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  • New Old Camera (Minolta SR-1) and Sunny 16

    I got a new old camera. The Minolta SR-1. First released in 1959, it was Minolta’s second ever SLR produced. It needed a lens, so I got an equally antique Rocker 55mm F1.8

    As prior posts have stated, I have always had a spot for Minolta. They are probably my favourite 35mm SLR producer. Though gone, their optics company is what really launched Sony into the main market as the digital era took over.

    ‘Sen’ F5.6 1/125th
    ‘Windows’ F8 1/125th

    Being such a vintage model, the SR-1 is 100% manual and mechanical. No light meter – though there is a mount space allocated for one. It’s been a real long time since I attempted the ‘Sunny 16’ rule – that is looking at the weather, making a call on the brightness and setting your cameras settings based on this. To make this more of a challenge (aka too much for such outdated practice), I had a roll of Lucky 400, which I read to shoot at ISO200. So for those unfamiliar, as an example, a bright clear sunny day on ASA100 film you would shoot 100th of a second at f16, or in my case at 200ASA, f16 at 200th of a second. Open your aperture a stop to F11 and your time doubles. It all makes sense (as long as you judge the light right), but if you don’t slow down, it starts getting muddy in the mind for a cloudy sky, shooting into the shadows, backlit etc…

    ‘Rail’ F4 1/30th
    ‘Layers’ F8 1/60th
    ‘Under Motorway’ F8 1/60th

    I didn’t quite get my timings 100%… it was also pretty sunny and I really wanted a ASA100 rather than a 400 I was shooting at 200. But, limited success still prevailed and I have some images that I like the mood and feel of. They were overexposed in most cases.

    The Minolta itself worked flawlessly. There is a real nostalgic pleasure in using a machine somewhere around 60 years old (mine is not the first 59 release based on some body indicators). I look at my digital bodies and wonder if any of them will make that age – at the least, modified batteries will be needed – but more likely they will fail or part of the media will become temperamental to support. Lets be fair though – as soon as film ceases one day, all these mechanical relics also become paperweights…

    So Sunny 16 needs some work, but that is part of practising something new. Stretching outside comfort zones and re-learning was of doing. I could have used a light meter and nailed all exposures, but I wanted to be completely analogue (at least until I scanned them for here). It was fun.

    I do have a couple of other impulse purchases of the 60’s era I am yet to test – same deal, no light meters. The Lucky 400 is all I currently have for home development, so I’ll just need to make a call if I try again pulling to 200, or shooting at 400 – Im limited to F16 and 500th of a second (or less) on most the units, so it might just depend on the weather next time…

    ‘Stairway Down’ F8 1/125th

  • Through Someone’s Vintage Eyes – Israel and Iran

    Today’s “through someone’s vintage eyes” takes us to Iran and Israel. Shot by the same unknown photographer as my Hong Kong series, we drop into some of the oldest cityscape on this planet, and view some sights before some of the areas have seen more modernisation.  Im estimating, like Hong Kong, these are 1960’s era approximately. The only indicating giveaways I can see are the cars – none specifically models I can date without any real digging online. Perhaps some key buildings or the cable car/tram might be a giveaway for some readers?

    I also don’t have any real sense of geography for the areas. Ive not travelled to that part of the world. This combined with the fact that these photo collections were incomplete and bar the main destinations, unlabelled, I have absolutely mixed up places and cities into the image decks displayed (they are out if order)

    What I do know is that one area is Akko Israel. For some better known as Acre.  To blatantly take googles summary or Akko: Acre (Akko) is a port city in northwest Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. It’s known for its well-preserved old city walls. In a tunnel in the walls is the Treasures in the Walls Ethnographic Museum, depicting daily life from the Ottoman times to the 20th century. The mosaic-covered Or Torah (Tunisian) Synagogue has 7 torah arks. The 18th-century Al-Jazzar Mosque has marble pillars and underground pools. 

    Also in Israel we have Jerusalem – I think the cablecar image is the Masada fortress here: Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

    Isfahan in Iran is (I believe) the final destination of this collections journeys: Isfahan is a city in central Iran, known for its Persian architecture. In the huge Naqsh-e Jahan Square is the 17th-century Imam (Shah) Mosque, whose dome and minarets are covered with mosaic tiles and calligraphy. Ali Qapu Palace, built for Shah Abbas and completed in the late 16th century, has a music room and a verandah overlooking the square’s fountains. Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque is known for its intricate tiling.

