Cameras, film, film, cameras!
The rambling here is a combination of outdated, long in-progress/unfinished/contradictory, redundant, and sometimes abandoned (hmmm, like most of the film I use!!). Some things need to be fixed here, like the Cyrillic characters broken in code-checking, so ignore anything that doesn't make sense - as in life.
Go straight here to see some photos [good, bad, weird, experimental] - and much better organized.
I have managed to keep a more or less up to date update on the list of cameras (not lenses or other etc.) I've got (see lower down this page, that oughta move to a whole new page just about cameras at some point I guess).
In the pages of photos you may note that the quality ranges from good to not as good (!). That's because it ranges from careful, high quality film scans where I knew what the hell I was doing (see
The tale of the film scanner:
In 2002 I bought my first film scanner, a
Here's a little bit that I wrote here years ago RE the scanner situation and excusing myself for not having new photos up:
Unfortunately, the #$%@!! $700 scanner seems to have broken as of autumn 2003, after only ~5 months of use. Hence nothing new for a while... Second (worst) - many photos here are from department store prints that were scanned on any of many shitty flatbed scanners available to me (mostly HP, with their characteristic permanently fogged glass from plastic decay...). If the colors look way, way off, or there's a color range of about 4 colors and 20 shades of black, or you see wrinkles, coffee rings, etc. it's probably one of these. One day, I'll get a new scanner and get this all straightened out - maybe.
So I had been without a film scanner for over 6 years (2002-2008) and really had to get something to pick up the workflow on all the film that I was shooting... In the meantime, the selection of scanners shrank to almost none, and my increasingly long shelf of binders full of film grew... In 2007, for example, I probably shot 150 rolls of 35mm; fewer in 2008 - lots of time in remote fieldwork, and when out of the field it was a very rainy summer and I didn't wander as much (things picked up again after that summer - fall and winter 2008-2009 was extremely productive, especially in b/w. In 2009 I guess I shot a few hundred rolls of color; in 2010 even more. In 2011 thus far I've not done much - no inspiration, yet...
I probably would have got another scanner earlier, but delayed because of moving around, fieldwork, low money, etc., and then I got into medium format and decided I *needed* to be able to scan 6x7 too, thus doubling the cost of a scanner (at the time the prices were ~$1100 and ~$2200; now the prices of the same items used is more than double than they were new when I was looking!)... So that delayed things more.
So I finally broke down and bought, late summer 2008, a
In mid-2010 Nikon discontinued their film scanners entirely, and now the options are a cheap $100 hunkajunk or at $10,000+ Hasselblad and on up. Too bad I was too poor in the last couple years; I'd thought about buying a 9000, or at least another 5000 to hoard when they were occasionally available, but didn't. I often compare trying to buy a film scanner after 2005 with trying to buy a car in the Soviet Union -- you wait years (in this case months and months and months and now forever) and get whatever model they have at last available.
So the photos are a mix.
There are 'old' and 'new' sets from whole different eras in the scans and the photos themselves - different cameras, different skill levels, different eras of film and my processing of it. Plus, some days I'm 'good' at scanning and postprocessing, other days I just can't get it together - as with photography in general. Some look pretty good, and out of the huge amount of film (and now digital too) I have, there's a lot of decent quality even though the stuff on the website isn't all the best, just the best of what I've gotten around to scanning and/or processing. But I guess you just have to believe me. I like to think I've made some improvements since the 1980s, when the older of the photos on this website were made, and in scanning and digiprocessing since the earlier scans.
I finally added a bunch of new photos in early 2010 and then again in 2011, after lapsing for many years since the first scanning years earlier, and have added a few since then. Dang, I have to get things pipelined and load this site up with photos! Alaska, the UP! Siberia, Russia, Crimea ... Baikal! Superior! The USSR!!
Here is some general info on equipment and techniques I use:
Film:
I shoot analog, emulsion, film (at least most of the time) . Why?
* I understand film to some degree, and I know how to use the medium and what to expect,
* I like the way each film responds differently to various qualities of light,
* I like the possibility to get 'off band' results using aged, damaged, or nonstandardly processed film,
* I like film grain in all its variations and consider that grain, if absolutely everything else was equal, is a dealbreaker for film compared to digital,
* Every film is different, even every batch of film and certainly they change over time, and the processing chemistry and lab conditions mean that the look and feel of what you get in the end is always different, not the computerized precision sameness of digital,
* Because, like the quality obtained when sound passes through a series of physical and electrical media in LP records, the quality of light passing through the physical and chemical medium of film gives a unique and magical result (I've also just finally gotten back to records after 20 stupid years of not).
