Well, the other week i was made an offer i couldnt refuse. The offer was to buy another Olympus SP, but this time in Silver, for a very reasonable price. Actually, an extremely reasonable price. I wasnt in the market for another camera, let alone another SP, but somehow i convinced myself i should get another one. =/
The SP on offer came with its original case and manual, but the best bit was that it had just undergone a CLA, plus it had a modification that allows it to take modern voltage batteries without any stuffing around. These two things alone would of cost more than what i ended up buying the camera for, so i was pretty pleased. I was about to send my black SP in for a CLA anyway, so this saved me the hassle, plus i can now leave it at home and not worry about scratching the thing (well thats how i justified the purchase). The silver one is now my user, eventhough it is cosmetically and functionally flawless. (I would of been happy wich a scratched up user, but who am i to complain?)
So anyway, heres a quick picture of them together below :

Well i think i’ve just updated my blog to version 2.5. Was a pretty easy process actually, mainly because i used an Automatic Upgrade Plugin. It was really handy and simple, and recommend it to anybody upgrading their Wordpress Blog.
The only problem now is that there seems to be quite a few plugins and customised features that dotn like the new version. It’s an excuse to redo my entire blog i guess, its been looking a little bit average for a while now.
Now im off to try and sort out a new theme.

Scanned some more shots today. APX400 in Rodinal at 1:50 for 28 minutes. Its all a learning experience for me so i’m quite pleased with how they turned out. Also, i couldn’t find any suggested times suitable, so i kind of had to make my own up.
The thing i’ve noticed lately with film is that shallow depth of field shots looks wonderful. Especially with some nice grain, it has such a unique aesthetic that i really love. In the future i’m going to try and take advantage of that more.

Last month, for a bit of fun, i shot a roll of cheap film over the space of a week with my Mju:II. I kept the camera in my car and in my pocket most of the time just taking pictures of things that looked interesting. Theres nothing revolutionary about this concept, and i’ve been carrying cameras around with me for quite some time now. But there seemed something different this time. The fact that the camera only offered a limited amount of options to the user. No manual settings, no zoom, an auto focus, auto everything pretty much. Every other camera i own has manual settings, so i wasn’t sure how far i’d get with this automatic plastic fantastic Olympus. Also, i’d never used the camera before so thought it’d be a good opportunity to test it out.
To say i was happy with the results is an understatement. This little camera has now shot up the list of my current favourites. The lens is sharp, and i think the photos it produces (looking at the prints) has a distinct look. Its also very compact and strong. I was walking over rocks covered in moss once and managed to slip over (im normally not that clumsy). The camera was in my right hand, which took the full weight of my body when i fell over on the rocks. The camera survived with just one scratch, alot better than me who managed to be bleeding from my arms and back =/ . The camera had this roll of film in it too, so i was worried at one point that the back may of opened, or somethign cracked letting light in, but everything was completely fine. I finished shooting the roll that day.
Photos were taken in the Sydney CDB and suburbs, quite often driving to or from things. Theres a night shot in Circular Quay where i just put the camera on a fence and let it select its own shutter speed which turned out perfect. Theres some other night ones where i turned on spot metering and turned the flash off.
Here are some shots.

This is my postcard shot! (aka, pretty average photo trying to fit as many landmarks in as possible…)
Here is a more detailed review of this neat litle camera.