XA4 is X-Cellent!

Okay, I know it’s a cheesy title but it’s the damn truth!! I thought I loved my Olympus XA2? Ha–I didn’t know what love was!! Let me explain in a round-a-bout sort of way.

My husband and I ran our first 5K race in September–a monumental occasion for a self-professed hater of running. Of course, I had to photograph the event but it was rainy and nasty. I didn’t want to bring a precious little digital camera with me that might get it’s panties in a bunch and decide to stop working because of a little precipitation, so I brought my Olympus XA2. I needed something with reliable results and, preferably, a flash since the weather was a bit dreary.

I’m happy to say we ran the ENTIRE race and finished without dying. Since this race was sponsored by our fantastic local brewery, Dogfish Head, we all got free food and beer at the end. It was great. I was happily documenting the day and was looking forward to getting the film developed.

Then, disaster struck as I attempted to rewind my film. It was really hard to do, I mean really hard. The film must’ve gotten damp from the weather and began sticking to itself because I ended up breaking the film rewind knob clean off the camera. I was distraught. I really loved this camera. I searched eBay for extra parts and got them but not before hitting pay dirt in my favorite local thrift shop.

I went in to poke around and what did I find? An Olympus XA4 for a mere DOLLAR!! Let me say it again…for A DOLLAR! I felt like I was stealing the thing as I handed over my little bill and skipped out of the store.

What makes the XA4 so special, you ask? Well my friend, it has MACRO capabilities. You can get as close to your subject as a foot. Not only that, but instead of the usual 3 zone focusing, there are 7 zones that range from one foot to infinity. The lens is different; a 28/3.5 five element lens instead of the XA’s 35/2.8. That lovely A11 flash unit that I got with my XA2? Totally compatible with the XA4. Brilliant (pun intended)! It is the most flexible point and shoot film camera I own. It’s wonderful to be able to get close to objects without holding a crazy diopter up to the lens.

According to the site cameraquest.com, the XA4 was made in 1985 and for only a year at that, making it pretty difficult to find (and making my thrift store find that much sweeter). It’s one of the first cameras to use DX film coding and has programmed exposure times from 2 seconds at f/3.5 to 1/750th of a second at f/14. You’ll even be warned by a little light if your shutter speed is below 1/30th so that you can set up a tripod or use flash.

If you’re a fan of  the LC-A, or the XA family of cameras you’ll love the XA4. You’ll want to marry it and have it’s babies. So get to looking! Maybe you’ll score big like I did. Good luck!

Action Pinhole

After reading the latest issue of Light Leaks, the fantastic magazine dedicated to lo-fi photography, I was inspired to try my hand at pinhole photography…again.

I should explain that my first foray into the world of pinhole consisted of me constructing a thrift store pinhole cam which was fun but ultimately anti-climactic. After constructing the camera, which took place over a couple of days I took it out for a spin. Since I’d never shot with a pinhole, nor seen many pinhole images, I was unsure what subjects would be best photographed through this primitive device. The result was a mediocre roll of 36 exposures, with the exception of a few goofy shots I took on a roll of black and white. I was happy my photos actually came out but the thrift store panoramic camera is not something I’ve used more than two times.

Enter the latest issue of Light Leaks. The gallery of photos was impressive and proved that there’s much more to pinhole photography than just opening the shutter and hoping your film is exposed to enough light. Images of idyllic landscapes and ordinary restaurants were laced with gauzy, ghostly impressions of people moving about, leaves blowing in the breeze and even a little camera shake. The contrast between the sharply focused static objects and carefree blurry moving ones was beautiful. After absorbing it all I decided it was time to play with my Diana F+ on pinhole setting.

I titled this blog  ’Action Pinhole’ because I decided to focus on capturing moving objects against a static background. These were the type of pinhole photos that were most striking to me.

First up was the bowling alley, a place my family loves to go on rainy days. I first set Diana up right in front of the ball return chute facing the lanes and left the shutter open for about 10 minutes.

I then moved it right in front of the gutter and exposed the shot for 15 minutes.

For the third shot I aimed it at the lane to our left which was empty for about 5 minutes then became active with bowlers for the last half of the frame’s exposure time.

Finally I set the camera on the armrest of one of the chairs nearest the lanes. This picture came out the blurriest and most abstract of all due to the fact that my 3 year-old was jumping in and out of my lap for most of the exposure time. It kind of looks like those NASA shots of the surface of Jupiter.

