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 Rail Yards 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.

Portraits

 We awoke to heavy clouds and wet streets.  It seemed a perfect day to visit the Rio Grande Zoo with my Spotmatic and the 75-230mm Yashinon zoom.  The big old lens retains good sharpness even wide-open, but the lens' f/4.5 aperture and the not-too-bright screen of the SP makes finding the perfect focus point a challenge.  With the zoo animals always in motion, one is never sure if the decisive moment made it onto the film.  At the end of my visit I was really uncertain what my scans would reveal.  As I pulled out of the zoo's parking lot in my truck I switched on the radio, and there was Dave Brubeck playing Take Five !  I took it as a good omen.

Complaint

Pretender

Snack

Bird Watching

The cheetah insisted on color, so I switched to my little Lumix digital and posted the results on my other blog.

Wildlife photography really demands a good digital camera.  Even confined in the zoo, the subjects are always in motion.  Fast focus, auto-exposure, quick cycling, burst shooting and unlimited capacity greatly enhance the chances of catching the moments you want.  I'm thinking it is time I sell some of my little-used film cameras and invest in a digital to shoot at the zoo. (Also, the price of color film has gone way beyond what I am willing to pay.)

Film Wasting

 An ill spent couple of hours in Old Town.  Nice overcast light.  A camera and lens that have always made nice pictures for me.  I'm tempted to blame the results on the film having gone through at least two airport x-ray scans.  More probably, I was just careless with my shooting technique.  

I nearly always get home with a couple shots left on the roll in the camera.  Very often they turn out to be the frames I like best.  (I know I said the same thing yesterday, but it seemed like something worth repeating.)

Summer Light

 New Mexico's intense summer sun can often overwhelm photographic aspirations.  Some respite can always be found in Albuquerque's Botanical Garden.  I went there on a Friday morning with my twin lens reflex Yashica-Mat.

When I return home with one or two frames remaining on a roll of film I frequently call on my cat to help finish up the roll.  In this case I also used the opportunity to make a shot with my new accessory close-up lens set.  This time I relied on the accessory's automatic parallax correction to fit the subject properly in the frame.

Getting Closer with TLR Cameras

 I picked up an accessory close-up lens set for my Yashica-Mat recently.  To my surprise, I managed to misframe all the shots on the first roll of film I put through the camera using the new lenses. 

I had assumed that I would need to aim high to get the image properly centered as I do with my Mamiya C330.  However, it turns out that the Yashica close-up viewing lens is constructed to automatically compensate for parallax error.  So, the Yashica-Mat is actually somewhat easier to use than the C330 which really requires the Paramender on a tripod to properly capture the image on film as it is seen in the viewfinder.  Close-ups with the Yashica-Mat also do not require any exposure compensation as is the case when the C330 bellows is cranked out for close shots.

A tripod is actually a good idea with both cameras as depth of focus at close distances is very narrow.

 

These two shots were made with the normal 80mm lens which provides greater DOF.

Friday Morning

 Ate breakfast.  Walked the dog.  Margaret went off to have breakfast with a friend.  Nothing left to do but to head for Old Town with a roll of Fomapan 100 in my Voigtländer Brilliant.

I asked if I might take a picture of this fine looking Scottish Deerhound.  The owner agreed, but insisted the picture be made in the shade as she said he would  not stand still on the sun drenched sidewalk.  I would have preferred to picture him in motion as his gait was incredibly buoyant; it seemed he might suddenly float off the pavement.