A New Camera & A New Film

February 03, 2018 by JR Smith

My first camera review of 2018 has me walking a bit on the wild side; shooting a new camera with a film stock I've never used.

The camera is the Pentax K2 and the film stock is Kodak Pro Image 100.

The Pentax K2

The Pentax K2 is a pro-level 1975 vintage camera body. The K-Series of SLRs were introduced as a bayonet mount replacement to the wonderful M42 mount Spotmatic line. There were several variants including the KX, KM and very popular K1000. The K2 was the top of the line in the series, offering up mid-70s automation in the form of aperture-priority auto exposure. The K2 would only last a few years on the market as Pentax was nearing debut of their first truly pro body, the amazing LX, which would be the flagship Pentax film body well into the 1990s.

The K2 is nearly the same in features as the M42 mount Spotmatic ES with several important improvements. On the ES, the metering system is disabled if you take the camera out of automatic mode. The K2 offers the aforementioned auto-exposure mode and a fully manual mode with match-needle metering. In addition, the classic Pentax fabric shutter has been replaced by a metal blade Copal/Seiko shutter. The K2 is powered by two modern S76 button cells.

I bought my K2 from a friend who is a retired Pentax employee. The camera he sold me was from his personal collection and is new/old stock. I thought twice about using the camera and considered for a moment just leaving it in its original condition. But I am a user, not a collector, so off came the wrapper and protective inserts.

Plastic pressure-plate protector on the K2

Having never cut my photographic teeth on the K1000 like so many photographers, this is my first K body. First impressions mean a lot and I have to admit that the K2 felt very good from the moment I picked it up. Even when I mounted my large and heavy 50/1.2 lens, the camera felt comfortable and well balanced. I can see why so many legions of photographers bonded with their K-1000s and why so many still use them today.

The only unusual feature of the K2 is that the ASA setting control is around the lens mount, very similar to the way Olympus positioned the shutter speed control on the OM series. Figuring out how to change the setting required reading the owners manual. Pushing a little black button on the lens mount and grasping the control ring in the right places was the trick, but the control was also unusually stiff from lack of use.

The internet warns of using cameras that have been sitting idle for 40 years, recommending a good CLA prior to use. My experience with Pentax SLRs however gave me the confidence that this camera would work just fine. I inserted two batteries, mounted my fast normal 50 and loaded up some Kodak Pro Image 100 color print film.

Kodak Pro Image 100

Kodak Pro Image 100 is a C-41 process color print film that is primarily sold in Mexico and India. The internet is full of conflicting information on this film. One theory is that it is re-packaged Portra 160. Another is that it is Kodak Gold 200 film that for some reason or another, Kodak is recommending you shoot at 100 ISO. Perhaps this is due to their concern about the film's storage conditions in warmer temperatures in these markets? Still another says it is Ektar 100 that got messed up in the manufacturing process, producing less saturated color. I am not sure and honestly, after shooting my first roll of this stuff, I don't care. It's a wonderful film. Here's my first shot with Pro Image in the K2, available light of my Kodak retro t-shirt.

A few shots around the house, sunlight and shadows.

As you can tell by the sun streaming into the house, it was a nice day. I headed to the beach.

I found some blooms.

And sunlight through the leaves.

To my eye, Pro Image 100 sits somewhere between Ektar 100 and Portra 160. I haven't shot enough Gold 200 to compare, so it's hard for me to tell. Kodak makes a Gold 100 as well, so maybe this film is a repackaged version of their 100 speed consumer film. That makes the most sense.

What is a bit perplexing is that when I got back my usual end of the roll selfie, it had a greenish tint.

I've made this same shot, under this same fluorescent light source on Ektar, Portra 160, Porta 400 and Gold 200 and have never had the greenish tint. Hmmmm.

I bought tens rolls of this stuff, so I'll be shooting it up this year. It's an interesting enough film stock to get me excited about trying it under different conditions. And it's fairly cheap, about six bucks a roll for 36 exposures.

As for the Pentax K2, other than the weird ASA setting ring, there really isn't anything unusual or annoying about the camera. And that's what makes this Pentax so pleasant to use. Everything felt so natural and comfortable, I forgot about the camera, concentrated on the photographs and had a blast! And that's what a camera is supposed to do--make you want to take pictures with it!

Because my K2 sat in suspended animation for so long, its film advance was a little stiff and the film counter kept sticking. Shutter speeds seemed pretty good though and the center-weighted metering is nearly flawless. As I write this, my K2 is off to Eric Hendrickson for a well deserved spa vacation at the Hendrickson Pentax ranch in Knoxville, TN. He tells me that all of the issues I've noted here are common and cured with cleaning and lubrication.

I think if I were looking for a K1000, I'd browse the K2s first. They're less well known and typically cheaper. The K2 does everything the K1000 does plus it offers aperture-priotiy auto exposure. And as the Pentax flagship camera from the era, you're really getting the best the company could build at the time.

