Craft! Bang! Boom!

I’m a bit more familiar with the Canon Powershot now than I was last night, so here are my latest thoughts.

The bad:

1. The RAW situation is still uber-irritating. The Canon software to manipulate RAW images isn’t as good as Photoshop, and I’m pissed that I have to use two separate programs to edit images instead of just one. Hopefully when the Photoshop update comes out that will have the Canon RAW files figured out, it will work on my version of Photoshop, since I’m not running the most current edition.

2. It takes AA batteries. I hate that. Just give me one awesome rechargeable battery like the Nikon has, please.

3. It doesn’t have a filter mount on the front of the lens. I really like having a UV filter or something on a camera to protect the lens. Fortunately, I can buy an aftermarket filter adapter for it.

4. There are a set of three buttons on the back of the camera that I keep accidentally hitting when I hold the camera. That changes settings, and then I have no idea what the hell just happened. Those buttons really need to live somewhere else.

5. The dial on the back of the camera that changes the SCN settings (like, from Portrait to Sunset to Snow) is really sluggish. It moves quickly, but doesn’t seem to update the selection right away.

6. It looks like the longest long exposure shutter speed available is 15 seconds. So much for long exposure night sky shots.

7. The camera has two aspect ratios that it will shoot still photos in. Unfortunately, you can’t shoot RAW photos in the wider aspect ratio.

8. The camera has a lot of settings you can’t use if you set the camera to Auto, for example, continuous shooting. That kind of bugs.

There are some other things that I’m having problems with, ut I’m not sure if they’re user error or camera flaws. This morning, all of the pics I took were coming out grainy.

However, in the afternoon, I tried setting the camera’s ISO to 80, and I think that may have helped. I kind of don’t have any idea what I’m doing in regards to the whole ISO thing. (I just checked the exif data on my pics from this morning, and it seems that the ISO had been set at 800, for whatever reason. That may have been the problem after all.)

Also, my pics seem to be coming out really contrasty.

If I could easily edit the RAW data of these images, it wouldn’t be a big deal, because I could fix (or, at least, lessen) the problem in about 2 seconds. However, the whole RAW debacle just makes me want to record images in all JPG for the time being. Which brings me to another thing… right now I seem to be getting a max resolution of 180 dpi… surely my max resolution should be more than that? I’m not sure if shooting in both RAW and JPG is weirding up my settings. Maybe my resolution will go up when I switch to just shooting JPG.

Now, for The Good:

1. The zoom lens is pretty awesome. Even though my pics from this morning were grainy, I still managed to get some nice zoomage.

I was very far away when I took that picture, and could have zoomed in more.

2. The LCD viewscreen is very bright, and it also moves around like a transformer.

That will be very handy for me, since I like to take pics with the camera setting on the ground.

3. Unlike the Nikon, this camera will auto bracket exposures. That means it can take 3 different exposures of the same subject for use in turning into an HDR.

4. The macro seems to be pretty powerful, although I’m having to crop a lot to get the picture I like.

5. The white balance actually seems to be better than the Nikon’s, although I didn’t test it extensively.

6. I can shoot video (both regular and HD) with this. That’s pretty awesome.

7. Also, I can zoom in and out while recording a video.

8. Also (again), I can shoot pictures while recording a video, although that function is a little wonky, and it would probably just be better to edit out still images from a video after it was done recording.

9. The camera hooks right up to the TV so that you can view pictures and video with no additional parts (although if you have an HDTV, I think you need to buy an extra cable or something).

All in all, I’m pretty positive about this camera. It has some design flaws, and the RAW thing is just mind bogglingly stupid, but besides that, it’s a pretty nifty piece o’ work. Once I get the ISO thing smoothed out, and figure out what a few of the buttons mean, I should be good to go.

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When Travis and I started figuring out how much money we’d need to buy the kayak and kayak accessories (which turned out to be around $1400), we didn’t anticipate the extra cost of the two camera we wound up buying to augment our kayak experience. However, after taking our Kodak Easyshare out on the boat and being disappointed with it (picture quality was low, especially when we would zoom way out, it was sluggish taking pictures, action shots were pretty much impossible, and the LCD screen and viewfinder were both worthless in direct sunlight), we knew we had to get some other kayak camera before we just threw the Kodak overboard in frustration.

We wound up getting two. The first one is the GoPro Hero.

