Those simple days...

Moving On...

2007-11-29T15:30:00.000-06:00

Hi all, for the thousands of you who regularly read this blog (yeah, right!), I have recently setup a new service that is mainly geared towards people who enjoy sharing their writings along with photographs that they take (for example, me :).

The twist is that the new blog site requires zero server hosting/maintenance/programming skills. Cool, eh? Let me know if you want one :)

The new blog site is Advance Lever MU.

Oh, And my blog's address is now:

Those Simple Days.

See you all there!

One man's treasure...

2007-11-05T15:33:00.000-06:00

"... one man's junk is another man's treasure..., at least before he actually bought it..."

I actually remembered that saying as we pulled into the parking lot (or field, a big one at that). We arrived late in the afternoon in Canton, TX. A mere hour-drive away from Dallas, Canton is the home of the First Monday Fleamarket.

Usually I'd give away the website at this point, but I think you'll be severely dismayed looking at their website. Like I did... that is, until I realize how many people are visiting the 4-days shopping, RV-ing, lounging, barbq-ing extravaganza! Who needs a website when the visitors numbers at thousands (that's on the WEEKDAY-part of the "market").

So, let's get the show going...

Five buddies loading up the day's "treasures"

They guy at the parking lot booth ($4) just shrugged and said, "straight ahead, son" when I asked him whether I can park anywhere among the sea of SUV's and RV's at the parking lot. At first, we picked a shady spot at the "spill-over" grass area of the field, after all, where we saw variations of the "five buddies" scene depicted above. After receiving a tip from a lady parked next to us, we moved closer to the main entrance.

After securing a parking spot (it's nice to arrive late, in the morning, the line at the exit of the interstate I-20 into Canton was a mile long). We started to enter the long warehouse like buildings and start checking out stuff ranging from arts and crafts, to literally, scrap heap.

These horse statues looks very nice, I didn't even check the price tags, as my wife and I already decided to window-shop-only. Well, I did bought a set of old photographs, but that's another write-up.

"Cross my heart and hope to ... buy my stuff"

Every age group is well represented, including the ones measured in dog-years

well, who can argue with *THAT* ?? :)

This is literally the downtown square, for the weekend, it's *incorporated* into the market.

Except for the cellphone, this scene must been recurring since 1940 when the "First Monday" trade day was first popularized.

These guys served mean Peruvian-Andean music. Those panflutes are awesome. I think I even get my daughter interested in it.

Junk, no kidding... (but check out the tonality and sharpness of the photo ;)

Ever had your head handed to you in a basket?

I like vintage Ford cars, but this one feels rather superficial :)

As the shadow grew longer, we made our way back to our car, a nice gentleman who also sold very good roasted peanuts kindly explained how the maze was arranged. Following his direction, we found our car just fine.

About that time, people who already closed their booths, who brought their RV's started to congregate together, barbecuing, and having a great time. Looks like not everything is about money... and that's very good to see.

Lastly, a cowboy in waiting...

Oh, the camera of the month is none other than the trusty Olympus 35 SP in black. Film of the choice is one from my never ending supply of Ilford XP2.

As usual, all shots are un-metered. Only the sunny-16 rules and a super tonality provided by a super expired film :)

An Old Rangefinder and a Balloon Festival

2007-10-25T15:45:00.000-06:00

"Don't bring a tofu knife to a gunfight..."

This would be my first year to attend the annual Plano Balloon Festival in Plano, TX. In yesteryears, I've been wanting to go, but there were always excuses, events, what-have-you.

To make it interesting, I decided to bring my M4-P to the event. My favorite film with this camera is the Kodak BW400CN. While 99% people out there were toting some kind of zoom lens cameras, I decided that this would be a good place to practice taking pictures of people, which is as much fun as trying to take decent pictures of the balloons themselves.

