Category Archives: photography

Seeing the world through my viewfinder.

test rolls 3 Comments

Maiden Voyage of the Olympus XA

  

Got these scans from Snapfish on Tuesday, five days after the film was postmarked. I have no complaints about their service, FYI, except that I wish they processed medium format. 😛

About the Olympus XA: OMG, a rangefinder! I’ve never owned one before. See, you look through the viewfinder, and there’s a ghosted image of your subject superimposed on your little view of the scene. When the subject is in focus, the two images become one, giving you the focusing feedback that normal point-and-shoots lack. I like the fact that this will help train my eye regarding distance and focusing.

This is not a shoot-from-the-hip camera like the Lomo. This is a photographer’s compact camera. The user sets the film speed (ISO) and the desired aperture, and the camera’s light meter reads the scene and displays its calculated shutter speed in the viewfinder. This is a good feature, don’t get me wrong, but I do like the Lomo’s ability to do automatic exposure, as well. With the XA, there is no such option.

There are also several features you wouldn’t expect on a compact camera, including backlight compensation, a self-timer… even the light meter is nice to have on such a tiny axe. The lens appears sharp and doesn’t seem to require cleaning, which is good.

The test images were taken around the same time as the Argoflex pics: late September. For a camera comparison, compare the photo of the telephone poles (left) to the photo taken with the Argoflex, and compare the photo of the bench (right) to the Lomo version. (The Lomo version is a much better composition, though, IMO.)

Overall, I’d say I like my XA. It’s all I was hoping for… except no auto mode. That’s a small price to pay for a decent-quality compact camera, though.

test rolls 2 Comments

Maiden Voyages of the Argoflex & the Brownie

My turnaround time from Dwayne’s Photo was much better this time around: 8 days total. Verra nice.

So, the maiden voyage of the Argoflex 75 was back at the end of September — around the 26th or so. I loaded it up and took it to work in my purse, and took a test roll of the path I like to walk during my lunch break. Same old photos, nothing overly original (which, IMO, is good for testing a new-to-me camera, as I know what the images “should” look like).

I noticed that there was some fogging and light leaks, although that could be from the 120 film spooling up on a 620 spool. The two spools have different diameters, so the paper backing and the film itself don’t quite meet up correctly at the end, leaving a bulged and loosely-wound roll of film after exposure.

I also noticed a desaturation of color — as this didn’t happen with my Holga pics, and I used the very same film type, I’m deducing that it’s related to the Argoflex’s lens. I’m actually OK with the saturation level, though, as it adds a certain mood and character to the prints. (Some of the brighter photos are of almost “normal” saturation, though, so it could even be a combination of the lens and the lighting conditions.)

I think I may also have smudged the lens once or twice, as the few out-of-focus spots on the images aren’t always in the same place. 😉 I forgot that I’d taken some long exposures with the “time” feature — looks like the wind was blowing the tree around during the five-second exposure of my street (right).

After seeing the results of the test roll, I think the Argoflex will get a decent amount of use. More so than the Holga, possibly, since the Argoflex is smaller and less bulky, and doesn’t cramp my style when I carry it.

The Brownie’s maiden voyage didn’t go nearly as well. The vintage 127 film I bought off of eBay was pretty much only good for display purposes, as 50-year-old masking tape tends to come loose, resulting in a resounding CRACK when the paper backing pries loose from the film within the camera. So, no vintage-looking 127 photos of the annual Apple Butter Festival, and no Brownie test roll. Yet.

The good news is that J & C Photography sells brand new 127 film (and several otherwise discontinued sizes), so I ordered myself a roll of 127 and a roll of 620 for the Argoflex. I’ve found a couple of places that seem to process 127 film, so we’ll see how this goes.

photography

Foiled Again

On Sunday, the day after I purchased the Argoflex 75, I found a Brownie Bullet camera for $1.99 at Savers. I saw that it took 127 film, and contemplated leaving it… but not for long. WTF, I figured, it’s only two bucks.

So, I thought I might be able to try 35mm sprocket hole photography with my new-old camera, to test the camera’s workings for much less than the cost of a roll of vintage 127mm film. Went out to the garage and located some foam to hold the smaller film canister in place, opened up the camera — and realized that 127 film is much narrower than 35mm. The camera wouldn’t even think about closing with that huge 35mm film cartridge in there. D’oh!

Damn… off to eBay I go, to purchase some 127mm film.

Maybe someday I’ll get saucy and learn to develop my own black-and-white film. Until then, I suppose I’ll just get butt-raped by Rocky Mountain Film Lab (who, incidentally, can also develop all my obscure rolls of Super 8 film). We’ll see if the Brownie’s worth the trouble after a test roll…