Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
The Olympus μ[mju:]-II (Stylus Epic)
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.
Some shots from my First Week with the Mju:II
Here’s a pretty old review.
And here’s a Flickr group for the Mju:II
(this wasnt taken with my homemade light box)
Yashica Electro 35 GTN
Yeah, another camera, but this one wasnt an eBay purchase, and its not an Olympus!
Early this morning i found out about a small, relatively unadvertised Camera Market being held near the city. I was very curious so decided to go along. I’d never been to a camera market before so wasnt sure what to expect. When i got there i only saw one A3 size photocopied “sign” with “Sydney Camera Market” printed on it. It wasnt until i walked around a corner and saw a bunch of people waiting to get into a small hall filled with old camera gear that i knew i was in the right spot.
Initial observations were :
- Wow, i’m the youngest person here.
- Sweet, 99% of the stuff here are film cameras/gear
- Damn, these SLR’s are priced pretty high.
- Awesome, cheap rangefinders!
The only downside was that i’m pretty low on money after a couple of other camera purchases last week (more details to come), so i set myself a challenge….
What can i get for $5?
Surprisingly there were quite a few choices, some good, some bad. Several Olympus Trips, but i already have 3 of those. Some 90′s auto-focus rangefinders, hmm none of the models i wanted. But then, i saw something out of the corner of my eye that looked interesting. Amongst some dusty old camera cases and scratched up plastic point and shoots i saw this wonderful black Yashica Electro 35 GTN 
It was covered in dust to the extent that i couldnt even see if the lens had fungus or scratches on it etc. But it looked awesome, was black, and the guy sold it to me for $5.
When i got home i immediately got some cleaning gear out to see if i’d just bought $5 worth of fungus and corroded metal.
After a couple minutes of cleaning i was so happy to discover that the lens was immaculate with not even the slightest scratch or blemish! The body itself started to clean up really well also, with only some slight signs of wear on the base of the camera, but hardly noticeable. Maybe the layer of dust had managed to form a protective layer over the camera? haha.
So anyway, i now own a Yashica GTN is terrific condition at a cost of only $5…. I’m definitely visiting more camera markets in the future!
Here is a quick picture of the beast :
Still need to give it a proper clean, but its a damn good looking camera in my opinion. 45mm f/1.7 lens = happy times. I’ll need to do some more research on them also, as i’m not too familiar with the Yashica rangefinders, i’m generally into Olympus when it comes to film cameras.
Cant wait until i put a roll of film through it. Unfortunately it’s on bit of a waiting list though, as i have a couple other cameras i’ve been meaning to try out also
Shitty Photo Labs
Lesson learnt for me.. dont waste time with cheap and shitty photo labs.
All of this happened to me about a week or two ago, but i’ve only got around to writing about it now.
I shot a few new rolls and thought i’d try out a little photo lab just a few hundred metres from me. I thought “Wouldnt it be great if i can get photos developed at a place less than a minutes walk form me”
HOW WRONG I WAS…
I dropped the film off, told them not to rush as i’d pick it up the next day. All seemed fine. Went in the next day to pay and receive my photos. As i was walking home i opened the packet up and started looking at my photos. ** First mistake – must always check photos before leaving store!
Looking at the photos i could tell immediately that thing just werent right.
With one of the rolls in particular i made a special note that i was experimenting with a few lighting effects etc, so asked them not to adjust low/high key photos for example. If something is dark, leave it dark. They said this was fine, no problem at all…
I dont know, maybe i was speaking in another language and they were just saying yes to whatever i asked them, because they totally ignored what i asked. When i got my photos back the machine they used must of automatically tried to compensate, so most of the prints are completely off – they look terrible. It looks like they’ve just pumped up the exposure compensation setting, and most of the photos are overly grainy, and hazy like theres been a light leak (of which my camera has none).
If they couldnt do it, why didn’t they just say “No, im sorry we cant do that for you. Everything is automated and we have no control how they turn out.” I would of had no problem with that.
Ok, not the end of the world right? I still have the negatives yeah?
Yes and No.
Yes as in, i do have the negatives. But no as in, they arent exactly complete.
You see, to go along with the terrible prints, i have some negatives that have been cut up collage style. The photo below is an example of what i mean.