So, without further ado, here are the pics:

At this point, the field was almost dark, lit only by street lights. Btw, this is one reason that I'm amazed at the M4-P, handheld, almost dark, I still get a picture.

You have to anticipate when the balloons are lit when something like this can be seen. Yes it would be more awesome if I was about 10 feet from the balloon, but, with the lack of "press pass", I'd have to make do with what I have.

Some of the other photographers who seems to be more "prepared" than I was to take pictures of the balloon. Most of them don't even see me pointing an unassuming small black camera at them.

The kids are kinda restless because the balloons are just sitting there...

Then all of the sudden...

As the day grew brighter, more balloons took shape.

The tension is mounting, like this guy ... fully poised to capture that moment...

More balloons getting ready for take-off...

Lift-Off!!!

Turned around to see a frenzy of concentration...

... trying to capture this picture...

Then as soon as all the balloon were gone, people start packing up. Here a nice CanoNikon couple :)

On the walk back to my car I spotted this beauty:

... well, I can't pass it up, can I?

All in all, it's not a bad morning for an old, unassuming rangefinder camera.

That's why it's an RD!

2007-10-08T15:24:00.001-06:00

"... in the end, it's the one that feels most comfortable that you'll be coming back to ..."

When asked for a word to describe the Olympus 35 RD, I came up with one that was really unexpected, even by myself. Comfortable.

The camera feels comfortable in my hands, it is not solid like the Olympus OM-1, or curvy like the Leica-M, or the commanding presence of a Nikon F. It is not even as hard-edged as its bigger older brother, the venerable 35 SP.

Yet the RD is simply comfortable. The patch is bright and viewfinder is again, comfortable to see through. When I press the shutter, I am confident that the little but fast lens would be able to handle anything that the available lights throw at it.

Confession time: I was heavily obsessed by Zeiss optics this past month. That's why I haven't posted a single entry here yet. I am expanding my lens "collection" into the T* coated realm of the legendary Carl Zeiss. Testing the RD is more of a whim. Expecting nothing more than another ho-hum testroll.

Boy, was I ever wrong! Note to self, self: Do not ever look down on a Zuiko lens ever again.

Took the camera to the First Saturday flea-market, which, on this particular morning, was extremely dreary. The usual mixed light consisting of yellow halogen street lights, and the severely overcast sky makes for a more difficult that usual lighting condition. More evil-ly, I decided to throw in one of the most difficult film I can find (that and I want to use up the stash quickly :). The Super-expired Ilford XP2 Super!!

I was snapping away half-heartedly, wanting to just get through the roll quickly.

Specular lights abound on these crystals:

An amphibious military vehicle:

Find a grenade-shaped perfume dispenser in this picture:

To add insult to injury, the trip to the flea-market proved to be fruitless, other than a brief excitement of seeing an old, dusty Agfa showing some life left in it, everything else pretty much blurred into blinking LED's and chatter noise.

Then, completely uninspired, I decided to drive around downtown just to take advantage of the very light traffic and see some parts that I haven't yet frequented.

Squares upon squares of dilapidated square building:

It's OU vs UT "Longhorn" annual football match:

On the way home, a quick panning-job:

But... never would I thought that these pictures would emerge from the testroll. The six-element Zuiko lens is delivering sharpness where it counts and an incredibly smooth transition from foreground to background.

These shots are taken without any light meter, just my eyes, half-sleepy brain, and the sunny-16 rules (not keen on using meter if I can help it). The expired film adds to the complexity. I shoot the film as though it's 100ASA just like when I tested the Fed 2 a couple of blog entries back.

Despite all that, the RD came up on top. It is an absolutely wonderful camera of the month. The RD is another shining example of how vintage, manual, technology can beat the jelly out of modern ones. No wonder it still command a hefty sum on the used market.

Now, sadly, having the 35 RD, I have to say goodbye to the 35 DC.