Boaz, the guy at the College Park, MD REI where we bought the kayak basically sold Travis the camera, even though we waited to buy it. Basically, it’s a small, relatively lightweight (5 oz., with batteries included) still and video camera in a waterproof housing. You can get a variety of different mounts for it (to attach to your wrist, handlebars, helmet, etc.). I’ve seen photos and video from this camera where people have attached it to a kite, skateboard, raft… pretty much anything. Travis thought it would be handy on the kayak, and also may be used in the future for some aerial photography shenanigans he has planned.

The camera has some drawbacks. The settings are kind of confusing to use. You can’t tell if the camera is functioning without looking at the front of it, which kind of sucks if you’re shooting video. The quality of image is kind of crappy, but that’s kind of part of the charm of this camera.

The GoPro Hero, even with its drawbacks, is a fun little camera. The waterproof housing is nice, and will let us get pictures like this without fear of ruining the camera:

You can see in the first pic of the camera that it’s attached to a tree branch. Travis rigged that up in Knox Lake and set it to take photos every 5 seconds. Then we kayaked away from it and it took photos of us. So that’s pretty neat, too.

Even aside from all of its outdoorsy, action capabilities, this camera is just wacky. Did I mention it has a wide angle lens?

It randomly tints the color of the photos different colors, too. Sometimes it goes really warm, other times more blue. It reminds me a lot of using a pinhole camera.

So, the Hero is going to be a fun camera to play with.

The other camera is the Canon Powershot SX1 IS. It just showed up today, so I don’t have a lot of experience with it yet. I’m working my way through the instructional manual. Its zoom capability is pretty damn impressive, though.

And I need to get more used to using the macro feature, but that looks sharp as well.

The main problems I’m having with it so far is the fact that Canon’s RAW format is intensely stupid. Apparently the file format is proprietary, which means that Photoshop can’t open up RAW files shot with this camera. Instead, I have to use Canon’s lame-ass software, which makes me sad. PHotomatix doesn’t seem to read the RAW files correctly, either. Thanks, Canon! Douchebags. Also, I’m having problems on my computer (Travis’ laptop handles this just fine, however) moving pics from the card to the computer, so instead I have to connect the camera to the computer with a cable and download the pics that way, which automatically throws them into a new file folder in the My Pictures area of my computer. Since I have my photos in a different drive, that means now I have pictures on two different drives on the computer, so that’s a pain in the ass.

That’s the bad part. The good part is that it looks like this camera can do a bunch of stuff the Nikon D40 can’t (specifically, shooting video, and doing bracketing photos – yay!). I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it given a few days. Stay tuned.

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It’s been a while. Went to DC, took a bazillion photos, but haven’t developed any yet. Well, that’s a lie – I did develop one roll. One of the rolls of film I took was this bizarroland Polaroid 35mm slide film. I picked it up in Muncie (along with a roll of 35mm Polablue film and the processor) last fall, and finally got up the nerve to test it out. Figured if I was going to take it, I might as well shoot it in DC.

I honestly didn’t expect the film to work at all. First of all, it had expired in January 1997. Secondly, it was bizarroland Polaroid 35mm film. It could only be processed using the special Polaroid AutoProcessor using the film chemical cartridge that was included in the box of film.

Here’s the AutoProcessor loaded up with the film and cartridge:

I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Luckily, Moominsean has plowed ahead way before me. I used his Polachrome: FAIL post as a guide. And what do you know – I actually got images! Holy crap!

I shot this using the Canon AE-1. As you can tell, my lens is filthy. Actually, I’m having some SLR angst right now. The lens and mirror of my Nikon D40 is in desperate need of cleaning (this is what happens when you switch out lenses, I guess, especially when you do it outside on a windy day). My two Canon AE-1s also need cleaning. I think the closest place where I can get this done is in Columbus. I’ll either have to take it there or drop stuff off at Jack’s Camera Shop next time I’m in Muncie. I also have no idea how much this will cost, but it’s got to be done either way. Blerg.

Anyway, I’ve got about 40-odd rolls of film that I need to develop from DC, but I won’t be able to get to it until next week, at the earliest. I’m excited to try out my E-6 kit. I shot a few rolls of Velvia that I’m especially anxious to see.