You can see that the top negative has pretty much had 2/3 cut off, and bottom negative has had some of the side cut off, not much, but still noticeable. These are just two example of three rolls that have been effected. About 60% are effected.
WTF? Did they get the blind work experience kid to cut them up!?
I dont know what else to say beside i’m never going back to this place again. Im just glad i didnt have anything particularly important on the film.
It’s safe to say i wont be going back to this place again!
Dont make the same mistake as me…
New Toy!
Yep, got another Olympus camera. This deal was too good to pass up. Its the OMSP (spot/program). Quite similar to my OM2n, however this has a few extra nifty features. First of all the most obvious one is that it has a spot meter for tricky lighting conditions. Yeah, its not as advanced as modern day metered cameras, but its still pretty decent. I’ve managed fine without spot metering in the past, but this new addition will create a few more opportunities now. Secondly it has an an LCD meter display instead of the meter needle in the OM2n. This should make things a hell of alot easier when shooting at night, as it’s given me problems in the past. Also it has a built in hot shoe, as opposed to the removable ones that were prone to cracking (mine never has though). Plus a full auto and a program mode, which i’ll try out eventually. Oh and last but not least, its black, which is just cool 
All of this, and its still the same size as my OM2n. The OM2SP (or OM2S) have never gained the same popularity as the OM1(n),OM2(n),OM3Ti and OM4Ti series cameras. They have the reputation of being unreliable, or eating up batteries etc. But im not sure how accurate these claims are, and i’ve spoken to professional camera repairers who in their far greater experience than mine agree. It may of got this reputation because it’s more or less based on the OM4 which contains some circuitry that cannot really be replaced if it fails. Because of that, it all of a sudden becomes a camera prone to faults, which is false. They do drain batteris doing nothing however, but i never store mine with the batteries in them anyway.
I think alot of the time camera geeks like to rubbish brands, models, techniques, etc for the sake of it. This is pretty clear on just about any camera forum or bulletin board you visit. The general consensus decides “yeah thats rubbish”, then opinionated keyboard warriors perpetuate the misconception, so someone says “i heard this isnt any good” “yeah i heard that too, must be true”. The Internet never lies hey! Generally these are same type of people who enjoy taking photos of brick walls and comparing barrel distortion and pixel density(for digital cameras), instead of going out to take photos of things with any real value/interest. Sure theres nothign wrong with comparing and testing equipment, but if thats all you do then you need to get a life. Anyway, enough talking crap. The more people think they’re no good, the cheaper i can get them for 
Here it is here, with a pristine 35-70mm zoom & lens hood, and pristine Sunpak Auto flash.. Actually everything is pristine, i doubt the camera has been used more than a few times. It also came with a huge amount of brochures and booklets all in this awesome retro bag that i’ll have to try and get a photo of.
Here are some quick photos of it all
Group shot:
New camera = new light seals… Actually these ones were pretty decent and probably would of been ok, But i had all the stuff infront of me so decided to change them all. Used nail polish remover this time to get rid of the old stuck on foam which worked so much better than the stuff i used last time…
Was pretty late at night, and the light in my room is useless so i had to shoot this at 800 iso.. Ugly digital grain galore… (You may notice i took the Gold sticker off the body, it was shitting me)
1 Cent Wonder
Well i just bought another film camera. This one was purchased for the pricey sum of 1 cent
Yep, one cent, with a flash and a bag too. And when i won the auction the guy asked “So do you want to come and pick it up? Or should i post it?” um…
I couldnt find a 1 cent piece so it was posted
I took some quick pictures of it you can see below. I also managed to find a lens cover for it that was in the bag of accessories i bought a week or so ago, so that was a nice surprise too.
The camera has a great little multi coated 4 element D.Zuiko 40mm f2.8 lens that i’ve seen produce some brilliant results. It doesnt use any batteries but has a solar-powered selenium light meter with an automatic mode and two shutter speeds (1/200 in auto mode and 1/40 for flash sync). Everything works perfectly on it, but i need to replace a light seal as the camera is pretty old. I think its one of the earlier models, they were made from 1967- 1984. Quite a long time.
I’ve already put a roll of film in it with the dodgey light seals just for fun. I wonder if any will turn out.
yeah, it needs a clean too..
