Wallace Koopmans Artlog

I tried the Canon AF35ML again (a different unit) and once again I wasn’t overly impressed with the results despite the promise of that 40mm f1.9 lump of glass.  The exposures were inconsistant as well as the focus.  It is just a fair camera and not one that inspires.  So what to do with it….I know exactly what to do, I’m going to adapt that lens on my Pentax Q where it will be a 220mm equivelent super macro lens.  Maybe then it will learn to perform.

It’s sometimes odd how as photographers we seek out places from the past to create images for the present.  It’s a common theme to capture something that is on the cusp of disappearing.  From the very beginning photographers have tried to stem the tide of time going to great lengths, even recreating pseudo realities of times already gone.  It’s as if we can’t wait for our images to evoke a sense of nostalgia.  If we take pictures of the ‘right now’ it seems too mundane it doesn’t spark the same thing in the viewer.  That sense of this is something different because it is no longer here.  It takes time to make many things interesting.  An early cell phone didn’t seem interesting beyond its technological function at the time say 20 years ago but its sure a ‘huge’ source of amusement now.   Think of a portrait viewed at the time it was taken. It’s generally appreciated as a likeness of the person and not necessarily more but fast forward 30 years and that portrait now speaks to the passage of time, to fashion to aging.   What does all this have to do with pictures I took around the grounds of the now closed Riverview hospital complex?  Well I took these pictures now because I’m almost certain it won’t be there in the future, I’m hedging my nostalgia bet.   There is a lot of history here and in the future when we think back to how we handle the issues around mental illness perhaps a few photographs could be illustrative.  I would love to take more with greater access but that seems unlikely.  I do wonder how many photographs were taken around the site over its operating history. I suspect that it may be less than imagined do to the stigma that has always surrounded mental health and the societal norm of secrecy.

Not that much to say really there is a lens a shutter and a light tight box…wait the box isn’t so light tight.  How does that Meat Loaf song go ‘..two out of three ain’t bad.’  yah he was wrong.

The lens on the Paxina is colapsable which is nice for making it slightly more compact but it lets light in where it’s not supposed to.  In hindsite I shouldn’t be that surprised after all I am sliding a shiny metal tube into a hole in the front of the camera what did I expect.  The shutter works well despite the age of the camera but is limited to 1/25,  1/100,  1/250 and Bulb.  I love the name of the lens the Kataplast its 75mm f3.5

Someone kindly scratched all types of wonderful reminders on the top plate of the camera so now I know if I’m shooting Verichrome-Pan film in Hazy conditions I should use 1/100 and f 11 thanks for that.  On the other side is the even more helpful information for Ektachrome ASA 32.

There is something quite liberating about having a fixed lens camera do the exposure for you, it lets you forget that one technical aspect and concentrate on the making of the image.  The Konica C35 does exactly that but with what I think is the added benefit of rangefinder focusing.  With most autofocus point and shoots your never truly sure where it’s focused and I like to be in control of that.  To me this is as close as it gets to simply converting what you see into a static image.  There are of course multitudes of options for producing superior images.  In that case though its like there is a layer of technology between the photographer and the image.  It’s a subtle thing that I’m struggling to convey with words but using the Konica C35 or other cameras like it is a wonderful and simple photographic experience.

This post serves a dual purpose: one as an ode to spring 2014 and the other as a test of the Pentax M Macro 1:4 100mm lens on my Pentax K-01.  I am happy with the performance of this lens even when used at its widest aperture.  It only remains to be tested with 35mm film but I suspect it will do just as well with the added benefit of allowing me to share the lens between film and digital.  It’s slightly more compact than the DFA 100 Macro  WR and is manual focus but it actually seems better suited to the K-01 and the way that this mirrorless camera is used.  In fact with its focus peeking the K-01 is an ideal manual focus camera.

This is such a tiny camera, it ‘s hard to convey just how small, thankfully I took a photograph.

That is of course a 35mm film canister which it does not use (It’s an APS camera).  The camera is so light and small it can easily be slipped into a coat pocket or an empty crevice in a camera bag.   Unfortunately this camera will very soon be a film orphan as the world-wide stocks of expired APS film dwindle but at least I gave it one good run before it goes into the cabinet of curios beside the Fuji Q1

Why would I choose to use a point and shoot film camera to take pictures in the snow?  Exposure compensation is my answer.  The Pentax 24EW has the best exposure compensation system of any point and shoot I have or am aware of.  It allows +-3 EV in half steps.  That is an enormous bonus when shooting in the snow which tends to be very bright and cause camera metering systems to over compensate resulting in an under exposed image.  Using the Pentax 24Ew in this case I dialed in +1 to +2 EV which means that the shutter would stay open twice to four times as long  for the same aperture.  The other thing that you want to do when taking pictures in the snow is to ensure the flash doesn’t fire.  If it does it can cause some areas to be over exposed and if the light catches falling snow flakes they are likely to become just bright little lights obscuring the image.  And the other reason for using this camera is of course it’s 24mm wide end of the zoom range.  Other posts that include the Pentax 24ew  Wide angle Point and Shoot  Pentax 24ew the Ewwwwww  E X T R A     W I D E

I shot a roll of suspect slide film in my Yashica MF, I found it in an Olympus OM-10 and it didn’t appear to have been shot.  It seemed like it might be worth a try but apparently I was wrong.  I’m still not certain what happened because the entire roll was blank not even the frame numbers show up which suggests to me that it was actually a failure of the cross processing.  Well it’s not going to stop me but I might be a little more nervous the next time I shoot an entire roll to be cross processed or one I find in a camera.

Okay I have to admit the only reason I have this camera and used it was because of the brushed aluminum and the fake wood hand grip.  I find it amusing like it is supposed to be some high-end product with custom touches when it’s really just a run of the mill film point and shoot.  The 38-145mm lens has apertures of 4.8-12.5 at each end which is definitely slow, meaning its best to use 400 ISO film to ensure high enough shutter speeds to prevent camera shake.  Pentax describes the lens as being 8 elements in 6 groups and it also has the SMC coating.  It’s actually not too bad a lens at the longer end but at 38mm it has a ton of pin cushion distortion as you can see in the shot of the window.  The shutter goes from 1/400 second down to 2 seconds. Released in 2002, which is well within the transition to digital that the industry was going through.  In the end it’s not a terrible camera but there are many better ones if your going to burn some film.