Travis and I got a kayak while we were on vacation. This has had the side effect of having us reassess our digital photography needs. Specifically, I haven’t been real keen on having a nice telephoto lens until now. We have a decent telephoto lens mounted on one of the Canon AE-1’s…

…but that camera is freaking huge with the lens attached. It’s not great to carry around in the kayak at all. Plus, as much as I like shooting with film, it’s really convenient to shoot digital and have the GPS synced with the exif data.

I don’t really have much of a telephoto lens with the Nikon D40, and I’m not real keen on the idea of taking that out on the kayak either. Don’t want it to drop into the drink! Also, it’s still kind of big. So, what I’ve been taking with me on the kayak has been the Canon Snappy 50, an old 35mm point and shoot I got at Goodwill last year for $1, and our Kodak Easyshare. The Kodak is maybe 5 years old or so, and has a 10x optical zoom (and I think another 3x digital zoom). It’s okay, but after having used the Nikon, the picture quality really blows, especially when I’m zoomed all the way out. It drives me nuts. I find myself doing anything at all possible to smooth out the photo, and even then, the photos still look like ass. It makes me sad.

When I’m relatively close to something, the pictures aren’t horrible.

But far away shots are pretty icky.

And just forget about action shots.

So, now we’re looking at the Canon Powershot SX1 IS. It’s a fixed lens SLR, which is nice, because I don’t need to worry about my mirror getting all dirty (ahem). It will shoot in RAW format, which is pretty much necessary for me, since not having RAW on the Kodak is like not having one of my limbs. It has a 10 megapixel resolution, but more importantly, has a 20x optical zoom (Yay!!). It will also shoot HD video, too, which might be fun to play with. Also, I think it has better macro capabilities than the Nikon, and I loves me some macro.

It does have a few drawbacks, that I can tell – the controls aren’t particularly intuitive, from what I’ve read. Also, it uses AA batteries, like, what? Bleh. I love the rechargeable battery in my Nikon, and I also love the recharging dock with the Kodak. We’ll get rechargeable AA’s for the Powershot, but it just kind of seems like a pain in the butt.

Anyway, I think we’re going to wind up getting the Powershot pretty soon. We have no self control.

To finish, here are some Polaroids I took with the 230 when we were in DC:

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Ever since I found out that Lensbaby had revamped their product lens, I had a case of serious WANT, even though I had only got my 2.0 in July. I’m normally not the type of person to be constantly upgrading gadgets, but I couldn’t help it with the Lensbaby – the Composer’s optic swap system was just too tempting. Especially since I have a fondness for pinhole photography, I was thrilled by the concept of Lensbaby digital pinhole and zone plate optics.

Anyway, I was finally spurred to order the new Composer when Travis and I began planning our DC trip – there are a few places we want to go to where dealing with film cameras isn’t exactly going to be easy (the Air and Space Museum, for one), so I decided to go ahead and get the Composer before we went so I would have a bunch of different options while not having to juggle a bunch of different cameras.

The Lensbaby showed up yesterday, complete with adorable packaging (see above). I have to give mad props to the Lensbaby company, by the way – I ordered directly from them, have had great communication with the company, and received the goods uber-fast. The way they package and market the Lensbaby, too, is brilliant. When you get a Lensbaby, it makes you feel like you’re part of this goofy, camera- and art-mad family that doesn’t take itself too terribly seriously. I’m a fan of that, and as such, Lensbaby now has my fierce customer loyalty.

The Composer differs from the Lensbaby 2.0 by having a focusing ring and tiltable lens. To take pictures with the 2.0, you had to both squish and tilt the lens to get the desired effect, which was a little fiddly to get accustomed to. The Composer is easier to use, since the focusing ring and tilt functions will both stay where you put them without having to constantly squeeze. This is a really nice feature especially for those of us with a Nikon camera, since you have to manually adjust your shutter settings. I guess with other brands of cameras, you can just switch the camera to aperture priority mode, and it will take over dealing with the shutter speeds, but the Nikon just doesn’t comprehend that, so you have to do everything yourself. That’s not a big deal, but the new design of the Composer means that you don’t have to constantly recompose your shot if you discover that you need to change your shutter speed.

