This warms my heart!

Kodak brings back an iconic film! Ektachrome 100 returns!!

Lightbox Wednesday

Back in the days when I had a darkroom, I would routinely pull out sleeves of old negatives and throw them on my Portra-Trace lightbox. The Portra-Trace is a metal box which contains a cold light source inside and white translucent plexiglass on top. You place negatives or slides on top, the light would shine through them and you could decide which ones you wanted to print. I'd revisit old negatives and print them again or even discover negatives I hadn't printed before and give them a shot.

My lightbox and the darkroom are long gone, but I've been going through a similar process as I migrate my life over to a new MacBook Pro I bought over the holidays. My seven year old MacBook Air began dying a slow death in November, so rather than have a digital catastrophe, I began moving files to a G/Drive in anticipation of an orderly transition to the new laptop. In the process, I've been looking through lots of photographs I've taken sine re-entering film photography and it's reminded me of my darkroom light box days. Looking through these images again has been fun. So, in the spirit of the old analog lightbox days, I am launching a digital version every Wednesday here on the blog, sharing some of the photos I've shot since 2010.

Here's one from 2011 taken not long after I moved to Bodega Bay. I shot this with a Nikon F2 on Kodak Ektar 100 I think. One of the things this lightbox process has taught me is that I need to keep better notes on what camera, lens and film I use when I make photographs.

Miss Hailey, Bodega Bay CA, May 2011

Spa Time

One of my goals in 2016 was to show some love to the cameras in my collection that I enjoy using often. In most cases, this involved a CLA or Clean, Lubricate, Adjust.  With a few cameras, this required some more extensive repair and in one case, a modification.

If you enjoy using classic cameras, there is nothing quite like getting one back from the repair shop operating as close as possible to the way it was designed to. Knowing that you can head out for a day of photography with a  30, 40 or even 50 year old camera and depend on it to work flawlessly is very satisfying.

Modifications allow you to add some modern conveniences to old cameras making them more pleasant to use. And the more you use your cameras, the better it is for the camera and your photography skills.

I've used my trusted sources again this year: Sover Wong for Nikon F2 and Youxin Ye for Leica and Canon LTM. I've also tried three new repair shops and I'll share those experiences with you here on the blog in the New Year (just in case you're needing to send one of your cameras to the spa). Until then, Happy Holidays and all the best for 2017.

Nikon F2 with modified DP-11 finder

The Disregarded Normal f/2

Normal (50-55mm) f/2 prime lenses seem to be the most dismissed and disregarded of all the normal lenses for 35mm film photography. "Fast glass"...f/1.4, f/1.2 and even silly f/.95 lenses are sought after, bragged about and fetch the highest prices. The f/2 and, to a lesser extent, f/1.8 lenses were typically sold as kit lenses with SLR cameras during the film era. Like many gear-obsessed photographers, I have often found myself yearning for the fastest lens in a given focal length even when I rarely find myself in situations where I need to open my lenses all the way up.

When I started exploring Pentax M42 mount cameras and the extraordinary Super Takumar lenses of the Spotmatic era, I naturally opted for the 50mm f/1.4 Super Tak as my first Pentax screw mount lens. Based on my first few meager attempts at using the 1.4 and better yet, looking at what more talented photographers have posted on Flickr shooting this lens, the f/1.4 Super Takumar and Super Multi-Coated Takumar are probably right up there with some of the best lenses ever made for 35mm photography. Even today on digital cameras, these old Super Taks really perform. 

From my research, it seems that the Asahi Optical Company (Pentax) was very obsessed with Leica at this time. More than obsessed, they wanted to beat Leica in the quality of lenses. Well engineered and finely made, it is said that Pentax couldn't charge enough to re-coup their costs on the early Super Takumars. Having shot Lecia Summicron lenses, I will say that these Pentax lenses do have a unique, silky-smooth focus and satisfyingly clicky aperture ring. Why is all of this important? Well, a camera and a lens have to have a certain feel to them to get you to want to pick them up, hold them and shoot them. These Takumars really do!

One of my first Nikon lenses was a pre-Ai 50mm f/2 Nikkor. It's super sharp and it was super cheap. My latest f/2 normal lens is a 55mm Super Takumar that came mounted on a black Spotmatic SPII I bought. Having already acquired the 1.4 version of the 50 and the 1.8 version of the 55mm, I didn't give much thought to the slowest of the normal Super Takumars. The f/2 version of the 55mm lens was created as a less costly lens to bundle with Spotmatic bodies, but the quality-obsessed engineers at Pentax just couldn't find many ways to cut costs. I really think the engineers pulled the wool over the eyes of Pentax management because I can't find any difference between the feel and performance of this lens and the more costly Super Taks.

I took my black Spotmatic, this lens and a roll of soon to expire Portra 400 out for a walk on the Bill Kortum trail along the Sonoma Coast. It was a sunny day with some fog drifting in. Twenty feet down the trail, I came across this bird on a post.

I shoot far more black and white film than I do color and I am rarely satisfied with my color work, but when I got these scans back from the lab, I was very pleased. The colors delivered by the f/2 Super Tak are very pleasing to me and expressed the vision I had when I pressed the shutter.

The Kortum Trail crosses several wetland areas along the coast. In these areas, boardwalks have been created to protect the fragile environment.

I visit this trail often because it is close to my home, often affords nice photo opportunities and is a great place to clear my head. I often see people just standing along the cliffs, staring off into the ocean. Look closely at the photo below and you'll see someone doing just that.

I love the light fog and misty sea spray along the coast, but I've had a hard time capturing it properly on film. The 55mm f/2 Super Takumar is the first lens I have used that did an accurate job of capture.

The sun started getting low in the sky, so I headed back to the car. I spotted this couple posing for what I can only imagine were pre-wedding photographs. I didn't have time to meter, just dialed up what I thought would work and clicked the shutter. Despite the flare, this lens did an amazingly accurate job of capturing the late afternoon light and the scene as I saw it.

Back at the car, I snapped this shot of the Pacific. 

