Time To Try Something Different

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The Winter blah has set in here. Rain, snow, clouds, cold. None help the images.

In looking via the eBay search feature I have discovered that my only camera that has a readily available and usable external power supply is the Fuji S2. For ~ $150 I can get a 12amp supply built into a belt with a car adapter socket built in plus a car adapter for the camera. This will help with the loss of power that cold causes to batteries plus give a lot of power to take loads of RAW images.

With the power taken care of, a simple plastic bag covering the camera and tightly attached to the front of a prime lens does the weatherproofing. I feel the ARSAT 20mm at the hyperfocal setting and the f stop set at 4.5/5.6 should negate focus issues.

What am I aiming for? Simple, a DSLR that I can take outside and not have to worry overly regarding the weather. Perhaps I might even find some suitable subject matter that I have overlooked or ignored in the past.

Some 35mm Film Stuff

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In the last month I have purchased some old film 35mm cameras. The first, an Exakta VX1000 was chosen due to it having what is considered, by those in the know about such things, a legendary lens. The lens being a Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolor f2.0 50mm. The purchase price for the camera,lens,case, and shipping was far less than the lens itself usually is going for. The second camera was another Exakta that went very cheap due. All I wanted was the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar f2.8 58mm lens. When I received it, the first thing I noticed was the film advance wouldn’t work, the shutter wouldn’t move and the mirror was stuck. A few days later, I discovered that someone had delved in over their heads in an attempt to fix things. Every screw head was damaged right down into the mirror box area. I managed to salvage the prism viewfinder and the lens mount. The rest is in the parts box. I feel I am still ahead with the lens alone for the same reason as the Pancolar. The third camera is an Argus C44 rangefinder, with 35/50 and 100mm lenses. I have high hopes for this one to use as a film camera system. The two Exakta lenses are for use with my Olympus 4/3 or EOS cameras.

Off to Louden, NH for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series race this weekend. I still am considering what camera to bring. The weather report is for Sun and low 70’s.

Night Shots With Pentax istD and Peleng 8mm

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A couple of nights ago I tried (in vain) to grab a shot of the meteor shower. Failing that, I went back home, leashed up the dog and went to try some hand held around the old school yard at night. Nothing great, but, interesting. The first is one of the failed meteor shots. The second and third are from the top of the kid’s ‘jungle gym’ and the last a shot of the empty baseball field.

30 sec exposure at 100 ISO and f8

Landmark Theater

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Our local group went to the former Loew’s Theater, renamed the Landmark, this morning. I made a page of pictures from the shoot. I used my Canon XTi, Pentax *istD, and Fujifilm S2. Except for the Canon, I used M42 base lenses including a Peleng 8mm fisheye and an ARSAT 3.5 20mm.

On camera diopter adjustment

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This is so simple that I am ashamed to have never figured it out myself- a quote from a forum on Pentax, but is good for any camera with a built in diopter adjustment.

quote

I forgot to add the advice on the leaflet on diopter adjustment is excellent, adjust diopter using a way out of focus image, adjust to see the black brackets on the focusing screen clearly not on the image.

end quote

Bottom line – you are adjusting the diopter to have your eye in focus TO the internal screen. Once this is done, you adjust the lens to be in focus ON the screen. Every so often, verify that the adjustment lever hasn’t been moved. Simple.

Happy July 4th

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A friend of mine asked me to go with him to a tea party on the 4th. I had been to a town version on April 15th this year, so I figured I would tag along. Aside from the size difference, the impression I have had with both is a lot of talk with little substance. Everyone there agrees with everyone else as to what is wrong, but other than saying the trite “vote them out in the next elections” there is no direction given; except, of course, to go to more tea parties. I guess I am missing something……

Some pics taken with my Fuji S2 and the Arsat 2.8/20

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My Fujifilm S2 arrived today. I quickly put the Arsat 20/2.8 N lens on it and ran out to beat the rain for a shot to verify they both work.

The Fuji S2 is a vast improvement over the S1, I look forward to experimenting with it. The Arsat is, well, a tank; built in Russia; and since I don’t normally take a picture of a brick wall and verify the width and straightness of the mortar lines, I am also happy with it.

This is the original reduced in size and changed to JPG:

Remember, also, that this is a wide angle 20mm lens – not really meant for closeup work. Handheld ISO 200 f5.6 1/90 sec.

Now, where did I leave that brick wall ………………….

Pre 1940 Lenses

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I have found that the old lenses from pre-coating days (before 1940) exhibit softness, flare and amazing bokeh. On my other blog F22Plus I experiment with these lenses.

Below is a picture of the lenses I currently (June 2009) am playing with:

This is a listing with the lens descriptions. There is much missing data such as focal length. As I progress in the testing and
do actual measurements, they will be updated. The top two are the aperture blanks. The others are numbered from the top left to the bottom right.

I caught up….

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I sat down at the computer and went through the image backlog. Since I shoot mainly record shots for my own enjoyment, I wound up with less than forty shots worth sharing. They are on my other two blogs.

On f22plus I have shots taken with a pre 1940 Kodak Bitmat lens and on casual photography I have a page with ducks, a cemetery and Miss Liberty

Now I’m Buried Even Further !

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Four more shoots to go through since the last post. No further explanation needed………………………………….