Wallace Koopmans Artlog

I’m sure the original developers of this lenticular camera system couldn’t have envisioned wiggle grams, but without the ability to print these images, as they were intended, this is a pretty good substitute. The idea is similar in a way. With The original prints you view one image at a time by changing the angle that you view the print at either by moving the print or your ocular system (eyes it sounded more technical). Each of the four images are visible at a different angle because of the lenticular filter in front of the image. With a wiggle gram the images are shown in place and in sequence giving the 3D effect.

These were shot using the Nishika N8000 of course and another post about it can be seen here Nishika N8000

Once I returned from my Calgary trip I still had some Ektar frames left on the Olympus Stylus Epic so here are some of them.

I picked this little Minox up at the 2013 Vancouver camera show.  It does have an issue with the needle in the viewfinder that should indicate the shutter speed but doesn’t. However the actual shutter is working properly so it’s not the worst problem to have.  There are many perfectly good cameras that I use where I have no idea what shutter speed the camera chose, at least with the Minox GT-E and it’s aperture priority I am selecting the aperture.

As for batteries it requires 5.6V to operate and some of these batteries can be hard to source.  Fortunately 4 zinc air hearing aid batteries give 5.6v and fit perfectly so that’s what I’ve used.  In keeping with the miniature nature of this 35mm camera the film advance requires two strokes per frame.

The camera is focused at the front of the lens where you also set the aperture, this allows you to easily select a range of focus based on the depth of field for a given aperture.  This type of zone focusing is ideal for quick shooting where any other type of focusing is just too slow.  For example when I took the image of the bronze horse I was on a moving escalator I saw the horse ahead and set my focus for about 10 feet and when I reached that distance I just snapped.

If you look at the picture of the camera bellow you can see that with the aperture set for f5.6 that the depth of field would give acceptable focus from about 12 feet to infinity focus.

Even with its case it is a very small camera but feels quite solid.  I like that the viewfinder is located right above the lens, this doesn’t seem to get much mention but it limits the parallax error to up and down when framing a shot.  I dislike framing a shot of a nearby object with a rangefinder only to find that I’ve included something I didn’t want in the frame.  That’s one reason I love the 100% viewfinder on my DSLR and is also an attribute of cameras that use an  LCD screen. But back to the little Minox, don’t let its cuteness fool you its a great camera and offers just that extra bit of control that is missing from another comparably great little camera the Olympus Stylus Epic.

And of course here come the images

Yet more images from Calgary with the fantastic little Olympus Stylus Epic.

These are the 12 exposures I managed to take with my Voigtlander Vito CL before the film stopped advancing. I first noticed it when I advanced the film and could hear it skipping the sprockets. I thought I was at the end of the film. How could I think that I had taken 24 shots when I only took twelve? That’s easy I was carrying a ‘litter’ of cameras and not really paying attention to which one I had used as well as the fact that I hadn’t set the counter for the Vito CL back to zero when I loaded the film. The only real loss was the potential of taking another 12 shots as I rewound the film as soon as I ran into the problem.

The Vito CL is a viewfinder camera and you focus by the scale on the front of the lens. I prefer an actual rangefinder but scale focusing works too, it just requires estimating distances accurately. I am happy with the quality of the pictures from the Lanthar 50mm f2.8 lens. The shutter button is actually a sliding switch on the face of the camera and works quite well if you grip the camera with both thumbs on the back. Holding the camera this way ends up further reducing the already low camera shake of the leaf shutter.

Why would anyone choose to use this camera now when there are so many different options even just in the film world? No one needs to, I just did, you are welcome. If you must though the reasons are; the lens cover retracts like a pod bay door that’s cool’ish, at the wide end the lens is 28mm that’s wide’ish. Other than that it’s not that memorable a camera, although it does give decent results with 400ISO film. I wouldn’t use a film slower than this because at 75mm the maximum aperture is f8.9 so in low light the shutter speeds will be quite low. Enjoy your Freedom while it lasts.

The Olympus Stylus Epic (mju ii) is my go to pocketable film camera and there isn’t much more to say that hasn’t been said other than to re-iterate what a great camera this is. I used Kodak Ektar 100 film which I also think is a perfect pairing for this camera. Other posts from and about this camera can be seen here Olympus Stylus Epic

I’ve had some pretty bad luck with out of date APS film much of it producing thin negatives that did not scan well, so this time I used the exposure compensation feature of the Minolta Vectis S1 to dial in +1.5 EV of exposure compensation. The film was Kodak Advantix 400 so with the compensation the camera would have selected exposures as if the film was about 140 ISO. I can’t say for sure how much of a difference this made because I didn’t take any shots without the compensation but I did get better results than I have been recently.

More Minolta Vectis S1 here Feb 2013, Nov 2011, Expanded Vision Through Narrower Thinking

I thought it would be fun to try Ilfords XP2 400 disposable camera to see just what you might get.  I have to admit I have little experience with using disposable cameras and the results showed it.  I think where I failed was assuming that there was more latitude for exposure than there was.  Most of my images were terribly underexposed which makes sense in hindsight as the camera likely has a maximum aperture of somewhere around f8 and a shutter speed around 1/125 sec this combination would likely require an EV value around 13 where I shot most of my images at light levels far below that. In fact maybe a quarter of the images were not even scannable.  The lesson is that these cameras are only useful under limited conditions.  As for the flash I could have used it more if I had known but even then it wouldn’t have saved these shots.  You can also see that the lens is quite soft in the corners, it is disposable after all.

ACHTUNG And most importantly of all if you open these cameras to recover the film (Which is just in a regular film canister) when your done make sure you give it to someone else to get shocked.  Perhaps I should explain myself.  I brought the camera to the local camera store where I have my film sent out for developing and asked for the camera back.  Together the kind store employee, whose name I will change to protect their identity lets call them ‘Sparky’, and I  started to take the camera apart carefully so as not to break it.  When it was partially apart Sparky yelped and began shaking his hand like it had been stung by a bee or in this case a 300v 80µ farad capacitor.  Just as all humans are compelled to sniff the sour milk I too picked up the camera thinking that it would now be discharged and safe.  Whack!  Flash!  Drop! Bang!   Good thing I don’t have a pacemaker.  I’ve been shocked in this way before but it’s not something you get used to, every time is like the first time, the very first time, it ‘Feels Like the First Time’ (Foreigner 1977) Where was I?   Right, you can see the warning on the back of the camera  ACHTUNG Überspannung, Kamera Nicht ö ffnen Funny how it sounds more serious in German.

Anyway here is a picture of the bits so that you don’t need to feed your curiosity with a shocking flash of understanding.

And finally some pictures taken with it.

The Konica EE Matic doesn’t require a battery, that’s a good thing because I’m not sure it deserves one.  I guess if your intention is to take pictures that have the look of having been taken with a cheap 1960’s rangefinder nothing beats a cheap 1960’s rangefinder.  It has that in spades.  If it’s a quality image your after then there are better options.  The problem is the lens it has very bad coma distortion which results in the image being stretched the further it is from the center.  This distortion could be reduced by stopping the lens down but as the camera has completely automatic exposure that is not under your control.

On the other hand it has a nice bright viewfinder that also indicates the shutter speed and it won’t release the shutter if there isn’t enough light for a proper exposure, like when you leave the lens cap on, it happens.