Pinhole Diana’s next action-adventure was swim team practice at the YMCA. My girls practice for an intense hour, giving me plenty of time to snap off a few frames. My methods were similar to the bowling alley trip in that I left the film exposed for 10 then 15 minutes except this time I only changed the point of view slightly as I was limited to the viewing area outside the pool deck. My shots weren’t as blurry because the camera was sitting, undisturbed, on the windowsill. I really love the way the pool looks rather ghostly. There’s no evidence of life in the photo at all when, in fact, the pool was buzzing with about a hundred kids.

All in all, this was a really fun experiment. I’m going to replicate it again for sure. It’s the first time I’ve ever used the pinhole setting on my Diana and I was very pleased with the results. Although making my own pinhole camera was a lot of fun (and frustrating at times) , I’d rather focus on making the images as interesting as possible. With my free time somewhat limited, it’s Zen-like aspect of the pinhole experience that appeals to me: The careful selection of subject and the waiting of multiple minutes for a shot to expose on the film. The simplicity of pinhole photography and the unique results are just one more reason why film is such a special and irreplaceable medium.

Retro Heaven

I was sitting at home minding my own business when a friend called and said he’d found a  local flea market that sold old cameras.  That was really all I needed to hear, then I got the picture he sent from his phone: A wall of old cameras–from box cameras, to movie cameras, SLRs and bakelites. It was amazing! He said he wanted to go back this weekend for a few more things and asked if I wanted to tag along (well, duh!).

Chesapeake Retro Media, located at 314 Centreville Rd in Queenstown, MD is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday and has a great collection of not only vintage cameras and old darkroom equipment but also DVDs, VHS tapes (including Beta), reel-to-reel machines and tapes, slides and slide projectors, books, amps, speakers, turntables, instruments, well, you get the picture. I was amazed and impressed by the variety of cameras on display yesterday; lots of 35mm SLRs, some movie cameras, a few fold-outs, a box camera and brands such as Ansco, Argus, Minolta, Voigtlander, Brownie, Zenit and Olympus.

The first camera I decided on was a gold-colored Brownie Bull’s Eye from 1950. It’s made of metal and is quite heavy. Since I have a few Brownies I thought this would be a nice addition to my collection. I was thrilled to find my second camera, the Zenit-E among the mostly American inventory. I’d been searching for one of these SLRs for a few months. The Ansco Ready Flash with the big, metal flash reflector still attached was a no-brainer. It’s lovely little Bakelite body needs a good scrub and will then be ready to go. Lastly I chose the Voigtlander Brillant which I originally thought was a TLR camera but upon further research and inspection proves not to be so. Still, it looks cool and I’ve heard nice things about this camera. It even came with what appear to be two little close-up lenses hidden in a little compartment on the side of the camera. I can’t wait to goof around with some macro-type shots with that one.

I also picked up a great stiff pleather camera bag for eight bucks that held all four cameras on their journey home, a little Ansco Cadet carrying case in the original box and a stainless steel single reel film developing container with a stainless steel reel inside.

JoAnne, the owner’s wife, was kind enough to give me a phone number where I can contact her husband, whom she says has hundreds of more cameras at home (gasp!!). She said her husband and son get most of the retro media goodies through estate sales (can I tag along next time?). She said if I left the names of some cameras I was interested in finding he’d keep his eye out for me.

As if these goodies weren’t enough the cool Diana Clone (a Mark L) that I ordered from eBay came in the mail today, complete with the original box and instruction booklet, plus–BONUS–a roll of film from 1960-something still inside. There’s one frame left, too!

I think I’ll be busy cleaning and testing out my new toys for awhile!

Shout Outs

Big shout out of thanks to Andrew at Fuzzy Eyeballs for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts on foul weather photography and lo-fi photography. He contacted me a few weeks ago after seeing some of my photos on Flickr and asked to interview me about some of the shots I took in rainy, foggy weather last fall (see the Snow and Fog Pictures and Foggy Picture Practice was worth it!). It was fun to answer his questions and really got me to thinking how most of my favorite shots are from my experimental photo adventures. Most of the photos I ‘plan’ turn out nicely, some even great, but by far most of the works I really love come from seeing what will happen if I try something new. It really served to remind me that experimentation is the only way to get better and further reinforces me to embrace imperfection.

