Pen Play

 Working my way through a 24-shot roll of film with the Olympus Pen-FT is a challenge.  The camera squeezes 53 frames onto the film strip, spanning a variety of scenarios and trying my patience to move on to processing and seeing what I've got.  I mostly tried to stick to close-ups at home and at the Botanic Garden with this fourth roll through the camera.  I'm on the lookout for additional lenses for the Pen-FT, but I'm still very pleased with the sharpness and close focusing capacity of the 1.8/38mm F.Zuiko.

My New Bike

 Mobility has always been a key element in my photographic endeavors.  My main strategy has been to cover a lot of ground and make pictures of whatever I come across of interest.  Lately, my walking has suffered some injury-related setbacks and getting a leg over the seat of my sturdy old bike is a challenge. 

So, when we stopped in at my favorite thrift store on the east side of the Sandias recently I was pleased to find a bike that looked a good match for my current capabilities.  It is a new looking, light-weight Schwinn ten-speed with a step-through frame, handbrakes and skinny tires.  I peeled the $20 price sticker off the fender and took it into the cashier who informed me that everything that day was half-price and I had to part with just ten bucks to load the bike into my truck!

My compact Olympus Pen-FT will be a good match with the bike as it slips pretty easily into a jacket pocket.

I've come back unscathed from a couple trial runs with the bike, so I'll get out with bike and camera for a real photo shoot this week.

Arista Edu Ultra 200

 I have a little film left on a bulk roll of Arista 200, so I loaded a short roll and shot it in my Olympus Pen-FT.  I chose familiar subjects in Old Town with the intension of comparing the results from the Arista with the Kentmere 100 and 400 that I had used previously in the same camera.

All three films were developed in PMK Pyro.  I don't see any very significant difference in the quality of the images.  The Kentmere 100 has a bit finer grain than the 200 or 400 speed films, but I think the tonal values are pretty similar among them, and scanner and Photoshop adjustments can easily over-ride other factors.

The prices of all three film  are under six dollars for a 24-exposure roll.  Bulk rolls of Kentmere are a few bucks cheaper than Arista at B&H.  So, any of these three films seem like they will be fine for half-frame negatives.  I have a couple fresh rolls of $6.99 Kodak Gold 200 in the refrigerator which I'll try in the Pen-FT as soon as I get a new Cinestill C-41 kit.

Pen-FT - Roll 2

 The Day of the Dead events got underway during the weekend with a line of pickups in the Plaza Vieja decked out with ofrendas.  I had the Pen-FT loaded this time with Kentmere 100.  That gave me finer grain images than the 400-speed film of the previous roll, though in this instance I think I prefer the deeper tonal range and the enhanced depth of field provided by the faster film.  Too early to make any judgements about those issues, but I think it will be interesting to try some C-41 in both b&w and color.

The obligatory final picture of my cat was made with the F. Zuiko lens wide open at f1.8.

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.