Wallace Koopmans Artlog

If you have read more than a few of my blog posts you may be aware that when it comes to film I will shoot just about anything I can get my hands on.  This can produce some interesting and unpredictable results but it also allows me the chance to test out cameras without a huge investment.  No one wants to waste a roll of some fantastic and now rare slide film only to find out the shutter on the camera didn’t work.  Fortunately the AL worked.    The AL has a matched needle exposure system which means that as you adjust the shutter speed and aperture for a given film it changes a small arm in the top window where there is also a small needle that varies depending on the light hitting the photcell on the front of the camera.  The cell is meant to be used as a reflective meter so you need to get close to the object that you are measuring.  When the arm and the needle align  that indicates that the settings match the reading.  Me I just ignore old meters and adjust the shutter and aperture based on more accurate readings from a digital camera or general exposure settings based on experience.   The lens of the AL is a relatively fast F2 45mm but suffers from  chromatic aberration and low contrast.  Well as best as I can tell from this expired film anyway.  The shutter though does go to 1/1000 of a second which is nice.  I’ve seen it posted several times online that it is similar to the Minolta A5 but I think that other than both being Minolta rangefinders that is erroneous.  The A5 has a slower F2.8 lens and slower maximum shutter speed of 1/500 second as well as no meter, these are great enough differences in my mind to disqualify it from comparison.  Minolta A5   getting  back to the AL its a nice solid camera that has that 1960’s aesthetic (not surprising since its from the 60’s)  If you want the 1970’s feel and a slightly better camera have a look at a Minolta 7s  either way Minolta made some great rangefinders over the years and they all can be enjoyed today.

The Ricoh RZ3000 for what it is can only really be faulted for its need for specific expensive batteries otherwise it is a fantastic camera.  It takes two CR123-A batteries to power it.  The RZ3000 has a seven focus point AF system although they are clustered in the center it is more than the 3 offered by most of the competitors at the time.  And better yet if you want to use a single central focus point it can be selected on the main operating dial rather than through some presses of a small button.  You can also set the focus to infinity with the main dial which is convenient when shooting through glass or when you want to make sure the camera doesn’t lock focus on something in the foreground.  The lens on the RZ3000 is a 38-135 f 4.5-f9.5 six element in three groups.  So I guess that could be added to the fault list as 38mm isn’t as wide as I like a lens to start but the trade off tends to be overall image quality.  I’ve written about this camera before here Ricoh RZ3000

My second go around with the Yashica T4 zoom with some better film, Kodak Portra 400 to be precise.  You can see my previous post about this camera here Yashica T4 Zoom with some information about how to set it to spot focus and other things.  So I wont go into that on this post.  What I will reiterate is that the Yashica T4 zoom has a  28-70mm f4.5 to f8.0 lens comprised of seven elements in six groups.  With better film and some decent light I found that the lens produced nice sharp images.  At the wide end of 28mm there is distortion in the corners and vignetting as well but overall the results are very good for a point and shoot.  One thing that is hard to quantify is the feel of the camera in use and for this the T4 Zoom is above average.  It sits nicely in one hand and feels secure with the rubber ridge on the front.  Without this its ‘bar of soap’ design might make it prone to dropping.  As it is though it slips nicely into a pocket or small space in a camera bag yet handles well. There may be a little of a halo effect with this camera sporting the T4 and Zeiss badge but in reality it is just a good point and shoot not something that stands out above the rest of the crowd or warrants an exorbitant premium price.