Back in town, I stopped to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. I tool this photo of some boats at the dock. I didn't compose well. Just clicked off the last frame on the 36 exposure roll. I don't even remember metering. When I got the scans back, this was the image that pleased me the most because it is a very good  example of what happens when a fine lens gets everything right. The colors in this shot are nearly perfect: the sun on the canopy of the boat in the foreground, the color of the orange buoys and the blue containers on the dock. The sky. Even the color of the water that day. The 55 f/2 Super Tak got it all right.

I don't know that I would have gone out looking for this lens. I probably never would have given the 55mm f/2 Super Takumar a second look if it didn't come mated to a body I was buying. This is a lens that handles so nicely, it wants you to shoot it. And it delivers images so nice, you certainly will. I love this lens!

Between The Storms

Of the six Autumns I have lived in Northern California, this one, the locals tell me, has been the most normal. I've only known California in drought, so the wet weather that filled the final weeks of October and two November storms are a new experience for me. It's been nice to see the reservoirs fill and the hills turn green. Between the storms, it's given me a chance to meander down to the beach on the weekends and use up film I had loaded in my Olympus OM-4 and Pentax Spotmatic.

Olympus OM-4 with 50mm f/1.8 Zuiko

Olympus OM-4 with 50mm f/1.8 Zuiko

The shots below were taken with my Pentax Spotmatic on Kodak Tmax 100 film. I was flipping back and forth between my 55mm f/1.8 Super Takumar and the 50mm f/1.4 Super Tak. I also just picked up a minty 55mm f/2.0 Super Takumar.

Less daylight means less weekday photography for me. It's dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark when I get home in the evening. Makes these weekend walks so precious.

Five Dollar Fun

When I wrote a while back about my Pentax Spotmatic camera, fellow blogger and photographer Mike Connealy mentioned in the comments section that I might like adding a close up lens to my Takumar lens kit. Doesn't take much more prodding than that to get me onto eBay looking at photo gear and I was quite surprised to find an OEM Asahi Pentax close up lens for five bucks with free shipping!  

Pentax Spotmatic SP II with Close Up Lens and Case

My filter arrived on a rainy day, so I took the opportunity to experiment a bit. The Spotmatic was loaded with Eastman 5222 Double-X black and white film which I was shooting at 200 ASA. My cameras are always a favorite photo subject of mine, so I shot my Nikon F2.

And my Dad's Kodak Retina.

Rain drops on my window...

My JCH film canisters, loaded with film for my trip to New York...

The latch on my porch gate...

And a Pentax lens on my desk...

Eastman 5222 is not the best choice for macro photography, but that is what was in the camera, so I went with it. I'm also a bit handicapped right now as I've been shooting with my left eye while I await cataract surgery on my right (shooting) eye, making focusing more difficult for me. It'll be nice to have that right eye back again.

Mike was right! This inexpensive little close up lens is going to be put to good use this winter as the rainy season envelopes the Sonoma Coast. Best five dollars I have ever spent. Thanks Mike!

Classic Cameras

It's taken me about six years of buying and selling and lots of trial and error to final settle in with a collection of classic film cameras that I enjoy using. When the weekend comes, I feel like the wealthy guy who has a garage full of classic cars--"Let's see, which one will I drive today?" My investment in vintage Nikon, Pentax, Canon and even Leica is modest in comparison to classic car collecting, but the hobby gives me priceless pleasure and satisfaction.

One Sunday a few weeks back, I headed up the Northern California coast a bit to Salmon Creek. Word around town was that a fishing boat had washed ashore on the beach there and I thought it might make a good photographic subject. I went to my "camera garage" and pulled out the Nikon F2A and 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor lens. The 1.8 is probably the most common manual focus normal Nikon lens and the least expensive, but I have always found it to be very sharp. Some of my favorite images have been shot with this lens.

The beached fishing boat was just a short walk from the parking lot at Salmon Creek. The day was nice enough, so I slipped off my sneakers and sunk my feet into the warm sand as I scrambled over the dune to the beach.

I'm used to seeing lots of fishing boats like this one at Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay. It was startling to see the sad Verna A II sunk into the sand, listing to port.

Beached Fishing Boat, Salmon Creek, Sonoma Coast

It was nice day and the beach was crowded. I am sure many of the people who came out to enjoy an early Autumn walk along the coast were surprised to see this boat stuck in the sand. It was hard to get a shot without lots of onlookers in the frame.

The Verna A II, home port Fort Bragg, CA

This was the first roll of film I had run through my Nikon F2A since getting her back from a Sover Wong tune-up. I think the F2A's old meter did a pretty good job helping me with my exposures on this slightly hazy day. The afternoon was perfect--a slight breeze and warm sunshine. I wandered down the beach and clicked off a few more frames of Tmax 100.

I feel that I am in sort of sweet spot now in my film photography hobby. I have a "garage" full of working vintage cameras, most of which have been restored to as designed functionality. It's fun to pick up a camera I haven't used in a while and get to know it again. While not as thrilling as taking a classic Porsche or an old American muscle car for a Sunday spin, my little collection of old cameras has provided hours of fun.

One Little Thing

With all that's going on in the world, it's easy to think that the little things just don't matter. It's a pretty big planet and it's hard to imagine something you or I can do that'll much make a difference anywhere. I think about that sometimes when I stop to separate my trash from the recyclables or make a conscious effort to use less water. At my age, at this point, do these little things really matter?

My thinking on all this got a kick in the butt last weekend as I stood in the drizzle on Scotty's Beach on the Northern California coast and watched volunteers from the Marine Mammal Center release rescued seals and sea lions back into the Pacific Ocean. Each year, scores of local volunteers respond to calls about injured animals. Once the calls come in, the Center responds and evaluates the sick or injured animal. Seals and sea lions that are treatable are transported to facilities in Sausalito where they are cared for and nursed back to health.

Once these treated animals have recovered, they are released back into the wild. During the release I witnessed, two sea lions and a harbor seal scampered happily down the sand and back into the ocean. Anyone who has visited the Northern California coast knows that the Pacific Coast Highway clings for dear life along the cliffs and beaches here. Parking is at a premium, but on this morning a local rancher opened up one of his pastures and volunteers escorted everyone through the cow pies for easy parking on the inland side of the highway. Several folks held taught a heavy rope so those not so sure footed could make a safe decent from the roadside down to the beach. About 50 or so onlookers shared umbrellas as a rare October storm blew through before clearing just a few minutes prior to the release.