Lightbox Wednesday #53 or I Hope The Rest of 2018 Doesn't Go This Way

January 31, 2018 by JR Smith

After work on Tuesday, while I was was parked in a public parking lot for only a few short moments, my car was broken into and my laptop computer stolen. I never realized how much of my life was on that little laptop and how violated I feel now.

I've spent the entire day today putting the pieces back together. Apple has been wonderful and so very helpful.

This blog may be quiet for a spell while I first secure and then rebuild my digital life.

Lightbox Wednesday #52 or Signs We Don't Pay Much Attention To

January 24, 2018 by JR Smith

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, a nearly 8.0 earthquake off the coast of Alaska triggered tsunami warnings up and down the entire west coast of the US. The Sonoma County Sheriff's office pinged my phone and of course, I slept right through the whole thing...including the cancellation of the warnings.

I'm far enough away from and several hundred feet above the water, so even if the big wave did hit, our little community wouldn't have noticed much. It did get me thinking about those signs I always see when I'm hiking down to the sand. I've photographed them many times. Here are two shots.

Warning Sign at Pinnacle Gulch, Sonoma Co, CA

Warning Sign on Doran Beach, Sonoma Co, CA

For me, these signs have always just been interesting photo subjects. Until this week, I really never paid much attention to the real message or even thought about the likelihood of the actual event they were warning me about.

It made me think about another sign from my youth that I saw attached to my school and all sorts of public buildings; the fallout shelter sign.

This was the 1960s and the Cold War was in full swing. We had air raid drills as often as fire drills. During an air raid drill, the teacher would have us move away from windows and crawl under our desks. Even as a child, I wondered about how hiding under my rickety wooden school desk was going to protect me from a nuclear bomb. We had a fallout shelter in our school as well. It was in the basement. You would think that during at least one of these drills, they'd have us practice going down there, but they never did. I wonder if during the real thing, only the administrators would go down to the fallout shelter leaving us kids up top clinging to our desks?

Luckily, the real thing never came...back then and while I slept peacefully Tuesdsay morning.

Lightbox Wednesday #51

January 17, 2018 by JR Smith

It's nice to think about summer in the middle of winter. These were taken on a warm August day in 2015. My Nikon FM2n, 50/1.4 Nikkor and some Kodak Ektar.

This may have been the most recent roll of Ektar I've shot. Portra 400 has been my color film of choice lately.

Lightbox Wednesday #50

January 10, 2018 by JR Smith

Fires, floods, hurricanes, mudslides...if you pay any attention at all to the intense weather events we've been experiencing recently, it has to make you realize that global warming is very real. We've had a couple of wild years out here in California for sure.

After a brutal storm, this fishing boat washed ashore near Bodega Head. I'm not sure if the storm drove the boat into the sand or it was scuttled there. Over several weeks, I made some interesting photographs of it with my Nikon F2, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor and some TMax film. One day, I looked and it was gone. Either someone had it towed back out during high tide, or the Pacific reclaimed it. Not sure.

Last Photos of 2017/First Photos of 2018 & A Processing Failure!

January 06, 2018 by JR Smith

I had a grand plan to bring 2017 to a close and celebrate the beginning of a new year of photography; shoot a roll of film on New Years Eve and another on New Years Day.

I selected two of my most dependable classic cameras. For the last day of 2017 and a sunset walk on the beach, my serviced Pentax Spotmatic F fitted with a crystal clear SMC Takumar 55mm f/1.8.

For January 1st and my traditional long hike out to the tip of Point Reyes, my trusty little Minolta XD, serviced by Blue Moon Camera & Machine with a splendid MD Rokkor-X 50/1.4.

I decided to use Kodak's Portra 400, a color film that I use almost exclusively now. I'm getting comfortable with Portra and feel like I get consistent and dependable results shooting it at ISO 200.

Good hardware and trusted software...what could go wrong? Turns out...lots!

The moment I stepped through the front door of my local camera shop and saw the pouty face on my friend behind the counter, I knew that either they decided they didn't like seeing me anymore or something was wrong. The latter was true. My little camera shop started a new employee in their mini-lab the week between Christmas and New Years. During her first day running the C-41 processor all on her own, the machine decided to jam up and shut down, leaving my two rolls of Portra cooking in the developer. Amidst blinking error lights and alarm signals, she panicked and by the time she was rescued by another employee who got the machine running again, my Portra, over exposed intentionally, was now over developed as well.

You can see trouble afoot from my first shot on the New Years Eve roll, the wavy vertical lines in this frame of my Christmas poinsettia.

It was approaching magic hour. My plan was to grab some sunset shots with the Spotmatic. The light was spectacular. Considering that my film was sitting in the soup for way too long--kudos to Kodak! This film actually held up pretty well to the chemical torture. Note: I have not used any digital post processing on these.

I'm not an expert on the processing machinery used at my camera store, but my research indicates that the UFO-like dark spots on this next shot are caused by two rolls of film coming in contact with each other or with some part of the machinery.

