Wallace Koopmans Artlog

In many of my posts I reference and even lament the poor quality of some of the random outdated film I use.  I’m a film agnostic, if the film fits I will try it.   The results are often unpredictable but one thing I can say is that as film ages the way that it renders the light changes.  It isn’t just that it looses some sensitivity it also can lose contrast and have colour shifts and is often far more grainy.  Sometimes this can work to create interesting images but sometimes it just doesn’t work.  What it does do is look different and that is a good thing.  As much as I like beautiful well done digital images at times their homogeneity can be over powering. What’s wrong with a little randomness thrown in?

I discovered that the roll of Ektar 100 I had in my Contax RTS had not been exposed but had sat ineffectually waiting for the camera to show it the light. Rather than reloading it in the Contax I put it into my Pentax MZ-6 which has not let me down.  The result is these random snap shots that I took in the same area.  As I’ve probably said many times here on my blog if the images I intend to capture are important to me I turn to Ektar.  Ektar scans the best and captures the most detail with the widest exposure latitude.  The image on the right is the same as on the left but with -3EV exposure in Lightroom to show how much information is still lurking in the highlights and not actually blown out as might be with a digital camera.

Ektars only short fall is that it is 100 ISO which doesn’t suit every situation, that being said on an upcoming post I will test it pushed to 400 ISO.

The Pentax Espio 928M has for me a very desirable focal length of 28-90mm which makes it directly comparable to the Canon Z90W which I also have.  The Pentax has the slightly slower lens at f4.8-10.9 verses the Canon at f4.5-9.9 either way if you choose to use one of these anachronisms your going to want to use a film of at least ISO400.  It should be mentioned that the 928M is not the same camera as the 928 as the lens is slower and it does away with some great features like exposure compensation and multi-exposure mode.  So if it were not for the fact that it has a wide angle of 28mm I wouldn’t have even bothered to pick it up.  The thing is despite it’s short comings in the end it’s the lens in front of the film that maters and the lens performed quite well actually.  Even the corners of the frame are reasonably distortion free when compared to other similar cameras.  So with good light and fast film the Espio 928M is almost a camera worth using but really if your still shooting film at this point there are going to be better options.  P.S. the Konica Lexio 70 is not one of them trust me.

The Vivitar Pocket 35 is a chunky little camera, it’s like someone took a Yashica T3 and squeezed in its sides.

The camera is turned on by sliding the lens cover the same as the Yashica T3 but unfortunately that is about the end of the control you have over the camera.  Well aside from the self timer and the shutter button that’s the extent of it. There is no way to alter the ISO or override the flash two of my favourite things.  There is a green LED inside the viewfinder presumably to indicate that you have half pressed the shutter button.  It’s far too promiscuous to be indicating focus, it will turn on for anything.   Vivitar made a lot of cheap cameras over the years so it would be easy to dismiss this as yet another but really its lens sets it apart.  Rather than being some fixed focus plastic abomination the lens is a very good 35mm f3.5 Vivitar Series 1 lens.  I can’t find much information for the camera but based on the focal length and aperture and outward appearance I believe it’s likely a Tessar lens with 4 elements in 3 groups like you would find on the Yashica T3 and Olympus XA.  Interestingly the camera can be powered either by a CR123A battery or 2 AAA I guess that chunky grip is good for two things, It fits the batteries and makes the camera comfortable to hold one handed without fear of dropping it.

There is something very appealing about this little camera. The only thing that keeps it a notch bellow something like the Olympus Stylus Epic is the inability to suppress the flash.

I shot the following images with the Vivitar Pocket 35 and Kodak 400 film.

I happen to have three lenses that purport to have some sort of macro ability and fit my Pentax Super Program.  From left to right are the SMC Pentax-M 1:2.8-4 40-80, Takumar-A 1:3.5-4.5 28-80 and the Vivitar 70-150 1:3.8 Macro Focusing Zoom.  For convenience I am going to refer to them as the SMC,Takumar and Vivitar for the rest of the post. Obviously they bring different qualities to the comparison with the SMC being the fastest, the Takumar the widest and the Vivitar the longest but they all claim some close focusing ability.

In the same order here are samples from each of the lenses set to their closest focus and f5.6.

