Tag Archives: Film Photography

{Getting to Know You} Sears 35rf

August 14, 2018 10:18 am ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅

I really like it when I find a camera at a thrift shop that I’d never heard of before.

(this photo was taken with another 2017 thrift shop find: my Yashica T4)

I’ll set the scene for you:

I was making my weekly thrift shop run and about to call it quits when I saw saw this camera on a shelf in the paltry electronics section of a particular store that usually doesn’t yield many “finds.” It was so tiny that I couldn’t believe it was actually a rangefinder, even if “rf” was part of its name!

But it was $6.59. I decided that I really didn’t need to buy the camera since I’d spent $3 here and there on random point and shoot cameras throughout the course of 2017 and was feeling pretty guilty about that. Like, had I not bought those silly cameras, I could have this one. So, I left it.

I left the store, drove down the road to go home, regret set in, and I turned back around to get the camera.

Success!!

It even came with its original case, with the stylized “SR” ( Sears and Roebuck) butterfly logo. I accidentally shot case upside down though, so I inverted the logo separately so you could see it  😀

Some of Sears 35rf’s specs:

  • Rangefinder focusing (.9m/3ft – infinity)
  • 40mm f/2.8 lens
  • Shutter-priority auto exposure and manual exposure 
  • Shutter speed range from 1/500s-1/8s, plus Bulb
  • Aperture range of f/2.8-f/16

In a move thoroughly unlike me, I immediately set about replacing the foam light seals. They were such a gunky mess that I figured I might as well get it over with.

In the meantime, I found out a little about the camera. It’s a rebranded Ricoh rangefinder (500 series.)

I shot a very quick test roll to see if I had done an okay job with the seals and if everything was functioning well mechanically too. I got it developed right away (also unusual for me as of late.)

I shared these on Flickr and Instagram (because I wasn’t sure when I’d put together a blog post for it here!) But hey, everything looked fine for the light seals and the camera seemed to be functioning fine!

(Shot on Fuji Superia 400)

I fell in love with this camera as soon as I saw the results from my test roll. I even took it on family vacation with me a few weeks after I got it. Here are some of the photos from that trip that I originally shared on my blog post about our vacation.

(Shot on Fuji Superia 400)

When I got home from vacation, I finished up the roll of Kodak Ektachrome 320T that I’d started shooting on vacay. Here are some of those photos (and these haven’t been shown anywhere before now!)

(Shot on expired Kodak Ektachrome 320T, cross-processed)

Then, I loaded the camera with the roll of JCH Streetpan I’d been holding onto for awhile. The results made me turn into the heart eyes emoji!
(I also haven’t shared any of these photos online previously 😉 )

 

(Shot on JCH Streetpan 400)

I LOVE the Sears 35rf. I cannot believe I was blessed to find it that day in a thrift shop that rarely yields any scores. The camera’s lens is nice and sharp, it’s little (though not so lightweight since it’s mostly made of metal,) and it’s now a prized member of my camera collection <3

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography, informational ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , ,

{Getting to Know You} Mamiya M645

July 15, 2018 12:38 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

This was an “oops, I did it again moment.”

Last year, I bought a Mamiya M645.

I once extolled the virtues of another 6×4.5 medium format SLR I owned- the Bronica Etrsi. I’d found The One! Then I let it slip through my fingers. I sold the Bronica to a friend on Twitter who had been eyeing one. I have to say that I regretted letting it go…

Maybe I should have righted the wrong and bought another Bronica, but I decided to go in a slightly different direction by getting a Mamiya M645.

Some differences and similarities between the Bronica and Mamiya:

  • Film backs: The Bronica allows you to change film backs (and, therefore, film types/speeds) mid-roll. A Mamiya M645 does not, though you can get extra film inserts to pre-roll with film so you can change film quickly once you finish a roll. I liked the idea of changing film backs, but, in reality, I didn’t really do it with the Bronica often. And carrying multiple film backs was just one more thing to keep up with.
  • Construction: The Bronica is largely constructed of plastic. Not so for the Mamiya M645, which means the latter is more hefty than the former (weight of camera gear is a significant factor for a lot of people.)
  • “Grip” options: I had a speed grip for my Etrsi, which allowed it to function almost like an overgrown 35mm SLR (you can see photos of that set up in the blog post I linked earlier in this one.) It allowed the shutter to be triggered with a button on the grip rather than the one on the camera, and film was advanced with an advance lever instead of a crank. All this is done on the right side of the camera. I do not have a grip for my Mamiya (yet?) I have been reluctant to try one for that camera, because its grips are left hand grips. I have felt dubious about that because I’ve felt that it might feel awkward to have the shutter button/film advance on the left side. I don’t know…it doesn’t appeal to me. I might try one eventually, because handling the camera without one is sort of like holding a cube!
  • The shutter types are also different between these two cameras (Bronica: leaf shutter in the lens, Mamiya: focal plane shutter.) I won’t go too much into the differences here, except to say that for my style of shooting, the differences really don’t matter all that much to me!
  • On the subject of shutter speeds, the ETRSi and M645 have the same shutter speed range: 1/500s – 8s, plus Bulb
  • Multiple exposures possible on both. I used this often on the Mamiya, not so much on the Bronica. (I wasn’t that into multiple exposures when I had the ETRSi)
  • Mirror lock-up on both (to reduce vibration during certain types of exposures.) Not that it was a feature I utilized often, but mirror lock-up on the ETRsi is more tricky than the M645 because, on the Bronica, putting the mirror back down fires the shutter. To avoid wasting a frame of film, you need to take the film back off, return the mirror to the down position (which fires the shutter,) flip the multiple exposure lever to activate that “mode,” then put the film back on again, take your next photo, flip the multiple exposure lever to exit, and finally advance the film. That’s A LOT. With the M645, you just flip the mirror lock-up lever to return the mirror to its down down position and move on with your life!

One reason I took the plunge and purchased the Mamiya M645 is that I got it for a song…seriously, it was a price that made the choice feel like it wasn’t much of a risk. I bought the body and lens (80mm f/2.8, the standard lens) then purchased the prism separately to complete the kit.

The format of this blog post is unlike most of my camera “reviews,” but it’s because I went about trying “new” cameras differently last year, so the posts I write about the cameras are different too! Side note: I only have limited photos from the first two rolls I took with the Mamiya, because most of those photos are allocated for different projects (which I keep alluding to on here…I’m promise all will be revealed as soon as possible!)

Roll #1: Fuji Provia 400F, expired in 2005, cross-processed (June 2017)

First frame! This is of a Russian wooden box I’d gotten at a thrift shop. 

Elderflowers

Roll #2: Ilford FP4+ (June/July 2017)

So I’d had those two rolls developed (though I have shot another that hasn’t been developed as of yet.) I decided I needed to go ahead and replace the badly deteriorated light seals. The following photos were from my post-light seal replacement test roll (looks like they worked!) I can share all of the results from this roll because, well, they were just for this blog!!!

Film: Lomography Color Negative 400 (April 2018)

I will say that I don’t feel as if I bonded with the M645 as quickly as I did my Bronica ETRSi, but I also have had my {camera} attentions divided this last year, so I haven’t invested as much time getting to know the Mamiya as I should have. When I do pick it up to use, I really enjoy the experience though! I mentioned that handling the camera without a grip attached is like holding a cube, but it’s not been as awkward in practice as it sounds.  I hope that, with time, I will also get to add another lens or two to my M645 kit – there’s a drool-worthy 80mm f/1.9 available for it that I’d LOVE to try! Not to mention a wide angle lens would be nice too.

Posted in: camera review, family photography, film photography, informational, personal ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

{Smoky Mountains} 2017

February 12, 2018 12:22 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Back in November 2017, I went on another little family vacation to the Smoky Mountains, which was our third year going (as adults anyway, we used to go annually when we were kids!) The previous year, I took a lot of photos, but a major roll of film was lost in the mail. Thankfully, I had no such problem this time!

For this trip, the cameras I brought with me were: my Lomo LC-A, the Sears 35rf I’d recently scored from a thrift shop, and my Lomo’ Instant Automat.

The evening we arrived in Gatlinburg. In time to have dinner at our fave Mexican restaurant! This was taken while we were parked outside the lobby of our motel during check-in. 

One of the first things we did the on our first day was go to The Island in Pigeon Forge. It’s got shopping, games, and restaurants  (we had lunch there at a french fry restaurant called Pomme Frites that was AMAZING.) We went to scope out the giant Ferris wheel. More on that later 🙂

In the past, I have not taken many photos of my family when I make photos of our vacations, but I decided to change that during this family getaway.

We tried to go to some places and do some different things on this vacation than we have on previous trips to the Smoky Mountains. One of those “new things” we did was go to a place called Anakeesta, where you ride up the mountain in either an enclosed gondola (as we did) or on a ski lift chair. Anakeesta had only recently opened, so not all of its attractions were open yet, but we enjoyed the beautiful views immensely!

In our gondola (or Chondola, as they call it) 

Spectacular views

While at Anakeesta, we walked through the network of tree canopy bridges, which was quite the experience!