A Day at The Car Show

2007-09-11T11:28:00.001-06:00

"... nothing like an old-car show to close the summer with, the smell of fresh-popcorn wafting in the air, baloons and fiddle players, childrens with painted faces running around..."

... and people with cellphones clipped onto their ears... :) oh, well, so much for tradition... but hey, there are seems to be more cars and goers this year at the annual Downtown Festival at Denton Texas.

About 30 minutes from Dallas on I-35E, Denton, which could be considered a suburb of Dallas, is the home of the University of North Texas (famous for its Jazz music program).

Thanks to online maps, finding my way there is not the least problematic. Keeping my daughter cool under the scorching Texas sun, is another story. By the way, this would be my first date with my daughter that involves more than an hour driving, half of which, thankfully, she took her afternoon nap.

We arrived at the downtown area, all parking spots are practically full. We meandered around, already building the anticipation upon seeing tons of people, nothing could put a damper on the mood when seeing a "festival" with barely enough people to run it.

Having found our parking spot, my daughter and I made our way to the town hall proper where the festival is centered around. We were stopped by a handful of friendly people from the local church handing out cold bottled water and a BIG 100 dollar bill look-a-like with the Ten Commandments printed on the other side. Neat!

Then I whipped out my Ansco Super Speedex, especially loaded with expired Kodak Portra UC 400 for this occasion. I started taking pictures of the cars, the people, the beautiful sky, whatever. It sounded easy, but it's more work than I thought, because I want to keep an eye on my daugther all the time. Add to that, I tried to slap a filter in front of the lens and manually compensate for it.

Beautiful summer clouds over the downtown:

Just another red car (albeit beautiful, stylistic, and with attitudes :):

A face painting session, that's not my daughter, by the way:

A Studabaker Commander (also known as, the Cloud Reflector):

Almost on top of the keyboard player:

I don't know why this reminds me of "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned..."

I'm a Texan and so is my car:

Now this is just sick...:

We only spent less than an hour there because of the heat, other than that, my daughter seems to enjoy the butterfly painting on her arm, the music (very cool Jazz/Blues/Rock'n'roll band playing), and the baloons.

Next year, you bet we're coming back, and this time, Mom's gotta go too.

Fed Up!

2007-09-05T15:46:00.001-06:00

"... the level of amazement corresponds directly to the distance between low expectation and high quality ..."

Nothing described my experience with Former Soviet Union (FSU) -made cameras better than that quote. Despite my very frustrating bout with the first FSU camera I ever owned, a Zorki 4 with faulty film take up spool shaft, I can definitely say that I am a big fan now.

And the camera on the menu today is a further proof.

Fed 2 is the only camera that meets my "beauty" standard among the Fed camera series made by the FED working commune and later acquired by the famous KMZ factory. For more info on the rich history on these cameras, just use your favorite online search engine for Russian cameras.

This Fed 2 lacks the refined feel of the black Kiev 4A that I have. My toddler daughter can't even trip the shutter release because it's so heavy. Boy, did that bummed her out ... for about 3 seconds :)

Although, my other Kiev, the 4AM still takes the cake when it comes to total "clunky-ness" scale with its extremely dodgy shutter speed dial. But I digress...

Without the act of kindness of a certain Mike from Colorado who generously sent me a film take up spool, this blog entry would never have made it to publication. Responding to my desperate WTB post on Nelsonfoto forum (a very good photography forum by the way), Mike simply state that he has a spare spool and voila! a few days later, it materialized in a padded film canister, in a padded envelope right in front of my door.

It's the community spirit done right by decent people, I say!

I don't know exactly what to expect from this camera. I mean, the camera looks ok, and the shutter speed seems to be ok, and the extremely small aperture opens up and closes down, so I should at least get some recognizable pictures, right?

So I decided to finish my (seems-like) neverending stash of Ilford XP2 Super (expired, that is :) ) by using it as the film of choice for the test roll on the Fed 2. I have since learned that this batch of XP2 is best treated as 100ASA eventhough it's rated as 400 *Seven* years ago!