Even pushed one stop and mini-lab processed, Portra 400 typically exhibits very fine grain. Over development yielded very apparent grain and tons of contrast.

Strolling along the beach at sunset on New Years Eve with my Spotmatic was a great way to wind down the year. It really is one of my favorite cameras and the walk was reflective and peaceful.

The Tomales Point trail is a nearly 10 mile roundtrip hike that starts at Pierce Point Ranch on the tip of Point Reyes National Seashore. It's become sort of a New Years Day tradition for me and requires layered clothing and a backpack full of snacks. The compact and lightweight Minolta XD camera and prime 50 are the perfect choice for this hardy hike. I considered taking one of my Pentax K bodies and my 135mm telephoto lens as I knew I might encounter Tule elk on the trail, but I opted for portability instead.

There are a number of ranch outbuildings at the trailhead.

Outbuildings at Pierce Point Ranch trailhead

I'm not sure if this roll preceded or followed my New Years Eve roll through the processing machine, but this entire roll over-cooked as well. Unaware of the future chemical catastrophe, I headed up the trail.

I've shot this same seascape from this same place many years in a row on Fuji Acros black and white film and on Portra. Over development made grain apparent, increased contrast and disturbed the film's wonderful color palette. Again, I am not digitally correcting any of these images.

Pierce Point is a Tule elk reserve and it wasn't long before I spotted some. They could have cared of less about me snapping away.

And that's about where this roll really got into trouble in the soup.

When I looked quickly at the negatives at the photo counter, it seemed as if some of the shots indicated a light leak in my camera, but the XD has new seals, a full CLA and roll of Acros I shot after these turned out just fine. I think it's safe to assume over development caused these issues as well.

Apparently, a great many people make Tomales Point trail a January 1st expedition. I had lots of company.

As I looked at my end-of-year/start-of-year images on my computer that night, I was overwhelmed with disappointment and considered changing labs. I've had near perfect results when I've used Richard Photo Lab and thought perhaps that in 2018 I should use them for all my work. Sleeping on it, I realized that I've sent many many rolls of C-41 through the machine at my local Mom & Pop camera store, all with very good results and I like to support local businesses whenever I can. Come to think of it, in all of my years of photography, these are the only rolls of film that have ever been spoiled in processing.

Of course, the camera shop refunded my money and let me select two rolls of film for free. They don't stock Portra (I get it at B&H), so I picked up two rolls of Tri-X. I haven't shot any in a while and I'm going to make a serious effort to home process my black and white work this year.

Considering the chemical torment the newbie lab tech put Portra through, I have to give this Kodak film credit for returning any images at all. 2018...cheers!

EOY Ramblings...

December 30, 2017 by JR Smith

Looking back and forward...a little bit of this and that as the clock ticks down.

I can't believe how prejudiced I had always been towards certain camera brands and how this year really opened my mind.

Take Canon for example. Pooey! Until, on a lark, I tried a Canon F-1n 35mm SLR.

It's a great, truly great professional grade SLR! I love shooting it, the FD lenses are wonderful and I can't recommend it enough! I enjoyed the F-1n so much, I bought its predecessor, the original F-1.

While this camera doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the later version, its minimalism is endearing. The more I use it, the more the body reveals a wonderful brass patina.

One of the cheapest cameras I have ever bought delighted me to no end as I "point and shot" my way through a Sonoma County winery this summer.

Set the A-1 in program mode and let the camera do all of the heavy lifting. Or, take it out of automatic and learn to drive a stick shift. Hipsters are clamoring to buy AE-1s, making the better Canon A-1 a steal! If you see a nice A-1, buy it! Great camera!

I would never try brussels sprouts because I had myself convinced I wouldn't like them. Then, I tried roasted brussels sprouts and guess what? Loved 'em! Somewhere on the internet, I read that Minolta cameras were plastic and cheap and prone to breaking, so I stayed away. Unexpectedly, a little XD fell into my hands this year.

Minolta XD

Small package. Lots of features!

Although working fine, it had a smudge inside the viewfinder. After a quick trip up to Blue Moon Camera & Machine and a simple, affordable CLA, the Minolta XD quickly became one of my favorite shooters this year. This camera shoots in manual mode, shutter priority mode and aperture priority mode. It's small, light, made of metal and is the platform for a wide variety of stunning and affordable Minolta Rokkor lenses. I was wrong about Minolta. So much so that I went looking for a good example of a legendary camera; the XE-7.

The XE-7 was released during a time when Minolta and Leica were joined at the hip. This camera has one of the nicest sounding shutters and smoothest film advance mechanisms of any classic SLR I have used. I love the fact that the XD and XE-7 can share the same lenses. Although my XE-7 is purring like a kitten, I like it so much that I am going to invest in a Mark Hama CLA in 2018.

I stumbled across a professional photographer cleaning out his freezer.

I bought some Plus-X from him (2012 expiration) and some Agfa APX (1998 expiration). I have no expectations of performance, but I've shot a roll of the Plus-X so far and it seems fine.