During this trip, I greatly increased the number of photos of my brother-in-law that are in existence 🙂

Descending the mountain in our Chondola 

The next day, we visited Ripley’s Aquarium (as we’d done in 2015 as well.) That was the only place where I shot digital while on vacation. I only posted those on Facebook and that was mainly for the benefit of my brother-in-law, who likes to have photos I’ve taken at aquariums printed so he can hang them on his office wall. I took HUNDREDS (as one tends to do on digital.) Here’s a screenshot of some of them…

 

After we’d finished our visit to the aquarium, we went to The Village because there’s a donut shop there that we love! Being the first week of November, Christmas decorations were already up in the area.

Christmas trees at The Village

Ole Smoky Mountain Candy Kitchen at The Village

Photos from our walk back to the motel room after visiting The Village

Our box from The Donut Friar, which is the donut shop we love at The Village 🙂

We stopped at a coffee stand on our way back to Anakeesta

We actually went back to Anakeesta on our second day in Gatlinburg, because our visit the prior day occurred in the afternoon and entitled us to entrance the entire next day too!

Can’t get enough of the mountains!

Somehow got one where she was smiling!

As I mentioned in my 2016 Smoky Mountains vacation post, there was a really bad fire in the area in November 2016. At Anakeesta, there is a Memorial Forest Walk that allows you to learn about the fire and its impact on the area. As you can see in some of these photos, the fire burned trees surrounding Annakesta, where the memorial walk is.

Colorful straws in a shop in downtown Gatlinburg

Best Italian! With calzones the size of footballs!

We also returned to The Island that night. It was BEAUTIFUL at night! It had rained, and the Christmas lights were shimmering in rain puddles.

The “show fountains,” where there’s a light and dancing water show set to music at different intervals throughout the day. They were fascinating to watch! 

The main purpose of our return to The Island was to ride the Great Smoky Mountain Wheel. It’s a 200 ft. high ferris wheel with enclosed gondolas.  As I mentioned, it was a rainy night, which made the experience even better because all the lights you could see from way up there were even more beautiful! We were quite worried about our mother, who is very afraid of heights, but she did GREAT on the wheel. I think it was a slow night at the wheel because it was raining, so the ride operator let us go around a few extra times 🙂 (P.S. This kinda makes me want to ride the London Eye if I ever get back to London again…)

The Great Smoky Mountain Wheel

Reflection of the Wheel in puddles from the rain

I will add something here that you wouldn’t know from just seeing the photos: One of the most fun things that happened was the torrential downpour during our visit to The Island. Even though it meant we got soaked, it somehow ended up being really fun darting around, trying to stay dry and catch a ride on the tram that transports people from The Island to the parking lot. We laughed so much! (plus the announcer on the tram was hilarious!)

The next morning, we went to The Christmas Place. It’s all Christmas, all the time, all year round! Though I doubt we would have visited had it not been close to the holidays 🙂 I don’t have a photo of it here, but the best thing there was the whole section of decor based on A Christmas Story! Including a full size “major award!”

The Christmas Place

We also went to Smoky Mountain Knife Works (for my brother-in-law.) Us ladies ended up sitting outside awhile to wait for my brother-in-law to finish his shopping 🙂

Outside Knife Works

I was bound and determined that my sister and I were going to a couple of thrift shops before we left the area. Here are a couple of photos from the flea market/antique mall we found. I ended up with a vintage Fire-King baking dish from there.

At the flea market

Dinner that evening

The Arby’s in Pigeon Forge still has the old sign!

Though this is the first photo of the Apple Barn from our 2017 Smoky Mountains trip, it wasn’t our first time there that weekend. We kept going back for more fried apple pies 🙂

I would have had more photos from our last night in town, but when I went out that night with my niece and brother-in-law to walk around downtown Gatlinburg, my Lomo LC-A stopped working! That was a bummer, but at least I got to spend a little time walking around with my niece and helped make sure she got a big funnel cake from a stand downtown 🙂

 

While I wasn’t as photographically prolific this time as I’d been in previous Smoky Mountains vacations, I was pleased with my camera set-up and with the photos I did produce while we were there. It was a great trip!

Photos taken with a Lomo LC-A, Sears 35rf, and Lomo’ Instant Automat

Posted in: film photography, personal, travel photography ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , ,

{Nikon for Girls}

October 27, 2017 9:15 am ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅

I’m a few years late in writing a post dedicated to this camera…

I got a Nikon EM in 2012. It’s a Nikon “for girls.” Oh yes, you read that correctly. When the EM was released, it was supposed to be appealing to women photographers who were newly entering the world of SLR photography. It is a small, simple to use “budget” camera.

From the Nikon EM Wikipedia page:

Called internally “the Nikon for women”, the EM was designed to provide style (exterior contours sculpted by Italian automobile stylist Giorgetto Giugiaro), convenience (a system of dedicated accessories), ease of use (as much automation as possible in 1979), low cost (simplified manufacturing process) and the prestige of the Nikon name (prominently displayed on the pentaprism housing) for initiates to SLR-dom.