Now, the loading, I observed the take up spool I got from Mike closely and noticed at first that the metal curly "lip" (barely liftable) that supposed to catch the end of the film leader cannot be pried to open tall enough for inserting even the start of the film leader... hmmm, jumping into conclusion, I grumbled and get the scissors and start looking for that website that shows how to trim film leaders a'la Leica III.

Upon further inspection, I didn't pry hard enough, the whole "lip" turns out to be liftable. So now I have a half-trimmed film leader and a film spool that doesn't need the trim in the first place. Great...

So finally I got the film hooked up onto the film spool and I'm ready to put it into the camera body cavity. No surprises here, I gingerly started to rotate the spool expecting at anytime to relive my nightmare of slipping take up spool on the Zorki 4. But... everything rotates as it should, even the film holes latched confidently on the sprockets and the take up spool continues to roll without slipping. Hooooray!

I put the back back in its place and I was ready to roll. The question was, to where...?

Enter Deep Ellum. The one section of Dallas downtown that I've never dared to venture into before (that and I just don't have the time). It was said that the Deep Ellum is where the cool people hang out or hanged dry. Caution is definitely needed... Sounds like the perfect testing ground for the Fed!

This is what greeted me there... Uh, hello...?:

Guitar man:

Cheerful guy:

Check out that texture on the old door:

How did I get here?

Weeds on Windows:

Flamin' Pillar:

And as I pull out of the Deep Ellum area, I spotted this Valiant in front of an old warehouse turned chic graphics studio:

Overall, I'm impressed with two things, the Fed 2 with it's shifty-looking Fed lens are obviously a good shooter. These FSU cameras are definitely a unique piece of photography history and a joy to use to boot. That is, if you can get over the clunky operation and its beauty that is somewhat an acquired taste.

And Deep Ellum provides a very interesting testing ground. Next time I'm gonna have to bring a sharp color-correcting lens.

Going smaller

2007-08-24T09:27:00.001-06:00

No, don't worry, I'm not going digital-crazy. Although I am talking about the equivalent of small sensors, well, not *that* bad :)

Half-frame is what on the menu today. And I am talking about one of the coolest half-frame scale-focusing camera around, the Olympus Pen EED. An honest to goodness auto-exposure camera with an amazing lens attached to it. And the usual smooth operations expected from vintage Olympus. Everything from opening the back, loading the film, advance and rewind, and shutter release just oozes quality.

The lens, it's an F.Zuiko 32mm (which is close to 50mm on a full-frame cameras). Good for taking snapshots and more. It's a 6-element design lens that is fast, ... f1.7 fast.

The format, it's a half-frame, which is not a big deal in this day and age, where some ASA 400 films are smoother than ASA 100 films of yesteryears. Alas, feeling cheap, I used the on-sale Walgreen 400 film which is about as crappy a film as you can get (and it shows, arrrrgh!). They make nice black and white when converted, though :)

NOTE: There are two versions of this camera, one with the Rapid Agfa cassette, the other with an ordinary 35mm film. Guess which one is reviewed here :)

But all in all, even the crappy film shows of how sharp and contrasty the Zuiko on this camera is. Here's one picture with ample sunlight:

Here's another one that is lighted only by the chandelier itself, and a teeeeeeny bit of ambient light from a revolving door about 20-feet behind me.

Not bad, eh? I keep being amazed at Olympus for putting in such a high power lens into an obviously consumer camera that I bet they didn't think someone would review it in 2007 (41 years after they are first released).

Overall the automatic-exposure mechanism is doing one heck of a job. But one thing that irritates me is that the meter is not located in the lens housing, making it that much more of a hassle to use filters. At first I thought that it can't be done, but when I think about it some more, I can use a filter if I knew how many stops I have to compensate and use the ASA settings to fool the camera.

