When you shoot film you tend to try to make every exposure count, at least more than with digital. These images are from the same 36 exposure roll of Ektar 100 that I used for testing the camera.
So I received my negatives back today from Lens and Shutter who also supplied me with this camera. If you read my first post about this camera I wrote how the 50mm lens had been damaged, well that had little effect on the actual images. So here are some samples and also views of the camera itself with the 35mm lens and viewfinder attached. The 50mm lens does have considerable barrel distortion which I have corrected in Lightroom where it mattered.
I was very fortunate to receive this camera. It came about in an unexpected way. I have my film developed at Lens & Shutter in Abbotsford and go there on an almost weekly basis. That in itself is enough to make you stand out I suppose but they also know that I love old cameras and am always carrying a different one. Well someone brought this camera in and gave it to them. And in turn they gave it to me, I am very grateful and can’t wait to run some film through it. Before doing this I usually give cameras a good once over and this has turned up several issues. The worst of them is that the standard 50mm lens has been dropped and has damage around the outside edge. When I test it out I plan to see if there is a point at which this damage has no effect, I’ll do this by stopping down the aperture effectively allowing only light that strikes the center of the lens to pass through. The other issue with the camera is that the mechanism for the frame counter sometimes jams preventing advancing the film or setting the shutter. The work around I found for this is to use the frame reset button as you would when the counter gets down to 1. Who needs to know how many frames are left anyway, I’m feeling lucky, punk.
I’m not sure why but a picture of an older dryer at a laundromat just seemed to be the right fit with my Polaroid a week project. Maybe it’s because at the height of Polaroid is also about the time in my life where I used a laundromat, traveling and working away from home. The two must just converge in my memories. Again I was also reminded about why Photography is such a great social medium, the owner of the facility was very nice and accommodating as well as the other people there. In case your wondering it’s Old Country Laundry in Aldergrove and the decor was every bit as interesting with old photo’s and collectibles. Certainly more to look at than clothes spinning in a dryer although I think that has an appeal too.
Well the idea that I wasn’t going to buy much went out the window pretty fast. Looks like I’ll have some more cameras to fix and test.
I had a difficult time keeping dry while I snapped a few shots in the nearby community of Mission. I had my Pentax ME super tucked inside my jacket with a SMC 40mm 2.8 lens on it. It was nice to use an SLR instead of a point and shoot or a rangefinder for the ability to preview the image in the viewfinder. I really change cameras too often to be able to get a solid sense of how any one of them will frame a scene from what I am seeing in the viewfinder.
Another day another walk. Photography can be a great reason to get out and get some excercise, even just a lunch time walk.
The 35mm focal length was very popular on fixed lens compact cameras so you might be forgiven for thinking they all perform the same. If I’m to be totally honest that’s what I was thinking when I tried this camera. So the 35mm f3.5 Elmar did do a great job with sharp clear images, but what really set this camera apart for me was the accuracy of the center weighted metering, it got all 36 frames right. There are few controls, primarily flash auto,on,off and infinity focus as well as a self timer and that’s it. Simple yet effective. Now for the downside. It’s not that durably built, it has a fair amount of barrel distortion and some vignetting when it uses large apertures.
Most of the images I took on this roll were reference shots for future paintings so I don’t actually have that many images to include.
By the way this is my 200th post, just saying, I don’t need a cake or anything but it’s 200 posts after all.
I wonder if I hadn’t included the shadow of my hand and the phone if it would be clear what was used to make this image. Although this image is really all about the shadow anyway. Cell phone manufacturers seem willing to make improvements to the cameras in phones but I don’t think that there is a real desire to make them equal to actual point and shoot cameras. So just as I don’t make phone calls with my watch I’m destined to carry a separate camera, and that’s just fine by me.
Week one April 1-8 no kidding. This stuff isn’t going to keep forever despite all my desires to posses it in it’s undeveloped state. It’s as if I’m waiting for some artistic epiphany that is worthy of it’s use. As that hasn’t happened and I’m not sure if I would recognize it if it did, here is my solution. If some people can do a photo a day why can’t I do a Polaroid image once a week. In case your wondering this isn’t an App this is actually Polaroid Spectra which I have been hoarding, see above.
Ok not the greatest composition (who planted that tree?) but I actually took two and gave the better one to the couple. Ahhh must be spring weddings are in the air.