Looking north up the Pacific Coast Highway at Scotty's Beach

My motor-driven Nikon F4 with a nice telephoto, loaded with some high speed color film would have been the better choice for this event, but I had no idea what I would be seeing that day and the rainy morning kept me from bringing my more valuable gear. My Pentax Spotmatic was loaded with Eastman 5222 black and white film so I grabbed that thinking I could keep it dry under my windbreaker. Excuse my exposures, messy compositions and flare from shooting into the sun which just broke through as the little harbor seal left his transport and headed home.

We were told to be quiet during the release so as not to distract the seal. Volunteers held wood boards to coax the animal back towards the sea if it ventured into the crowd. Outside of the sound of the surf, all I could hear were the people standing next to me gasping in amazement as the little patient made his way back into the water, finally disappearing into the foam. The crowd applauded and I looked around and watched people wiping tears from their eyes, everyone realizing at once how special what we had just witnessed really was.

Next up, the release of two sea lions which had been transported from Sausalito to Bodega Bay in a special container built by inmates at San Quentin Prison.

The folks from the Center told us that the two sea lions might touch noses, a sign of affection towards each other, as they headed towards the water. To everyone's delight, they did just a moment after I took this photo. No motor-drive...drat!

As they headed home, they would occasionally stop and survey the humans along the barrier ropes. I considered that maybe they were stopping to say "thank you." It's easy for us to try and transpose human thought and emotions on other creatures, but it didn't really matter. As strange as it may sound, for that moment, on that beach, I felt a bond. Mammals helping other mammals. And then, they were gone.

The crowd dispersed slowly, quietly. It was almost as if we had all attended a religious ceremony. It was for me. A representative from the Marine Mammal Center told us that the merchants down in Bodega Bay were donating a percentage of their profits that day to the Center and I saw familiar faces from the release event back in town, shopping and having lunch. I know, in the big scheme of things, returning a seal and two sea lions to the ocean doesn't change much, but it made me realize that people CAN individually and collectively do really good and important things. 

2016 has been a year of startling environmental awareness for me. As I drove into the Southern entrance of Yosemite and saw the effects of California's long drought on mountain vegetation or shot photos of crab fishing boats at Bodega Bay idled because warmer ocean waters grew algae that made the crab toxic, it's become evident to me that we need to take action...now.

All the good little things we do ARE important because they add up to big things. 

A Sunday Walk on The Beach

During the nearly three decades I lived in Arizona, it was common each Summer for the multitudes of desert dwellers to make a seasonal trek over to the beaches of Southern California to escape the heat. In San Diego, they even had a name for us--Zonies. Just like the "Snowbirds", those Winter visitors from Minnesota, Illinois and other snowbound states who stream into Arizona around Thanksgiving each year to flee the cold, the Zonies would flock to San Diego, Orange County beaches and Santa Barbara to frolic in California's near perfect Summer weather.

SoCal beaches are packed during the Summer, so it always amazes me when I can take a Sunday stroll on one of the beaches close to my home on the Sonoma Coast and hardly see a soul. Such was the case on a recent Sunday. The sun was out and the temperatures were warm (by Northern California standards). A perfect day for a Sunday walk on the beach.

Pentax Spotmatic SPII with 50mm f/1.4 Super Multi-Coated Takumar

I'm still getting to know my Pentax Spotmatic and decided to load it with some Ultrafine 100 black and white film. I bought a stash of this film a few years ago and each time I have used it, the results have not been satisfying. The Ultrafine I bought came in 24 exposure rolls, which I thought would be perfect for a Sunday stroll. And with so many rolls of this stuff staring at me from the refrigerator shelf, it was time to start using it up.

As you can see, I had the beach pretty much to myself...

I've found that a bright day on the beach with sand, water and rocks can mess up some in-camera meters, but the old Spotmatic's TTL meter did a decent job I think.

Some spot metering on the rocks in this next shot would have helped me bring out the detail on the rock faces, but it's not bad as is...

I came across a couple sitting on the beach, letting their little dog play in the waves. I had a good time watching this pup dart in and out of the water, running for his life as the big-to-him waves came slapping back against the shore.

My results this time with Ultrafine were pleasing. There's nice tonality, sharpness and relatively little grain. Perhaps this film just finds it's sweet spot through these Super Takumar lenses. Maybe the light was just right. 

I grabbed one more shot of this guy, contemplating the sea before the sun set.

I've really been thinking a lot that I should find one black and white film and use it exclusively. Really learn how to expose it correctly. Start processing it at home and find a developer that really makes it sing. Just about the time I think that film is Tmax 100 or Acros or Tri-X, I shoot a roll of something else and it makes me pause. I've pretty much settled on Kodak's Portra 400, exposed at half the box speed, as my color film. The clear choice in black and white emulsions in still elusive.

The Spotmatic

There really aren't a lot of advantages to getting older. The "with age comes wisdom" thing is overrated. Your hair thins or turns gray or both. You put weight on more easily. Your knees hurt, your joints ache. You find yourself saying the same things that made you cringe when your father said them..."Things were certainly a lot better, simpler, quieter, easier back in my day."

I suppose one advantage to being around this long and living during the five decades that the world transitioned from analog to digital, is that the expensive cameras that I looked at as a kid through the window of the local camera store or stared for hours at in the pages of photography magazines are now readily available, inexpensive and serviceable. Better yet, the affordability of analog cameras has given me the opportunity to try some that I never would have if they weren't dirt cheap. And several of these have pleasantly surprised me.

One such camera was the Olympus OM-2n that I wrote about a while back. More recently, it's been the Pentax Spotmatic. This is a camera that I have mostly always ignored for its quirky stop down metering and reliance on Mercury batteries. Recently though, I've been reading up on the Spotmatic years at Pentax and the incredible Takumar lenses that they were making for these cameras. I was surprised to learn that Asahi Optical Company (Pentax) was the first camera manufacturer to put through-the-lens (TTL) metering in a 35mm SLR. Now back in 1963, TTL metering was space age stuff! This new method of metering made it simple for photographers to take better pictures more consistently. The Spotmatics sold like hotcakes!

