Half the size, Twice the fun

 The upside of the increase in film prices is that it gave me an excuse to acquire another half-frame camera.  It is one of Maitani's masterpieces, the Olympus Pen-FT.

The Pen-FT is only marginally larger than my Leica IIIa.  It seems amazing that Maitani was able to fit a single lens reflex system into such a small container.

On the morning after the camera's arrival I loaded it with a roll of Kentmere 400, first shooting a few frames near home, and then going down to the Plaza Vieja to finish off  the roll.  

The F Zuiko Auto-S 1.8/38mm lens focuses down to about one foot.

Finishishing off the Kentmere in the Plaza Vieja took a while as the 24-shot roll yielded 53 images!

It being a Friday morning, the old cars were lined up in front of the church waiting for their pictures to be taken.

'86 El Camino

'32 Ford Victoria

I bumped into my friend, Bob, in the Plaza so we took pictures of each other with the Pen-FT.

Bob

Mike

The camera worked perfectly.  I have ordered six rolls of Kentmere 100 and two of Kodak Gold 200 which I think will be well-suited to the half-frame capability.  I will probably also get some bulk film so I can make up some film rolls with a smaller number of frames.

The manual has illustrations showing the great array of lenses and accessories made by Olympus for the Pen-FT including adapters allowing the use of many standard 35mm lenses from Nikon, Practica, Leica and Exakta.

And, of course, this:

Sunday in Old Town

Arista

 I was given a roll of Arista Edu Ultra 200 some time ago.  I liked the results I got from it when developed in Rodinal, so I got a bulk roll and tried it with a variety of developers, none of which really produced results that I liked, including my last roll which I processed in Caffenol.  I have picked the three images from that last effort which seems to best show the film's potential, which I think is quite nice in regard to grain and tonality.

I've got at least a couple rolls of Arista left in the bulk loader, so I'll take another whack at it, paying more attention to shooting technique and processing.  I'll try rating the film at 100 ASA and maybe give it a little more time in the development as well.

Opportunity

I went to the Albuquerque Railyards to see the 2926 locomotive which had made a short trip there from the restoration site across town.  While awaiting the tracks to be made accessible to spectators I decided to walk through the site to look at the big buildings that comprised the repair facility many years before.  To my surprise, the doors of several of the building were open and there were none of the usual guards to deny entry to visitors.