I was going to include this image with a pile of others but then I decided to pull it out and give it it’s own mention. Yes I’m that pleased with it. I really like the apparent interaction of the two individuals and the fact that the young man is smoking while the no smoking sign appears like a thought bubble from above the older mans head. Even the way they are sitting and leaning adds to the narrative.
Some film shots from my Yashica GX in October 2012. Amoung the images is one of Copp’s shoes which will be closing at the end of December after 87 years.
Just a few images from September and October 2012 pertaining to the sun and sunlight.
I can’t help myself, I absolutely love the colours of autumn, and enjoy taking and looking at photo’s of the changing leaves. Here are some of my picks from this autumn and here are last years Autumn Colours 2011
A few images from my Pentax Spotmatic II and a variety of screw mount lenses. The Spotmatic line of cameras ran from 1964 to 1976 with what we would now think of as only minor upgrades. After that it essentially became the K-mount series of cameras that ran until 1997 with the K1000. The biggest drawback of this camera today is the fact that it takes a mercury battery (Px-400) however as I often do with these manual cameras I use an external light meter and set the exposure without the built in metering.
So why might you want to choose a Spotmatic camera today? The ability to use the multitude of inexpensicve M42 screwmount lenses that are available make this a great film camera to use. The top shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second may be a bit limiting with faster film and bright sunlight but is faster than most older rangefinders that top out at 1/500 sec
These are from a mix of digital cameras (Pentax K7, Pentax Q, Sigma DP1s)
Introducing the Quirk
Yes it’s uniQue. I’ve taken what I’ve learned from building my own K-mount lenses and am applying it to the Q-mount. In fact this is the main reason I bought the Pentax Q so that I could build tiny little lenses and ultimately have a whole bag of them or pockets which ever. The primary optical element of the lens is a coated convex lens of about 12mm focal length. It once comprised part of the optical system of either a video camera or a super zoom (I have Quite a few lens elements of indeterminate lineage). For mounting it on the camera I am using an Q to C-mount adapter that I have taken apart. To improve the image Quality a little I also have created a fixed mechanical aperture that stops the lens down from f2.0 to f4.5. The focus is technically set to 30cm but can be adjusted by sQueezing the front of the lens, I know that sound odd but it allows for amazingly smooth focus during video recording. As you can see the lens is incredibly small even when compared to the diminutive SMC Pentax 1:1.9 8.5mm AL[IF]
With the lens mounted the camera can easily be slipped into a pocket and remains protected, much like a body cap would.
Looking at the sample images you might wonder if I also used the blur control feature of the Pentax Q but I did not. Any distortion of the image is done entirely by the optics. I have done some levels and colour adjustments in Lightroom. There are commercial products for larger sensor mount cameras that generate similar distortions but nothing that I am aware of for the Q yet.
When I got this instax mini it still had some film in it. Not being one to waste film I decided to shoot with it despite how obviously out of date the film was. So like leaves in the fall these pictures should be raked up and composted.
While not quite pocketable the combination of the Pentax Super Program and the M40 Pancake lens does make a relatively small package. I used some off brand film that was outdated by 6 years but it seems to be fine for this use and I made some extreme adjustments to the digital files anyway.
Other cameras in this small SLR class would be the Nikon FG and the Olympus OM-1 both alternatives having better direct exposure controls.