This was also a time when Japanese camera and lens manufacturers were striving for high quality. Asahi Pentax was set on outdoing Leica and the story goes that the 50 and 55mm Super Takumars cost more to make than the company could competitively sell them for. The more I read, the more I wanted to try some of this great Pentax glass. And what better platform to shoot them on than the cameras they were designed for.

It took me a while to find a decent Spotmatic. While there are lots and lots of them for sale on eBay, many of them have been used hard and not stored properly. The first one I bought for $24 arrived with corrosion around the lens mount which was not evident on the photos and not disclosed by the seller. The second one I bought seemed to work ok at first, then the mirror locked up. Once I got it unstuck, oodles and oodles of black specks of mirror foam and other nasties came pouring out of the camera. In addition, upon close inspection, the battery chamber had some corrosion which had crept deep into the camera body. I'm only $32 out of pocket at this point, so I decide to try another route. 

Sometimes, the best place to buy an old camera is from the few people left out there who are servicing them. I found Eric Hendrickson on the Web. Eric specializes in restoring Pentax film cameras and I wrote and asked him if he had any Spotmatics for sale that have been CLAd. A few emails back and forth and a freshly restored Spotmatic SP was waiting for me at the Post Office! 

The camera I received from Eric worked as designed. I also picked up a 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar on eBay. The Super Tak I bought is one of the "radioactive" Pentax lenses. Lens manufacturers were using the radioactive element Thorium on lens elements in those days. It's what causes the yellowing you see on lots of old Takumars. I don't know what effect the yellowing has on photographs. I imagine it acts as a mild yellow filter in black and white photography and perhaps adds a yellowish cast to color photos. I'm not sure. I haven't shot any color film in my Spotmatic yet, only some expired Kodak Plus-X. Here's a shot of a really expensive bottle of wine I decided to open one night. The Pentax lens gave this a buttery, dreamy feeling.

One of the issues I have with lots of cameras is the ability to focus correctly with my eyesight. I wear +1.75 readers and on my Nikon cameras I use a +0.5 diopter. Some of my cameras, like the Nikon F4, Contax RX and Olympus OM-4 have built in adjustable diopters. The Spotmatics don't and without having a split-image focusing aid in the viewfinder, I had some difficulty knowing if my shots were in focus. I've since picked up a little +1.00 diopter lens that slides over the Pentax viewfinder and presto--clear focusing! Out on my deck, I snapped a shot of a fishing buoy that I found on the beach. I hung the buoy up and I like looking at it, wondering where it's been. I think the old metering cell in the Spotmatic did a good job here.

The Spotmatic arrived a few days before a planned trip to Yosemite. I tossed it into my bag along with the Nikon FM2n (loaded with Portra 400) and the Olympus OM-2n (loaded with Tmax 100). I thought it might be fun to shoot some vintage Plus-X in the park.

The porch light outside my room at the Ahwahnee Hotel.

And one of a million shots I took of Half Dome.

I found the Spotmatic to be a pleasant camera to use. I liked it a lot more than I expected. The stop down metering is a bit awkward at first, but after a while it becomes second nature. This is a camera that can teach beginners quite a bit about the fundamentals of photography: exposure and depth-of-field. It also turns out that the 1.35v Mercury battery thing is a non-issue. The Spotmatic has metering circuitry that works just fine with 1.5v button cell batteries. The Mercury cells were a little larger than the 1.5v versions, but Batteries+ sells one with a rubber grommet attached and it works just great! Once I got my hands on a Spotmatic that was working properly, I found myself wanting to shoot it more and more. I have quite a few rolls of film yet to develop. 

I went looking for another Super Takumar lens that didn't have the yellowish tint and that lens came attached to a Spotmatic SPII. I also picked up the last in the Spotmatic line, the ESII. ES stands for Electro-Spotmatic. This final camera in the series features aperture-priority automation and open-aperture metering. I also bought a 28mm Super Tak on eBay and that lens came with the H3v body, which is the father of the Spotmatic series. This entire Pentax adventure has cost me less than one of my Nikon F2 bodies.

The Spotmatic is a well made, minimalist camera that mates with very a impressive arsenal of fine optics. There are also lots of M42 Pentax screw mount lenses from other manufacturers that work on the Spotmatic. I'm looking forward to trying some of those as well.

I need to get to know this camera system better, but for right now...it's a keeper!

Cheers!

My Continuing Adventures with the 55mm Micro-Nikkor

I've gotten more use out of and had more fun with my 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens than any other piece of photographic equipment I own.

Nikon F2AS with 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor Lens

As I've been sorting and archiving some of my photography to back up cloud storage, I am realizing how many pleasing images I have made with this lens. Mostly just shooting around the house on an otherwise boring and unproductive day. Here are some of my favorites.

Prices on these lenses go up and down. I've seen them as cheap as a buck a millimeter and as high as $200. They are readily available. Since the front element is recessed, the glass on these is usually scratch free. And the 55 Micro-Nikkor is from the metal and glass Nikon lens era, so they're virtually indestructible. If you shoot Nikon F mount, this is a fun macro lens that you can also use as your walk around normal.

Rainy day selfie, Nikon F2AS, 55mm Micro-Nikkor

Reel to Real

When it comes to developing my own film, I've never become proficient at loading film on to stainless steel reels. I tried it 40 years ago and fumbled around in the dark so much that I ended up buying the Paterson ratchet-load plastic reels and tanks and have used them ever since. They're easy...super easy to load.

That doesn't keep me from admiring and buying a few stainless steel tank sets every now and again. I use one on my desk to hold odds and ends. And over the years, they've become favorite subjects of mine for close up photography.

Nikon F2 with 55mm Micro-Nikkor

Nikon F2 with 55mm Micro-Nikkor

iPhone 5s

Olympus OM2n

After shooting my way through Nikon, Contax, Pentax, Leica, Hasselblad, Canon, Mamiya, Konica and a few others, I am going to make a pretty bold statement here. And I've given a lot of thought to this, because I sometimes read camera reviews where the author says things like "I'll never need another rangefinder" or "the best darn SLR bar none," and then a few reviews later, is making even grander statements about his or her next camera. Believe me, I understand how easy it is to jump up and down about a new/old camera.

