Kodak No.2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye – Model B
I need to dust my cameras.
Posted on August 28th, 2010 no comments
Photo Shoot Practice – Olympus 35 RC
Today I decided to take some shots of my Olympus 35 RC, a compact fixed lens rangefinder from the 1970s.
To take these shots, I was using a very basic “Strobist” set up with a Canon Speedlite 430 EX flash mounted on a stand firing through an umbrella camera left. I also used some white foam core on the right to reflect back some fill. The flash was fired remotely using an Elinchrom EL Skyport Universal radio trigger.
The camera I used was my trusty Canon 40D with a 24 to 70mm L f/2.8 lens. I metered using a Sekonic L-308s Flashmate meter.
I am still learning flash photography so came upon a few problems. One of those can be seen in this following shot.
Reflected in the lens is the clear outline of the umbrella. I would have preferred for this to not be so obvious. I tried playing with angles and also with the set up you see below but I wasn’t happy with the results. In this set up I am firing the flash through the diffuser part of a Photoflex multi-disk but the reflection was still too noticeable. Still a lot for me to learn for sure.
For all of the shots I set the camera on manual mode with the shutter speed set at 1/60. There was daylight coming in from an open door camera right and also through a window behind the subject so I wanted to use some of the ambient light.
Most of the shots were shot using an aperture of either f/8 or f/11 except the photograph above which was shot at f/5.6. I found with apertures less than that the depth of field wasn’t as pleasing to me. The flash was used in manual mode and the power was set from 1/2 to 1/8 depending on what aperture I was using or the distance of the flash from the subject.
The photograph above shows most of the gear I used today. At the top is an Interfit light stand and Wescott shoot through umbrella. On the next row is a Manfrotto 498RC2 ball head. Next to that is my Canon Speedlite 430 EX flash with a hot shoe to PC adapter connected to the Elinchrom El-Skyport receiver below. Next to the flash is the Canon 40D with the 24 to 70mm L f/2.8 lens and next to that is the flash meter, a Sekonic L-308s.
Below the 40D, is the matching Elinchom trasmitter and some no-name light stand adapter. At the bottom is a Manfrotto 190XPROB Pro Aluminum Tripod.
As I said I am still learning this type of photography so there is a long way to go before I will be truly happy with my images. But it is always a good idea to shoot as often as possible and learn from the experience each time.
Below are the rest of the “keepers” from today.
Posted on July 31st, 2010 1 comment
New Lens Hood For the Voigtländer
Yesterday I got a new lens hood for my Voigtländer 35mm F/1.4 Nokton shown here on my Bessa R4A rangefinder. Hopefully this will reduce lens flare and increase contrast in the photographs.
Posted on July 21st, 2010 2 comments
Santa Cruz Beach View
Posted on February 12th, 2010 no comments
No Food Or Drinks
Posted on January 22nd, 2010 no comments
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Posted on December 24th, 2009 no comments
Walking On Santa Cruz Pier
Posted on December 23rd, 2009 no comments
Off Season : Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is one of my favorite places to take photographs. Even in winter when it is empty and lacking crowds I find it interesting.
If you are viewing this post in a feed reader, click here to go to the blog page and see the photographs as a gallery.
Posted on December 23rd, 2009 no comments
Santa Cruz Pier In Winter
Posted on December 22nd, 2009 1 comment
Mamiya M645 1000s
This is my Christmas present to myself. It’s a Mamiya M645 1000s medium format camera. It is shown here with a 80mm Mamiya-Sekor C lens and I also got 55mm and 150mm lenses.
The 645 series was introduced in 1975 with the 1000s coming in 1976. I believe they continued to make the 1000s until 1990.
The camera is an SLR with an image format of 6cm x 4.5cm. You get 15 frames on a 120 roll and 30 frames on a 220 roll. The film is put into inserts which then go into the camera. 120 and 220 films use different inserts presumably because of the need for different pressure plates due to the lack of paper in 220 film. Later models used magazines which could be swapped mid roll.
Here are a few test shots from the first roll.
