December 2012

It's been a very busy month, but that's to be expected, with all the festive preparations and holidays. 

A brief respite from the busyness

Still loving the Holga very much

Long exposure with the stars, maybe not long enough?

Light leaks at the top and bottom of the Holga, but have to get used to the fact that rotating the camera sideways has no effect on a 120 film

Holga 120GN: A Review

I've been thinking of going back to shooting 120 films for some time now. Regrettably I've sold off the Yashica Mat that I had earlier. So recently I bought the Holga 120GN from Holgadirect, took a couple of weeks and costed just RM127. Now you don't expect much from images taken from a holga, it's never going to be as sharp or technically accurate as the DSLRs, but that's the point. It's unpredictable, sometimes you get really good fun images and sometimes it's just mediocre. What I wasn't expecting when the package arrived was that it was cosmetically...well, mediocre.

I definitely got a used unit from holgadirect.com, the hot shoe had been scratched, there was dust all over indicating that it's probably a display unit, and the sticker on the film advance knob is almost brown and peeling off. A quick check online showed that my model is older than 2009, all new models have the tripod mount more central, mine is the one that's to the side. I'm a bit peeved by this, but after some discussion with Wee Siang, decided that it's not worth taking it up with holgadirect. I decided to give it a test and if the results are ok, then keep it. But here's a warning to those who are planning to get from them, if you are particular about these kind of things, make sure you get them to confirm they are sending you a new unit and not one that is used. They're cheap, but I'll definitely think twice before getting anything from them again.

Anyway on to the review of the camera...why I've decided to try 120 film is that sometimes I feel the 36 exposures from the 135 format is a bit too much. If I have a day out with the family, 12 exposures is just nice. I can limit myself to taking just 12 meaningful shots through the whole day instead of always having the feeling to burn through 36 just to get it developed.

I've also added a mask to it, to get the jagged edges around the frames. All images are shot with the Fuji Pro 400H.

First shot I took, long exposure.

I don't really like zone focus cameras, but it's a good tool to learn how to estimate distances

 

You can see the distortion from this shot, look at the staircase

Again, the distortion, but I love this pic anyway

I love shooting with this camera. It's so light! But that said, I was shooting with it yesterday and the whole back fell off exposing the film...I haven't finished that roll yet so I don't know how it will turn out. The latch at the sides must have slid off when it was in my bag. Light yes, flimsy yes, but results are great! The centre is sharp and the edges blurry.

Should you get this camera? Definitely. You have to be aware of the limitations though, with the fastest aperture at f/8 you are going to need a fast film indoors coupled with a flash. That's the reason I opted for a model with a hot shoe, the CFN model has a flash but it's not very powerful. With your own flash unit, you have more options, bounce flash, off camera flash and what not. This camera comes very highly recommended from me, and will be with me on my January trip to my friend's wedding.

Exercising The FED 5C

It's been a long while since I've shot anything with the FED 5C camera, which is a shame really. It's always given me nice shots. One of the main reason is it's size and weight. With a good aim and a strong throw you can use it to knock both the snatch thief and the rider in front of him off a motorbike. The other is that ever since my son has learned to walk, autofocus cameras are the preferred choice, man can he walk fast. But during the recent public holiday, I decided to put a roll of film through the FED 5C, kinda miss shooting with it. (All images shot with FED 5C and Kodak 400UC)

Me and the FED 5C

Poor hairstylist had a bloody finger when he snipped his hand, never easy to get a baby to stay still

One second before breaking something from the shelf...and we left quickly soon after -.-"

I am reminded how much I love shooting with this camera when I look at the pics, even though it makes me look like a freaking tourist with the strap and the case I will make an effort to bring it out more often.

Hacking The DX Coding On The Film Canisters

Mom: So is there anything you'd like me to bring over when I visit?
Me: Hmm, ya. Whatever happened to my old film camera?

So she searched around the house and found this.

My old Olympus Mju-II. This camera accompanied me through my college and uni years and to many places in Europe. It's a reliable old friend. There was one problem with it though, it automatically sets the ISO based on the DX coding on the film canister. That may be alright for normal photography but a massive inconvenience when shooting with redscale or black and white films.

So how to get around this?

Changing from 400 to 1600

Fool the camera by changing the DX coding. The film at the bottom is at normal 400 speed and the film at the top has had its paint scratched so the camera reads it as a 1600 film instead. Probably the best thing about this is that the Olympus is such an easy camera to handle that I can be in the pictures more often.

With available window light and spot metering on the Mju-II

What I've Been Doing Last Weekend

My black and white film developing kit has arrived recently and I've been practicing what I initially thought is the hardest step in the whole process - taking the film out and loading it into the tank in the dark.

All the various parts

Going into the changing bag

Magic happens... kinda like solving a rubik's cube up a cow's backside

Tadaa!

Checking to see if everything is done correctly

It's easier than I thought it would be. Now the next step will be making the toilet into a darkroom then it's on to the chemicals! I've got a couple of black and white films bought 5 years ago that can finally be put to use.

Seeing In Squares

Medium format photography is something that has been on my mind for quite a long time. The digital ones are ridiculously expensive but thank God I'm into film!

