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.

Bugs and Beeps

2 bugs and 2 dragon beeps (soft shutter release)

Yes I'm preparing for the X10... heheh

Wishlist

Fujifilm X10, I can't remember the last time I've been this tempted by a digital camera...

X10

Well to be fair, I was a bit tempted when it's elder brother, the X100, was launched but the price was a turn off. This one may be a stripped down version of the X100, but there are some things I like about it - Full HD video mode and zoom lens.

Image from Guido ... I want that black and white ladybird on the X100 shutter button too!

It seems I may have to clear out my dry cabinet to make a space for this fella...

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

Darkroom Fun

Following up from my last post, I tried my hand at developing my own black and white film. The very first time, I had a few issues to iron out, like getting all the chemicals at the right temperature (20 deg c) before starting. I tried putting ice in a basin but it wasn't getting anywhere near that figure, so I just stuck them all in a freezer till it dropped. Thanks to the timer from the Massive Dev Chart App on the iPhone, once everything starts, it's pretty easy. I took a shot of my setup and here it is.

I've done 3 rolls so far with 2 different type of films and the results vary quite a bit. I think I may have been a bit overenthusiastic in agitating the chemicals in one of the sessions but I'll know more after many more trials and errors.

He's wearing a 'I love mum' shirt... -.-

This last film with Delta 3200 - oh the grain!

Thankfully there are many things to shoot these days. Cyrus is growing really fast and looks different everyday.

Now there have been people who have been saying that Cyrus looks more like his mom and yes, if you look at the shots above, you can see the similarities with the nose and the chin. But if you look at him from another angle, you will see that he looks EXACTLY like me.

Huhuh! Thanks for such great hair dad!

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.

So Why Can't I Resist From Buying That...

... gadget? shoes? dress? or camera? Usually the last one for me. I recently read about this concept of 'ego depletion' and it may explain a bit. What it means is that willpower (or any conscious effort that require self control) is a limited resource, like the amount of petrol in a car. So the more we use our willpower, the more liable we are to giving in to our splurges at a later stage. There are 2 experiments that demonstrate that it exists (and if you're not interested just skip the colored text below).

Experiment 1

- A bowl of radish and a stack of chocolate chip cookies were placed on the table

- Subjects were asked to skip one meal to induce hunger and then split to 3 groups - control (who didn't eat either the radish or cookies), radish and chocolate.

- The radish group were placed in the room with both foods and asked to eat only the radish while avoiding the chocolate, and vice-versa for the chocolate group.

- All participants asked to solve an unsolvable geometric puzzle (which was unknown to them).

Results: The radish eating group gave up earlier than both control and chocolate group, which both had similar times.The radish eating group also felt more 'tired' after the puzzle.

Interpretation: The radish eating group had to use more willpower to avoid the chocolate and have used up some sort of psychic energy.

Experiment 2

-The problem with the first experiment was that the task was unsolvable and it can be argued that the radish eating group was 'smarter' in realizing this and therefore gave up earlier. 

- The participants were asked to watch videos, some being humorous and some sad. 

- They were split into 2 groups, one was asked to suppress all emotion when watching and the other had no restrictions. 

- The subjects were given anagram letter sets.

Results: The emotion suppressed group had far fewer anagrams than the other group.

Interpretation: This proved further evidence that some resource was depleted after an act of self control.

Hang on a minute? Isn't life a series of choices?

Sleeping in vs hitting the gym

Reading up on recent developments vs Facebook-ing

Healthy lunch vs not so healthy

Getting the camera vs saving for that vacation

So back to the question... why can't we resist? Simple. Its because we've been working too hard and making too much of the right choices lately. *GRINS* Go have that fried chicken. It's better for you on the long run.

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.

Allergies

For about a month, my lips have been very dry. Cracked. Flaky. Constant applications of lip balm gave relief for a while but in the morning it will hurt like I've been kissing sandpaper the whole night. To worsen things, the sandpaper gave me an STD - it got swollen and itched. So I tried cutting down on salty foods, drinking lots of water and all but it got no better. Eventually I realized that my lips were a lot itchier right after I brushed my teeth.

I'm allergic to the toothpaste? Heh? I just bought this toothpaste a few days back. Some more this is the second tube I've bought and I've been using it for ...oh.... a month. Ahh...

It made a lot of sense after that - like why the lip balm had no effect even after so long. I immediately bought another toothpaste and almost overnight the symptoms disappeared. Its still a bit dry and it'll probably take some time for it to go back to normal but what am I going to do with the full tube of toothpaste? I could throw it away. Or I could remind myself to never buy that toothpaste again..

I've decided to keep it.