More from the Duaflex

 Another sunny December day and another roll of film in the Kodak Duaflex.  This time it is some Arista Edu Ultra 200 of indeterminate age.  The box does not seem to have an expiration date.  I got it some time past from Free Style.   I suspect this is repackaged Fomapan as the pre-soak came out of the tank very blue.  All of the shots were made with a light yellow filter over the lens.  Processing was in Rodinal 1:50.  

See some more about the first model Kodak Duaflex and its designer in an article on my old website.

Easing into Film Photography

 The gift of a '90s era Nikon N8008s got me to thinking about how someone might be introduced to film photography who comes from a generation that has known only digital.  I have suggested meeting that challenge by starting off with the simplest of film cameras.  An alternative might be to work backward from the point where film cameras like the N8008s were digital in all but the recording medium.

By the start of the 1990's film camera makers were offering a lot of choices in cameras with fully automated control of focusing, film advance, speed and aperture adjustment, all under the supervision of miniaturized electronic circuits. The camera from that period I am most familiar with is the tiny fixed-lens Olympus Infinity Stylus which slipped in a pocket as easily as the bar of soap it resembled.

For photographers with bigger ambitions and pocketbooks, Nikon and others put interchangeable lenses into the mix. That came with a cost in complexity and weight.  The N8008s, for instance, requires four double-A batteries to power interchangeable lens focus operation along with the continuous digital display of all control settings. In compensation, the user could choose a fully automated point-and-shoot mode, or opt for full control over each aspect of the process, including shutter and aperture-priority, single or multiple exposures with a single button press, and a variety of metering styles. 

I test drove the N8008s with a roll of Arista 200 over two days in familiar surroundings: Old Town Albuquerque and the Rio Grande where our dog, Roxie, likes to run and splash in the river water.

The AF Nikkor 35-70mm Zoom which came attached to the camera of course was unsurprisingly excellent in image production.  While I have never really warmed to zooms, the very smooth operation of this compact lens and its easy support of frame-filling compositions makes it a real pleasure to use.

I can't justify musing further about the N8008s based on a singe roll experience, so will just suggest exploring the subject further with real Nikon experts like John Smith, aka Fogdog, and James Tocchio at Casualphotophile.

At One (point five)

 

Winter

BioPark

 

Wood Duck on ice

Mediterranean Conservatory

San Felipe de Neri

  A clear and cold morning meant there were few tourists in Old Town.  A good day to visit the church in the Plaza Vieja.

At the Botanic Garden

 

Adventures in Film Photography

 My repair of the meter coupling on the Nikon EM seemed a success, so time for a test.

 I mounted the 50/1.8 Series E lens and loaded the camera with a roll of Arista 200. As sometimes happens I did not get the tongue of the film into the take-up spool quite right, so I gave the rewind knob a couple turns back and opened the camera back to try again.  I then saw that I had rolled the film leader completely back into the cassette.  I threw the film with disgust into the trash -- only to retrieve it seconds later as I remembered that I had a reloadable cassette to which the film could be transferred.  I put everything into the dark bag, pried open the Arista cassette and had the reel and film in the reloadable cassette in  a couple minutes.

I carried the Nikon EM around for about a week to finish the test roll and the meter worked smoothly as expected under a variety of conditions.  I finished off the roll with a couple shots around the house and then proceeded to crank the rewind knob to get the film back in the cartridge.  The plastic rewind knob cracked in half on the first turn.
 

The whole thing went back into the black bag so I could fish out the exposed film and get it into the Paterson tank for processing.  As I expected, all the images looked to be properly exposed.

This through-the-window shot was made with a Vivitar 70-210 f/3.5 Macro Focusing Zoom

 
The prospects for repair of the rewind knob looked dim.  In a search on the web I found that a broken rewind knob on the EM is not an uncommon problem. Replacements are available on ebay, but they are generally priced higher than what I paid for the camera. The same knob is on several Nikon models, so perhaps something will turn up to get the camera back into operation. I hope so, as I like the light-weight and compact Nikon and its little Series E lens.

Perspectives

 I have mostly shot color in my little Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, but it handles black and white well too.  These are from a roll of Arista Edu Ultra 200 processed in HC-110e.

Death Has Its Day

 

Full-Frame

 I shot some Arista 200 in the Leica IIIa with the Elmar 3.5/50mm for the purpose of comparison with the images I have been getting from my half-frame Olympus Pen-FT.  At the size I normally show on-screen I think there is little difference, but at larger sizes the full-frame images from the Leica do show some better sharpness and finer grain which allow considerably more enlargement.

On a bike ride along the Bosque trail north of Central Ave. I came across the firetruck and a group of firefighter recruits being trained in the use of portable pumps for fighting fires in the riverside forest.

Some cloudy days are bringing nice light to both Old Town and the Bosque.

 

(The chromework on the Harley suggests that some care should be exercised in getting on and off the bike.)