Here, I try and be as objective as I can when I write about cameras, but the truth is that I love learning about them and using them. Sometimes, it's hard to be objective when you've spent months looking at and researching the subject of your photographic desire, searching the eBay ads or the listings at KEH Camera, then finally finding just the one you want at just the price you can afford. It arrives, you carefully open the box and hold it for the first time. Enthusiasm and pride swells. You hold the camera to your eye, push the film advance and fire the shutter. Ahhh. Bliss. This new camera euphoria can last for a while and I find it best not to put my thoughts down while I am under the spell because I will most likely gush praise. After a few weeks and a roll or two, after carrying the camera around on a busy street or up a hiking trail, after having it along side me for a bit, I am in a better position to write a more honest piece.

So now back to my bold statement: If I had to sell all of my cameras and keep just one, it would be the Olympus OM2n. Yep...the Olympus OM2n. Now I hope I don't have to sell them anytime soon and life certainly wouldn't be as much fun if I did, but I'm pretty sure I could snap away for the rest of my days with this cool little SLR and be very happy. This is a camera that just makes you want to pick it up, hold it and use it. After living with it, using it, carrying it around...this is a wonderful camera!

Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko

The OM2 was a 1975 improvement over the revolutionary OM1 which debuted in 1972. The OM1 was a manual, mechanical SLR. The OM2 added aperture-priority auto-exposure driven by a revolutionary TTL/off the film plane metering system.

Olympus turned the camera world on end when it introduced the OM cameras. Up until that time, SLRs were getting bigger and heavier. Olympus went the opposite direction and shrunk the package down to a very compact size. I'm beginning to appreciate small, light cameras. I suppose this is what I like so much about the Leica M bodies. So it's no surprise that these OM cameras feel so good in my hand. Olympus designers took their cues from the Leica M rangefinders, so much so that the OM1 was originally called an M1, until Leica threw a fit and Olympus conceded.

The first OM cameras sold like crazy. Nikon and Pentax took notice and downsized their cameras as well, beginning a trend towards more compact and feature-laiden cameras that would last until the end of the film era. Olympus would release four OM single digit cameras for professional/advanced users: OM1, OM2, OM3 and OM4.  Refinements to each would add a letter: OM1n, OM2n, OM3T, etc. The consumer OM cameras got two digits: OM10, OM20, etc.

I bought my OM2n from Camera West here in California for $85. They installed new seals for me for free before shipping, one of the benefits of dealing with a retailer who values satisfied, repeat customers. I had already picked up a 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko OM lens in anticipation. 

The first thing you notice about an OM2n compared to say..a Nikon F2..is size and weight. The OM cameras are much smaller and lighter, yet feel just as nicely made. Maybe I am imagining it, but the OM2n feels more "dense" than my other SLRs. I suppose because there's so much packed into a smaller package. One also has to get used to the shutter speed control around the lens mount rather than on the top of the camera. Beyond the unusual placement of the shutter speed control, everything else on this camera is traditional,  well placed and intuitive. 

Top view of the OM2n

The camera takes two common SR44 batteries. There's a four position switch on the top of the camera that you push up for battery test (a red LED glows on the camera back if the battery is good), down once for AUTO mode, down one more for OFF and straight down for MANUAL control.

The viewfinder is HUGE. I say that again...the viewfinder is HUGE! It's one of the things that makes this camera such a delight to use. The metering display is joyfully analog simple. AUTO mode displays a needle showing the shutter speed that the camera has decided on, based on the aperture you've selected. MANUAL mode shows a + and - . Center the needle and you've nailed exposure. 

I carried the OM2n most everywhere with me for a couple of weeks. It's so small that it disappeared into my HEX laptop bag that I carry to the office with me each day. I've worn it for hours over my shoulder on a Think Tank gripper strap and hardly noticed it. In use, the OM2n feels just right in my hand. This is a thoughtfully designed, solid, metal, well balanced SLR that feels so good, you just want to shoot and shoot.

I loaded up a roll of Kodak Portra 400 in the camera as my first roll, only remembering after I had advanced the film to the first frame that this roll was from an expired batch. Oh well, it wasn't that expired. My first shot with the OM2n was on my way to work one morning. I dropped my mail at the little Post Office in Bodega and grabbed the camera from my bag to get a shot of the local surf shop across the street. This little business is a repeat subject of mine. The colorful store front graphics look good in color and black and white.

Surf Shop, Bodega, CA  Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko on Kodak Portra 400

I've gotten to the point in my life where I need to shed a few pounds, so I've made some lifestyle changes. In addition to a new gluten free diet plan, daily exercise is part of my day. Mostly brisk walks around my neighborhood. I carried the OM2n with me and got some late season blooms.

Coastal Flowers   Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko on Kodak Portra 400

Coastal Flowers   Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko on Kodak Portra 400

It's a luxury living close enough to the beach to be able to take a walk along it whenever I want. It's a luxury I never take for granted. Here's my path down to the sand.

Path to Doran Beach, Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko, Expired Portra 400

It was an overcast day with a fairly calm sea. Perfect for kayaking.

Kayaker off the Sonoma Coast   Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko on Kodak Portra

Even an overcast day is a nice day on the beach...

Sonoma Coast   Olympus OM2n, 50mm f/1.4 Zuiko on Kodak Portra

And of course, when I got home, the obligatory selfie...

Me with the OM2n on expired Portra 400

Olympus never achieved the status of Canon or Nikon during the 1970s--what I consider to be the Golden Age of 35mm film SLRs. Even though they offered motor drives and a suite of really good Zuiko lenses, their big Japanese competitors dominated the professional and advanced amateur markets. I realize now how much Nikon and Canon's marketing and dominance still influenced me 40 years later, making me come very late to the Olympus party. I'm sorry now that I waited so long. The Olympus OM2n is an impressive, very capable camera that is still very relevant today for anyone wanting to shoot film. 

How much have I loved shooting the OM2n? Enough to buy a second in black!

Double trouble

A few shots from a Sunday stroll...

