30-30-30 : Day 03 : Rolleiflex SL35M

Setup for Day 03 (Feb 17th, 2017):

Camera: Rolleiflex SL35M Black Paint
Lens: Schneider-Kreuznach Rollei SL-Xenon QBM 50mm f/1.8 with Pentax Y2 yellow filter + Takumar 50mm hood
Film: Ilford PanF+ 50 ASA (black and white, expiration date unknown)

Scans will get uploaded here after I develop the negs.

Mini-review of the setup:

Camera: Camera is pretty smooth to operate and quite intuitive for almost every function. Shutter speed dial is different from most top plate knob style dials but easily accessible. Viewfinder is pretty good clear but with glasses, I couldn't get close enough to see the whole frame at once. This one has a diagonal rangefinder which I found useful. I could barely make out the aperture direct readout from the lens, unless I moved my eye below where I could see the most of the ground glass, so consider that a non-function for my use.

Focus past roughly 20-30 ft went immediately to infinity, which I've not seen before in 35mm SLRs. I'm not sure why it wasn't showing focus more clearly at longer distances but this threw me off enough to focus multiple times before taking a shot.

The film advance winder standoff position was very natural for me, made it easy to hold the camera in my right hand and walk around, even with no strap. Winding was fairly smooth, easy to load film in the take-up spool but the little white tabs seem like they are a long-term use liability.

Weird detail: In order to keep the film door closed, you have to push the film rewind knob down into the body after loading film. This caught me off guard. Minor detail but was a bit odd.

The camera feels fairly well built in that it's not poorly machined anywhere but is not even close to the class of the Pentax Spotmatics or mid-production Canon rangefinders which feel more solid and durable and "pro" in use. This felt quite cheap in comparison to the lens attached to it.


I could sell this camera body and not miss it.

Lens: I think this is the only "Xenon" lens I have in the collection at this time, seems to be fairly rare for this Rollei QBM mount. Not too much information out there but this is a sought after lens for collectors of the Rollei 35mm SLR system as it is one of the lower production # lenses, but what does that mean for people that want to use it?

Lens is super smooth to operate. Focus glides from one extreme to the other and feels great doing so. Easy to hone in on a particular distance in the viewfinder and adjust slightly back and forth with zero slop or play. The focus ring is machined metal, I don't think there is any plastic on this lens (at least on the exterior) so it feels like a solidly built piece of gear.

Aperture ring feels like it could use new grease but it has nice firm detents for half and full stops (I think it skips half stop between f/11 and f/16) so is great in operation and stays where you put it. It has 5 aperture blades which can be expected for a "budget" lens but not optimal. With the lens speed being f/1.8 it's not too hard to shoot it wide open if you don't want to see the blades in the out-of-focus highlights.

I decided to throw on a Y2 yellow filter and used an Asahi Pentax 50mm Takumar metal screw in hood as this lens did not come with a hood and I can't find proof that there is a dedicated one.

This lens, depending on image quality, will likely stay.

Film: Got this in a mixed bag of film so I'm not sure on expiration date, but it does seem to have the newest packaging so it can't be *that* old. I've had poor luck with this film when it is expired (interactions with the backing paper on 120 format, mostly), so I'm curious what to see this will look like in 35mm and in less-expired form. I have a bulk roll of this that is a fair bit expired (branded as Arista from Freestyle when they were still re-labeling film), so I'm hoping for good results.

Low speed film in these old cameras makes it easy to shoot at wide apertures even while the sun is still high in the sky days.

Here are the results (click to see bigger):

30-30-30 : Day 02 : Graflex RB

Setup for Day 02 (Feb 16th, 2017):

Camera: Graflex RB Series B 2.25" x 3.25" (nominal 2x3" or 6x9cm)
Camera Film Back: Mamiya RB67 Pro-S 120 roll film back
Lens: Kodak Ektar 127mm f/4.5 in barrel
Film: Kodak TMAX 100 ASA (black and white, expired 07/2007)

Scans will get uploaded here after I develop the negs.

Mini-review of the setup:

Camera + film back: I modified the Mamiya RB67 Pro-S back to fit on this camera. It is an easy modification to get it to fit tight up against the mounting board, just two slots need to get notched in the right area and a small ridge ground down flush and repainted black.

The rotating back feature works smoothly and this example had the ground glass marked off so it was very clear what was in the 6x9 frame and even without marking the ground glass for 6x7, it was easy to figure out exactly where the frame edges were for each photograph.

This camera has been sold already, too slow and bulky for being a 120 roll film camera compared to my Pentax 6x7 setup and I would never shoot 2x3 sheet film when I could shoot 4x5 and get even more advantages of a larger piece of film.

Ektar 127/4.5 Lens: The Kodak Ektar name is what they applied to many different designs or optical schemes. They used it as a distinguishing factor in their top-quality lenses across many different formats from 35mm or even smaller to large formats up to 8x10 and beyond, cameras with built-in lenses like the Signet series, the Retina series (famously, the 47mm f/2.0 which has a small but motivated cult follow) amongst other applications.

This one is in barrel (no built-in shutter) because it probably came on this camera from the factory where you would not really need a leaf shutter like you would on a more traditional folding press or rail camera where a focal plane shutter is not very common. Click stops on the aperture ring are nice, unfortunately this one does not stop down the lens for you so you are viewing the scene and focusing through f/11 which slows things down.