The Composer comes with double glass optics, which is the sharpest of the 4 optics options. That’s all nice and such, but I was more interested in what the other optics – Single Glass, Plastic, and the Pinhole/Zone Plate option – would yield. I’m planning on doing a test shoot of a neutral subject using the different optics later on today, but yesterday I spent most of my time shooting with the Single Glass optic. Here’s a pic taken with the Plastic optic, first:

I think this was taken with the Plastic optic as well. Oh, I also got the Creative Aperture kit, too, so this was taken with the star disc in place.

The star aperture cracks me up.

Can’t wait to try making some different shapes with the blank aperture discs that came with the kit.

Like I said, I spent most of the day shooting with the Single Glass optic in place. I could still get a relatively sharp area in focus, but also got odd color effects and lens flares here and there. I never knew exactly what my pictures were going to turn out like, which is a lot of fun for me.

Lens flare:

Surprising sharpness:

The optics were a little more of a pain in the butt to change out than I had expected, but became easier once I stopped detaching the Lensbaby from the camera before I switched them out. I don’t like having to juggle a lensless camera, a camera lens, an optic switching tool, and a new optic all at once. This will probably become easier after I get more used to it, though.

Some more Composer pictures:

More later.

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Spent the past 3 days developing about 5 metric tons of color film.

That’s just some of the shrapnel from Day One. I used the Unicolor kit, as planned, and mixed up a third of it. I think I’ve used the color chems as much as possible before they’re completely cashed. I was able to process:
1 roll of 116 (which didn’t have any images on it, but at least the film developed)
3 rolls of 120
15 rolls of 35 mm/126
3 rolls of 127
2 sheets of 4×5 film

So, that’s a pretty good haul for 666 ml of chems. Admittedly, some of the rolls (like the 116) was old found film – I developed 3 rolls of process C-22 stuff, and of those rolls, only one came out with any sort of images detectable on them (I haven’t scanned them in yet). I had several rolls of 126 where I was able to pick up really faint, grainy images. But that’s not where I want to go today. today, I want to talk about two of my 127 cameras, the Brownie Reflex…

…and the Awesomeness that is the Skylab Camera, the Revere Eye-Matic.

I got the Brownie Reflex in the same ebay auction that had the Polaroid 230 in it. It was in pretty bad shape – there was mold and crap all over the inside of the viewing lens, but really, it only took me a few minutes to break down the camera and clean it up. After that, the viewing lens was bright and clear, and it was good to go. So, I loaded it up with some Efke 127 film and took it out for a test drive.

I thought I had loaded the camera up with regular Efke, but instead, like a doofus, I accidentally used one of the rolls of infrared Efke Travis had gotten me for Christmas. FAIL! So, I shot the whole roll of 820 speed Efke without a filter. As a result, everything came out really overexposed. I wound up scanning everything in as color, and then desaturating in Photoshop. I’d rather have dark skies than blown-out everything.

Actually, I wound up liking some of the pics quite a bit.

I find myself pairing together pictures from side by side frames with 127 film more than I do with any other format of film. Sometimes the images just seem to like to cuddle up next to each other.

I brought another roll of film along on Brownie Reflex Day – I grabbed a roll of Kodacolor 200 film that I had gotten off of ebay. This expired in November of 1989, so I was really curious what sort of color weirdness I would get with it, or if I would even get images at all. Turns out 20 year old water-damaged British film worked all right!

I did little, if any, color correcting because I liked the way the original scans looked.

Not too sure why this roll of film seemed to be way more light leaky than the Efke. Anyway, very pleased with the results of the 20 year old film. I think I’ve got 2 more rolls of this stuff to use; I’ll probably take one to Washington DC.

I’ve had the Revere Eye-Matic since last summer. I bought it on ebay for $7 or $8, I think, and got it because it came with 3 rolls of 127 film (Process E-2 unfortunately). The camera is absolutely hilarious. It is large and heavy, and could easily kill someone if tossed at a skull. I found this advert on Flickr about it – turns out this camera cost about $133 at the time it was made (1959-60).

It’s a rangefinder, which I’m still getting used to. When it came, the camera was set on frame number 3 (there’s no red window in this baby, just an automatic film advance), so I worked on the assumption that there was a roll of film inside. I finished up the roll, and sure enough, the camera was actually loaded with film – more of the process E-2 stuff. So, I haven’t developed that yet (I am going to attempt that, just not today). The Eye-matic just sat around after that, sad and lonely, until Travis jokingly suggested that we stick it in his backpack when we go hiking to help him get used to having weight in it. Once he said that, I was all, “Oh hey! I’ve got the spliced 127 Portra film ready to go!” I stuck a roll in the Eye-matic and we went out in the front yard to take pictures.