Each time I load a roll of Kodak Plus-X 125 into one of my cameras, the importance of the moment is not lost on me. I'm down to just a handful of rolls of this iconic film. Yeah, I know...it's just film...but Plus-X, along with venerable Tri-X, were the films I cut my photographic teeth on. I like shooting it, both for the nostalgic pleasure and the satisfying results it provides.

Spooling some Plus-X into the early 1960s vintage Leica M2 with same vintage Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM lens and I've got a retro and fun kit for a beach stroll. It was a Sunday afternoon and the sun began burning through the marine layer, so I headed out. Here are some shadows on my deck...

Some foam on the beach...

As is typical along the Sonoma Coast, the marine layer obscured the sun not long after I started walking the beach. Not a great day for a slower film like Plus-X, but still okay...

Of course, by the time I returned home, the sun was again poking through the gray. Here's a closer shot of shadows and light on my patio furniture.

The Leica M2 is my favorite M body. It's simple, small, feels great in your hand and I think it has the most satisfying shutter sound of any Leica. I just love using it! The Canon 50mm f/1.4 is a mate to my Canon P rangefinder, but with the M to LTM Leica adapter, the screw mount Canon lens mounts nicely to the M2 and brings up the 50mm frame lines perfectly. And I think this vintage lens renders nicely on Plus-X.

The List

If you followed my old WordPress blog or have been reading this one for a while, you have probably seen a pattern here. A baby boomer, happily shooting his way through the cameras he lusted after during his youth. The cameras that I looked at in the pages of Modern Photography magazine or occasionally got to hold when I visited the camera shop to pick up film or darkroom chemicals are mostly the subject of this blog.

In 2010, when I got back into film photography, I made a list of those "dreamed of" cameras of my youth. Since then, with much joy and few disappointments, I've worked my way through much of the list. G.A.S. or Gear Acquisition Syndrome, has not broken the bank or left me homeless either. I started with a modest investment in a couple of Nikons (FE and FE2) and sold those to finance the next camera on my list. Along the way, two 1950s era Nikon rangefinders that I really didn't like shooting much, turned into my best investments. Upon selling, the Nikons I didn't warm up to netted me enough profit to buy my first Leica.

There were a few cameras that I didn't expect to like and ended up falling in love with. I bought a Canon Populaire rangefinder on a lark and enjoyed it so much that I invested in a full on Youxin Ye CLA. If you want to shoot Leica screw mount lenses and don't want to spend oodles on a Leica body, these Canon P bodies are cheap on eBay and they are...well...just wonderful!

And there were some that weren't even on my list. My blogging friend Jim Grey wrote nice things about the Pentax MX, ME, ME Super line of cameras and gushed enough praise that I went on a hunt for one of these small-ish SLRs. The Pentax ME Super and 50mm lens I bought for next to nothing on eBay absolutely blew me away!

Leica M rangefinders are very nice cameras to shoot, so I thought that the Leica R series of SLRs would be fabulous too. Putting a Leica R6 through its paces, I found the ergonomics of the camera not well suited to my style of shooting. In addition, its shutter was loud and mirror black out time annoying. The R6 did net me almost $300 profit on an eBay auction, so all was not lost.

So, I am down to the last few cameras on my 2010 list. Next up: the Olympus OM. I'm shooting two from the series right now, an OM-4 and an OM-2n. Field notes and reviews coming on both very soon. The last camera on my list has been the most difficult to find in good condition. Can you guess what it is?

Shooting Ilford HP5+ In The Nikon F2A

I've never been much of an Ilford film guy. And I probably should be because Ilford has hung in there making black and white film as the world transitioned to digital photography. I love black and white photography and I need food for all these old film cameras I own. Those two reasons alone ought to have me adding a few rolls of Ilford to each B&H order. Truth is, I've never had much luck shooting Ilford. I bought a brick of Delta 100 a few years ago and still have half in the fridge. Recently, I've seen some nice images from photographers I follow on Flickr which have been rendered on Ilford's HP5+ 400 speed film. When I needed to replenish my stock of Portra 400 recently, I decided to add a few rolls of HP5+ to my B&H order and give it a try.

When I shot Delta a few years ago, my results were disappointing...harsh and stark. I have to admit, I probably didn't give it a fair shake. I'm shooting 40 year old cameras and most of my photography is in full sun with the light reflecting off of sand and water or I'm shrouded in fog with a zillion shades of gray. It's no wonder my light meters throw fits and one or two rolls of something don't make for an accurate evaluation. Needless to say, my disappointing test drives with Delta haven't motivated me to shoot any more.

My film stock shipment from B&H arrived about the same time I received my Nikon F2A back from a CLA in Sover Wong's shop in the UK. Sover does amazing work on these old Nikons and I was anxious to put mine through it's paces. I shot a roll of Portra 400 and a roll of Ilford HP5 that weekend. Here are a couple of images from the roll of Portra.

Fort Ross Cove, Nikon F2A, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S

California Coast near Fort Ross, Nikon F2A, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S

I've settled into a routine of shooting Portra 400 at half the box speed and I like the results. No matter which camera I am using, this Kodak film delivers consistent results. The following day, bright sun gave way to overcast skies. The marine layer pressed down close to the hilltops. I loaded my F2A with a roll of Ilford HP5 and headed down to the marina area in Bodega Bay. 

Nikon F2A, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor

Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay. Nikon F2A, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor

Bodega Bay, Nikon F2A, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor

The old pier at Bodega Bay. Nikon F2A, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor

Fishing boat storage yard, Bodega Bay. Nikon F2A, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor

End of abandoned pier, Bodega Bay. Nikon F2A, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor

Perhaps it was the dreary day I shot the Ilford, but I wasn't happy with any of the images I made. Compared to Tmax 400, grain is way more apparent. There is a harshness to the photographs that I just don't find pleasing. Even though my camera's light meter was just calibrated a week before, my exposures seemed off on every shot. I had to fiddle with all of these in post processing, something I try never to do.  It could be that the light this day, with everything seemingly awash in middle gray, fooled the 60/40 center-weighted meter in my F2. Maybe my lab isn't any good at processing Ilford. Or, it could be that I just don't know how to shoot Ilford films.

