21 Aug 2010

12 Aug 2010

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

1 Aug 2010

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.

15 Jul 2010

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.

10 Jul 2010

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.

9 Jul 2010

Praise


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