Ok, on to the fun part. Another bonus for using half-frame cameras are ... DIPTYCH-making :)
These half-frames are designed to do diptychs. It's fun to try to make two pictures seems to have some kind of connection with each other and it's a fertile ground for creativity (and of course, some stretching of imagination :)

This one is titled "DMA in Vivid and Neutral"

This one is "My Shadow"

This one is "Reaching out"

In summary, this camera impresses the heck out of me. The cool retro look is matched by both the build quality and the images. I have a feeling that this one is going to stay with me for a long time. Also, as you probably suspect, it makes a good Osanpo (walk around) camera :)

Welmy the Six Shooter

2007-08-16T11:18:00.001-06:00

Hello all, this is Welmy, my new six shooter that is both quirky and fun to use.

it has the Terionar lens (like I've heard that before ) that most likely is a Cooke-triplet design.

The most interesting feature of this camera is that it has two viewfinders (alas, no rangefinder) that allows you to do waist level (or chest level more correctly because the viewfinder is so small) and eye level compositions.

This one come with stuck shutter speed and slow speed shutter not working. After a mini-bath of denatured alcohol, everything starts to work. That's how I can do the test roll, but the next day, the shutter diaphragm becomes lazy again, so it's in queue for a Naphtha bath next.

What irked me the most about using this camera is that I always forget to advance the film, therefore making ugly multiple exposures (why can't I make good ones like the ones I usually see )

Anyways, just sharing some pictures from the test roll around the house

Same Glass, Different Wavelength

2007-08-08T10:16:00.001-06:00

"One has visible lights going through them, the other has electricity"

I was visiting the monthly flea-market at downtown Dallas when I noticed gentleman with a vintage van opened at the back and on the side. Among the pile of boxes of the things that he's selling, I noticed several old radios and amplifiers. Having my camera in the bag, I thought to myself, hmm, those may make interesting props for studio shots; no harm taking some pictures of them.

So I went over and scan the table, then I noticed these little bitty boxes, obviously mass-manufactured from hundreds of different brands and models. That's neat, I thought.

At that moment the gentleman probably noticed my geeky-fascination look and said to me, "those are vacuum tubes". I lift my head and noticed him smiling at me. We then proceeded to talk about his hobby and passion, old tubes used to build or rebuild old equipments. Pardon my very pedestrian description, I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about and have better vocabulary to describe it :).

I have almost zero Electronics knowledge, but I did remember hearing in a college lecture about these glass tubes; enough to appreciate their versatility and their place in history. I also know that they look very stylish and I'm making it a challenge to capture the vintage-ness.

So I extended my hand, saying, I'm Will, I am an amateur photographer. He said, I'm Jim, nice to meet you! Then I asked him if I can compensate him in any way for letting me take a picture of his tubes and radios. Jim just smiled and waved his hand, he said, "shoot away, don't sweat it".

That day I brought my Olympus 35 SP and a Nikon FM2, I snapped some photos, hoping that the 1.7 Zuiko on the Olympus and the 2.8 Nikkor can do the job. Mind you, this flea-market happens under the highway bridge, the lighting is weird to say the least. The yellowish street lights under the bridge are mixed with the morning sunlight. I decided to save myself a lot of white-balance hassle so the pictures are going to be black and white for sure.

Suddenly Jim turned to me and said, "You like vintage photography? come
on back later, I think I have an old camera catalog from the 1800 for
you" then he started rummaging in his stack of crates full of old ads,
catalogs. I smiled at his comment, said that I'll be back later, and
proceed to the rest of the flea market.

Later on, I came back and took some more pictures.

As I snapped these pictures, several others have gathered around the table and talked to Jim, some of them are obviously long-time acquaintances and fellow vacuum tube fans. A guy, seeing that I'm taking pictures, opened a box and pull out a tube and stage it for me to take a picture of. He told me that even today, these vacuum tubes are still used to control switches within nuclear reactors because we couldn't use modern transistors or semiconductor chips because they will be fried. Wow!