As I have written before, about once a year, the Polaroid bug bites.

Santa brought a pack of new color and a pack of black and white film for my SX-70, which spent the fall back in New York in Matt Widmann's shop. The camera got an extensive refurb. Like total rebuild! I got it back just before Christmas and shot a few test shots with the film pack Matt left for me in the camera. The guy is a genius and what fun to have an SX-70 that works like it is supposed to! There will be a series of posts next year documenting everything Matt did to my old Land Camera and some instant shots.

2017 has been the year of Pentax, another camera brand that I snubbed my nose at while shooting my Nikons and Leicas. I never would have tried my first Pentax camera, the ME Super, if it weren't for Jim Grey's Down The Road blog.

I've had a lot of fun since discovering Pentax. Thanks Jim!

To get better, to grow...you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

I am far more comfortable with my camera on a deserted stretch of beach than I am poking it into the faces of strangers. That hasn't kept me from admiring the work of fine street photographers, past and present...and yearning to try it myself. I set a goal this year to read, study, learn and force myself to get out there and work at my own street photography. Two street workshops this year with my Leica M rangefinder and an "AH-HA" moment the last time out. I'll be posting more about that next year.

I am grateful for the kind community of photographers, craftspeople and merchants I have gotten to know so well since re-entering film photography in earnest 8 years ago. The people shooting film and supporting film photographers right now are an amazing, giving group. Like my good friend Sover Wong in the UK who has carefully serviced all of my Nikon F2 cameras. Ken Hansen in New York who trusts me enough to send me a Leica before I have paid him for it. Eric Hendrickson who skillfully CLAs all of my classic Pentax bodies. Youxin Ye who returned youth to my Canon P rangefinder. The cool folks up at Blue Moon Camera & Machine who re-did my Minolta XD and Canon F-1. Bellamy Hunt, the Japan Camera Hunter, who is up to any camera or lens hunting challenge I've thrown at him. Matt Widmann at 2nd Shot SX70 Service who did an incredible job turning back the clock on my SX-70. The aforementioned Jim Grey, who got me on to Pentax cameras and offers frequent encouragement in the comments here. One of the first photo bloggers I discovered was Mike Connealy and I still look forward to his posts. Mike does amazing work with some very very old cameras.

To the small group of regular readers of the Fogdog Blog...I so appreciate you and wish you the best of everything in the New Year.

Lightbox Wednesday #49

December 27, 2017 by JR Smith

I guess the best way to wrap up the year is by posting the first photographs I took in 2017, New Year's Day out on the very edge of the continent, the tip of Point Reyes.

For the past several years, I've been trying to start the New Year with a healthy, hardy day hike on the Tomales Point Trail. This year, I kept it simple; a light pack, good shoes, layered clothing, my Spotmatic SP and Acros film. The trailhead is at Pierce Point Ranch where I always find interesting subject matter in the old outbuildings.

Weather permitting, I'll start off 2018 in a similar fashion.

FILM REWIND: CONTAX RX

December 21, 2017 by JR Smith

Does camera love last? I'll let you know starting today and throughout 2018 as I revisit cameras from my collection that I gushed over when I originally bought them. How do classic film cameras hold up over time? First up, my Contax RX.

Contax RX with Carl Zeiss 50mm f/1.7 Planar

I bought my Contax RX almost three years ago for two reasons, one more rational than the other. Rationally, I wanted an inexpensive way to try Carl Zeiss glass. Irrationally, I thought the Contax/Yashica bodies produced in the mid-1990s were cool looking. Although I buy a lot of old cameras on eBay and have had really good luck there, the RX is a pretty complicated camera full of electronics. With that in mind, I decided to get mine from a trusted source with a solid return policy, so I kept my eye on KEH, B&H Photo and Adorama. It wasn't long before a nice one turned up at B&H. They also had a 50/1.7 Zeiss Planar in the Contax/Yashica mount, so I heated up the credit card.

When I originally reviewed the RX on my old WordPress blog, I couldn't heap enough praise on this camera. Even though the RX was big and fairly heavy, I wrote that it felt just wonderful in the hand. It's metering was spot on, I loved its digital focus assist, big and beautiful viewfinder, built-in diopter adjustment and oh-so-sweet sounding shutter. Here are some shots from my first roll through the RX on Acros film.

I haven't shot this camera nearly enough and when I took it out for a walk on the beach a few weeks ago, I had to ask myself why. The RX is truly a very pleasant camera to shoot. Like the Nikon F4, it offers up most every metering mode a photographer could want. And the camera will bend to the skill level of its user with fully automatic everything shooting mode to manual. The integral motor drive will have you shooting up 36 frames in no time and I still think the Contax RX has one of the best sounding shutters of any camera I have tried.

As I have written before, the RX was released just as the photographic world was beginning to embrace auto-focus, so it has the brains of an auto-focus camera without the ability to actual automatically focus a lens. As you are manually focusing, an indicator at the bottom of the viewfinder will tell you when you've nailed focus. It's cool, but with this big and bright viewfinder, stunning Zeiss lens and split image screen, you really don't need the computer assist.

