Here are some more images that I processed in camera with my Pentax K-7. Yes I am well aware that you can do all of this on a computer but no one says that when you use your smart phone to do a similar thing.
There’s so much silk screening on this camera I can hardly determine what to call it. “Fuji DL-500 WIDE Panorama” “Fuji mini wide” It is however the DL-500. The most unique feature of this camera is that it has two focal lengths 28mm and 45mm, not something in between. This arrangement is made by swinging an additional lens element internally into the light path and repositioning the lens at the same time. A button on the top of the camera toggles between the two focal lengths. Additionally the viewfinder magnification changes to give an equivalent view for the selected focal length.
With the camera set to 28mm the secondary lens element can be seen hidden away in the bottom left corner just beneath the shutter.
Here you can see the camera now set to 45mm with the additional lens element swung into place.
Samples of the two focal lengths.
I was initially pretty excited by the prospect of this camera because of the wide 28mm focal length, there are very few 35mm film point and shoots that have lenses this wide. But the image quality of the lens in either focal length is not particularly good. The images are quite soft and there is a great amount of vignetting especially with the 28mm setting. That said though it is compact, light weight and 28mm.
Two more quick notes about this camera. It requires two batteries to operate. A CR123A 3V lithium battery but also a CR2025 that is located inside the back of the camera. Both are required unlike some cameras that use the smaller battery just for date imprint functions. Also in order to set the mask for panorama images you need to open the back and make that change inside the camera, for obvious reasons you can only do this before you start shooting. I may give this camera another try in the future but if I do I will try closer distances and see if that makes a difference in the images, street photography perhaps.
Polaroid and faux-laroid, posted from my Android phona…… Too much?
I’m sure there is a technical name for sulfur stock piled like this but to me it’s just a big pile of greenish yellow and I’m attracted to yellow like a bee to a flower. There are two locations in the Vancouver area where sulfur derived from the oil and gas industry in Alberta is hauled by rail. It’s then loaded onto ships headed for Asia to be used in industries there. These photographs were taken around Pacific Coast Terminals in Port Moody B.C. I could only photograph from the perimeter and even then mostly the view was obscured by trees and branches. It was only on my way back that the train that had been there was gone and a better view was available. I mostly used my FA 28-70 F4.0 lens because I could shoot through the fence with it’s smaller 49mm filter diameter.
I am currently scanning a collection of stereoscopic glass plates from the late 19th century,I feel very honoured to have access to these. They are an incredible view into the past, quite literally. I can’t help but thinking how many of the impressionist painters were still around and Post Impressionism was still developing. Once scanned I am using a passive viewer called a pokescope which I purchased from PokeScope® Stereoscopic Resources. I have also produced MPO files that are compatible with my HTC EVO 3D phone so that I can view the images in 3d without any additional aides. There is something special however when these plates are viewed directly as they were originally intended with an antique viewer.
In order to scan these plates I needed to make a holder for my Epson V700. I chose to use ABS plastic because sheets of it were readily available and I was able to use regular plumbing adhesive to construct it. Each plate is 44x107mm so I made the width of the opening 104mm leaving just 1.5mm on each side to support the plate.
The plates themselves appear to have been produced at the time with some form of reproduction. I know this because I found two identical plates. They come from a diversity of sources but appear to primarily be French in origin. Hopefully I will know a bit more by the end of the scanning process. I will likely write an update post at that time perhaps with a few more images.
Having done so much cell phone photography ( “cellphography” it could catch on!) and processing those images on the phone I was inspired to play around a bit with some images I had captured with my Pentax K-7. All these images were processed and cropped in camera. It’s surprising what you can achieve by combining multiple effects together. Of course there is a limit and some of what could be good filters are held back because of the lack of user control. The water colour filter for instance produces one unconvincing result no matter what you try, the toy filter is on the right track but has no option to turn off the blurring of the image.
This morning Pentax has released a new camera the K-01 which is the first “mirrorless” camera that takes full size DSLR lenses without an adapter. One thing about this camera that is sure to draw controversy is the fact that it has no viewfinder. It relys solely on its 3″ rear LCD for image composition, this is a foreign concept for many people. Essentially the camera will be held with two hands out in front of your face, very much like a point and shoot. Having used both types of cameras for at least the last 8 years I can say that the usage is so different that many current DSLR users will not be willing to use this camera because of it’s lack of a viewfinder. That said when you are comfortable with that method of shooting it seems quite natural.
On the what’s different side Pentax has added the ability to shoot in multiple aspect ratios at the time of capture rather than needing to compose with a future crop in mind. The available ratios are (4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1) . I like this idea very much as I do like to compose mainly on the spot.
Here is the link to Pentax Canada’s information for the K-01 http://pentaxcanada.ca/en/digital_slr/K-01/
Did I mention it comes in yellow! 
and now for the rest of the original post……
While the Pentax MV is an SLR with a mirror and the ability to change lenses it really performs like a manual focus point and shoot. What I mean by this is that there is little user control. Yes you set the aperture and it selects the shutter speed but beyond that you must rely on the camera to get the exposure correct. For most of this roll of film I mounted the Pentax SMC A 40mm pancake lens which together with the body makes a very compact camera all things considered.
I used outdated film and got what I deserved but converting it to B&W gave me some results that I’m happy with.
It becomes a bit more difficult to find subject matter during that time of year when everything is brown and drab. But rather than giving up or fruitlessly looking for what isn’t there I think you should embrace the winterlude and look to new subjects. Your images may not be as pretty but they could be as good. Where in the spring you might take a grand sweeping landscape shot now maybe you notice that one last leaf hanging on, or maybe you can take a moment longer on a composition. Some subjects such as industrial and city shots might better suit the winter or evoke a different feeling that you could not get on a bright spring day. In fact the extra challenge of finding subjects can help to make you a better photographer. I’m looking forward to taking some photographs in the snow but I’m not waiting for it. Of course this isn’t the same across the globe and I feel fortunate to have distinct seasons even if it can be cold sometimes.
UPDATE : Sometimes I write something and it gets pushed back for some reason and that’s the case here. Since I wrote this post it has most definitely snowed and is now melting.
Almost every piece of information that can be digitized is, however there are still a few things where nothing beats an analogue gauge for providing information. Not only do they convey the immediate value but also the sense of where that value fits within all the other possible amounts. What does this have to do with an art blog? Nothing I just like the way they look.
