Week 217 - Olympus Pen FT

Olympus Pen FT, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

I've been after one of these for sometime, and finally picked one up on eBay at a price that wasn't too absurd. This is a half frame SLR, and there were a whole range of lenses made for it. It all seems to work, so I'm looking forward to giving it a spin.

photo from week 216 - Zeiss Ikonette

HINGES, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

A little bit of Sheffield's industrial history, adorning a perilously dilapidated old factory.

photo from week 216 - Zeiss Ikonette

reflected self-portrait with Zeiss Ikonette camera and under-sized boater, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

I took two mirror self-portraits this week, one handheld at 1/25th second and full aperture, and this one with the lens stopped right down and a four second exposure using a tripod.

photo from week 216 - Zeiss Ikonette

smiling tractor, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Another rainy day in the UK! At least this farmyard tractor seemed cheerful, maybe he was enjoying some peace and quiet, normally on a Sunday afternoon he is covered in small children.

Week 216 - Zeiss Ikonette

Zeiss Ikonette, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Many dozens, if not hundreds, of cameras were made under the Zeiss Ikon brand. They included many fine precision models, but with such a large catalogue, I suppose it's inevitable that there would be the occasional failure. The Ikonette is a stylish plastic finished camera, but apparently the body wasn't light-tight, and Zeiss recalled many of them. This one belongs to my dad, he carefully painted the innards matt black, and there is certainly no light leak in this example, whether there ever was will remain a mystery. The Ikonette borrows the single lever advance/shutter release from earlier Zeiss models, notably the Tenax and Taxona ranges. They are quite rare, and are often described as not working, which in some cases may be due to the seller not realising that a film needs to be loaded in order to cock the shutter. I'm using a roll of Agfa Vista 200 colour negative film from Poundland.

photo from week 215 - Konica Z-up 150

museum goose, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

This was taken in the local museum, I braced the camera against a display case in order to keep it still for what I anticipated would be a slow shutter speed, it sounded like about half a second.

photo from week 215 - Konica Z-up 150

reflected self-portrait with Konica Z-UP 150 camera and camouflage net, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Using available light it was inevitable that the camera would select a wide aperture, with the resulting reduction in depth of field. I just about got away with it.