Big shout out #2 to Nic Nichols of Four Corners Dark.com for his candid and spot-on thoughts about Photoshop and it’s place in photography. Nichols helped develop and taught for the University of DE’s digital imaging program. Not credentials you’d expect from an accomplished toy camera photographer. Check out his article, it’ll make you think and give you some encouragement. I’m also VERY thankful he reviewed the new Diana Mini, a camera I was seriously considering buying (with piggy points, but still). Again, another honest article from Nic reminds us of the old saying ‘if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.’

Plastic Rules!

Gone to the Dark Side?

Alright. So I finally broke down and got that digital SLR I’ve been lusting after for a good two years. Well, not exactly the same one. This one is a refubished Nikon D40 that, in a former life, served as a factory demo.  It’s fancy alright and in great condition too; way too many buttons and knobs compared to my toys, but I digress.

I was pretty excited to play with it and I haven’t been disappointed so far. It really is a nice camera. No shutter lag, beautiful pictures–except for a little fuzziness in the corners but I’m used to that. The more I played with it the more I wondered–have I gone over to the dark side? I’ve gotten some fantastic shots from this camera but have had to tweak some of them in Lightroom to make them true standouts. I felt very dirty after I did this the first time. Almost like I was trying to sneak candy out of the 7-11 beneath my jacket. But the results were undeniable. The pictures were better after the tweaking. After a few sessions of deep thought I came to peace with my new toy.

While my digital camera will be the go-to consistent camera in my bag of tricks, I still love my toys and get the results I want–no tweaking required–when I use them. I gave my husband and Dad a great photo of my kids for Father’s Day and guess which camera I used to take it? My Holga. I have a vibrant set of prints hanging on my living room wall of some fall foliage taken on Fuji Velvia run through my Lubitel. When you really break it down, I just don’t enjoy sitting in front of my computer editing endless frame after frame of digital shots. I’m super excited to have the technology but my true love will always be film and cheap cameras. I guess you have to stray sometimes to find out where your heart truly lies.

I think I get it

Ever since playing around with vintage film cameras I have had to explain to my fellow digital photographers why I love them.  They can’t comprehend why one would want to goof around with a $10 camera when one could play with a- zillion mega pixels and digital editing software that would make a Pixar filmmaker jealous. I understand most of the arguments for digital, including the convenience factor. But I really never understood why digital? Really? Is it an artform or just pixels in space? Why sit for hours at a computer monitor and tweak your picture until it’s your idea of perfect?

So I turned the tables on someone and got an interesting answer. Digital, this person stated, is MY medium. What I create out of pixels is art to me just as your tangible film negative and resulting print is art to you. Interesting. But I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around it all. 

Enter a particularly challenging photo gig and the need to tweak some horribly exposed pictures in something other than PS. I was contemplating switching to Lightroom to ‘perfect’ digital shots of an 80th birthday party.  I understand the need for the sharp, crisp look, especially when folks are actually paying you for that type of product. An innocuous how-to video really crystallized the answer to this question for me.

The video was explaining how the photographer got these fantastic colors in the sky of a gorgeous landscape shot of what looked like the Grand Canyon. Immediately I looked at the shot and thought “Wow,that is so fake” and it was. This guy made no bones about it in the video and explained that he took the original picture, which was very drab and unimpressive, and turned it into what he remembered the shot ‘feeling’ like in the moment. It was intriguing to hear his explanation. This picture was taken in the warm light of the morning and the original just didn’t capture that warmth. He felt that the altered version of the sky really captured the what he was feeling in that environment and what he was trying to convey in his photography. So THAT’S what it’s all about! 

Just like those of us in the film community love the retro, grainy and imperfect look of our shots, digital photogs love the sharp and perfect look they can attain through mega pixels. I look at the film way as a more ‘organic’ view of the world; relatively unaltered, imperfect and natural, while the digital view of the world is ‘enhanced’; saturated, perfected, possible cut-and-pasted and totally in the electronic realm until one actually prints a copy of the photo onto paper.

Understanding the digital photographer’s need to fill their pictures with surreal colors and shapes helps me appreciate what they do a bit more but I have to say, as a film girl I resent the fact that the public has become accustomed these overly-saturated shots as the norm. It seems as though popular tastes have shifted towards a more unrealistic view of the world through a lens. My film shots look really drab in comparison to digitized ones and they always will because I don’t like making them look fake. Oversaturation due to crossprocessing is one thing while vibrant reds, purples, yellow and oranges in every sunset picture you’ve ever taken is quite another.