I would buy the RX all over again and even though I have only tried one Carl Zeiss prime lens, I love the way it renders. There are a couple more C/Y mount Zeiss lenses I have had my eye on, the 28mm f/2.8 is supposed to be amazing and the 35-70mm f/3.5 is reviewed as one of the best zooms ever made. After living with my Contax RX for a few years, I can definitely say I'm still in love. Here are some shots from my beach walk during a negative tide, ironically shot again on Acros film.

Lightbox Wednesday #48

December 20, 2017 by JR Smith

I'm not much for Christmas.

I suppose after nearly 30 years of working in retail advertising, putting together ad campaigns for Black Friday, Christmas sales and year-end sales events, the holiday season has become something I just slog my way through. Deadline looming. Deadline met. I only come up for air around the first full week of January, taking a deep, deep breath and toasting the fact that I got it all done again for another year. So while you're celebrating, I'll be sleeping...and enjoying every wink.

When I do let myself think about Christmas, my mind drifts back to a gentler time. Here's my sister and I on a Christmas Kodachrome my father shot oh...in '65 or '66 I would guess.

Kodak Retina IIc, Kodak Kodachrome color slide film

Finishing the Roll

December 18, 2017 by JR Smith

Every year I say the same thing; seems like the weeks between Halloween and Christmas just fly by. This year has been no different. Wow! It's almost Christmas again!

And, as in past years, I find myself finishing off partially shot rolls of film in some of my cameras as we click off the final days of 2017.

It was on a hike in July that I started this roll of Portra 400 in my Pentax MX. These were shot with the SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2

Five months later, I finished up the roll on a December Sunday using my 85mm f/1.8 SMC lens. First, reading the morning paper...

Late in the day, near the magic hour, a stroll on the beach...

Yes, those are birds, not specks of dust!

Back home, some Christmas gift wrapping...

It had been so long since I started this roll of Portra that I had forgotten what was on the first few frames. Getting the scans back from the lab was a pleasant surprise. I remembered that it was a nice July hike. Good air, exercise, some quiet time. And finishing the roll with my 85mm was a good reminder of how much I like this focal length and how I must use it more in 2018.

Lightbox Wednesday #47

December 13, 2017 by JR Smith

My Dad was always a General Motors man. Growing up, his pickups were always Chevy or GMC. And Mom hauled us around in a Biscayne wagon. After he retired, he bought a Cadillac. GM through and through.

I've always been a Nikon guy. Just as my Dad swore that a Ford would never grace our driveway, I couldn't imagine ever liking, let alone loving a Canon. Until I bought my F-1. Love that camera. And those old FD lenses...sweet! Here are some shots from my first roll through the F-1 this past February.

Lightbox Wednesday #46

December 06, 2017 by JR Smith

When my old MacBook started throwing fits last fall, I knew that sooner rather than later, I'd be paying a visit to the Apple Store and laying down some serious bucks for a new one. I really hate spending my hard earned money on technology because as soon as I buy something, it's outdated. But my laptop is a tool I use every day for work and pleasure, so I justified buying the most robust one I could afford; a new MacBook Pro.

This Lightbox project started out as a simple cleaning of my digital garage. I wanted to get rid of documents and images I'd clung to on the old machine rather than transfer all of it to the new one. Cleaning up my documents was a pretty easy process, accomplished over a couple of weekends. I decided to attack my images in a more methodical way, viewing them all on iPhoto's lightbox desktop, thinking about each one before I kept it or slid it to the trash can.

I've been at it for 46 weeks and the exercise has been cathartic. It feels good. The garage is almost clean. My images are organized for easy retrieval and the editing process has revealed my growth both as an operator of the equipment and as a photographer. I still have a lot more to learn and I'm excited about that.

One added benefit is that as I looked through my photos, it made me remember how much I enjoyed using a particular camera, or in some cases, didn't enjoy using it. I realized that I've written some thoughts here on the blog about certain cameras and then never really followed up down the road as to my feelings as I spent more and more time with the camera. I am not alone in this area. Occasionally, when I read a camera review online or watch a YouTube camera review, it's interesting to see a photographer gushing over a particular camera. Then, scrolling through the comments, I'll read that the photographer ultimately ended up getting rid of the camera for one reason or another. So I have decided to revisit some of the old cameras I haven't shot in a while and see if I still feel the same way about them. As I came across this image from January 2015, I realized I hadn't put any serious miles on my Contax RX in far too long. I have some Acros in the RX now.

Bookshelf, January 7, 2015 shot with the Contax RX, 50mm f/1.7 Zeiss Planar on Tmax 100

Nikon F4 Selfie, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor AF-D on Kodak's Portra 400

The Nikon F4: Love At First Sight!

December 01, 2017 by JR Smith

I wrote yesterday about my introduction to photography as a teenager in the 1970s. As life would have it, I'd take a break from my hobby for a while. A long while. Nearly 20 years. It would be the early 1990s before the photo bug bit me again. By this time, I was a young father raising a family in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona.