    Quite the trip. As I understand it, assuming 1960’s all were popular or emerging tourism spots, especially if this is late 1960’s after the 6-day war which surged visitors under Israeli control unified the city split at the time.  Who are the tree kids posing in one photo – strangers? Whanau (family)?… unlike Hong Kong series, no suggestion of the photographer themselves. 

    Not the last box of slides I have from our mystery photographer. Im holding off viewing the next box still – perhaps the next will have a self portrait reveal?

    If you do have any information which might place a date of the images please do pass a comment. 

  • A GF2 Stroll: Manu Practice

    Recently in late night impulse I acquired a Japanese only Panasonic GF2. My Lumix GF1 remains my favourite walkabout and holiday camera due to its ‘just right’ size and pleasing images coupled with its excellent 20mm lens – but I thought I’d get a GF2 to back it up. Internally, sensor wise, not a lot has changed. It has a few less physical controls and a touch screen – but shooting in aperture priority a lot of the time, not much changes. Japanese language is not much of a hurdle – most menu options have imagery also, and one can always use translate on phone if needed.

    Anyway… once it arrived and I coupled it with my 14-42mm Zoom (28-84 full frame), we took a stroll into Auckland’s CBD to see what was going on.

    One thing going on was practice for the Manu World Champs in the relatively new inner city sea swimming area. A great addition for inner city folk, it offers a fenced off, life guard patrolled place to swim. In our heavily populated ‘city of sails’ direct swimming in the ocean within the CBD has been limited over the years due to safety. The new setup is nice. Manu world champs? – for those out of New Zealand, this might be renamed ‘Dive Bomb World Champs’ – Manu’s Maori translation is often Bird or Kite – but we also in recent decades referred to a bomb as a Manu also. I remember kids Tombstoning as a kid too – but I think that was more dodgy bombing off rocks and into iffy water holes (the name hinting at the danger).

    Quite the art to Manu’s – watching for a while, there was no correlation to the size of the person and the size of the splash. Some pretty small fella’s were making much bigger splashes than the real big fella’s. It’s also not just splash – like all sports, there is a raft of different sections and bomb types to be judged on. People were having a splash regardless!

    Circling back to the car, we wandered through some of the new apartment areas and past the tram on its circuits. Ive never lived inner city. Some elements of my lifestyle would fit in fine, but not others. Things like the above swimming area must really help when you are in close proximity to others and have no land/garden space. On that, we also past the community gardens – little plots each allocated to their own gardeners to get the green fingers growing.

    Then it was back to the car and away from the CBD off home. The Panasonic GF2 performed well. Like the GF1, nice and compact so no neck breaking. Not too hard to see in direct sunlight – though I mostly use rear screens for centre focus and recompose rather than looking at detail. I’d love to get a 14mm for it, but the cost more than the camera, so I might just have to keep my eyes out for a bargain one day.

    Today’s images were shot in RAW and edited in darktable using a Portra 160 LUT as a base.

  • Kodak Six-20 Brownie Junior (UK portrait Edition)

    Today’s post is a family relic – my late Uncle Bills Kodak Six-20 Brownie Junior (Portrait Model). As the only one left shooting film(once in a blue moon now) in the family, I inherited one of his cameras he had from new. 

    Brownies had a long production run – in its various variants which were largely unchanged in complexity, they ran from about 1900 to 1986, initially ‘Eastman Kodak’ and later simply ‘Kodak’. The first models were wood and card (as this one is), later moving to sheet/stamped metal in later years as well as the bakelite and plastic offshoots of Brownie variants. Initially costing USD $1(about $40 now), they really were some of the first cameras truely responsible in bringing the magic of photography to the masses.

    Uncle Bills Six-20 Brownie Junior (portrait) was released in 1939 and discontinued in 1943 – so a longer production run than your typical smart phone now days. It uses 620 film (literally the same as 120, but Kodak’s smaller reels to keep the $1 spender coming back to them for film) and features a basic meniscus lens with a pull out portrait lens which places itself between the lens and film when leave is pulled – flash stuff! It has a single speed shutter of about 1/40th – 1/50th and a T/Bulb option. 

    Until this year, it had been sitting on my shelf unused – entirely because the landscape mirror had detached itself and I was reluctant to open it up being it is nail pinned closed. But I wanted to revive it and give it another go out of retirement… so I opened it up. Overall it was a straightforward job opening up, gluing in the mirror, dry lubricating the shutter and giving the lens, mirrors and viewing windows a much needed clean – removing 80 odd years of tarnish.  Putting it back together, nails back in and a light rub in near ancient ‘KIWI Shoe Polish’ (made since 1906, recently discontinued … and wow – expensive to get hold of now after I figured I needed more soon!)