It's a bit of a challenge to frame my photos differently, with the looking at the camera like 'checking if my fly is open stance' instead of bringing the camera up to my eye, but I enjoy the experience.

One for the family album

The only downside is that it's really heavy but hey, I'm thinking of it as practice for carrying a new family member.

New Skins

It took a month of patient waiting, but my new camera skins finally arrived!

I decided to go with a custom made skin for the Oly Trip 35, and if it looks familiar that's because you've seen it somewhere before.

The old skin needed to be removed and the body cleaned before the new skin can be applied. It's so simple that even I (with multiple bubbles of dirt under my iPhone screen protector) can apply it almost flawlessly.

I ❤ Oly Trip

There may have been 10 million Trips that have passed through the manufacturing plants, but I'm sure there's only one like this. I have an idea for another skin design, we'll see in a couple of months time! 

Gotong Royong and Precisa CT100

I've been spending a lot of time cleaning in the past few weeks, both at home and at the office, I don't really know why but I feel like I have to. Some kind of paternal instinct kicking in maybe? We've been cleaning a lot of places that we don't usually cover in our weekly cleaning, like the grill and under the bed (my God! The amount of dirt!).

On another point, I've been testing out the Agfa Precisa CT100 film recently.

Scorching sun is good for...

...doing the laundry

I've been shooting film almost exclusively for quite some time and should have tried this film sooner. It has that greenish-yellowish-bluish tinge to it with the super saturated blues when you cross process it. In other words, its the 'lomo' feel.

It is a very light hungry film, and the effects are best achieved on a bright sunny day. I had a couple of indoor shots with flash but it turned out quite ordinary, save for a slight yellowish hue.

I like it! I think I'll be using this film more often.

Beach Outing

It's been a long time since I had a beach picnic. I think the last one is when my mom came over and we went island hopping. Last weekend was a long weekend and when my wife's colleagues organized one, I was looking forward to it.

We had a couple of hours with nice blue skies before it started getting cloudy. It rained after we left.

My wife's company bought an inflatable boat as their location always suffer from bad flooding during the rainy season. So I had a go in it.

With the new addition coming to the family, it'll be quite a while till we're able to have an outing like this again. This was quite a timely trip.

(all pics taken with Oly Trip 35 and Ektar 100)

Unrolling A Film

I shot one roll of film through a camera last week before realizing that the shutter did not open at all. Now I've read about unrolling the film from an already wounded roll few years back, but never had a chance to do it. What I did is take another roll of unwanted film, lick it and stick it into the film canister. The saliva is supposed to snag on to the film leader and drag the film out to be reused, but trust me this is harder than it sounds. I managed the feat after half an hour.

Here are some tips that I've learned.
1) Never lick the film. Uggghhhh! The unwanted film had already been developed and the chemicals tasted terrible. Spit or rub some saliva on it, but never lick it!
2) Make sure you insert the unwanted film deep enough. A good measure of how deep is when you see the film canister rolling (the pic below) in response to your pushing, then you know you've latched onto the film.

3) Try turning the film around in the canister. Sometimes when the film has been rewound, the leader has gone too far inside and its difficult to latch on to it. Turn it around a bit and try again, if the leader is in the right position then it will come out easily.

Olympus Trip 35 : A Review

Again, yes I have to admit, another impulse buy and from the same seller that I bought my FED5C as well. I've since ignored all his posts on his blog and facebook page. I think nothing but a mint condition and reasonably priced Leica can tempt me any further than the collection I have now... I hope.

The Olympus Trip 35 also has a selenium light meter (around the lens) but that is where the similarities with the FED ends. The FED is a rangefinder, this is a compact point and shoot. The FED can break your skull while this one will probably only give your skin a bruise. The FED is a bit complicated to use while the Oly can be drawn from your bag, shot and returned in under 5 seconds without your subject even aware of what you have done. The soft click of the shutter helps as well (take note all you stalkers...).

I got this camera before I left for Australia and I quickly shot a roll of Velvia using it. I got mixed results. That made me quite hesitant in bringing this camera for the trip. Thankfully I decided to ditch the FM2 and bring this one along due to its lightness. 

All in all this was a very fun camera to use. Composing was easy enough and since it is practically a point and shoot all you have to do is click the shutter. I especially love the color and contrast of the images thanks to its Zuiko lens. 

After analyzing the shots from the first test roll, the failed ones were mostly the ones that were shot in very dim light while the outdoor shots were perfect. So I kept this in mind while I was in Australia and used it exclusively for the outdoors. However I've been following a Flickr group  for quite some time now and I always marvel at their ability to coax some great images from their Trips in very low light conditions. I don't believe my Trip is not capable of this. I'll need to go and try again. 

If you're thinking of buying this camera, go ahead! There is one thing that you have to be wary about. This camera is essentially a point and shoot and therefore the selenium light cell is key to its functioning properly. Do make sure you confirm that this is in working order before buying. Even if you end up with a non working meter, they're so cheap that you can just get a new one or if you choose, replace the meter. Olympus sold 10 million of these cameras over the years so you don't really have to worry about parts. Hey, maybe I'll get another one for myself too...

Posts with Oly Trip 35 - Beach Outing