I had a decent job and a tiny bit of disposable income, so I started researching 35mm SLRs. I was always a big fan of Nikon, having spent countless teenage hours drooling over the F2 in the pages of Popular and Modern Photography magazine, so I decided that I was finally going to own my first Nikon camera. Online shopping didn't exist at this time, so I did it the old fashioned way -- I went to the camera store!

Lewis Camera Exchange near Arizona State University was a photographic temple in those days. Imagine the coolest hardware store you've ever been to, but instead of nuts and bolts, the shelves were piled high with cameras, lenses, photo accessories and darkroom supplies. Along one wall, behind the counter, huge glass door coolers held bricks and bricks of every kind of film imaginable. And as the store's name suggested, Lewis Camera Exchange had a huge...and I mean huge used gear department full of equipment that had been traded-in (exchanged) for new stuff.

The owners and all of the help at Lewis were working photographers. They knew photography and gear and were always patient and super helpful. Being that the store was only a five minute drive from my office, I took full advantage of their helpfulness. Over the course of several weeks, I pestered the Lewis staff with endless questions about Nikon's latest SLRs; the N50, N70, N90 and N90s. During one of my visits, Vince Ruggiero, the owner of the store, grabbed a camera from the shelf, handed it to me with a sly smile and said "This is the camera you should have!" The camera he handed me was the Nikon F4. It was the most amazing camera I had ever seen!

Introduced in 1988, the F4 was still Nikon's top of the line pro body at the time. The F5 wouldn't be released until 1996. Retailing for what would be just over $5000 in today's dollars, the F4 was light years out of my price range, but as I held this camera in my hands that day I remember strategizing about all of the ways I could possibly finagle a way to buy this camera. Of course, I couldn't afford it. I ended up buying the N90s with 50mm f/1.8 AF-D lens, a kit that still cost me over a grand, but for years my heart still lusted over the F4.

Fast forward another couple of decades and I get an email from one of my Flickr friends who is thinning his herd of cameras and wonders if I am interested in any of his gear. There, on the list of cameras, is a very nice F4 from late in the production run. The camera has the MB-20 and MB-21 grips and comes complete with a 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. A few hundred dollars seals the deal and my heart is finally happy. The digital age made the F4 an affordable reality for me!

The Nikon F4 is a historically significant camera. It was the first pro body with autofocus. It was Nikon's first pro body with matrix metering. It was the first Nikon pro body with a built-in motor drive. It looked totally different than any other SLR that came before it and it defined what future cameras would look like. All other Nikon pro bodies before the F4 were evolutionary designs, The F4 was revolutionary. Best of all, today it remains a totally relevant, fun-to-use, powerful and best of all, affordable camera.

Nikon F4 with MB-20 grip and 50/1.4 AF-D lens

There are plenty of places online that dig deep into the technical specifications of the Nikon F4, so I will just touch on the stand outs for me.

First, if you have older manual focus Nikon lenses like I do, know that they'll work just fine on the F4. In fact, the F4 will take most any Nikkor lens back to 1959. With much of the Nikon manual glass, you'll get matrix metering and focus confirmation.

The F4 offers up every imaginable shooting mode: manual, shutter priority, aperture priority and programmed auto-exposure.

A very powerful metering system is at your disposal too, allowing you to select from spot, center weighted or matrix.

The F4 offers shutter speeds up to 1/8000th of a second! Yes, 1/8000th!

There are several power configurations available which change size, weight and handling of the camera. The MB-20 battery pack (the F4's smallest and lightest configuration) uses 4 AA batteries and gives you 4 frames per second. The MB-21 and MB-23 grips use six AA batteries and increase your squeeze rate up to 5.7 frames per second. The latter grips also feature vertical shutter release buttons.

With an AF lens, the F4's auto focus is primitive by today's standards, but is still quick and very accurate. I wouldn't want to use to the F4 to shoot auto racing, but for most photography, it's just fine. The auto focus system is user selectable with single and continuous servo modes as well as manual.

The viewfinder in the F4 is bright, huge and delightful to look through, presenting all of the information the photographer needs through LCD and LED readouts. The LCD screens offer available pleasant, green backlighting in dim light. There is built in diopter correction too. Viewfinders and focus screens are interchangeable.

The coolest thing about the Nikon F4 is that it is truly a bridge camera between traditional knob and lever controls and the multi-function/menu driven cameras that followed it.

Dials, knobs, buttons or levers for every function!

This is a very powerful, electronic camera. Uniquely, every function on the F4 is driven by a dial, knob, button or lever. Somehow, Nikon knew that professional photographers trading in their Nikon F2 or F3 bodies on the F4, needed to be gently taken down a new road through a traditional analog interface. Take it from me, if you've shot any mechanical SLR, you can pick up the F4 and drive it skillfully without ever needing to refer to the manual! Try that with a DSLR.

