Well i finally got around to developing the first roll from my new Bessa today.. What a bloody disaster.
For the first time ever i had trouble loading the film onto the spools. It kept getting stuck, and would crease and bunch up.. I started to loose patience so decided to chop the film randomly in half and load the rest of the negatives on the other spool. By that time i was thinking about chucking the whole film out. I wasnt in the best of moods. But i eventually stopped having a sook and put the Fujifilm Acros in Rodinal at 1+50 for 14 minutes. It turned out ok i think, not perfect though. Temperature was about 16 degrees which probably didnt help.

I went back to the Opera House again. I know its touristy, but i think its one of the more interesting structures in Sydney. I really likes it’s angles and curves and scale. Its very unique. I’m going to keep going back there trying to shoot some non touristy compositions.
Oh, and i had the 35mm on for all (except the last) of these shots.

Here’s a few more taken in the city:

Now this last shot was taken with a Russian Jupiter 8, 50mm f/2 lens from 1962. I only took a couple test shots with it, but wow im impressed. I’m really surprised how nice it looks wide open at f/2. It has really nice bokeh and bit of a natural “glow”. I think it’ll take a little while to get used to it, as it can render some areas a little bit too grey. But i’m going to keep practicing to get the best out of it. It’s by far the most unique looking lens i have. Oh and it cost me nothing which is extra nice
I’ll be using it with some colour film also.

A couple friends and i were talking about how we haven’t really taken any photos lately. It’s Just been hard finding time with so much other stuff on at the moment. So we challenged ourselves to take atleast one photo today, of anything at all. We were all going to work so couldn’t really dedicate too much time to it. I ended up almost finishing a roll of film, but wont be able to develop and scan it before our “deadline”, so here are a couple sunset pictures taken from the car. There were some amazing colours in the sunset, so i waited until the sun went behind a cloud and shot a couple of pics with my digital p&s Fuji F10. They’re nothing amazing, but i think they turned out ok considering the limitations of the camera, the time i had, and the fact i was trying to drive at the same time =/ . Atleast i completed the challenge, i’ll see if the others have though :p
I just did a resize and cropped out soem of the bottom on the second shot, no other processing.

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…)

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.

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

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).

Whilst i’m waiting for film to be developed from a new photo lab, i’ll post up some pictures i took with my mobile phone yesterday.
No, mobile phone pics are scraping the barrel when it comes to photography. Its a legitimate photographic tool just like any other device in my opinion.
The thing is, my mobile phone camera isnt the latest and greatest. Its a W660i with a 2 mega-pixel cameras i picked up traveling through Hong Kong last year. I like the Sony Ericsson’s after changing over from Nokia originally. I’ve had two Sony’s now, and prefer their menu system,m and above all their battery life. I like not having to charge my phone for almost a week! (My old Sony lasted 10 days without a charge when i was in Canada once).
Anyway, yesterday i caught a ferry into the city (theres a ferry stop near my house). Its amazing how you can effectively get a tour of the greatest harbour in the world for less than $3. Anywhere else you’d be paying atleast 10 times that. The weather was perfect (mid to high 20’s), and the harbour looked terrific. I’ve been to many harbour’s around the world, but Sydney is still by far the most beautiful. The idea was to walk around get some lunch and take some photos with my little Olympus trip. We went for a walk along Circular Quay after getting off the ferry, then walked around the rocks, got some lunch and listened to generic live music which was pretty average. We (my girlfriend and brother) then decided to walk up one of the pylons of the Sydney Harbour bridge. We felt so much like tourists but it was well worth it. From there we could see most of the CDB and North Sydney, aswell as Sydney Harbour. Took some pictures with my Olympus then took a few with the mobile. The Opera house was particularly prominent. Its white surface stood out amongst the deep blue water. The harbour was pretty active that day also. Everyone was out and about as it was part of the Australia Day long weekend.Well here are some photos from the Harbour Bridge, and one from the ferry.

It’s easy to see how much fine detail is lacking from the mobile phone pictures. The camera seems to of over sharpened them also. But the colours can be surprisingly accurate, and im kind of impressed how it can pick up certain faint detail like the clouds in #3 and #4. These were very faint to the naked eye, so im curious as to why it picked up these but not other details that would seem more obvious. Oh well, its just crappy camera phone after all!