This lens has been sold with the camera.

Film: I bought a pack of 11 rolls of this film, all expired in 2007 from a seller on eBay a while back. It has been a good baseline run, I believe I am on the last of this set so I will need to buy more or I will concentrate on Fuji Acros. I believe I prefer the spectral sensitivity of the Acros emulsion compared to TMAX. Need to do some more portraits and general landscapes with both.

The images (click on any of them to see full size):

Nice close up capabilities

Not bad flare resistance for un-coated glass

Out of focus

Out of focus

ENMU campus building

Gloved finger providing a bit too much shade.

30-30-30 : Day 01 : Canon P

Day one of 30/30/30 project. I've done a 52 week project before (when I was first starting to get serious), I've done 35 days of 35mm when I shot more on digital and I suppose I like the structure and purpose it provides to get out of the normal routine and shoot more than I tend towards doing. For this one, I'll allow myself to finish out rolls that are already loaded. I'll allow changing lenses between days, so you may see the same camera body or lens multiple days. I have a lot of equipment but I'm not sure I could do 30 altogether distinct setups.

Purpose behind this project: Get out and see more of the new digs in Portales, New Mexico and meet people while out photographing and hopefully getting them to allow me to take their photograph. Also, get some fresh negatives out of the equipment I have and make notes about what equipment I really like using to help pare down the collection and provide samples for the sales adverts when the pieces I don't enjoy as much get put up for sale.

Setup for Day 01 (Feb 15th, 2017):

Camera: Canon P rangefinder (35mm film)
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.5 LTM (Sonnar clone)
Film: Kodak Panatomic-X 32 ASA (black and white, expired 03/91)

Scans will get uploaded here after I develop the negs.

Mini-review of the setup:

Canon P: Very good handling, viewfinder is indeed cluttered with the ever-present 100mm focal length frame lines always being present but it wasn't too hard to ignore that. Can barely make out the 35mm frame lines with my glasses, so this is probably best for 50mm or 100mm for me. RF contrast is fair, I definitely had to find hard contrast lines which weren't always available where I wanted to place the focus. The viewfinder is noticeably in need of cleaning, so will do that before I make any final decisions.

Will need to compare the other Canon RFs before I make a judgement to keep or sell.

Canon 50mm f/1.5 LTM: Good handling. Infinity focus lock is annoying when shooting wider scenes, I may disable that (without removing it, as that is almost surely effectively losing it) and re-shoot with this lens. I have a number of fast Canon 50mm lenses so need to pare down the collection, this is unique in optical design amongst them so has a good chance of staying. It's very "dense" feeling, which is both good and bad. Gives a nice first impression of being well built and solid, but would be heavier toting it around all day on travel. We'll see if I like the results of the Sonnar design vs the other lens' Planar or modified Planar designs.

Need to compare to other lenses' image quality before I decide to keep or sell.

Kodak Panatomic-X: Obviously slow when brand new, I rated it at 25 ASA, roughly due to the age. Great for keeping within vintage camera's 1/1000th max shutter speed and still allowing wide apertures. I bought a fair number of rolls of this film from a retired photog in San Diego right before we moved to Portales, so hopefully it was stored well and gives good results. Have not used this before, so looking forward to seeing the results from the scanner.

They don't make this film anymore, so would have to find another stock to try and replicate this if I do end up liking it. Being able to shoot wide open during the day without a filter is a nice change.

Here are the images (click on any of them to see larger, highly recommended):

Downtown Portales, NM 

Near downtown Portales

Old grain elevator building 

Modern elevator still in use

Another view of the old elevator (from north side)

Different aperture, I believe. 

Busy backyard skyline

Why build a fence when you can grow one?

Minimum focus isn't too terrible, 1m

Tumbleweeds built up against a fence on west side of town

West side past the edge of town

Someone had abandoned 4-5 of these exact same cars around this building.

Derelicts everywhere.

Again, this is maybe 4-5 blocks from the commercial downtown.

"The plane," an F-111D

For sale

Old train station

Train station #2

Train station #3

Howtek D4000 Drum Scanner Update #2

Did some more cleaning these past few weeks since the last post and solved one problem, but ran into another. 

-Cleaned and cleaned again the pulleys for the drive belt. 
-Cleaned and lubed the lead screw again.-Cleaned and lubed the tailstock bearing.-Cleaned the same drum I had been using.-Re-did the DIY pads I had been using, slightly thinner so they were all within the small recess as the factory pads are. Before, some were slightly too wide which led to the drum not centering correctly on the tailstock.-Cleaned the dust out from behind the FOPI, on that lens. -Cleaned the lens on the other side of the FOPI, illuminator lens?

Now does 2K dpi scans with no hint of lines so that's a big relief. 
Next thing to suss out is now when I set 4K DPI in Silverfast, it always returns an F702 error when checking lumens. At 1K, 2K there is never a problem but at 4K each and every time it pulls the error code.
Sample shot attached:
Wartime black paint Anniversary Speed GraphicBlack paint Kodak Ektar 127/4.7HP5 in HC110 1:100 semi-standBlue painter's tape, dry mountedScanned at 2K DPI

Here is the result: