Repairing a King Regula L
On the label it said Jammed camera £2.50. How could I resist the opportunity to try out my repair skills/ lack of them? The shutter lever was most definitely stuck, as was the self timer lever seen in the 12 o’clock position in the image above. The front elements of the lens need to be…
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Nikon TC 201
I wasn’t looking for this two times converter, honest. Particularly after my observations here about my current lens lineup. But when I saw the price, £29, and the potential to ‘enhance’ (an expression I have, to justify a not needed expense) the lenses I have, the decision was made all too quickly😳 The TC 201…
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Nikkor 500mm Reflex Lens – Appreciating What You Have
AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR £11,000; AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E VR ED £1300!! There was no way my recent bout of GAS to update my Nikon D500 lens line up was ever going to be satisfied. So to remedy this common ailment, particularly when the weather has been so good recently in the UK,…
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Repairing the Unrepairable? The Yashica 108 MP
I’ve had this camera some time, thinking it worked. However, when I picked it up to take part in my 365 Camera project I found it didn’t. Not only that, and of more concern, the battery grip got very warm quickly after putting batteries in. That cannot be right. However it seemed to indicate there…
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Fomapan 200 Developed in Caffenol
I detail here my first steps in developing with caffenol and Fomapan 400. From that experiment I discovered that for my particular caffenol mixture 30 minutes seemed to give me the kind of results I was looking for. Now it was time to try Fomapan 200. I used three small strips of film and shot…
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Stress and My 356 Film Project
I am currently in the midst of a move. Perhaps not the best timing for such an endeavour, but not an uncommon experience for many I’m told. However this is a move not just down the road. Oh no that would be far to simple. I am moving from the the south of England to…
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Zenit E Repair Failure
It’s raining again. I know, I’ll repair that Zenit E that came with a job lot of cameras, I thought to myself. Now what’s wrong? First up the film advance is bent… and moves freely without advancing the film. Secondly, the mirror lifting armature has come out of alignment. Finally, the shutter curtain needs reseating.…
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Printing and a Cup of Coffee – Part Three
I posted here and here my first time experiences with using Caffenol developer to develop some Fomapan 400. As you will see, I was extremely pleased with the results. I guess it was kind of inevitable that my attention would turn to the question of how to print using the same developer. After all, wouldn’t…
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A Nikon FE, Fomapan 400 and a cup of Coffee – Part Two
Having enjoyed developing Fomapan 400 with Caffenol for the first time last week, found here, I wanted to try to perfect the process and establish a developing time this week. So I essentially repeated my experiment by going out with two short rolls of film and then developing at diiferent times. From the first experiment,…
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A Nikon FE, Fomapan 400 and a cup of Coffee
I’ve been been looking forward to trying caffenol developer for some while but if I’m honest I was sceptical. There seemed to be so many variables to me that I wasn’t convinced that I could be successful. But then I was reminded of my feelings towards black and white developing, and now there’s no stopping…
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Nikkor 28-85mm f 3.5-4.5 AF
So here is the problem, I want to replace my Nikon 18-70mm DX lens. I really like this lens, sharp throughout all focal lengths, quiet not hunting around to acquire focus. What more could you want? So why replace it? Simple, the DX lens while it will fit on to a Nikon film body, it…
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Photofix Copier- Panacea to Digital Scanning?
When I first started digitalising my film negatives I was using an ipad as a ‘lightbox’ and my Nikon D500 to take the image. This led to spending too much time, in my opinion, in front of the computer trying to get my images as I wanted them. Discontentment led to using a flatbed scanner…
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Seeing Again with an Olympus OM1
This week I acquired an Olympus OM 1 advertised as parts/not working on that well know auction site. The owner noted that the camera shutter worked but the viewfinder and lens were ‘hazy’. On testing the camera all was well, I had a working Om 1. Even the light meter works, not bad I think…
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Digging Deep to Rescue an Image
The screenshot below shows what happened when a strip of six images from the Yashica 270 AF, underexposed by 7 stops, was inserted into my Epson Perfection V370 Photo Scanner. Normally the Epson Scan software is very good at finding an image and providing a thumbnail for me to view. Sadly because the images were…
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Photo Editing with CS2
Why CS2? Simply, because I can. I do use more up to date imaging programs when I need to. As I have a small collection of computers I feel I can justify there existence by getting them to do some work for me. What better way than to combine it with my photography? In addition,…
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Ilford FP4 plus some first time observations about film latitude.