Given that I shoot lots of old cameras and lenses in some crazy lighting situations, I probably should follow the tried and true advice of finding one film, sticking with it and learning it well. I'd probably end up with more predictable results. However, given the remaining stock of Ilford Delta and HP5 I have in the fridge, I'll probably do more research and more photography to see if can get images that please me.

My Nikon F2A, just back from a Sover Wong CLA

Depreciation

My photography life is sort of a trilogy.

1970s -- I started dabbling in photography when I was 13 or so. A friend had an Argus C-3 and developed film in his basement darkroom. I thought that was cool. I borrowed my Dad's Kodak Retina 35mm rangefinder and started shooting lots of Plus-X and Tri-X. As a teen, photography kept me out of trouble...mostly.

The Nikon N90s with vertical grip.

1990s -- After high school, I hardly took a picture at all for the next couple of decades. Even after I got married and had kids, those little drugstore disposable cameras seem to be what I used the most, especially on family vacations to Disneyland. One day, I happened to be sitting in a doctor's office and picked up a copy of Popular Photography. Flipping through the pages, looking at the camera ads, I got wispy-eyed and realized how long it had been since I had taken a serious photograph and how much I missed that. I had a few bucks at this point and decided I needed a hobby. When I was a teenager, I dreamed of someday owning a Nikon F2. By the mid-90s, Nikon's newest offering was the N90s, an electronic, matrix-metering, auto-focus, motor-driven marvel. I saved for few months, pulled some money out of the bank, headed down to Lewis Camera Exchange in Scottsdale, AZ and bought myself the N90s with the add on vertical grip and a 50mm f/1.8 AF-D lens. As I recall, all in for this kit was about $1400. More money than I had ever spent on any hobby, ever. The N90s was a truly fabulous camera and it got me back into photography in a big way. I even built my dream darkroom in my suburban Phoenix home. But, as someone once said to me, life is a silly old bird and as the flat gray paint was barely dry on the walls of my new darkroom, my marriage began falling apart. The N90s, the cool and very large Omega Pro-Lab enlarger, print washer, tanks, trays and all my photography stuff was sold for pennies on the dollar to help pay for divorce lawyers.

2016 -- It took a decade for me to clean up and pay for my divorce. Ten years of mostly just survival. After relocating to California in 2010, the photography bug bit again. A Nikon FE2 I picked up on eBay started me on the third part of my photography journey. I'm enjoying this one the most. Digital photography has made once expensive and unaffordable cameras affordable.

This week, I dropped off a few rolls of Portra 400 for processing at my local camera shop. When I am there, I always check their used camera case. Sitting there on the top shelf, I saw an old friend -- a decent looking Nikon N90s with 50mm AF-D lens and vertical grip. Sale tag: $39.95. My what a difference 20 years make.

Out of my comfort zone: Street photography with the Leica M.

As a hobbyist photographer, I take pictures and fiddle with various cameras because it gives me pleasure, relieves stress, relaxes me, provides a creative release and is fun. Because I enjoy it, because it is fun, I do it often. The benefit of doing something often is that you get better at doing it. Your understanding of it and your skill at doing it improves. It's like exercise. If you enjoy walking and walk every day, your health will improve...unintended or not.

I think my technical skills have improved over the last six and half years. I'm getting better at seeing, composing, exposing. I'm feeling more confident in my ability to use the equipment properly. But I've mostly limited myself to a solitary pursuit of subject matter. I shoot landscapes, buildings, relics, interesting patterns, objects. And I take a lot of photos of my cameras and related accessories. I've avoided most photography which requires interaction with other people. The type of photography I've done so far is that which I find the most enjoyable, fun and...comfortable. And while there's nothing wrong with that, there is a part of me that admires photographers who can take great portraits or who are good at street photography. Because I've never found people photography or street photography fun, I've avoided it and have never grown my skills.

I wrote in an earlier post, that I bought my Leica M9-P as a learning tool. A digital platform to give me faster access to my images so that I could grow as a photographer. It occurred to me several weeks ago that the M camera and my 35mm Summicron was the perfect kit to venture out and try some street photography. Maybe I could practice some of the street photography skills I have read about and conquer my fear of photographing around people. 

The Leica M system really shines for this kind of photography. The small, light rangefinder would be easy to carry and the 35mm lens is the perfect focal length for shooting on the streets. I wanted my images to be in black and white and the M9 provides a very cool feature that allows you to create a black and white JPEG and a raw (DNG) color file at the same time.

I live just an hour from one of the great street photography cities of the world, San Francisco. So last weekend, I headed to the city, M9 in hand, a fresh SD card in the slot and an extra battery in my pocket to push myself out of my comfort zone. I cranked the ISO up to 1000 so I could shoot most everything at f/11 or 16. I used zone focusing for all of the shots in this gallery, making good use of the well marked depth-of-field scale on the top of the Summicron lens.

My hotel was in Union Square, so it was a short walk to Chinatown. At first, I settled into my old habit of avoiding people.

I became aware of a few things while shooting the Leica on the streets. First, there really is an advantage to using a rangefinder for this type of photography as you watch the world move into and out of your frame lines. In a way, the camera sort of becomes invisible, more an extension of your own seeing. I never feel this way shooting one of my 35mm SLRs. With my Nikon F2, for instance, I feel much more like I am looking at the world through a tube. There is also a bit more connection with what I am shooting using a rangefinder. I suppose it is because you are looking directly through the viewfinder at your subject rather than at an image reflected off the mirror of an SLR. Lastly, my vintage looking digital Leica rangefinder did not seem to intimidate anyone at all. I've tried this type of photography with my Nikons and my Contax RX SLRs and it seemed people were far more aware of those cameras. Or at least, that is how I perceived it. With a bit more confidence, I started shooting some people.

I watched this woman gazing at the food through this shop window for some time before she moved to the left side of the frame, which I thought made an interesting shot.

Just down the street, a busy fish market.

I lost my nerve while photographing in this alley. Just to the left, out of frame, three guys were huddled doing who knows what. The saw me with my camera and gave me a look that I read as "back off." I did, but grabbed this shot of some cool urban art before disappearing with my Leica in the crowd.

There was a parade of some sort. Too many people to get anything really good here. I clicked off several shots and liked this one best.