I guess that’s why us film-o-philes don’t outnumber the digital heads. And that’s okay. Each art form has it’s place. Understanding what compels someone to work in the fully digital world has taken my acceptance of it to a new level. Next time I see an unnaturally colored sky or flower I will know that it represents more than just mad PS skills. That’s cool with me but I think  I’ll stick with the natural, organic film look.

snow & fog pictures

I finally developed the pictures I took as part of my ‘foul weather’ projects and I am really encouraged by the results! Despite a disatrous developing job on one roll (because of using a crappy spool) they came out quite well. I really like the moodiness that the foggy and snowy atmospheres add to the already retro-feel that my Fed 2 tends to give pictures. Even the crappy reel disaster added a little interest to the party. Those bubbly-looking things, as well as the composition, on the shot of the sailboat and marsh are a result of uneven developing secondary to the crappy reel. I had to crop a bit off the right hand side because it didn’t develop properly, resulting in only a little bit of the sailboat showing. I do rather like it, though. Just goes to show you really never know what you’re going to get with analogue photography!

Polls!!

WordPress has a cool new feature that allows you to create polls. I love polls. I’m a sucker for filling them out when someone sends them to me on myspace so I’ve decided to periodically add a few to the blog. Give me your answers and I’ll post them in future posts! Yippie!

Diana f+ maiden voyage

A spankin’-new bottle of Ilfosol 3 developer has finally arrived at my house and I’m pleased to be able to share the results. I got a Diana F+ a few weeks ago and took it for a spin on World Toy Camera Day then again this weekend at the Seawitch Festival in Rehoboth Beach, DE. I really love shooting with the Diana! So light and easy. Nice neckstrap, good lock on the bottom of the camera to keep the back firmly attached (unlike my lovely Holga) plus I got the Wide Angle and Close-Up lens package with my camera.

It was so very convienient and easy to use the Diana. I was able to do lots of ‘covert’ shooting by wearing my camera around my neck and looking the other way while snapping the shot that was right in front of me. 

The Diana’s images are soft, fuzzy and dreamy. When I sit Holga and Diana images side by side the Holga shots look positively crisp compared to the Diana F+. It’s a great camera to use when you want your images to have that fantastical quality.

I haven’t developed any rolls yet using the close-up lens. Those images are still away at the lab. I plan on taking a few rolls using the close-up lens as one of the main reasons I purchased the Diana F+ was it’s ability to convert to a pinhole cam plus the lenses available to use.  A word about switching lenses. My original lens was extremely hard to get off. It wasn’t just as easy as twisting it like the directions suggested. I have a feeling the tabs that hold the lenses on may break off prematurely but it’s still a really nice feature to have in a toy camera.

Can’t wait to play with the Diana F+ more!

Land Camera – not as easy as you’d think

I almost threw my ‘new’ Land Camera out the window today.

I finally got the batteries to work the shutter and after properly installing them, I promptly filled my camera’s hungry little belly with Fuji-100 instant film. I took a shot of three pumpkins in my backyard and went to pull the picture out of the side. No dice. It was stuck. Big Time! I pulled and pulled and pulled and only succeded in ripping tiny shreds of white paper from the tag of the film. I got tweezers, pliers (both flat and needle-nosed) and tried to extricate my film that way but only succeded in ripping the paper even more. I took it into a dark closet (even though we’ve only known each other a few days) and tried to re-load the film tags. What a nightmare! To spare you any further details I ended up with a big, goopy mess and wasted 75% of my film pack trying to free the pictures the correct way. I must’ve taken 10 pictures of those stupid pumpkins. It was time to consult the internet.

Thanks to Flickr I found a Polaroid Land Camera group that had a big thread relating to such problems. It took a bit of searching and of course now I can’t find my way back to that glorious thread, but here’s the basic problem. It seems as though there are two little pins near the rollers that cause undue tension on Fuji film. It was recommended that you either bend back these pins or break them off and pop a piece of weather stripping in it’s place. After a little surgery my film was still sticking. I did some further modification on my own by completely removing the bar that holds these two pins. This bar was bent up and was putting more tension on the film than just those two stupid little pins ever could have. After throughly cleaning the rollers and checking the battery connections I was FINALLLY able to get my Land Camera working! I’ll post pictures of my modification and a direct link to the ever-so-helpful mod directions in a later blog. Until then….