One-Eighty

I finally got around to shooting the C330 twin lens reflex with the 180mm lens.  That focal length on a 35mm camera would be a substantial telephoto, but on the 6x6 C330 it is still just in the portrait lens category.

     While the big 180 lens set adds to the already hefty size and weight of the camera I found that taking the time to get used to handling the camera was an effort well spent.  The accessory grip helps free up the right hand for adjusting focus and tripping the shutter.  The eye-level finder also makes the outfit more responsive to fluid photo scenes.

I probably won't make a lot more use of the 180mm lens set on the C330, but I am getting more comfortable with using the camera, and I'm looking forward to using it more often.

cats

Show Stealer

Whenever I'm making pictures around the house I often devote the last few shots on the roll to images of my cat, Ruthie.  Pretty often, I end up liking those unplanned pet portraits better than what I had originally set out to photograph.

I still tend to think of Ruthie as being a kitten, but she was born to a feral mother in our backyard soon after we moved to Albuquerque, so she is near ten years old now.  Where does the time go?

Companions

3 million years

I stopped by the Museum of Natural History this morning with my Welta Perle.  The compact folder was loaded with TMAX 400 film.  

The preparator was carefully grinding away the rock surrounding one of four tusks belonging to an ancient species of elephant which roamed southern New Mexico about three million years ago.  Behind him on the bench is the complete skull of a stegomastadon from the same era that was recently discoverd on the beach at  Elephant Butte Reservoir.

Monitoring a Car Show

A local custom shop hosted a well-attended car show this morning in Albuquerque.  I took along my Kodak Monitor loaded with TMAX 400.

The low summer sun was already very intense by 10:00 am.  I thought the Anastigmat Special handled the glare quite nicely.

There was a nice mix of custom rods and restored classics.

Below is a 100% enlargement of the 1200 dpi scan showing the fine quality to be had from the four-element lens and the fine-grained TMAX.

I need to try some color on this subject some time soon with the Monitor.

The post-war Chev Fleetline has always been a favorite of mine -- just the right balance of strength and grace in the design.

Exercising the Mamiya C330

I've been carrying around the C330 and trying it in a variety of settings.  The hand-grip is a big help in keeping my fingers from inadvertently changing the settings.  The Porroflex finder allows simultaneously achieving sharp focus and composing the image without flipping back and forth between the waist-level finder and the flip up focusing magnifier.

Some subjects, like the wine glasses, because of their placement simply would not be within reach without the eye-level finder.

The one thing I haven't tackled with the camera that I need to get to is portraits.  I'll look for an opportunity to try that soon.

Upgrading the Mamiya C330

I decided it was time to stop whining about the awkwardness of the C330 and get the accessories needed to make it practical to shoot outside the studio.

I picked up a Mamiya handgrip at the local Camera and Darkroom in Albuquerque.  The eye-level finder came from an ebay seller in like-new condition.  Together, they make the big tlr almost a pleasure to handle.  I can see myself using this camera a lot more from here on.

The pictures are from a Sunday morning stroll through the UNM campus.

Europe and America

I got some nice shots from my first Kodak Duo Six-20, but it developed a problem with the shutter linkage which ended up damaging the shutter.  I replaced some of the shutter parts recently and took the camera along on a walk to the Tingley Beach ponds in Albuquerque.  I was pleased to see that everything seemed to be working properly again.

As I reported in the previous post, I have a second Series II camera, seen below on the right, which is an example built for the European market with distance scale marked in meters and a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens.  On the left is my American market camera with a distance scale in feet and a Kodak Anastigmat lens.

Some slight differences can be seen in the lens mounts of the two examples, but I think the lens formula is essentially the same -- four elements in three groups.  A comparison of the images from the two cameras show no differences in quality that I can see.

dolly

I shot a roll of TMAX 400 in my Dolly Super-Sport after doing a little work on the shutter recently.  It may need a little more tuning still, but this is close enough to show some of the nice characteristics of the three-element F2.8 Trioplan lens.  

I was surprised and pleased to find some TMAX developer recently at the local Camera and Darkroom store just off Menaul in Albuquerque. The bottle showed an expiration date of Feb. 2014; I opened it to process this roll.  HC-110 and TMAX have always been my preferred developers for this film, but both have been discontinued.  The film may remain available for some time, but I doubt that I'll find either of those excellent Kodak developers again.

Still Special

I took my No.1 Autographic Kodak Special to the Albuquerque train station.  The Amtrak Express was being fueled for a trip north.

With its high-res Tessar lens and a snappy Wollensak Optimo shutter, this is my favorite Kodak.  I would shoot it more often were it not for a persistent light leak that I haven't been able to stamp out.  That is not for lack of trying.  The commonest source of such problems is pinholes in the bellows.  I did find some early on which I was able to eliminate with opaque fabric paint.

My usual routine in looking for the source of light leaks is to extend the bellows, open the camera back and hold the camera up to the sun.  Usually, pinhole leaks will be visible as bright specks of light in the corners and creases of the bellows.  Not all can be found in that way, however, so I usually then go on to inspect the bellows in the dark using a small led light like the keychain flashlight above.  Having meticulously examined the bellows, I'm suspicious that the light leak in the No.1 Special may be somewhere in the slide-open back.  I've added some light seal material to the back as well as half-covering the ruby window from the inside and putting a strip of black tape over the outside which I lift only when advancing the film.  No luck so far.

Bosque Cottonwoods

I've been working on my Kodak Duo Six-20. I painted out the last pinhole in the bellows which gave me better image contrast. After removing and cleaning the lenses, I soaked the shutter in lighter fluid and got the B and T settings working properly. The solvent also floated away some of the black paint characters on the front of the shutter, so I may go back and try painting them back in.

About half the pictures from my last roll through the camera were grossly out of focus.  When I looked at the camera again I realized that I had set the focal plane target on the wrong rails, putting it about 2mm too far forward for proper infinity focus.  I've redone the collimation again, so we'll see shortly if I got it right this time.

the death of film

Another treatment on the theme can be found on the NYT Lens Blog.

Trees in the Park

From the morning walk

Quarai

la vie domestique

Weather and lighting conditions get a little hard to predict this time of year.  In order to extend the possibilities for shooting with my Ansco Pandas I've got film in both of my cameras.  The Fuji Acros 100 takes care of the usual sunny day scenario.  Tmax 400 in the other camera lets me shoot under cloudy skies, or even indoors with good window light.  Of course, the Tmax could also be pushed a couple stops if necessary, so the spectrum of possibilities is really pretty wide with this simple box camera.

I used this same two camera strategy when I was first working with the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash, but that camera is bulky and required carrying along a bag for the cameras.  The compact Panda can actually be stuffed in a jacket pocket, so it is less of a problem to take along two of them.