Film loading is the easiest of any camera I have ever used. Open the back, insert the cartridge, pull the film leader across to the red line, close the back, turn the camera on. The Nikon F4 automatically threads the leader and advances the film to the first frame. Two levers need to be engaged on the camera to tell the F4 to rewind the film. This prevents inadvertently rewinding. Nikon thoughtfully added a manual rewind knob as well in case your batteries fail.

The F4 is idiot proof. There are error messages to let you know if the film is improperly loaded or a dial is not set properly or your batteries are getting low. And control interlocks keep you out of most trouble.

I don't use my F4 often enough and that's a shame. Every camera needs exercise and late in the afternoon on one recent Sunday, I loaded up four fresh AA batteries, some Portra 400 film and took her to the beach as the sun was setting.

It was getting chilly. I decided to head back home before the sun completely set. Looking back down to the ocean as I headed home, I clicked off this shot.

This is the path back up from the beach.

As I neared home, I realized I had left too soon. The Sonoma Coast was serving up one of those great November sunsets. I got this shot from my front yard.

And another through my front window. I am surprised this came out so clear as my window isn't all that clean. The window glass between camera and subject did confuse the F4's auto focus momentarily. After a few hunt and pecks, it locked on to infinity.

Almost 30 years after its introduction, the Nikon F4 remains a viable film camera. With its advanced metering, ability to mount most any Nikon lens, easy to obtain AA batteries, user-friendly interface and professional build quality, this camera should be on a short list for serious film photographers.

Personally, 24 years after first holding one at Lewis Camera, I'm happy to finally own one.

44 Years?

November 30, 2017 by JR Smith

This was the first photo magazine I ever bought; the October 1973 Darkroom Issue of Popular Photography. I was 14 years old, shooting with a Kodak Retina IIc rangefinder that my Dad graciously let me borrow. Like most photographers of the day, I yearned to process film and print my own photographs.

I learned to develop film in my friend Mike's basement darkroom, messing up a few rolls of Plus-X Pan while learning the nuances of winding it onto Honeywell Nikor stainless steel reels in complete darkness. Actually, the winding on was the hardest part. Kodak's D-76 developer and good ole Plus-X were forgiving friends of budding darkroom workers.

After the film was developed, washed and dried, we'd make contact prints of the roll on 8x10 sheets of photographic paper using the light of Mike's Beseler enlarger. The contact prints would need to be developed, stopped, fixed and washed just like the film and after that was done, we would decide which images to print full size.

It was great to have a friend with a darkroom, but soon I wanted one of my own. I talked my parents into letting me set one up in the corner of our own basement laundry room. A lot of people, kids and adults, processed their own film and made prints at home in those days. It turns out that a neighbor up the street had an old 1950s era Federal enlarger for sale. He was upgrading to a new Omega B-22 enlarger and the Federal would soon be surplus. $50 of lawn mowing money got me the enlarger and he threw in three trays, tongs, a Kodak safelight and Paterson film developing tank.

Federal Diffusion Enlarger (image courtesy iCollector.com)

Just like kids today spend hours playing video games or goofing around on smart phones, I'd take over the laundry room whenever I could, sealing up the cracks under the door to keep out stray light, mixing up smelly chemicals and standing in awe under the glow of my red safelight as my photographic works of art magically appeared in the developer tray.

I can't believe it's been 44 years!

Lightbox Wednesday #45: Should I get a zoom?

November 29, 2017 by JR Smith

I've only shot one lens longer in focal length than 85mm in my photographic life; the Pentax-A 135/2.8. It was a lens I picked up on a lark this Spring and took it to a local college graduation ceremony.

Pentax-A 135mm  f/2.8 on Pentax LX body — Pentax-A 135mm f/2.8 on Pentax LX body

Telephoto lenses really make you see the world differently and I've been thinking that maybe I should shoot this 135 more. I've also been considering a zoom lens. I've never owned one and really never had the desire to until now.

I have so many different camera bodies, so the choices are vast. Manual focus or auto focus? Nikon? Pentax? Canon? Olympus? Minolta?

Right now, I am leaning towards finding an inexpensive Nikkor AF-D zoom and shoot it on my Nikon F4 body. Not sure. Suggestions are welcomed.

More Adventures with the Pentax 50mm f/1.4 8-Element Super Tak

November 23, 2017 by JR Smith

I've been meaning to try my lovely Super Takumar 8-Element 50 with some black and white film since I got it this spring. One thing has led to another and the months have slipped by. It was mid-November before I spooled up some Acros 100 in the Spotmatic and took a late afternoon stroll on the beach.

I love getting down to the sand just before sunset. My hope is always to get some interesting shots of people, silhouetted against a setting Pacific sun. As I arrived, there were the usual collection of folks walking their dogs.

And sitting with their dogs...

It was near low tide and the ocean had receded enough to allow me to get this interesting shadow selfie in the layers of exposed sand.

Two fellow photographers were conducting a portrait session with their DSLRs. The surf makes a great background for these kinds of shots. They seemed amused at the sight of my ancient Spotmatic and I got the usual "Is that a film camera?"