* When you shoot film, you actually have something in the end that takes some effort to 'delete',
* When you develop yourself and unroll that film wet from the tank, there are your pictures, like magic! ... and when you send out your Kodachrome slides and they come back, and you lay them out on the light table - wow!
* When you're looking at and holding slides or negatives from some fantastical time in your past, you know that that film was actually there at that time!
* Because the delay between shooting and image viewing in analog photography demands some patience and skill - to remember how things work, predict results, and operate the equipment to get the results you want (and deliberation in photography is important),
* Because film actually costs something, deliberation is further promoted because each frame shot is finite and committed, as opposed to the snap and delete activity too common in digiphotography,
* Dream cameras of 20 or 40 years ago are now available for a song, everywhere, yet the faddiest digicam of today is destined (and designed) to become obsolete in mere months,
* The quality of construction of cameras (and most everything else) peaked about 1983 and those old cameras will last many, many more decades than the average product of today,
* And.. I shoot film because I like film, and I like to shoot film.
There are more reasons, but they can all be distilled (explained?) in this analogy: the invention of oil paints didn't make drawing obsolete, and the invention of photography didn't make oil painting obsolete. Marketing is trying to make film obsolete, since film cameras don't go obsolete like digicams and therefore don't fit with our 21st century 'buy and dispose often' culture, but I and (many others) pay no heed to this call since it's insane.
Films I use:
I've used a wide variety of films over the years... I've often been limited by price, availability, or other conditions, and so have made do as opportunity presents, buying cheaper; bulk; or expired film. This is as common now as ever, since so many good old films are disappearing, yet it's also possible to look wider for some of the rarer stuff.
Also, I like post-expiry dated films. I dipped into some fortuitously sourced Ekrachrome 64 and Ektachrome 64p in recent years that expired between 1981 and the mid-90s. The EPR64, in particular, has very pleasing browns, and if I were in the deciduous eastern forest I'd've have shot dozens of rolls on the leafy forest floor. Sometimes the film expires long after I shoot it and it's in my freezer... I have sometimes, through accident or design, waited as long as *10 years* before developing some film that I acquired while still 'fresh' - and in 2004 I developed a roll of Kodacolor that I accidentally started shooting at 1600 instead of 100... in 1992! Even better, in spring 2009 I shot and developed (to great result) a roll of Panatomic-X that expired in June 1981 - not cold stored, and it looks fantastic! So that's a tie with the EPR64 rolls that also expired that month so many decades back. And I have at least a few rolls of film that have accidentally gone through checked baggage on multi-segment transatlantic flights, with only subtle changes resulting.
Another effect I've used (initially from necessity) and liked is developing in nearly exhausted E6 chemistry... I'll put some of these on later, I think . Try that with a digital camera!
OK, OK, OK - Which Freaking Films??
Most of the 'nice' pictures were shot on slide films (Kodachrome, Ektachrome or Fujichrome series usually; but also Orwo [DDR], etc.), and some, especially the 'weird' ones, were shot with color print film - Kodak or any of many cheaper films like Agfa, 3M, Konica, Samsung, Fuji, etc. The B/W was shot on Ilford, Smena [USSR], Kodak, and other films. Most of the E6, and some of the Orwo [slide]; c-41 (color print); and most of the B/W films were developed by me at home or abroad in makeshift labs. The K14 [Kodachrome], much of the Orwo, and most C41 [color print] films were done at labs of variable quality in a few scattered countries.
I'm trying to shoot as much Kodachrome now as I can, while I still can [this was written a few years back]. From about 2005 until Thanksgiving Day 2010 I shot probably 75% of my photos on Kodachrome; most of that was KR64, some KM25... and I shot the last of my KL200 in 2009. I used a lot of long-expired Kodachrome in that period with mostly good results, some from as long ago as the early 1980s! Recently came into a little bit of KM-25, too. I shot my last 3 rolls of Kodachrome 200 in May 2009 on a UP bicycle tour.
As I write this it's about a day since Kodak announced the discontinuation of Kodachrome forever... So I have - allegedly - a year and a half to shoot my existing 60-70 rolls I have on hand by then. I've also been shooting more professional color print film last couple years - the Portra variants, the new Ektar 100, 100UC, some Fuji 160, etc. And a couple rolls Ektar 25! In winter 2009 I shot a lot of b/w for a class I took at UAF; mostly Ilford HP5, but a lot of other stuff - including the abovementioned Pan-X, some Agfa APX25, etc.
