo assignments. He happened to be taking the photography class with a friend of mine so he contacted me and I met with him to exchange cameras back but I also offered the alternative to keep the Canon and also receive a Minolta X700. A camera which may have been that first camera I ever owned but I can’t be sure because I had two.  He took the Minolta and that’s the last I heard from him.

Well that’s the story of the camera swap at the swap meet.  Fortunately the Olympus SP35 is a fine camera and it’s my new favourite, well until something else comes along.

What can I say about this camera that hasn’t already been said? Apparently not much, It just works well with no fuss and looks great doing it.  The new Ricoh GR digital camera derives a lot from it despite the nearly 20 years that seperate them.

It’s not just a retro thing like some camera manufacturers are doing there is a continuum of design with Ricoh’s cameras.  Good design doesn’t require radical changes.

The Pentax Mz-6 may not be a tank of a camera like a Nikon F5 or the Pentax MZ-s from the same era but it offers all the necessary controls for any type of image making.  It’s lightweight and compact meaning that the addition of the battery grip doesn’t turn it into a monster but rather allows the use of readily available AA batteries.  Previously the Pentax Z1-p was my camera of choice for making 35mm film images but the MZ-6 has better usability and is closer in operation to the DSLR I use.  A nice feature of this camera is its full compatibility with all K-mount lenses even ones without aperture rings. That matters when you try to use a lens such as the DFA100 Macro WR a lens without a physical ring for aperture control.  It also allows the use of older manual aperture control lenses transferring the setting to the camera with a physical linkage something that is missing from the DSLRs.

Freedom from the enslaving 4×3 images or even the oppressive 16×9.  Only this Minolta will set you free with its 27×10 aspect ratio.  Within its images you will be able to realize your dreams of wide horizons and grand vistas oh the vistas you will see.  Perhaps I’m overstating it slightly but composing for what is nearly a 3×1 aspect ratio is certainly different.  You really need to move away from the traditional notions of composition and divide the image area in new ways.  It’s not always easy to fill the frame with interest but it’s also not a good idea compositionally to have large areas with nothing in them as they tend to appear very static.   My Minolta Vista is looking pretty beat-up but it works perfectly.

Having bought one of the original Pentax Q cameras and having a few lenses for it, it seemed like an easy decision to then pick up this camera combination when it was on sale.  First let’s get the main caveat of this camera out-of-the-way.  Yes it has a tiny little sensor but if that is the only thing you go by your missing out on a fantastic little camera that does an admiral job of creating images.  While it isn’t much larger than a point and shoot camera its versatility leaves all others behind.  I have a selection of lenses from fish eye to adapted lenses equivalent to 500mm and beyond but for this post I’ve limited the images to those shot with the 5-15mm kit lens (23-69mm equivelent in terms of 35mm film).  The combination does have quite a bit of chromatic aberration as seen in the  200% RAW detail at the top left but with a quick one click adjustment in Lightroom it can be somewhat mitigated as seen on the bottom right.

It’s small size means that I am more likely to take the camera along where every I go and the versatility of it means that I rarely feel like I needed a better camera.  There is even more to this little beast that I’m not touching on but as a straight forward photography tool it packs a ton into its tiny little package.  The pictures that follow are a mix of images straight out of the camera and some edited to be more in line with what I intended.  Using the Q7 reminds me to have fun and create images rather than obsess over the technical aspects.  (Yes those first two images are meant to look grainy and pictorial)

And finally if you click on the image bellow a full resolution image will open that I think demonstrates how much this camera and lens can resolve.  It exceeds what I have been able to achieve with 35mm negative film in resolving power and rivals my older DSLR which is quite a feat.

When you flit between cameras like a butterfly in a field its easy to forget the great cameras that you’ve already passed.  The Espio Mini is one of those cameras it is fantastic and tiny and never disappoints.  It has the same things going for it as the Olympus Stylus epic such as size and the clamshell lens cover but the slightly wider angle lens I think is a better performer.  If you can embrace the fully automatic nature of these little cameras they offer a worry free photography experience.

Question: What do you get when a camera isn’t fully advancing between frames?

Answer: Its worth a thousand expletives

I often get exactly what I deserve when I test old cameras that no one wants anymore.  There may be a reason someone tossed that camera away but…

If the camera makes a whir I will not be deterred.

If the film will load I won’t be slowed.

I won’t quit even if the camera is shi.……  You get the idea.

Apparently yesterday was World Toy Camera Day (WTCD) or so the internet said and what the internet says goes.  So I loaded a roll of Ektar 100 in my 1960’s Diana medium format ‘toy’ camera.  I went out with the plan to shoot all 16 frames and then develop it the same day, which I did.  I also pushed the film by two stops and processed the film at 104 degrees instead of the 102 prescribed.  It was partially to compensate for the fact that I had already processed more than the recommended number of 35mm rolls of film in the chemistry and the fact that the Dianna has a fixed shutter somewhere between 1/60 and 1/100 second and I sensed that it was causing under exposure for the conditions. The other reason was that I just felt like it and I could.  My Dianna leaks light like a pasta strainer and even though I taped it up ‘a bit’ it still let the sunshine in.  So here is my contiribution to WTCD.

I think the fish eye lens on the Pentax Q is the thing that really makes the little system.  There is no other fit in your pocket camera combination that matches it.  It is just pure photography fun.  My thoughts and images can be seen here

Pentax Q Fish-eye

While I was in Niagara I ended up with film still in my Minox GTE and Ricoh R1, both great little cameras.  These are twelve shots each from those two cameras taken after getting back.