Up the beach, I came across some folks fishing and shot a series as the sun was setting.

I know that the capabilities of the 8-Element 50/1.4 Super Takumar far exceed my abilities as a photographer. This lens is pure joy to use with its exceptional build quality. And I am only beginning to discover the range of images it is capable of making.

Lightbox Wednesday #44: Selfie Special Edition

November 22, 2017 by JR Smith

I started taking self portraits with my classic film cameras for fun. As I became a more competent photographer, I used selfies for metering tests and close focusing.

My very first photography selfie was not with a film camera at all, but with my iPhone. I found a cool Kodachrome mirror on eBay and took a photo of myself after I had proudly hung it in my den.

My second one was with my first Polaroid Land Camera. I shot this at the end of a very long night of doing some intense camera repair work to get this old camera to eject exposed film properly. I treated myself to a nice glass of wine after I got this image. Or was it two glasses?

When I started this journey back into film photography, I wasn't very concerned with organizing my images. I was just shooting film and having fun. Earlier this year, when I started this Lightbox project of cleaning up my archives and labeling all of the images I wanted to keep, I realized that one of the unexpected benefits of shooting a selfie on many of the rolls I'd taken was that it allowed me to clearly identify the camera and lens I was using at the time.

Since that revelation, I have made it standard procedure to shoot one selfie either at the start or end of the roll to assist in future archiving. I am also considering adding a slate card in the shot to identify film used.

What started out as goofy fun became a benefit. Here are some of my selfies through the years.

Lightbox Wednesday #43: Special Edition

November 15, 2017 by JR Smith

If you are serious at all about photography, you will, at some point, get GAS. GAS or Gear Acquisition Syndrome is an affliction that effects most photographers at some point. If you shoot contemporary gear, you're chasing the most megapixels or faster image processing. If you're into classic analog gear like me, you're building out your Nikon system or wanting to try every Pentax film camera made. GAS can extend to accessory viewfinders, flash units, light meters, close up accessories, camera straps, bags and of course, lenses.

Lens GAS can really become an obsession because the internet is full of photographers extolling the virtues of this lens or that lens. Magical, mystical image rendering. Swirly bokeh. Incredible subject isolation. Razor sharp images. Creamy, dreamy color. 20mm, 35mm, 85mm, 105mm, macro, micro, defocus, f/0.95, fixed aperture, perspective control, extra low dispersion. It goes on and on.

Truth is, I've had real bad lens GAS and have spent time and money chasing some of these holy grail lenses. And some of them are really really good. And the chase has been fun and I have learned a lot. But as I work my way through this year long Lightbox Project; reviewing, editing, saving, deleting, organizing all of my photography from the past seven years, one thing has become very clear.

I've done some of my best work using prime 50mm lenses!

Yup. My most satisfying images have been made with 50s. And not always super fast, expensive 50s either. I've been blown away by images made by a 50 year old f/2 Takumar screw mount lens I bought for $30 and prehistoric Nikkors that came free on F2 bodies.

So while reading up on, researching, dreaming about and chasing that elusive lens, it just might be that the best lens you could ever own is the one that came with your camera.

Here are some of my favorite images, all shot with one of those fabulous 50s.

Shooting the 50mm f/3.5 MD Macro Rokkor-X

November 13, 2017 by JR Smith

Macro lenses are big fun! I especially like macro lenses that do double duty as normal primes. It's very convenient to take along a 50/55mm macro lens on a photo walk and should you stumble across something that deserves a close up, you can quickly grab the shot. Macros are great rainy day lenses as well. It's interesting to see if you can make interesting images photographing common things around the house.

I wasn't out looking for this lens. My Minolta MD Macro Rokkor-X 50mm f/3.5 lens came bundled with the XE-7 body I recently purchased.

Like the 50mm f/1.4 Rokkor lens that also was in this camera bundle, the 50/3.5 Macro lens is well made, light and compact. It's substantially lighter than the faster 50. This lens will focus from infinity to just a hair under 8 inches. It has nice, clicky f/stops and and pleasant focusing action. The recessed front lens element eliminates the need for a protective filter.

I tested this lens on my XE-7 using some expired Acros 100 film. 400 speed film would have been a better choice, allowing me faster shutter speeds. Some of my close up, handheld shots were a bit blurry due to the XE-7 selecting slower speeds. I also could have done better if I had used my tripod.

My first shots were at the office, during an exceptionally long and boring conference call. Yes, I had the phone on mute.

There's always an over abundance of leftover Halloween treats at the office.

I clicked off some more shots when I got home that night.

The evening's wine choice. Notice the texture on the part of the wine label where I focused. Nice!

The 50mm MD Macro Rokkor-X sells for $20-$60 on eBay. If you've got an X-series Minolta body, this would be a nice, low risk lens to add to your kit. I am going to play around with this lens some more with faster, fresher film. So far, I'm glad it was bundled with this camera.