Another Nikon EM

My Nikon EM developed a problem I was unable to fix.  I haven't used the EM a lot, but I liked it for it's compactness and reliable performance.  I decided I would like to replace the camera, though it seemed unlikely I would find another  for the same cost of $10 which I paid at a neighbor's yard sale.  

To my surprise I did find another Nikon EM on ebay for $13.  A test roll of expired film showed the shutter and meter working, but all the images had a broad stripe light leak near center.  I scraped the old seal material out of the channels on the back of the body and replaced it with black yarn.  What actually got rid of the leak, however, was a strip of black foam which I installed near the back hinge.  I then shot a new roll of Kentmere 400  while walking the dog around the neighborhood, and that showed the new seals to be performing properly. 

The residence of the Brothers Mathias is just across the street, so it has ended up being the subject of a lot of camera tests.  I noticed some nice shadows on the building late in the afternoon, so I made a picture that shows a broader view of the structure than I have shown in the past.

One of the Brothers welcomed us to the neighborhood when we moved in fifteen years ago.  That is the only time I recall speaking with any of the residents.

So I'm pleased to have a working Nikon EM again, particularly because I nearly always have used the camera with the nice little 1.8/50mm Series E lens which probably would not get much use otherwise.

Exercising the Signet 35

I thought these recent b&w images from the Signet 35 were interesting, though the combination of TMAX and hc-110 did not yield the quality I have gotten from it in the past.  The photos from this roll also introduced too many variables and are not useful for comparison with the last outing with the Signet 40.

I'm going to shoot another roll in the Signet 35 with the same film and lighting conditions as the last Signet 40 pictures to see if I can better compare the performance of the two Kodaks.

The Best of the Bunch

Left to my own devices I would likely not have acquired my Nikon FE.  It was a generous gift from an online photographer friend.  The design and construction of the camera are right up there with Leica in regard to quality.  That becomes immediately apparent when you pick up the camera and crank the winding lever; the movement is extraordinarily smooth.  And, there is a vast number of Nikon lenses available to the camera.  My resolve to work more with the FE was further bolstered recently when I figured out that I could use my nice old 105mm Nikkor-P Auto f2.5 lens on the FE by just flipping up a tab on the lens mount.  So, I put aside a couple other projects, loaded some TMAX 100 in the camera, and took a stroll through the neighborhood.

With half the roll of TMAX remaining the next day I mounted the Nikkor 1.8/50mm and took a walk beside the river.  That turned out to be a less than fair trial for the camera and lens as I had Margaret's very active dog, Roxie, tethered to one arm.  So, the equipment performed rather better than I did.  Still, I saw a lot of nice subjects that I'll get back to again soon.  The cottonwood forest is carpeted now with a dense layer of dry leaves.  The river this time of year is full of migrating bird life.  There were five Sandhill Cranes on a nearby sandbar when we stepped out of the trees.  Two raucous ravens across the river drew my attention to a Bald Eagle perched high in a cottonwood's bare branches.

I processed this roll of TMAX in HC-110, dilution H.  That formula uses half the dilution-B concentrate of developer and requires twice the time to develop.  The outcome is a bit less contrast than one gets from dilution-B.  It worked as expected, though better in some instances than others.  I'm thinking that for the next roll of TMAX I'll try going back to dilution-B with a developing time of six minutes at 20C rather than the seven I have been using lately.  The guides I always consult for this sort of thing are the HC-110 Developer Resource Page and the Massive Dev Chart.