Archive for the ‘Olympus’ Category
Silver SP
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 :
A week with my Mju:II
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.
Developed my first roll today
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)
Test roll from my SP
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.
A nice surprise
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.