Between shots, I suddenly realize, these are just like film photography people, they have the same passion, same dedication, to a craft thought useless and lost to many. Same glasses, different wavelength.

Finally Jim came over and told me that he couldn't find the camera catalog, he apologized. I said, you have given me enough. Just the chance to meet people like him, who are steadfast in their chosen passion, is encouraging to me. And that made my day.

A super-value and BIG results!

2007-07-03T11:36:00.000-06:00

A soft "thunk"... is all I hear. The shutter winding lever came back to its original position, and that's it. I've just made a 6x6cm exposure of the world in front of me. No fuss, no muss. Wow!

Ah, I'm getting ahead of myself, pardon my zen-filled enthusiasm there.

Last week marks the start of my journey into the eye-opening world of Medium Format folding-cameras. This type of excellent photography equipment is a testament of simplicity, precision, and practicality. And it came from the 50's.

For those of you folder-camera-illiterates (which includes me up until last week), a "folder" camera is a single-lens film camera constructed of a small notebook-sized body that houses the shutter and lens assembly and a bellow. The bellow, of course, connects the shutter and lens assembly to the body and provides the necessary focusing distance from the film.

So, what's the big deal?

Big deal #1: This type of cameras provides us with an affordable, true Medium Format experience without missing house/apartment payments. Face it, medium format gives us excellent, rich, 3D photos, but the entry ticket price is anything but "medium."

Big deal #2: These are not medium format SLRs. Now, there is nothing wrong with SLR's, be it 35mm or bigger, other than being bulky, heavy, and less "cool" (the third one is purely subjective :).

Big deal #3: These are not Holga's. No hype, no marketing-inflated-price, nothing but simple, precise, and ultra-durable piece of engineering that isn't designed to guarantee acceptance among your "Hip" friends, rather to take really, really good Medium Format photos. In a way, these 50's MF folder cameras are the anti-Holga.

Maybe I have been drinking the Rangefinder kool-aid for too long, but I find a hand-holdable, pocketable (hint: cargo pants) medium format-capable camera that doesn't look like a cannon very appealing as well as useful.

With me so far? now, which one to get or start with?

Fortunately, there is a decent amount of info regarding these cameras. This site being the most comprehensive and interesting. Having researched myself to sleep for a few days, I decided finally that I'd like one with a built-in rangefinder. To me, guesstimating the distance at 12-frames per roll is too risky, not to mention expensive.

As for the format, I'll start with 6x6. A 6x9 would be wonderful if I can take it to the Rockies with me. None of those will happen soon :(

Next, where can I get one?

Jurgen, a.k.a certo6 sells CLA'd folders on eBay. Getting one of those would be the safest road to take... but also an expensive one. So I'd prefer another way if possible.

As fate would have it, I was doing a routine scan on local listings (via a popular online... well, local listing website), I came across an Ansco Super Speedex for sale.

Pfwwwwt!! wow, back up a bit... an Ansco what??

Ahem (lecture-mode on), the Ansco Super Speedex is the US market version of the Agfa Super Isolette, made in Germany. It is considered one of the top-of-the-line medium format folder camera when it was released. It has a coupled-rangefinder, which means I don't have to focus, read the distance, and then transfer it to the lens manually. That way it won't cramp my super fast shooting style (yeah ... right!).

The Super Speedex also comes equipped with (besides the cheeky name) the Agfa Solinar lens 75mm/3.5, which is constructed with the 4-element design similar to the Zeiss Tessars, which simply means that it's a very good lens, which also means absolutely nothing if the camera that it's attached to doesn't work.

... which is exactly what I thought after the elation from receiving a very good camera for a very good value subsided. Now, I have to emphasize something here, the camera looks AWESOME! I mean look at it...

The camera is *very* well taken care of by the owner, whose grandfather used this camera to do portrait work. He also turns out to be a renown local photographer.