    Though I have re-rolled 120 onto 620 reels many a time, digging through my remaining film stock I found a roll of 100ASA Shanghai GP3 620 film! – a black and white panchromatic film, made in China, it is said to give a very old-fashioned feel to the photos (and is sometimes compared to Kodak Plus-X). Well… Im shooting on a camera in its mid-80’s, so that checks out fine. 

    Out in Auckland’s seaside township of Devonport, I climbed my well documented North Head/ Maungauika – roaming its old wartime setups. I then ventured to nearby Bayswater, its wharf area and the old Takapuna Boating Club building both reclaiming from and slowly falling back into the sea.This building as a side comment was technically not able to be restored historically due to some restrictions in a 1923 act in Law saying it was only for community purposes. The act has since been lifted and in theory allow the potential for it to be worked on…but its in a pretty serious state! Below are 6 of the 8 images from the shoot (the last two were portrait tests at home)

    View to Devonport village and Auckland’s CBD
    Bayswater ramp
    Wartime infrastructure
    Takapuna Boating Club

    A combination of the GP3 film and raw simplicity of the 80+ year old box with a lens and single sliding shutter were fun to shoot. This really was the camera design that started it all off for us hobby shooters. Is it pin sharp – usually not, but it’s not horrible either. It carries a special look and feeling. Shooting it does with the challenge of a small dim viewing box and the risk of camera shake as you fumble for the toggle to release the shutter. At the same time, it’s silent. It needs you to think about your framing and slow down to try and get your levels right. In todays world, 8 shots of film is nothing – people chose their photos carefully.

    I do love the raw simplicity of box cameras, and this won’t be the last time I shoot one. But for now, Uncle Bills camera can sit on display repaired, CLA’d and settled in the knowledge it can still capture a moment in time all these years later.

    Boat locker view to Bayswater fishing wharf.

  • New Old Camera – Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3

    So I impulse bought a camera lot recently in an online auction. Initially, I was really bidding on a standard zoom lens for my Canon DSLR, but there were a few other goodies that caught my eye. One such goodie was the Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3. A mighty 4MP bridge camera from 2004 sporting a real 12X Zoom and Anti-shake – in its time, this must have been an impressive camera.

    Loading in some AA’s (4 of them), I was pleased to see it come to life… quickly flashing ‘no memory card’. After a lot of fiddling, I found in its original firmware, this thing was limited to either 512mb or 1GB. I only had a 16MB card (about 5 photos) and several 2GB cards. Fortunately with some web hunting, I found the one and only firmware update it received (which was a big thing in 2004 really) – This allows it to work with 2GB SD cards – Excellent! Successfully updated, I headed down to Devonport on Auckland North Shore for a walk and shoot.

    Now, Im a fan of keeping old tech going in general – less to landfill and all that. I have also slowly come to realise that in the digital camera world, though we have progressed so far in technology around sensors, some of the old stuff really is still pretty usable for hobby grade life. Below 4MP is pretty creative stuff (I had a floppy disk camera set a few years back – less than 1MP), but 4MP up – it’s not terrible!…it’s viable. Are all these shots detail rich? – no… but they are not total blurred mess either. Creativity at junk prices can be had! The 35mm zoom equivalent of this thing is 35-420mm F2.8-F4.5 (ASA/ISO is 50-400)- thats a lot of zoom in a large coat pocket. The colour rendering is… nice. I didn’t do much editing at all in these images here – just a boarder, de-haze and for a couple a graduated filter as the sun was harsh and the sky was all over the show (as was the rain) today – old cameras do lack dynamic range for sure! (but so did slide film).

    I went in with pretty low expectations.

    “I’ll shoot a ‘roll’, pick a few images I like, write a blog post and find it a new custodian as I need to recoup costs and I’ll never touch it again”

    Im now not sure I will let this one go just yet. It was a joy to shoot really – having the (very early) EVF and option to turn on to that by default was a pleasure. The camera is full of mode and setting options. The zoom range and all things considered quality of image at full zoom for such an old relic at 4MP really is fantastic. Now I need to make up my spend finances another way. It seems I always have a Minolta in the collection one way or another! (old school Minolta fan here)

    These last three shots just show the range of this camera – ‘super macro’ – 1cm from subject. Full wide, and looking central to shot, full zoom (behind dirty glass windows for those two).