Recently Fuji announced a new digital compact camera, the X100, that has many styling cues from the past. It’s an attractive camera and has garnered a lot of attention from photographers. I’m interested in seeing this camera in person when it comes out in 2011 but until then I decided to give one of the Fujica’s I already own a spin. The Fujica 35 Auto M has an unusual 47mm f2.8 lens. Another interesting feature and perhaps one of the first cameras to have it is complete auto exposure with both shutter and aperture controlled by the camera, this can also be overridden making it a very versatile camera. If looking at the camera leaves you wondering about advancing the film and cocking the shutter, the lever is on the bottom and easily done with a thumb.
The Yashica Electro 35 rangefinders are wonderful cameras with an electronically controlled shutter and aperture priority. The f 1.7 lens allows plenty of light for low light shooting, however there is no shutter speed indicator beyond the basic over exposure and slow shutter warning. If you can live within those limitations it provides sharp well exposed images. I shot these images using Kodak professional plus-x. Kodak describes the film thus ” PLUS-X 125 Film offers a combination of sharpness and fine grain that makes it the ideal film for beautifully printable negatives in moderate-to-bright light.” I would agree and because it has been used for so many years it has a particular look that many people expect when they view a B&W image.
I recently had my Canon QL17 with me when returning from a social function and I had two exposures left on the roll. The other one is of me driving so we will just leave that one where it is. The other one is this one. I waved at the security guards as I drove past, I think the shirt and tie confused them, turned around took this exposure and drove away. I have post processed this image but to be fare that is really to make it match better how I perceive it. One thing about a camera it doesn’t record how something makes you feel. But even someone who doesn’t see this as a cold industrial edifice can’t help but be slightly swayed by the cool tones I’ve enhanced
I have just returned from a trip which required driving through half of British Columbia. There are nearly endless opportunities to photograph on a trip like this so I brought several cameras with me. I took some photographs with the intent of applying the miniature filter of the Pentax K-7 and while stopped at a restaurant and waiting for my meal this is the results I came up with.
I thought it was interesting how this image came to be posted. I took a Polaroid of this sign and because my main computer and scanner are still in boxes as I write this I took a picture of the picture with my camera phone and then uploaded it to Flickr so that it would be automatically re-sized. I then copied the resulting image to my children’s laptop where I now sit typing on it’s tiny keyboard and uploading the image to this blog.
In order to see the world in new ways, well for me at least that is a desirable thing, it’s necessary to look at little things. This can mean going back to look closer at something as happened with this image. It would have been very easy to ignore this but the contrast of colour caught my eye and by careful framing with my Nokia N95 I was able to produce an image I like that is both about something and about the design of the image at the same time.
It was a sunny day with intermittent gusts of warm air breathing life into the long grass of the meadow. Elongated stems laden with blooms swayed and swirled in the midst of this flowing sea. A rabbit crossed the worn path, heard but unseen, as small birds filtered and crows fought.
It’s an equal struggle to portray my experience in words as it is in pictures. I cannot convey how at times like these the wonderful memories of a childhood seemingly spent entirely enveloped in long grass surge. I’m unable to show how the grass moves moments after the leaves rustle. So I can only do my best even if it doesn’t’ meet my own expectations.
As for the camera it’s muted leaf shutter seemed well suited to the quite sounds of nature. There is a severe limitation with a 1/200 second shutter on such a bright day but the inaccuracy of the aged meter led me to over expose anyway. The lens appears to have some sort of coating but it is likely a single coating and doesn’t do a great deal for the lack of contrast when used with colour film. Focusing with the range finder patch was difficult when so much of the scene appeared so similar so I resorted to focusing by using the scale on the camera. As I stated in an earlier post the Super-A has framing lines for the 50mm lens within it’s larger 35mm accommodating viewfinder. This is a nice way to see outside the frame for items to include or exclude from the image. It’s an interesting camera and one I enjoy looking at but it’s heft and other limitations will likely force it to remain largely a display item.
After several years in my possession I finally took my Minolta Super-A off the shelf and ran a roll of film through it. It is an aesthetically and operationally pleasing camera to use. The viewfinder is designed to accommodate both a 35mm and 50mm lens so it has bright lines for the 50mm yet provides a good wide overall view for framing a subject. It has a leaf shutter behind the lens that provides from 1sec to 1/200 second. Additionally it has a bulb setting which also releases the add on light meter when selected. While the meter is coupled to the shutter speed through a mechanical gear the aperture is only suggested by the meter and it is up to the photographer to actually adjust the exposure. The meter adds an additional 135 grams to the already hefty camera but eliminated the need to carry a separate meter.
I haven’t been able to get much information about the camera off the Internet other than that it was released in 1957 as well as the usual info that is obvious when one is holding the camera. The 10 aperture blades form an interesting pattern that differs from the usual octagon, I would describe it as a 10 point star at f5.6 which gives unique out of focus highlights. The focus rack is built into the body and not the lens and allows focus down to 3.5feet. There is a small indicator on the front of the camera just bellow the shutter release that turns red when the shutter is cocked but there is no lock for the release itself.
In my next post I will provide some photo’s taken with this gratifying example of late 1950’s design.
There was a tree that I wanted to take a picture of and I knew it was going to be just too big to capture in one image at the sort of resolution that I wanted. So I took multiple high resolution images with the intent of stitching them together in the computer. This leaves me with a new dilemma though, how to convey the size of the tree to a viewer on the Internet. I could have attempted to include something in the frame to give scale “Here Bessy, here Bessy…” but cows are notoriously bad at taking directions and even then I’m not sure the impact could still be carried through with a small image. So I’ve essentially taken control of the viewing experience and am presenting the picture in the form of a video.
And just to prove my point about impact here is a small web friendly version of the image.
Here are some more shots taken with the Nokia N95. I’m just starting out with the phone as a camera and am still in the process of deciding how it should be used and what it can and can’t do.