I made Travis try the camera. It just freaked him out, so I think he shot one or two frames and gave it back to me.

I finished up the roll and developed it that evening. Now, I’m not sure if the subsequent weirdness as far as the color goes comes from my not having the chems at the correct temperature, but I suspect that was the case. I really half-ass color developing. I figure it’s supposed to be fun, so I don’t stress out trying to get a perfect 102 degrees. As long as I’m getting any image, I’m happy. But in this case, I was thrilled, because my other experience with Portra NC160 was really disappointing – the colors were just bland and normal. I have a ton of that film, too, and was all bummed out about it. Developing Portra in black and white chems was an improvement, but apparently developing it in cold/exhausted color chems does weirdness, too.

Look at this crazy sky! (This is one of Travis’ pics, obviously):

I also got a weird light leak or something on one of the frames. I have no idea how, though – the rest of the film was fine.

Maybe something happened to the film when I was splicing it. It’s possible it got exposed by a static spark or something.

Anyway, as far as rangefinders go, this one is pretty easy to use, at least to me. I also like the weird circular refraction you get when things are out of focus, like in the above picture. The Yashica 44 does that, too, and I think it’s neat.

I’ll be selling the Brownie Reflex on ebay probably in a few days. It’s a good little camera, but I have other 127s I like and will probably use more. I’m hanging onto the Eye-matic, though. It makes me laugh just looking at it. I’d love to take it someplace like Wright-Patterson and take a bunch of airplane pictures with it. It has that early 60s retro-future “Explore! Adventure! SPACE!” feeling to it.

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I am now awash with color chems. I made my Freestyle order a while ago and got 3 different color chemical sets. There’s an E-6 kit, which I won’t be getting into until after I get back from DC (Travis and I are going to Washington DC next month – hooray!), the Arista C-41 liquid kit that I got last time, and a Unicolor C-41 powder kit. The Unicolor kit makes 2 liters of color chems, so I think I’m going to try mixing a third of that up – that should give me about 666 ml of chems, which is about perfect to develop two 35mm rolls of film at once. Oh, I also got some Flexicolor C-41 developer/replenisher off of ebay. Not too sure exactly how I’m going to use that, but since it’s the color developer that tends to go funky, not the Blix, I figured it was a good investment for just $3.50.

Anyway, barring any unforeseen calamity, I should be giving color developing a go tomorrow. Which is good, because I have a gigantic backlog of color film that needs to be developed (including some old Kodacolor II 127 and 126 film – process C-41, though!). We put a telephoto lens on our spare Canon AE-1 and have had film in that constantly. We keep it in the dining room to take pictures of the birds at the birdfeeders. We’re geeks. Since we were shooting so much with that camera and I wasn’t doing any color processing at the time, we got a roll developed at CVS to see how the lens was working.

Setting aside CVS’ shitty processing, the lens and camera seem to be working just fine. I was concerned that we needed to replace the battery since the one it has in it has been in there for years (this AE-1 used to be my dad’s), but it’s all good. The lens has a slight wonkiness to it that I like. Kind of tilt-shifty.

Been messing around with pinhole cameras.

That was a picture from some TMax I taped to 126 backing paper and used in the 126 pinhole cam. I got series image overlap and can’t really understand why. Oh well.

The photo at the top of this post is from the Hannakube pinhole camera. It looks all funky because I tried to get the Sabattier effect by exposing it to light midway through the developing process. It probably could have gone better.

Since I’m getting ready to develop a bunch of color film, I popped one of the sheets of Kodak Edupe Ektachrome 4×5 film into the Hannakube and took a picture with it. I have no idea how it’s going to turn out, since I have no idea how to use the Edupe film actually as film. I did about a 1-2 second exposure. Anyway, I’ll try to develop that tomorrow (cross-processing) to see if I got anything on the film.

I finally tried out my film cutter today. I got this a few weeks ago off of ebay. It’s set up to trim 120 film down to 127 sized. Using it was not exactly graceful.