I am fascinated with the dark alleys and back spaces off the main streets in San Francisco. I'd love to come back and spend just a day shooting in these places.

I stopped and watched this woman folding old cardboard boxes neatly into the back of a truck for recycling I suppose. I tried to get a good shot of her, then a shot of her and the Transamerica Tower in the background and then a shot of her and her helper on the ground. It never worked out for me and towards the end, she noticed me and started waving me off. My only negative interaction of the day.

I made my way out of Chinatown, back towards Union Square. Couldn't resist stopping at the Leica Store and picking up a soft shutter release. In typical Leica fashion, it set me back $75. There were plenty of people milling about Union Square and along Powell Street as I made my way towards Market.

The sun was starting to set as I crossed Market to make my way back up Powell to Union Square. I clicked off this shot which like a lot.

I like the way the M9 renders in black and white mode and even at a high ISO setting, I don't think the images got grainy or gritty looking. And even if they did, for urban street photography, this might be just fine. Zone focusing, especially with the 35mm lens, worked just like I read it would, freeing up my attention to getting a good shot rather than worrying if I was in focus. With practice, this might even be faster than autofocus, at least on the AF cameras I have used. I can see why so many accomplished street photographers, past and present, use the Leica M. It's just a perfect tool for this kind of shooting. Most importantly, I had fun this day which grew my confidence level. 

On the way out of town, crossing the Golden Gate into Marin County, I looked up and the bridge towers were, as is so often the case, disappearing into the fog. When traffic slowed to a stop, I grabbed the M and shot this through the condensation of the front window of the car. It was a good day of photography.

Silhouettes

I'm envious of the people who are good at street photography. It's something I've never felt comfortable doing. I think it's because I'm somewhat of an introvert, so sticking a camera in someone's face to take a photo or even standing in the shadows and possibly getting noticed while firing the shutter makes me uneasy. 

The closest thing I come to doing street photography are the silhouettes I shoot of people walking and playing on the beach near where I live. I enjoy going for a stroll on the beach late in the afternoon, the magic hour, just as the sun begins to set low over the Pacific. I almost always have a camera with me. I find that if I put my subjects between me and the water, most everyone just thinks I'm taking photos of the ocean and rarely pay me much attention.

I've made some of my favorite photographs this way. Shooting black and white film. Exposing for the backgrounds rather than the people I'm shooting. Here are some of my favorites. Cameras used were Nikon F2, Leica M2 or M3, Contax RX or Nikon FM2n. These are from a variety of film stocks: Kodak Plus-X, TMax 100, TMax 400, Fuji Acros and Kodak Tri-X Pan.

The most unloved Nikon

Wander the far corners of the Web and you'll find photographers gushing praise on most every Nikon F camera released in the 1970s and 80s. The FE, FE2, FM, FM2, and FG all have legions of fans. The F2 has it's own Facebook fan page and a cult following. And the F3 is loved as being the last of the manual focus Nikon pro bodies. Even the Nikkormats and Nikomats get love.

Lost to obscurity, hardly written about or reviewed, the Nikon FA stands as the most unloved, or at least under appreciated of the famous Nikon F line. It's an odd thing too, because the Nikon FA is a historically significant camera.

Released in 1983 and dubbed the "Technocamera", the Nikon FA was a pro/consumer manual focus SLR with fully manual, aperture-priorty, shutter-priority and fully programmed automatic exposure modes. It was also the camera platform into which Nikon incorporated what was at that time called "multi-pattern" or "multi-segment" metering. Rather than center-weighted metering, which was typical in most SLRs of the time, this new Nikon system took readings from various segments of the scene and then, based on all of the information received, the little on board computer dialed up the best exposure. Nikon's multi-pattern metering, introduced in the FA, better known today as matrix metering, would become the basis for the metering systems in all later SLRs and DSLRs.

The late 1970s and early 80s were interesting times in the development of 35mm cameras. Within the limitations of what was possible at the time, cameras were evolving quickly with major manufacturers all trying to outdo each other with automation. Professional photographers and advanced amateurs were hesitant to give up their mechanical, mostly non-battery dependent cameras and trust their photography to a box of electronics which a dead battery could render useless in an instant. In addition, Nikon shooters, I have always felt, have never led the charge in early adoption of new technology, leaning more towards evolution than revolution. The FA was a powerful, technologically advanced camera that perhaps, was just too far ahead of it's time. It was discontinued after just a few years and it's legacy faded into obscurity.

Back in 2010, I bought a FA off of eBay. It was plagued with electronic gremlins and only occasionally worked right. I dismissed the camera. When I think back, it was probably a loose electrical connection or corroded battery contact. During those brief moments when my FA was working, it was a great camera to use. The versatility of having a small, light camera body that allows manual, shutter-priority or aperture-priority control was pretty cool. And for those times that I wanted to just point and shoot, a flick of the switch handed off creative control to the camera. So I decided to give the FA a second chance and picked up the one you see here along with a 50mm F/1.8 Nikkor lens from Ken Hansen Photographic in New York.

Top view of the Nikon FA

Controls are pretty standard for this era SLR and will look very familiar to Nikon shooters, especially anyone who has shot the FE, FE2, FM, FM2 bodies. The switch under the shutter speed dial controls modes: M for manual, A for aperture-priority, S for shutter-priority and P for fully automatic program mode. ISO and exposure compensation as well as film rewind is on the left side. The meter is activated by pulling out the film advance lever. The camera is powered by two A76 or S76 batteries. I love the little hand grip Nikon added to this camera. It is similar to the grip on the F3, except this one is removable. The viewfinder is typical of Nikons of this era: big and bright. There is an LCD readout in the finder, similar to the F3. Aperture is direct read out reflected off the lens barrel.

FA Back

The example I just purchased from Ken is in pretty good shape. The meter works well and the camera responds in all metering modes. The shutter sounds great. I will probably send it off to a local repair guy I know for re-foaming. Most SLRs of this vintage at least need seals and mirror bumper foams as they get gooey over time.

I'm anxious to run this FA through it's paces. Like the Hasselblad 500c/m, I have found that sometimes I need to revisit a camera a second time to do a proper evaluation. I'm a big fan of F bodies and if this FA works as designed, I'm prepared to show it some well deserved love.