Spoiler: Nikon’s strategy to snag female buyers with the EM didn’t work. They bought nicer, more fully-featured cameras instead…

Decades after its release, I picked up my EM for about $25.  Which actually might have been overpaying, since it didn’t have a lens! (I already had lenses to fit it since I have other Nikons…)

A little about the Nikon EM:

  • It’s a manual focus 35mm SLR camera
  • Exposure is aperture priority, meaning the user selects the aperture and the camera selects the appropriate shutter speed
  • Auto shutter speeds of 1 sec. to 1/1000 sec. Bulb mode available by turning the mode dial to “B”
  • Shutter speed is indicated with a needle in the viewfinder
  • Warning beeps if the shutter speed needed for proper exposure would be out of range (over 1/1000 sec.) or cause a risk of camera shake (under 1/30 sec.)
  • Manually selectable film speeds of 25 ASA – 1600 ASA
  • A battery is needed for the automatic exposure system to work, but there is a manual shutter speed of 1/90 sec. available if your battery dies OR if using a flash. Bulb mode also works without need for a battery.

B (bulb)/M90 (1/90s)/Auto dial
Shutter button and film advance lever
Battery check button and LED light

Here’s something: I have owned the Nikon EM for over five years, and I just noticed this little silver button on the front. I had to look it up in the camera manual! It’s an exposure compensation button! According to the manual, the button adds about two stops of exposure in situations with backlighting. I wish I’d known that sooner!

Exposure compensation button near the top front of camera

Now, as to how I never got ’round to blogging about this camera on Shoot with Personality before, I think it’s because most of the photos I have taken with it were in England. It earned a spot as my main camera during two of my trips to England (2012 and 2014,) so those were posted on my “Amanda Goes to England” blog. I chose the EM as my travel camera because it’s relatively small and quick to use due to its exposure system (I choose the aperture, the camera chooses the shutter speed.) So I guess the things I like about the EM are the features that Nikon though would appeal to women buying their first SLR? Except I was far from a beginner when I bought it 🙂

Why am I finally compiling Nikon EM photos here now? I recently dusted the camera off, tried to replace the faulty light seals in the camera, and ran a roll through it. After using a beautiful Nikon F3 most of 2017, (THANKS DAVID!!!) I had forgotten how teeny the EM is! It’s so small!

Nikon F3 size version Nikon EM size:
According to Wikipedia, the EM is 86 mm (3.4 in) high, 135 mm (5.3 in) wide, 54 mm (2.1 in) deep and weighs 460 grams (16 oz)
According to its manual, the Nikon F3HP is 101.5 mm (4 in.) high,  148.5 mm (5.8 in.) wide, 69.0 mm  (2.7 in.) deep and weighs 760 grams (26.8 oz)

In using the EM again, it was nice to have just a little SLR to carry around with me anywhere and everywhere. I thought I’d finally discuss the camera and share some of the photos I’d taken with it through the years. I managed to find a few on my computer that I hadn’t posted elsewhere before now too!

 

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012 (I didn’t remember this photo, but I really like it now that I’ve seen it for the first time in five years!)

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012

Memphis Zoo. Summer 2012

Summer 2012

Summer 2012

Summer 2012

Summer 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Summer 2012

Summer 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Summer 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Summer 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Summer 2012

London. November 2012

London. November 2012

London. November 2012

Merstham, England. November 2012

Brighton, England. November 2012

London. November 2012

London. November 2012

London. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

London. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

London. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

London. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

London. November 2012

London. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Merstham, England. November 2012

Merstham, England. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

London. November 2012

London. November 2012

London. November 2012

London. November 2012

Memphis Zoo. November 2012. (Never-before-seen SO THIS WAS A TREAT FOR ME! A photo of my niece from when she was younger that I have no recollection of!)

Memphis Zoo. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Memphis Zoo. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Memphis Zoo. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Memphis Zoo. November 2012 (Never-before-seen)

Winter 2013

Winter 2013 (Never-before-seen)

Winter 2013 (Never-before-seen)

Winter 2013 (Never-before-seen)

Winter 2013 (Never-before-seen)

Winter 2013 (Never-before-seen)

Mississippi. Fall 2013

London. May 2014

London. May 2014 (Never-before-seen. I accidentally opened the back of the camera because I forgot there was film in it)

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

York, England. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

London. May 2014

So, as you can see, the Nikon EM can be a versatile little camera and a great way to use the Nikon system and its wonderful lenses. Paired with my 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor pancake lens, I have found the EM to be to be a great everyday shooter, at home and abroad 🙂

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