But I can't get the shutter release to work, something is locking it solidly in the up position. Finally, I found out that the shutter release lock will only disengage when the camera determines that it's ready to take a picture. That involves loading the film, and advancing it enough until the first frame is ready to be exposed. Now, how does the camera know where the film starts? Anyways, after some more fiddling with my all barely-opposable-thumb hands, I manage to load a film and take my first, honest-to-goodness, 6x6 folder camera frame (Yay!!).

Ok, so it's working, now what?

I took the camera to downtown and "sacrificed" a roll of Kodak Portra 160VC as a test roll. The results are sharp, decently exposed, and BIG negatives. Why "decently" exposed? Since I only use the Sunny-16 rule, no meter and the high shutter speed seems to be a tad slower than indicated... AND add to those, operator errors :)

Like it? I'll post more examples when I get access to a decent scanner.

So now I have a rangefinder that is very portable, with a vintage cool look, a rich legacy behind it, and it produces BIG results... and no, it's not a Holga :)

Mini mini reviews

2007-06-08T13:35:00.000-06:00

What is a guy supposed to do?

I often write my findings after running a test roll for a new camera that arrived. By default, I wrote a mini-review, complete with image samples into a new thread in my favorite camera-related forum, the RangefinderForum.com.

But... I also want to populate this blog. What a hassle it is, not to mention boring, to replicate what I wrote there to here.

So, what to do then? for now, an easy way is to provide a link from here to there, therefore, anyone who stumbles upon this blog can read the review over there and vice versa.

Therefore, here are two mini reviews as of late:

Olympus 35 DC - I think the DC will be one of my favorite. It has the typical sharpness of the Zuiko lens and the smooth bokeh of the Konica Hexanons. I love the colors too.

Kiev 4AM - This is the first interchangeable lens RF system that I own. Although plagued by the FSU build quality (= not very good), it doesn't betray its legendary heritage (Contax). And this camera taught me that RF systems are not created equal.

You see, I haven't been too idle these days :)

... speaking of being idle, this image is my favorite as of late, it is quite idyllic...

Taken with the Kiev 4AM, expired Ilford XP2 shot at 200ASA-ish (no meter)

Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco

2007-05-03T08:46:00.000-06:00

Once in a while, I get to take my family to a real vacation away from home. San Francisco is one of those place where I know that I will get a lot of photo opportunity. So, let's see if what I've learned and practiced in the past couple of months about taking more interesting pictures can be put to good use.

The first photo-op came as a surprise, when my sister-in-law notified me that there was a big festival going on in SF Japan Town on the weekend.

So we all drove up to SF, coming off the US-101 into a very crowded street, inching our way towards the usual parking place, which, of course are full that day. I end up dropping off the family at the sidewalk near the Kinokuniya bookstore and drove off in search for a parking space. The atmosphere that day reminds me of those days when I was a little kid in a large fair, people in and out of cars everywhere filling every little nook and cranny of the streets. It's been a while since I've experience being a part of such a big crowd.

After circling in the radius of five blocks, twice, I couldn't believe my luck. In one of the smaller roads, I saw a family of five walking towards a Ford Expedition and just as I was taking my eyes off them, they stopped and started to get into the car and eventually got out of the parking spot, and it's only two blocks from Japan Town!!

A few minutes later, I jog my way through the crowd to the place where my family was waiting. After some indecision regarding where should we stand to see the parade, we started our way towards the edge of the street where people already lined up against the metal fence they usually put up to prevent people from crossing the street when the parade has started.

Here are some pictures from our spot:

Take a look at this one, it has a very nice separation between fore- and back-ground.

At the end of the day, after watching the parade for two hours, everyone is pretty tired, my daughter had a blast, she made new friends with the people at the parade.

