Wow, two posts in one day. Go me.
I developed my first roll of film today. As i mentioned in a previous post, i’ve been thinking of trying out some black and white film developing for a while now. This week i got some gear and gave it a go.
I shot a roll on Agfa APX100 and developed it in Rodinal at 1:50 for 13 minutes, then used Ilford stop bath and fixer.
It was a pretty straightforward process, the hardest bit was starting, as i was worried about stuffing something up. In the end i did stuff something up, but it had nothing to do with the chemicals and timing etc. It was the fact that i stupidly hung my negatives to dry in a shower with a leaking head. So i got drips of water down the bottom of my strip of negatives. Some of the water marks dried out, but others didnt. You always stuff up the shots you’re most interested in seeing dont you… Well i do anyway.
The negatives that didnt dry out are being re-soaked. Hopefully i can salvage some of them.
I was quite happy with the ones that did dry properly, so i scanned them in with my ancient scanner that magnifies grain and dissipates tonal range.
Here are a few shots that scanned ok.
They’re arent amazing, but i am more interested in seeing if i developed them correctly or not. I think they’re pretty close.
As you can tell in some of the shots, the light was incredibly harsh the day i took these…. One day i’ll be able to shoot in favourable light… One day.

EDIT: Added another pic (first one)

Took the Olympus out the other day and shot a roll of C41 b&w i had lying around. The temperature was mid 30’s and not a cloud in the sky, so the light was REALLY harsh.
The SP functioned great. Its a great camera to shoot with, really comfortable and easy to use. The only issue i had is that my light meter has bit of a mind of its own. It sometimes refuses to turn on when i take the camera out of its case. However when it decides to work it’s accurate.
This was predominately a test roll as i didn’t know if the camera would work. I didn’t even bother changing the light seals either, but they appear to be fine. The lens is super sharp and bokeh is nice and smooth. I have to get a proper film scanner now, im sick of scanning prints and getting results that don’t really reflect the quality of the negatives. Some of the shots turned out ok though i though.

Well i started off having a pretty bad morning today before i’d even left for work. But when i got there i had a nice surprise.
I looked on my desk and saw something that i definitely didn’t leave there the previous day. It was in the shape of a crusty old looking Olympus OM1. Awesome!
See the good thing about being known as a “camera/photo guy” among friends is that when one of them sees a camera they think of you.. And this is what happened in this instance. One of the people i work with was at a garage sale earlier on. Unfortunately it was full of the usual plastic toys and old babies clothes… All useless shit (i don’t know why you’d want to buy your newly born baby some old babies clothes that the previous occupant has probably crapped in a dozen times). Anyway, that’s a whole other story.
The guy from work was at this garage sale full of useless crap when he spotted the Olympus. It was covered in dust and grime but still thought of me (hmm, maybe that’s not a good thing?). The asking price was a huge $2, so he bought it for me. I was totally taken back by the gesture as nobody has ever actually bought me an old camera, especially a good one, and especially one that i can actually use with all my other lenses etc. Generally people try to stop me buying old camera stuff and steer me away from anything that i’ll probably end up buying. So yeah, i was extremely happy, and it made my day.
The camera itself is very rough. As in, its the poorest condition camera i’ve ever owned. But i know for a fact it’ll be working perfectly it next to no time. I started off by cleaning it tonight and it’s come up wonderful. The only negative side to cleaning up the camera body is that you suddenly see all the bumps in it that were previously covered up. It was clear from the beginning that this camera will never be a show piece, but i always wanted an OM1 to use, its close to the perfect SLR.
So anyway, after cleaning the body up i thought i should check out to see if the thing actually works. The viewfinder was perfectly clean which was a relief. Then i noticed the light meter needle which was moving as i changed apertures and shutter speeds. Woohoo! That seems to be working, just not sure how accurate it is, but definitely a positive. Quickly fixed the film rewind lever that was assembled wrong (somone must of taken it apart in the past and put it back together wrong.
Next was to see if the shutter actually fired. This is where things get a little less perfect. Well, the shutter itself fires beautifully and at all different speeds. But to get the shutter to fire i need to advance the film lever which is a little strange. For some reason it wont wind fully the first go, so i’ll have to give it 1 wind and a bit for the shutter to be able to fire. Obviously it just needs an adjustment, and it actually still works fine in the end. This thing will be working perfectly soon, but i might start using it before then anyway

Below is a quick picture of the beast before the clean (It actually looks alot cleaner in the photo than in real life). I’m too tired to post up the cleaned version, so i’ll do that another time. But as you can see, the camera was pretty crappy. Oh it also came with the 50mm f/1.8 lens too which didn’t work until i took it apart also Was definitely a learning experience as i’d never taken a lens apart and had no instructions. I managed to get all the dust out of it and clean the aperture “thingy” (technical word). It all seems to work perfectly, but will probably seize up soon, as i didn’t lubricate any of the parts when i put it back together.
So yeah, here it is so far. I’m looking forward to eventually taking some pictures with it and posting them up here.