I was trimming a roll of Kodak Portra 160NC 220. I wound up with two rolls of 127 film, plus some extra that I just wound up exposing to light since I didn’t have another roll of 127 backing paper and spool accessible. Oh well. Now I know for future reference. Here’s how the cutter works:

It’s pretty simple. The trick is to not press down to hard on the top, lest you tear the film/paper. All in all, a worthwhile investment.

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Focus. I needs it. I think my problem is that I have too much shit – I’m overwhelmed with the amount of cameras I have, to the point where I some I haven’t even tried out yet, plus now I’m getting back into making pinholes again – it’s too much. The result is that when I go out to take pictures, I have a buttload of cameras I’m taking with me, and I wind up just getting flustered and wanting to make sure I try out everything. Not good.

Anyway, yesterday I tried making a Polaroid pinhole camera using some Polaroid film boxes and got a massive FAIL instead. Wasted two shots of 600, which isn’t tragic, but with how expensive (and near-extinct) integral film is, I kind of don’t want to be wasting more of it than I have to. I think I’m going to wait to do further experimentation with Polaroid pinholes once I get the extra Fuji peel-apart film in. At least they’re still making that.

So, instead of having a play day with the Polaroid, I took a few shots with my new pinhole cameras and then screwed around with the Lensbaby some.

Later on at night, Travis and I went out to shoot some pictures. He wielded the Canon AE-1 with the telephoto lens, whereas I has the two 35mm pinholes, a Polaroid, the Yashica C, and the Brownie that I can get 4×5 film in. Oh, and there was the Nikon, too. And besides learning that I need to just focus on one camera at a time, I also learned that night photography with film is a new, scary animal. It wouldn’t be so bad, I guess, if I actually used some sort of exposure calculator. But I didn’t. I basically made a few second long exposures with the Yashica and Brownie, shot a few Polaroids that didn’t come out (the theme of the day for me), and popped open the shutter on the pinholes and just let them sit until either the wind blew them over or we were ready to leave. I have no idea what, if anything, came out (especially since I wasn’t using a tripod either).

After I ran out of film, I switched to the Nikon (it’s my safety).

This one is blurry, but I like it anyway.

Tried taking a bunch of multi-exposure shots (sans tripod!) to HDRify, but this was the only one I was kind of happy with. I like the colors in it, at least.

Will try to develop some of the film over the next few days. If I get one decent night film shot out of the lot, I’ll be happy.

Oh, we also stopped inside Walmart (The Great Satan!) to check out developing prices and such. They still develop APS and 110, which is nice, and it would be even nicer if our APS camera still worked. We discovered yesterday that it doesn’t, which is kind of a bummer, since I’ve got 5 or 6 rolls of APS film. So I guess we’ll be on the lookout for a new APS camera next time we hit Goodwill. Anyway, if I read their info correctly, apparently to get a roll of film developed only (no prints) is $1.76 a roll. I don’t know if that’s just for 35mm or if they do 120 too – I know I’ve seen people on Flickr talk about getting their 120 film processed there. It’s not something I would want to do a lot (except for the APS and 110 – since I don’t have any way to develop those), but would be nice if there was something I absolutely wanted to get developed right away.

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It’s starting to warm up some, so I’m getting even more “Woo!” about photography lately. Bought a bunch of stuff off eBay, the main event being the Polaroid Macro 5 SLR.

It was really quite a bargain – only $30 (plus $20 shipping) for a camera that cost about $700 a few years ago and 5 packs of film. This particular one (whom Travis and I now call ‘Robbie’) was a dental camera in a previous life. He’ll spend his retirement primarily taking macro nature picture for me (like the pussy willow at the top of the post). I’m going through the film that it came with first. It takes 990 or Spectra film, and the film is a bit outdated. I think it expired in 2007. It has a strong yellowish cast to it. I’m also bad about adjusting the darkness on the camera. So, none of the pics have come out stunning (the pussy willow is the best of the lot, and I photoshopped the yellow cast out), but it’s a fun toy.

I finally made my big-ass Freestyle order, too. I’m getting a ton of stuff – 2 different C-41 kits (the Unicolor powder kit and then the liquid) and the E-6 kit, some more Fuji peel-apart film for the Polaroid 230, random films I wanted to try out, a decent infrared filter (finally!), a bit of ortho sheet film… I can’t remember what else. Looking forward to getting the color chems, though, especially the E-6 stuff. I have an idea involving some 4×5 pinhole photographs using E6 slide film…

Also coming in the mail is a film slitter! I ran across an auction yesterday and got it immediately. I’m having it set up to cut 120 film down to 127 size. I had been stalking the few 127 auctions that are on eBay, but they’re going for more than I’d want to pay, and this way, I can just cut down some of my tons of 120/220 film and use that instead. Instant win!

I’ve gotten re-obsessed with pinhole photography, too. It must be that time of year. I tried making a pinhole camera using a cartridge of 126 film…

…unfortunately, the actual film inside the cartridge was stupid Triple Print. I tried developing it in black and white chems and got a big old FAIL. No matter. I reloaded the cartridge with some of my mystery Kodak TMax and taped it up again. I’ll probably try shooting with it tomorrow.

I also made a pseudo-matchbox pinhole camera using a battery box from AAA batteries (since we’re apparently low on matchboxes).

I loaded that up with the mystery TMax and shot it. This film actually did develop properly.

Not sure what’s up with the vignetting in the second photo. Weird.

While I was developing pictures, I developed another roll of found film from the Ansco Readyflash auction. This was a roll of Verichrome Pan and actually turned out really well (as opposed to the first two rolls I developed, which were sketchy).

I really love that picture. I want to get it enlarged. The other pics on the roll were just as fun.

Oh, on the same day, I also tried developing the old roll of Kodachrome I had hanging around from the Canada auction. That was a big old FAIL, too. I think the next time I try developing old color slide or negative film in black and white chems, I’ll use the Blix instead of my regular fixer to see if that happens to solve any of my problems.

While I had the developer mixed up, I got out some of the 4×5 sheet film I used in the Hannakube around New Year’s. I haven’t tried out my 4×5 developing tank yet since I didn’t have that amount of chems mixed up, but once my Freestyle order gets here, I’m going to dump all of my old premixed chems (except for my HC110b syrup – that stuff is awesome!) and start fresh. So I just developed the sheet film one at a time in the Paterson tank.

I’ve only used the Hannakube twice, but both times I’ve been ultra paranoid that I’m going to get horrendous light leaks. Happily, on the two pics I developed, that wasn’t the case. The only issue I’ve got with the 4×5 sheet film is that I don’t have a really good way to scan it in. I can scan it in as a picture, but that tends to come out nowhere near as sharp as what the negative shows. I can scan it in as a transparency, but my scanner crops it because it can only scan the ceneter of the scanner as a transparency (weird). I went with the transparency option, because even if it is cropped, it’s a lot better image. Here are the two Hannakube pics:

You can see in the top picture (the one where I actually managed to hold the camera still) I got really nice sharpness. The other one, not so much. Oh well. It was really windy that day and the Hannakube only weighs a few ounces. I’m looking forward to trying this out with the 4×5 slide film I have. I’ve got a few packs of Ektachrome Dupe film, and I haven’t done anything with it yet. I know absolutely nothing about that film, so I figure I’ll just throw it in the Hannakube and open the shutter for a few seconds and see what happens.

Made another pinhole camera last night. I’m using some 100 speed color Fuji film in it that expired in 2003.

The camera part of it was Frankensteined together from a 126 film box. I put 2 pinholes in it instead of the usual one. The pinholes are each about .3 mm, which is probably a little large for this camera, but I’m in the mood to be spontaneous with my pinhole-making, so I haven’t been doing the math like I have in the past. This will be the first time I work with two pinholes at once. I’m not sure if I’ll get a fuzzy stereoscopic image or just one long double image. I’m also not sure what the light leakage situation is going to be. Since I used about 2 metric tons of electrical tape, it should be good, but you never know.

I have plans to fashion some Polaroid pinhole cams in the next few days. Catastrophe could ensue!

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Didn’t realize it had been quite so long since I posted here. Huh. Well, the last photo in the last post showed the Polaroid 230 Land Camera. It was part of a mixed lot of cameras and film I got on eBay. It was one of those auctions that actually has a ton of crap in it, but the description and first photo were really bad, so only a few people wound up bidding on it. I wound up getting a ton of 126 film…

…in addition to the Polaroid 230 and 4 packs of film for it. There were some random other cameras in it, too. I relegated the Instamatics and the Polaroid 600 into the bin of cameras for me to eventually sell on eBay. God knows, I am flush with Instamatics and Polaroid 600s. A Kodak Brownie Reflex (127 film) was also in the package. The viewing mirror and glass were grotesque, but it cleaned up just fine and I look forward to trying it out.

The Polaroid 230 was the main attraction, though. It needed a new battery, so I ordered one from Adorama and got a pack of the Fuji peel-apart film too to try out. I’m not sure if any of the Polaroid film that came with the camera will still work. I’m guessing not, but on the odd chance that it does, I wanted to work out any kinks I had with this camera on Fuji film first. That turned out to be a smart thing to do, since I wasted my first two shots with the 230 trying to figure out the camera settings. Now it’s working okay though.

Pretty impressed with the Fuji film. It has nice saturation and depth. I don’t have any issues with it, maybe because I’m a Polaroid n00b, but if this is the only color film I have available to use in this camera, I’m okay with that.

I’ve also been experimenting with the Goop aspect of peel apart films, as you can tell with the top pic. The goop is fun because it’s so unpredictable. I’ve taken 4 successful pics with the 230, and of the 4, the goop turned out to be a negative image on 3 pics. The fourth, the van pic shown above, had a positive goop. Sweet random, mysterious goop!

The 230 is a rangefinder, too, which is something that takes a bit of getting used to. The only other rangefinder I have is one of those stupid Argus bricks and I hate it. I’ve got a roll of 12 pics in it right now, and it’s taking me an eternity to shoot the roll, just because I hate the camera so much. Can’t wait to be done with it. The 230 isn’t so bad, though – you change the focus by shoving the bellows left or right. It’s not difficult at all.

In other news, found some fun film at an antique shop:

Unexposed 116 film, baby! Process C-41 even! Can’t wait to get into that. Also have picked up a few random cameras here and there that have rolls of film in them. A lot of Triple Print, actually. Stupid Triple Print. Guess I’ll be developing all of that in black and white. Oh, I also got some Diafine developer too, when I ordered from Adorama. Maybe I’ll do a developing day this week where I get a bunch of my old films developed.

Got out the Lensbaby and the macro filter for it and screwed around a bit today:

Did a Polaroid/Lensbaby mash-up:

Still waiting for the weather to get warmer.

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So much to tell!

First of all, I’m mad in love with the Yashica C. I want to make out with it. Right now, it and the mint green Savoy are my two favorite cameras. I developed the first roll of film I had taken with the Yashica C the other day and was thrilled with the results.

The above was the first pic I took with the Yashica C. For it being inside, taken at 1/30 sec, I didn’t think it would come out at all. But look at Wee’s little face! She’s wonderfully in focus! Hooray!

Taken through the window:

And taken outside:

Love this camera. It’s easy to use, makes great photos, and I feel semi-competent when it’s in my hands.

I got my other Yashica earlier this week. This was the one from the Yoshica camer auction. It came shipped with the viewfinder hood flipped up. I was all, “What the?” until I examined the top of the camera more closely. Turns out that the center of the viewfinder (the part flips down so that you can use the viewfinder as a sportfinder) was jammed down and wouldn’t flip back up. 20 minutes later and some disassembley, I had resolved the matter. I only managed to lose one screw, too!

Amazingly, despite the poor cosmetic shape of the camera, it actually seems to function okay. The front part of it feels like it’s going to fall off at any second, but I can’t find any more screws to tighten on it, so I guess I’ll just live with it. Loaded it up with Efke 100 127 film and took it out for a test drive.

I mucked up the first third of the roll because I didn’t realize how to properly set the film advance. When I finally figured it out, I must have accidentally exposed the first chunk of film somehow. Oh well. The rest of the pics turned out okay. There seems to be a light leak along one edge, but nothing catastrophic.

I’m not quite as comfortable with this camera as I am with the Yashica C. I think some of that comes from taking pictures of a different subject, though. The dogs were outside, and kept running around, and my brain couldn’t calculate shutter and aperture and focus that fast.

I thought at first that the electric eye light meter (the “LM” part of the 44LM) didn’t work, but I think I saw the sensor move around when I took it outside. There are all sorts of shutter/aperture/film speed calculators on the camera, but I didn’t have the patience to actually work with any of them. I think this will be a good little camera though, especially for subjects that stay still and don’t wander off.

Have a bunch of misc. camera news, but maybe I’ll get to that tomorrow. Am tired. Here’s a teaser photo, though.

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