SMC

Takumar

Vivitar

The SMC Pentax-M wins this hands down with the best image quality and the least chromatic distortions.   When not at their closest focus and set to 70mm focal length it’s the Vivitar that comes out on top.  The Takumar comes last in all the tests but it also has the most ambitious and useful focal lengths.  The Vivitar sports an awkward set of focal lengths which might be suited to portraits but it’s not particularly fast at f3.8 It is compact though.  The SMC Pentax-M also has a limit range of focal lengths but within them is the best of the bunch and the fastest too.  The 28mm wide end makes the Takumar the most versatile but you give up some speed and image quality.  So my verdict is that none of these replace each other and I should use them all…the end.

When mounted on an APS-c DSLR such as the Pentax K-3 the Vivitar makes a nice medium telephoto that renders out of focus areas in a gentle buttery bokeh. Wide open at f3.8 it tends to be a bit soft but at f5.6 it does a decent job.

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After two rolls of questionable film I finally loaded my Yashica T4 Super with a decent roll of Fuji Superia 400.  The results where predictably better than what I achieved with the outdated Kodak 800 Yashica T4 Super.  Results that are more in keeping with the cameras abilities.  I find the Yashica T4 to be good for all around general picture taking.  Partly because of it’s 35mm focal length but also because of its good handling and controls.  I shot this roll over a variety of conditions from bright sun to shade and even night time and it performed well in every case.

One of the features of this camera is that it has a lens shield that only slides back when you turn the camera on, the earlier T AF had a similar shield but that only slid out of the way when you took the actual picture. This is a fantastic feature when your shooting in drizzling conditions or outright rain as it helps keep water from getting onto the lens.

 One thing about one camera: When you lock focus with a half press of the shutter the meter is also locked so you can use that to manipulate exposure as long as the focus is the same.

I loaded an Olympus XA with Lomochrome Purple film and set the ASA to 200.  The film is rated at 400 ISO but over exposing is supposed to render darker purples.  Shooting it during a mostly dreary winter time may have not been the best idea, perhaps spring when everything here is green would be better.  I found that not every image caused the same degree of shift.  I believe this is a combination of the metering from the XA and that darker greens seemed to be effected less than yellower greens. Also shaded light had much less impact on the shift than direct sunlight.

additionally blue is shifted to green and while you don’t tend to find that much purple out in the real world it is shifted to green as well.
Here is a little chart of how some colours are effected. The original colour is on top with the Lomochrome Purple shifted colour just bellow.

I have another roll that I will shoot when there is more foliage and new growth as well as using a different camera with a little more control.

Originally I hadn’t intended to take the K-3 and the DA* 16-50 and DA*50-135 but it was a terribly rainy day and if its going to pour then this is the gear to take.  Besides the weather sealing the lenses are great optical performers and the K-3 is an amazing photographic tool with more technology packed into it than you can use in a day.  More images from this day trip are here K-3 Signs

Update: Pentax has announced and is soon to release an updated K-3II with even more features.  I’m particularly interested in the new pixel shift technology.

Digital super zoom cameras with a few exceptions have been looked down on by ‘serious’ photographers primarily because they tend to have tiny little sensors with large lenses.  The positive is that they are able to cover a multitude of focal lengths in a single package the trade off has been lower image quality.  Back when the Olympus IS-10 was released in 1994 though it used 35mm film just like almost every other camera available. Olympus called their version a ZLR or ‘Zoom Lens Reflex’ as it had a mirror and prism for viewing just like an SLR however it does not have an interchangeable lens.  The lens zooms from 28mm-110mm with apertures from 4.5-5.6 across that range.  The lens has 11 elements in 9 groups and is superior to any similar point and shoot lens.  In fact at the 28mm wide end the lens is amazingly good.  The program line for the camera will result in the lens being wide open for shutter speeds bellow 1/60sec at 28mm and 1/125sec at 110mm beyond that as the light increases the shutter speed will increase in step with the lens stopping down.  You can also quickly select an aperture using the F.no. button and the camera will respond by selecting the necessary shutter speed (aperture priority).  While full manual control isn’t possible further exposure manipulation can be accomplished by using spot metering.

Like any other lens letting a direct light source like the sun strike it will cause flare and reduced contrast.

One thing about one camera:  No matter what buttons you’ve pushed and if you’ve forgotten how to set the camera a quick push of the full auto button will set everything back to its defaults.

The digital bridge camera zoom war has seen the focal length range expand from around 28-500 in 2008 which was already impressive to 24-2000 in 2015 which makes film bridge camera zooms seem pedestrian.