Currently (late 2009) using these films (in order of quantity):
Kodachrome KR 64 (expiry 1993 to 2010) and KM 25 (1993 to 2002); Ektar 100 in 35 and 120; various iterations of Portra in 120 and 35; 1984 expiry frozen Ektachrome EPR-64 in 35; a little (Ektachrome) Elite-chrome 100 and 200; some Kodak UC-100; some 1994 frozen EPR-100 in 120; a bit if Fuji Velvia 50 and Provia 100 and Astia 100 in 35; a little bit of Vericolor III in 120 and 35, expiry late '80s-mid 90s; a few rolls of Ektar 25 in 35 and 120, some HP-5 (current); a little bit of Panatomic-X (June 1981); other b/w of various expiry in 35 and 120 incl. Agfa APX-25, Ilford Pan-F, Delta 100, FP4; few rolls Tri-X; some Polaroid 667, and 669 on my RB-67; others in lesser quantities, etc. (Can you discern an 'etc.' from that? If so, good.)
Qualities preferred: order of types/brands/etc follows preference: in this half-witted table, left side = better; cannot remember any top-bottom order except that I like akk those; the qualities are not in reference to the brands they are under...
| Kodak (professional only) |
Ilford
|
Smena (ussr)
|
Fuji
|
Agfa
|
|
|
Kodachrome
|
E-6 slide
|
B/W
|
Polaroid (Fuji)
|
Colour print
|
Other
|
| Cold stored 10+ years | Past-dated | badly stored | shot 10 years ago | new (last resort) | |
|
Grainy
|
Fine
|
Medium grain
|
|||
|
Low-speed
|
High-speed
|
Mid-speed
|
|||
| High contrast | |||||
| Bulk-loaded |
Digital side - Most photos are from emulsion film - no digital cameras used until I bought a Nikon D700 in late 2009 (it was stolen in fall 2011); digi-photos are marked as such.
For digital transfer from film, two methods were used for the photos on this site: First (best) - films were scanned on my Polaroid SS4000 or later Nikon 5000 film scanners at 4000 dpi, and then lightly adjusted and resized in various programs like Photoshop, etc. Nothing's too hopped up - mostly I remove a few scratches or dust, adjust curves to something that looks natural on my setup, and resize for web posting. I try to get them to look as they did to me when I was at the scene, not what is possible to do with photoshop. Some are long exposures, especially the starry sky and aurora stuff and the lomo photos, but most is similar to what I was seeing at the instant. Most surely there have been technical and artistic 'mistakes' made at many steps along the way - but that's a lot of the fun!
A few of the great ancestor photos here and there were scanned with flatbed scanners. Usually those are pretty small size.. Also the 2008-2009 black and whites from Alaska were flatbed scanned, since they came from prints where most of the magic was done on the darkroom printing. They look like hell here, but that's what I've been saying...
Cameras:
Have used various cameras, including several Canon, Nikon, Olympus SLRs, Kiev 88TTL and Mamiya RB67 medium-formats, a Contax G1, and various mini cameras like the Lomo LC-A, Olympus XA, Minox ML, Kiev 35A, Cosina CX2, some rangefinders, etc., etc.
Some cameras used to date, in order of acquisition from first to most recent [if you're curious about the camera there are reference links at end of blurb that will open in a new browser tab]. This is a poorly maintained page; much info missing and some of the links are probably extinct; you can figure it out. This page is also one of the most hit here at rjl.us tanks to the many searched-for terms, so if you're one of those people and were hoping for a little more-ahem-complete information and cannot find it elsewhere (or would like personal opinion and experiences) feel free to contact me.
Many cameras in my 'prehistory' - 126 and 110 instamatics, old 8mm film cameras, weird or cheap old bakelite things from the 50s and 60s never used... Few were used to any pleasing effect, most were only looked at and dreamed about - I was too poor to buy film in those days.
First cameras - Keystone 126 and Kmart 110 snapshot cameras.
Some pinhole cameras also made and used in jr. high school photography class [at this time I began to drool over pix of SLRs I could not afford - see cameras owned now, below]
Yashica rangefinder (probably an Electro 35 variant, but cannot remember); ca. 1981-1984; stupidly I lost all photos made with this one - my first precision camera.
Canon A-1 [two of them; 1984-1993 and 1993-present. First one fatally damaged in tragic Leningrad mayonnaise mishap ; still, it hung on for about a year before the mayonnaise hardened... ] 24, 28 macro, 50, 70-210 macro lenses at the time.
Canon AE-1 Now sadly deceased, but I got some nice B/W photos with this during 1995 in the xUSSR... 50, 28 macro, and 70-210 lenses used at the time.