Now, a couple of thoughts from the photography side of things that day. I used two cameras, the OM-1 "panda" paired with the Zuiko 85mm/2 and Ilford XP2 400, and the Oly C-5050. While the C-5050 has proven to be very adept (and boy what a sharp lens it has! see the one with the police officer), I still prefer the shots from the OM-1 (the Taiko drummers and the red Thunderbird especially).

I think the C-5050 is capable of producing images with good bokeh, but it doesn't come quickly, I pretty much have to use its manual focus to get them. The automatic settings will get all sharp pictures which may or may not be what I wanted.

The OM-1 still proves to be exciting to use. I'll scan the next batch from the trip tonight and we'll see how it captures image on a Kodak T-Max 100.

Meet the Ace

2007-03-08T10:08:00.000-06:00

Once in a while, there are cameras that intrigues me more than others. Even among Olympus cameras. One of them is the Olympus Ace. This is the first and the last foray into interchangeable-lens rangefinder market that Olympus ever made (as far as my research shows).

Last week I got a Tower 19, which is what Olympus Ace E is known in the United States, distributed by Sears, the only indication that it's manufactured by Olympus is the lens markings and the leatherette embossing on the back

Cosmetically, it is in a pretty bad shape, there are dirt, grime, grease, oxidation, you name it all over the top chrome covering, the bottom is pretty clean, and the leatherette cover is in very good condition.

However, the rangefinder is working, the self-timer is working, even the selenium meter is pretty accurate.

Operations on the camera are smooth. Just as I expect from Olympus cameras (when they are in working condition, that is). The film advance lever has a tactile feel to it, and it springs back nicely, the shutter on the other hand is too light to touch for me, I accidentally snapped two frames just because I rested my finger on it.

One thing that confuses me is that the shutter speed ring has the ASA numbers on it (at the bottom) but the ASA selector knob is detached from the ring, as the result, when I change the shutter speed, the knob is no longer pointing to the correct ASA number. What gives??

I hope I'm just missing something obvious here.

Now, the cool part about this camera is that the lens is detachable, there are a total of 4 lenses available when this camera hit the market in 1958. One day maybe I will get the other lenses, but for now, I'm stuck with the "standard" one, a five-element 45mm/2.8 E.Zuiko.

As for the all important image quality, have a look at a this flickr set

This one is my favorite:

Wondering about the possibilities

2007-02-07T15:16:00.000-06:00

These past few weeks has been a blast. First, I finishes two rolls of black and white films. What's so special about that? well, those two rolls contain my first attempt at street-photograpy.

Those who has tried it will nod approvingly at my sense of accomplishment, and those who hasn't will have not clue how hard it is to pull off.

Second, I setup a table at a local camera show and I had a terrific time talking to and observing people. Met interesting people and learn a bunch about cameras and photography. I even sold 3 cameras (but I purchased 2 Olympus cameras for my collection), so it's a wash from money perspective.

On another topic, this thread on flickr made me think hard about possibilities... where to go from here, will photography remains a hobby for me? what will it take to go the next step?

What a Trip!

2007-01-19T11:41:00.000-06:00

Launching a blog is not a big deal nowadays! And this one is about photography in general, more specifically vintage cameras and the pictures they take.

Yes, I am a camera nut, not just any cameras, though, vintage ones, almost all film (hmmm wonder why that is...?), and almost all of them made out of metal (mostly).

Why? because they are elegantly crafted, still works *well* after 20, 30, or 40 years (some of them 50), and I just dig the retro look.

Now, let's kick it off with a camera that I got last week. The Olympus 35 Trip. One of the most simple yet elegant cameras I've ever used. No fuss, no muss, no batteries to worry about, just load the film, enjoy the buttery-smooth thumb-wheel film advance and go take pictures... that is until I realize that I have to know how to use the zone focusing... effectively!

That said, this camera which was introduced in 1968 is absolutely pretty to look at (the black version is much prettier than the silver ones, and rarer also) and a joy to use.