Wallace Koopmans Artlog

The Pentax Z-1p is a very ergonomic camera with a shape that presages the modern DSLR.  The handgrip allows easy one hand carrying with great indentations for the thumb and fingers.  The front and real dials are right at the perfect spot for access, in fact I prefer the front dial/shutter arrangement to that of the Pentax K-7, K-5, K-5II form factor.  On the Z-1p the dial is behind the shutter which is at the most natural location for the index finger tip.  There are a lot of settings that can be configured as well but without the menu system of a digital camera it’s sometimes harder to sort out.  Many drive modes including up to 9 multiple exposures are available as well as bracketing from 0.3 to 4.0 stops.  Exposure compensation and spot metering are also at a buttons press.   All in all this is my favourite SLR.  Other posts and images about this camera can be found here and here on my blog

My first Canon camera was an AE-1 program which was a good camera but I was more partial to my Minolta gear at the time so never really warmed to it. So while the T70 isn’t an AE-1 program (I do realize that) I thought I would give a manual focus Canon SLR another try. Once again though a quick use of the camera doesn’t seem to be enough to come to terms with it. Yes it produced the results I was after but it’s controls or lack of them get in the way. I don’t mind automatic exposure and metering but I prefer an intuitive way of over-riding it. This camera is clearly designed to be used as a point and shoot SLR and is geared towards being left in a program mode. As I have a few Canon FD lenses that I want to try I may just hold out for a T90 or F1n or maybe something older, I don’t mind doing my own metering if needed.

So just what is so bad about adjusting this camera?  It has 3 program modes that you cycle through before even getting to Shutter priority and it’s then that you have to take the lens off the A setting to get to manual if you want to adjust the exposure from the program line.  The small buttons on the top also require taking the camera from your eye and looking down at them to make any adjustments, it just isn’t very photographer friendly.  I do like that it takes only two AA batteries to operate though.

The film I used was an out of date roll of Kodak 400 Black and White for C41 (It uses the same chemistry as colour film but the negatives are monochromatic)