Lomo LC-A [Kompakt-avtomat] (several of them; the name ìÏÍÏ [LOMO] stands for "Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Factory" in Russian; more appropriately, a Russian verb for "to break" is "ÊÍËÞÐÝ" ['lomat']!: here's the definition of the word from my Abbyy Lingvo Russian-English dictionary programme (I may need to fix the Cyrillic as my html checker often busts it):
éìê÷ïù ëåúìàåî. - éìê÷ïù; úìàåî. - íìéìê÷ïù, úéìê÷ïù (èìæì-é./áïì-é.)
1) break; fracture (ì ëìæå, îÿèå ó ï.í. {ì ðìïì÷í÷î÷ïå Lomo, ïìòå! - rjl} 2) ïìéùèì ëåúìàåî. (äìþüà÷ïù è÷êåëù) quarry 3) ïìéùèì ëåúìàåî.; î÷öæ. (ìþ ìøÿøåëóó éìêìïü) rack; cause to ache êåëç àúåæì éìê÷éì þåöé. ? I was aching all over 4) ïìéùèì ëåúìàåî.; íåîåë.: éìê÷ïù úåþå æìéìàÿ (ë÷ä) ? to rack one's brains (over), to puzzle (over) éìê÷ïù äÿî÷è÷ ? to play the fool éìê÷ïù îÿèó ? to wring one's hands éìê÷ïù ý÷íèÿ (íåîåä) ? to bow obsequiously (to)What the hell does this mean?? It means that they are great FUN cameras but don't always last long! Mine have lasted anything from a few weeks to a few years. Their price on the web is very, very greatly overrated (you can find better rants than I have time to write). Great design, real nice heavy feel, but quality control abysmal (well, Soviet), like many Soviet products. A shame, since other aspects are great. I've gone so far as to make a pilgrimage to the Lomo factory; saw examples of their numerous products and prototypes, but no Lomo cameras for sale, frown. All sold to the West for sale at high markup. Best bet for this is to go to the xUSSR and buy an old lomo second-hand at a camera shop for about $15 [but they are all being bought up there for sale on e-bay @ $US90! Search out an old Cosina instead, or a Minox - you can get one of these great cameras for less that the $150 (ow!) some people are trying to sell the Lomo for. I've been through 3-4 Lomos over about 10 years. But god, they're fantastic -when they still work! Bought the last one in Ukraine, August 2001 [paid $25 - the most ever!]... I think it conked out in 2002 as I recall. Design and ergonomics almost perfect! [but remember they are a 95% copy of the Cosina CX; if the USSR had been sued by Cosina, they would have lost hands down! Ditto for the Kiev 35, the early FEDs, The Kiev 30, etc., etc...
FED-2 1 Soviet camera. Initials stand for "Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky"; he was founder of the original; Soviet Secret police; the predecessor of the famous KGB. Sheesh - Only in the USSR! (speaking of Feliks Edmundovich, remind me to tell you sometime about when I worked on a classified project in the "Club Dzerzhinsky", in the KGB HQ, when I lived in Minsk in the early 90s)
Kiev 35A. Soviet, later Ukrainian copy of Minox 35x. Reliability, results, and number owned similar to Lomo. [1 2 3]. Kiev is the Russian name for Kyiv, the Capital City of Ukraine! I have also been to this factory in search of parts, etc.
Kiev 88 ttl [1 2 3 4] 60, 80, 200mm lenses used.
Chaika [1 1], a 'darling' little 35mm half-frame camera. Interesting 1960s modern styling, but the optics on mine weren't so great. Probably a truly original Soviet design; that in itself a rarity. Chaika is the Russian word for seagull.
Contax G1 [ 0 1 2] Bought in 1999 as a more convenient setup for my USSR travel than the larger Canons and FD lenses. For landscape and scientific photography it's a perfect little travel kit: G1, and 28, 45, 90 mm Carl Zeiss T* lenses. It all fits in a small Tamrac bag - until I added the 21mm! Though it's small, decent lenses (though i get a ton of flare even when using hoods and being careful), and solid, but the damned autofocus is a real shame and a great creative and ergonomic crippling. I've mentioned elsewhere on this website about my fundamental opposition to machines making decisions. Makes me want to get a leica m4.
