Quote
Posted in Books, Quotes on January 29th, 2009 by MichaelEven if your youth sucked, hearing the soundtrack from it down the years almost always cripples or caresses you. You can never tell which it’ll be until you hear it.
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Tessar Love
Posted in Flickr, Musings, Photos on January 29th, 2009 by MichaelOh,
I barely remembered the Zeiss Tessar lenses from when I was still in highschool and borrowed cameras from my teachers. But I do remember people swooning over it.
And then I got my own Tessar lens, on a camera that is almost twice as old as I am…. It took only one roll of film to fall for this lens….
Taken at Wicked Cafe, way too dark in there for the lens and yet…..
The red on the postal truck, and overall the “mood” of the shot got me….
There are many people who think that Fuji produces better colours than the current Kodak stock. I always considered Kodak to be looking like… well Kodak and in most cases I found the Fuji filmstock too “poppy” almost digital looking.
But with the Tessar? It looks beautiful. I still l have a black and white and another 100 ASA Fuji film outstanding with the developers, but I am very tempted in putting a roll of Kodak NC now in the camera and see what I get.
Tessar love with the first roll.
The (analog) tools of the trade
Posted in Geek, Musings, Photos on January 27th, 2009 by Michael
My “workhorse”, Canon A1 with a 50mm f/1.8. It is a a bit dinged up (see duct tape) but works like a charm. I would like some more FD lenses in the future, but for now it takes beautiful photos.
The “new kid on the block”, I saw it at a camera store and was charmed by the oxymoron that the camera represents. It still takes nice pictures though.
My Mamiya 645 Pro-TL. A wonderful 6×4.5 camera (hence the name), which is a very popular studio camera. It uses the prism finder which provides TTL metering and exposure. The camera features replaceable film backs which means you can switch between different film stock on the fly. Took me a while to get used to it, but now I am taking some nice pictures.
Zeiss Ikon 523/16, romantic Germanic naming for a camera that has a long tradition. Still waiting for my first pictures to come back, but once I have mastered it I think I will get some nice results out of it. The Tessar lens is quite well renowned for it’s picture quality.
Mamiya 528TL
Posted in Musings, Photos on January 26th, 2009 by Michael
The Mamiya 528TL (also known as Sears Auto 35TL in the USA) is a 35mm SLR camera from Mamiya that was introduced in 1967.
It has a fixed 48mm f2.8 lens (taking 52mm filters) and has shutter speeds between 1/500 to 1/15 with bulb. Exposure is full manual or shutter-priority automatic. A single 1.5V 676 mercury cell is only required for the light meter (and therefore for automatic exposure). Film speed is 10–400 ASA range (DIN 11–27), It weighs 650g.
I found this camera in a camera repair shop with an “EverReady” case, which is a wonderful misnomer for one of the most annoying ways one can carry a camera around, but as I found it curious to see a 35mm Mamiya, much more one with a fixed lens (and yet, still an SLR), so I bought it.
After shooting a roll of film I realized a few things about it:
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1. You really need to press the shutter, otherwise the camera fires but does not actually release the shutter again, which means you over expose.
2. The focusing is a bit of a challenge, where all manual focus cameras I have ever used actually have a “helper” in the centre that makes sure you are really in focus the 528TL does not. Oh, it has a focus ring, but there is still guessing involved.
3. The lens gives films in broad daylight a wonderful: “lo-fi” feeling (see pictures).
The thing that I find fascinating about the camera is that it has auto-aperture but not auto-shutter. For me, who mainly shoots with AP instead of SP this is rather… well, strange. I didn’t do too bad, I do remember a few things about shutter speed and light conditions, but as I don’t usually run around with a light metre I am just waiting to either completely over or under expose an entire roll.
The camera also doesn’t seem to have a flash sync, which makes it pretty much useless to shoot in really dark conditions, but the screw in cable release is nice, now if I could just find my damn cable release again.
Having said all of this, the camera appears to be sturdily built. The winder requires a full 180 degree to transport the film and cock the release which compared to my Canon A1 is a bit unusual as well. The one thing of “concern” to me is how the camera winds the film on the takeup spool, it’s a bit counter intuitive compared to other cameras I have used and I half expected the first roll to just “slide” off the roll which it didn’t.
Overall it is a fun camera, it is much more manual than anything else I have in my “arsenal” (that is until I get the next camera into my paws) and it is surprisingly fun to shoot with it. Next goal: Get used to the focussing.
Opening Sequences
Posted in Culture, Media, Video on January 18th, 2009 by MichaelI am at times impressed on how well the opening sequences to some shows can capture the mood of it.
Two of the recent ones I truly enjoy are:
Both are less than a minute long but really set the mood for their shows. Journeyman, unfortunately, was canneda after the first season, not too surprising really but sad none the less.
