Whole Lotta Great Music

At the La Fayette restaurant in Centurion mall.

Golden Afternoon Sunlight

At the 102+ year old Palm Court Hotel in Parys, South Africa.

WhooHoo! New Camera!

As some of you may know, I really like the Olympus Trip 35, hey I even started a separate blog just for that little wonder of a camera! So when I came across a close relative of the Trip, I jumped at the opportunity and grabbed it with both hands. It is my first range finder camera and is the fantastic but scarce Olympus 35 DC, a fully automatic camera with manual focusing. (Isn't that a contradiction of terms?)

Like all range finder cameras the focusing is very easy and accurate, and the shutter is just amazingly quiet. The shutter speed and aperture is taken care of very effectively by the camera and leaves you free to just concentrate on getting the picture,

As with the Olympus Trip 35 it sports a Zuiko lens, but this one goes all the way open to f1.7! Yeah, now I can shoot in the dark! And if you look at the pics below you can see that the lens is every bit as sharp as the Trip. The main thing I  like about this camera is that the focussing is a lot more accurate than the Trip, but then it also becomes a little slower to use and shooting "from the hip" isn't quite as easy either.

All these photos were taken on expired but frozen for years Kodak Ektachrome 64 slide film and scanned on my CanoScan 5600F scanner. The only thing I did was correct a slight blue cast, resize and brand before posting. No sharpening required, boy this thing is sharp!

If you can get one grab it, as far as I can see there were far fewer of these manufactured than the Trip 35, so they might be harder to find.

Some links featuring the Olympus 35DC:
Photo.net
Flickr
emuu.net
Camerapedia

Pretoria Panorama

Under the Stairs

Getting a little more creative...

A Cityscape

This is a view of Pretoria, my hometown, from the hill on the southern end of town that has Fort Klapperkop on the top.

Die Akker

Another Velvia Sunset

Actually the same sunset as the one that I posted on the 4th July, only about 10 minutes later (and zoomed in a bit), hence more delicious red colour.

This Fuji Velvia 50 film is simply the best for these wild colours! This is straight from the scanned jpg, no saturation or sharpening added. All I did in my favourite graphics program was touch up four tiny dust spots, resize and brand. No grain removal needed, at ISO 50 it is plenty smooth enough!

Nikon f801s, Junky Quantarray 35-80 zoom, Fuji Velvia 50, scanned with a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the GIMP.

Ancient Measuring Equipment, and a small pot.

Taken at the Fort Klapperkop Museum in Pretoria, South Africa.

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm F1.8D, heavily expired but frozen for years Kodak Ektachrome EPR 64 ISO film. Sigma EF 500 flash hand held to my left on a Nikon flash extension cord. Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited with the GIMP.

Praise

Nikon f801s, Tamron 100-300 zoom, Fuji Superia 200, scanned with a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the Gimp.

StatCounter

If anybody needs a website counter and statistic collector and you don't have a budget worth speaking about, then I highly recommend StatCounter, they are the best I've seen. Below is a screenshot from my yearly stats... looks like a little growth happening there since I started the blog in 2008! Hooray!

It's really easy to use and is great for seeing if anyone is actually visiting the blog you work so hard on updating!

What brand of film do you prefer?

There is an interesting question asked here about which brand of film is your favourite. Here is my answer to that question:


I like a few, depending on the application.

A good all round cheap daily use film: Fuji Superia 200 (cheap to buy and develop, and surprisingly good quality, a little grainy but in a nice way)
Black and White: Ilford XP2 400 (cheap to develop, sharp and has great exposure latitude, unobtrusive grain)
Landscapes: Fuji Velvia 50 (expensive to buy and develop, but incredible colours and no grain)

...there are many other very competent films out there and really it comes down to what "look" you prefer. Try as many as you can, compare the results and then concentrate on getting to really know how to use those films to get your own unique look and style.


How about you guys, what do you prefer to use and why?

A Velvia 50 Sunset!

Nikon f801s, Junky Quantarray 35-80 zoom, Fuji Velvia 50, scanned with a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the GIMP.

Natures Patterns

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm F1.8D, Ilford XP2 Super 400 C41 process B&W film. Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited with the GIMP.