Lomo Smena-8: fantastic plastic, but with features available only in cameras costing hundreds of dollars more (mine cost the equivalent of $7 in Ukraine, summer 2001) (haven't seen that camera in years; can't remember why I wrote so highly of it)
Cosina CX-2 . Actually, the Lomo LC-A is not an original Soviet design [as I had thought for years], but a 97% soviet copy of the Cosina CX-2 [there is one change; the way the lens and viewfinder covers open - clever as hell on both, though I like the Lomo variant a little more for ergonomics and the Cosina a little more for cleverness]. Anyway, I bought a CX-2 on ebay in fall 2001. The Cosina CX-2 is the successor to the CX-1, and every bit as perfect as the Lomo [photographically and ergonomically] [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Minox 35 ML The 'model' for the Kiev 35 copy. Curiously, I had better photographic and camera longevity results with the Kiev than with the single used Minox 35 I own. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Using a Olympus XA -1 1 2 3 4 5] for snapshot needs these days mostly; after trying all the Lomo-like variants listed above (and a few more), this one seems best: hasn't broken yet either!Also, got an autofocus early '90s Olympus >>Stylus Zoom<< in 2006; a fine snapshot camera with decent optics, flash, a zoom lens, etc...
Recent cameras, now by year:
in 2007 I bought:
A Nikon F3hp [ -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6]
a Nikon FG [1 2]
a Nikkormat FTn [ref 1 2] (and a ton of lenses to go with them; the FTn is one of my favorite 35mms now) Update: stolen fall 2011 along with most of my good Nikon lenses (see below).
two Mamiya RB67s [ref 1 2 3 4] (I like the RB67!)
a Yashica Dental-eye [degroot ref] III (a camera made for dental photography with a 100mm macro ring flash lens!) [ref 1 2 3]
and probably a few others.
In 2008 I bought:
an Olympus OM-2Sp [ref 1 2 3 4]
a Contax RTS (I) [ref 1 2 3]
an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SP [refs 1 2 3 4 ]
a Canon F1 (original) [ref 1 2]
A 1963 (within a month or so of Kennedy's assassination) Nikon F with bashed standard (non-photomic) prism) [0 1 2 3]
... and some assorted Pentax ME Supers [ref 1] (initial buying excuse: for the lenses I might use on a future K1000), but later shot some through one and it's got a feel... (all from yard sales, junk shops...)
In 2009 thus far I have bought:
a KowaSix mm [ref 1],
a Nikomat FTN [ref 1 Nikomat ref],
a Nikkorex F [1 2],
a Ricoh XR-S [ref1], also a spare body non-operational. Junkier than I'd always imagined, actually. I used to dream of this one in the early 1980s.
a Minolta SRT201 [ref1],
a Nikon D700 -- digicam (!) Don't worry, the d700 isn't nearly the pleasure to use nor does it feel as precise, intuitive, or direct. But figured I'd better learns something about the digicam world, in case I might need such a machine. ... Stolen fall 2011 (see below).
a (1968, within a month or so of when i was born) black Nikon F with standard prism,
another 1968 F (silver, ca. July '68) with the FTn finder [ref 1 2]
a Yashica Electro 35 'GSN' for $7 at the local junkshop (no lens cap; else in apparently good shape [ -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 ]. Maybe in honor of long ago Yashica (see above), but actually just found it when I went in to get...
a Kodak Ektra 200 110 instamatic in original box (picture soon), that's why I liked it, AND an original GE flipflash only half used! 78 cents. Made in West Germany, July 1980, by the way, while the USSR was busy with the Moscow olympics. [ 0 ]
Thus the 2009 total seems sure to stay at a mere 10 (or so), though I'll keep my eyes open tomorrow (Dec. 31, 2009 when I wrote this) in case...
Also started peeking as 4x5s...
In 2010:
In 2010 I think I only got one 'significant' camera - another Yashica DEIII. A friend did give me a small box of misc. stuff, including a Zeiss Jena 90mm f3.5 M42 mount, though...
In 2011:
Not a big photography shooting or camera-getting year in 2011, either - Got another Olympus XA and a pretty decent Nikon FM2n. The FM2n was stolen fall 2011 (see below).Merry xmas liebermann: On November 30th my house was robbed along with at least four others on the same road (the police treat the actual number as their secret and have revealed themselves to be a bunch of bumbling idiots, though they have their big embezzlement scandal to occupy themselves with anyway, so why should they worry about crime?), and I lost $6,000+ of equipment, so definitely losing ground now. Gone: my Nikon D700, FM2n (never got to use it), Nikkormat FTn, most of my good Nikon lenses, my Sekonic light meter, filters... Can't afford any of that stuff anymore, since my Gov wages are about 60% what they were a few years ago! See a list and serial numbers here.
In 2012:
I bought a Minolta SRT-102 [1].
If I were still making a fair wage I'd go and look for some old Nikon lenses to replace the loss, and a light meter, but that's all beyond my means these days...
Photography: without it I would surely die of a broken heart, maybe with it anyway.
url: http://rjl.us/photo/kameras.htm
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