There are quite alot of options available if you’re looking for a 70’s rangefinder. Some good, some bad, but most pretty interesting in their own particular way. There is one model however that stands out amongst many.. The brilliant Olympus 35-SP.
Built between 1969 and 1976, this compact rangefinder packs in an unrivaled set of features that puts to shame many of even the most modern rangefinders. It’s tack sharp 42mm f/1.7 G.Zuiko lens produces pictures with brilliant colour and contrast. The large bright viewfinder contains parallax error indicators and an accurate rangefinder patch. Then there’s the sophisticated metering system.
The Olympus 35-SP has the distinction of being the first ever 35mm rangefinder with dual metering options. Both centre weighted and spot metering is available to the user, which is quite amazing when you consider its age, and the compact size of the camera. After the SP a spot meter was included on the Leica M5 and CL but they were already beaten to the punch by Olympus, and quite simply just didn’t rival the 6 degree spot that came with the SP. Unlike many other rangefinders from that era, the light metering works in full manual mode also, which is quite useful when shooting in tricky conditions, or if you’re after a specific effect only manual control can produce.
Besides a revolutionary metering system (it truly was, and is still unrivaled to this day), the the Olympus came with a brilliant lens i mentioned briefly earlier on. The 7 element 42mm f/1.7 G.Zuiko is regarded as one of the finest rangefinder lenses ever produced. The Olympus RD (which came after the SP) has a similar lens, but without the 7th correcting element. Don’t let anybody try and tell you that they’re the same lens, because they’re in a completely different league. The lens focuses down to about 2.8ft and has a super smooth focusing action with a convenient lever on the side of the barrel.
All automatic and manual exposure options are contained on the barrel rings, aswell as a timer. After a while you can adjust these without taking your eye from the viewfinder, but it will take a little practice.

So with the SP you get a bright accurate viewfinder, unrivaled metering options, one of the best rangefinder lenses ever produced, all squeezed into a tough and compact body that manages to weigh less that comparable rangefinders of that era… What more do you want??
Oh yes, it comes in black too, and i got one, and its damn cool

(picture taken with my homemade light box)

*EDIT: I just got a Silver one also, check out a picture of them together here

Check out some other info here, and here

Ok, tell me this.
How many cameras can you think of that satisfy this criteria?

• compact
• rugged/all weather construction
• super sharp and contrasty fast lens
• spot metering
• auto focus
• auto film winding
• decent flash with various modes

Thought of any?? Ok, now tell me how many of those come in under $20?
Hmm, not too many now hey. Probably none. Except for the mighty Olympus Mju:II. (The only other camera that might come close is the Konica Big Mini, but they’re a bit more expensive, and i don’t have any experience with them yet)
Whats wonderful about this camera is its simplicity and quality. Its a proper point and shoot that manages to produce wonderful pictures that rival cameras many thousands for dollars more expensive. Don’t believe me? Well just go over to Flickr and check out some sample pictures.
Obviously a great camera doesn’t equal great pictures. But having something so small and inconspicuous will always give you an advantage over something big and obvious. Street photos, architecture, parts snaps, the camera can do it all.
Just for the record, this camera isn’t perfect. It has some quirks that can be annoying, such as how it resets settings when you shut it down (for example, it’ll reset the flash mode you selected earlier). Trying to focus through glass can also be annoying but sometimes fixed by focusing to infinity at the sky then re-composing the shot again. Also, selecting spot metering can be fiddly. But the good points far outweigh the bad points. And the truth is that this is an amazingly simple, cheap, and compact camera that takes amazing photos.
Here’s a pretty old review.
And here’s a Flickr group for the Mju:II

(this wasnt taken with my homemade light box)

!!!
Finally, my Olympus 35-SP arrived in the mail! I’ve been loosing sleep over this camera the last week, worrying that it wasnt going to turn up or get damaged in the post. Now i can breathe a sigh of relief.. Its home, safe and sound
Also, by coincidence arrived another Olympus. It probably could be described as bit of an evolution from the mighty 35-SP, the humble little Mju-II (known as the Stylus Epic in other parts of the world). Auto everything with a reasonably fast prime lens. But i’ll give more info about both of thee cameras later on. Right now i’m going to play with them a bit!
Here’s a crappy picture of them below. Oh yeah, my SP is the rare black one too

The humble little Olympus Trip 35 was built between 1968 and 1984. Thats such an impressive life span for a camera that remained mainly unchanged the whole time.
Want to find out how old yours is? The best way to discover the age of your Olympus Trip 35 isnt by looking at its top plate serial number, but by looking under the film pressure plate.
It’s a very simple process and with only a few steps to follow.
First of all you need to remove the pressure plate attached to the film door. Its the black square object in the centre of the film door you can see in the picture of it below.

To take it off you must slide the metal tabs off the plastic pins. You do this one side at a time by pushing the metal tab inwards using either your fingers or a screwdriver/knife. Once you do that, the pressure place can be fully removed.

Once you have the plate off you can now see the characters printed underneath, these will accurately tell you the age of your camera. The photo below shows that date stamping of one of my cameras that we’ll be using as an example :

As you can see, there are 3 characters. A Japanese character and two numbers.
This is how to read it :

1st character - The plant it was manufactured in
2nd character - The last digit of the year of assembly. (so “4″ = 1974, “9″ = 1979, “0″ = 1980, etc..)
3rd character - The month of assembly. (1 - 9 signifies January - September. Then X,Y,Z is for October - December)

Now the observant people would of noticed that if you had “82″ on the pressure plate it could either be Feb 1968 or Feb 1978. The way to find out what decade it belongs to is by looking at the shutter button. If its the chrome variety you have the earlier model, if its the black plastic variety you know you have the later model.

So based on all of this information my camera above was built in March 1973. My other cameras were built in ‘74 and ‘76. If you can find one from the 60’s it’s probably worth hanging onto. Wait a minute, who am i kidding? ALL Olympus Trips are worth hanging onto!!

I love my little 1 cent Olympus Trip!
I just got some photos back today that i took over the weekend, and im quite happy with them. One thing im not happy about though is my scanning of them, its quite poor, so i’m thinking of investing in a dedicated scanner or atleast getting the lab to do it.
Anyway, these were taken in and around Circular Quay on an extremely sunny day. The glare was insane, and i was pretty worried about how the photos would come out. Luckily they came out pretty good in most cases (better than the digital scan shows also), but i’d like to go back on a day that has some better light for photography.
Anyway, here are some that i’ve scanned so far (still have half a roll to go).