Vintage Expired 2002 I came across this roll of FP4 plus in a charity shop last year , and although at the time I was only developing colour film I had to have it. What a great looking box, I thought. Fast forward to September 2020 when I started my journey into developing black and…
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Landscape Mode
This is the third instalment in the series where I take a look at the scene modes on my camera to see what they actually do. This time, if we look through the round window (a reference to to childrens tv program of the 1960/70’s I used to watch) I will be examining the program…
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Feeling in the Mode – Portrait
This is the second instalment in the series in which I will be looking at the scene modes that appear on many digital cameras. The picture above shows we have selected what is called ‘portrait mode’ which is what we choose if we want to take …a portrait. But what does the camera do and…
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Point of View
I know what I like and what I don’t. In other words, I have opinions. These viewpoints have been formulated over time or experiences have shaped them. However, I consider myself a good listener and am willing to change my viewpoint if persuaded by reason or evidence. Many times, too many to recount, I have…
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Compound and Contrived
In the last post I mentioned that flies have compound eyes. Further research revealed that the ‘lenses’ making up these eyes are independent of one another and are sensitive to brightness and colour . This gave me an additional idea for a photo project that would stretch my editing skills. Suppose I took one image…
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The Dentist and Perspective
Being in the dentist chair is not my favourite place. I think many would agree. I recognise the importance of having a healthy set of teeth and appreciate the many benefits. However much I review these reasons it does not help with the anxiety. Over the years I have developed a system of what I…
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Feeling in the Mode – Part One
If you have a digital camera you will recognise the illustration above that may appear as a dial or in a menu on your camera. Scene, vari program or picture modes are pretty much the same thing. They are an easy way to set up our cameras for certain types of photography. I will be…
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Epson Perfection V370 Scanner – ongoing review
As mentioned in a previous post I have a new scanner for my film negatives and I have been testing it out over the last few weeks. The first image was scanned at a resolution of 2400 dpi and is a 6mb file. The second at 9600dpi and weighs in at 80.9mb file. Despite the…
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Creative??
We have had some terrific sunny days followed by equally beautiful sunsets. Food for the creative photographer. On one such evening I had a couple of opportunities to indulge my creativity. Only these photos are fake. The sun sets on the other side of our house. Here is what I really saw. Flat light not…
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Are You All White Balance ?
The question isn’t an enquiry into your well being but rather a question related to the appearance of the colour white in your photo’s. Let me explain. I’ve been revisiting some of the controls on my digital camera to better understand them. One control that I seldom change from its default setting of Auto is…
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Curtains on a Zenit E ?
I have been on the lookout for a Zenit E camera, circa 65-85, for sometime now and was finally successful in acquiring one, two weeks ago. My particular specimen was advertised as working which it was, well kind of…. It was in a very good physical condition except for one major issue. The shutter curtain…
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The Best things in Life are Free – Part 2
Both of the images above were taken with exactly the same camera settings. In the second image, I hope you can see that the dark areas inside the tightly folded petals of the rose are slightly brighter and more evenly lit. I did not use flash as I was too close for it to be…
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The Best things in Life are Free- Part 1
This week I thought we could play a game of spot the difference. Have a look at the two images below. Can you see any subtle difference? I have provided a clue in the shape of an arrow. Can you see any difference? For the answer go to The Best Things in Life -Part 2
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Digital Darkroom
Although I would love to have a literal darkroom the reality is we don’t have the room. So having successfully developed a film my next step is to digitalise the negative which means getting it on to the computer. Enter the world of the digital darkroom. You can’t just use any flatbed scanner to scan…
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Home Developing
Part of the appeal of using film cameras is seeing the whole process through from image capture to developing. When I first started thinking about doing Colour home developing I was informed by many that it was difficult. However I have found it to be just as rewarding / disappointing as capturing the image. Here’s…
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Grey days
According to my dictionary the word grey is defined as “intermediate between black and white..between light and dark, dull, clouded, depressing, dismal” The last few definitions just about some up this time of year and how I feel. Spending a reasonable amount of time out in dull days can have a negative impact on my…
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