Wednesday 31 August 2011

Week 87 - Zenit Fotosniper FS12

Zenit Fotosniper FS-12 by pho-Tony
Zenit Fotosniper FS-12, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This shows the Fotosniper fully assembled. I've loaded it with ISO400 colour negative film so that I can use the fastest shutter speed possible. I'm taking it to a historical re-enactment event, where hopefully I won't stick out too much!

Week 87 - Zenit Fotosniper FS12

Zenit Fotosniper FS-12 by pho-Tony
Zenit Fotosniper FS-12, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This Russian outfit comes in a fitted metal box and is assembled to make a "rifle" like device to hold a 300mm telephoto lens steady, the trigger connects to the camera's shutter release using an additional socket on the base of the camera. I've had this kit for a while, but deliberately waited until the "Sheffield Fayre" before taking it out. This event is a multi-period historical re-enactment, and involves lots of guns and spectators with long lenses, so I reckoned this was a safe place to give it a go.

photo from week 86 - Le Clic disc camera

Venice churches by pho-Tony
Venice churches, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
Details of two Venetian churches, merged together due to a problem with the disc advance.

photos from week 86 - Le Clic disc camera

Venice disc by pho-Tony
Venice disc, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This is a scan of the whole disc, the pairs of overlapping images can be seen, only number one was correctly positioned.
This was a very expired Kodak disc, developed in Tetenal C41 chemistry.

photo from week 86 - Le Clic disc camera

St Mark's Square by pho-Tony
St Mark's Square, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
There was a problem with the film advance on this one, all but one of the images are overlapping, the results are quite pleasing though.

Saturday 20 August 2011

Week 86 -Le Clic disc camera

Le Clic disc camera by pho-Tony
Le Clic disc camera, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
I'm off on holiday this week, so I'm trying to keep the weight down with this disc camera. Back in week 69 I used a Minolta-7 disc camera, having aquired an expired unused double disc pack of Kodacolor film. The first disc was OK, so let's hope this one is too.

Friday 19 August 2011

photo from week 85 - Ricoh Auto-Half E

Helter Skelter top by pho-Tony
Helter Skelter top, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
I used an expired Fujichrome Velvia ISO50 slide film in this camera, then cross-processed it in C41 chemistry. The film has an obvious purple shade to it, which when converted to a positive image gives a green cast.

photo from week 85 - Ricoh Auto-Half E

Somewhat underexposed, this was taken at the limit of the camera's exposure range, there is no "B" setting, so a longer exposure and a tripod was not an option.

photos from week 85 - Ricoh Auto-Half E

vintage bus dyptich by pho-Tony
vintage bus dyptich, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
I used an expired Fujichrome Velvia ISO50 slide film in this camera, then cross-processed it in C41 chemistry. The film has an obvious purple shade to it, which when converted to a positive image gives a green cast.

Sunday 14 August 2011

photo from week 84 - Sputnik Stereo Camera

Helter-Skelter by pho-Tony
Helter-Skelter, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
Another stereo pair, compared with the previous photo, which had quite a lot of flare, this one seems OK, as the sun was further away from the lens axis.

photo from week 84 - Sputnik Stereo Camera

Bishops' House by pho-Tony
Bishops' House, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
Stereo pair, this model is renowned for it's shiny black interior, which encourages flare, and this picture certainly demonstrates this "feature". More dedicated users cover the inside of the camera with black flocking to reduce this effect.

Friday 12 August 2011

Week 85 - Ricoh Auto Half E

Ricoh Auto Half E by pho-Tony
Ricoh Auto Half E, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This is quite a chunky little camera for a half-frame, on account of it having a clockwork motor drive built in. The exposure system is fully automatic with a fixed shutter speed of 1/125th second, and the aperture set between f2.8 and f22 by the built in Selenium meter.
The motor drive on this example doesn't work, but turning the knob advances the film and cocks the shutter, and it seems to fire OK. I've never had a film in it before, so you never know...

Monday 8 August 2011

photo from week 83 - Fujicarex II

snake by pho-Tony
snake, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

A snake in the local playground

photo from week 83 - Fujicarex II

Taken at near full aperture, the focus seems OK in this one, though several of this week's photos were out of focus.

photo from week 83 - Fujicarex II

pavement cafe by pho-Tony
pavement cafe, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Several of this week's photos seemed to be out of focus, this might be user error, though I have used many SLRs without focus problems, or it may be that there is some problem with the camera, anyway, this one taken in bright sunlight with a smallish aperture seems to be OK.

Friday 5 August 2011

Week 84 - Sputnik stereo camera

Sputnik by pho-Tony
Sputnik, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
The Sputnik is a stereo camera that uses 120 rollfilm, it is a twin version of the Lubitel 2 that I used in week 58. With only six exposures to play with, I will spend more time than usual choosing subjects and composing the shots, I've loaded it with a roll of Fuji Superia ISO 100 colour negative film.

A Collectors Life For Me

A Collectors Life For Me by pho-Tony
A Collectors Life For Me, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

My latest column is in the current edition of Amateur Photographer, this month it's about the Baby Box Tengor that I used in week 20.

Thursday 4 August 2011

photo from week 82 - Mercury II

This week's mirror shot, I thought the shape of my daughter's wetsuit headpiece matched the dome on the camera that houses the rotary focal plane shutter.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

photos from week 82 - Mercury II

Museum of Liverpool exterior by pho-Tony
Museum of Liverpool exterior, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
With a focal length of 35mm, on a half frame camera, this is really a slightly long lens. I had envisaged making a sweeping panorama of this new building, but decided to take a series of fragments instead once I realised that the angle of view was quite narrow.

photo from week 82 - Mercury II

Canning Dock by pho-Tony
Canning Dock, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

After a false start, when I discovered that this camera doesn't like being tilted, I got through the rest of the roll without any problems.