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A friend of mine, azza, has been waiting for his Olympus 35 SP to arrive for over a week now. He was begining to think it was all going horribly wrong. A black SP bought really cheap, considering how rare they are, from US eBay. It sounded suspicious but all was well when he received it. I must say I am jealous but that didn’t last long when this past Sunday morning I woke up and won an auction for my very own Olympus 35 SP. It looks to be in great condition and I think this one will be my walk around camera.

Yesterday I tested out one of my cameras. It’s the Canonet 19 that came in mid last week. I was playing with the viewfinder and thought I messed up the focus so nothing like a roll shot in a few minutes while walking around the block where you’re about to develop the negatives… It was fun and I did find out that the focus is spot on and managed to even salvage one ok photo.

On another note, I did receive a camera and some film yesterday. It’s the Minolta SRT 101 I bought a week ago but unfortunately with a lazy focal plane shutter. Hopefully I can fix it and if not I’ll just buy another body and keep this one for spare parts. The film I received had me excited though. Some really nice stuff for around $50. Can’t beat eBay for a good deal

10 x Velvia 50
5 x Superia 1600
1 x Superia 400
2 x Tmax 3200
1 x Tmax 400
2 x Tmax 100
3 x Fujicolour 100

It’s confirmed. At the end of June I’ll be boarding a plane to visit my birth country, Macedonia. I’ll be staying there for 5 weeks, visiting my family and the surrounding countries. I’m really looking forward to seeing my grandparents from both sides and all my cousins, aunties and uncles. I have more family there than I do here and it’s always far too long in between visits. The last time I was there was in 1995!

Earlier today I rushed to work. An eBay auction was ending just as I was due to arrive. I made it with 1 minute to go. The auction was for a Minolta SRT 101.

It’s an old SLR camera produced from 1966 to 1975. It was a revolutionary camera in its time offering TTL centerweigh metering with fully automatic aperture. Most cameras of the time were cumbersome and slow to use compared to the SRT 101 as they had stop-down metering which involved checking the meter reading by pressing a button which closed the viewfinder. Not an ideal way to capture fleeting moments.

Minolta also managed to implement a system for in-viewfinder meter reading and shutter speed. For its time this was fantastic and sped up the process of decision making for photographers as they no longer had to compose shots, look away from the viewfinder to make adjustments and then re-compose within the viewfinder. It also has a DOF preview which looks really cool.

The camera I bought comes with two really neat lenses. They are both MC Rokkor so they are ideally suited to the camera with all auto functions working as intended. One is a 50/1.4 and the other a 28/2.8. In this day and age those lenses would be worth a pretty penny for our current new camera ranges.

I’m really looking forward to testing out this camera. I know it’s going to be a tank to carry around so I’ll still most likely be hunting for an Olympus 35 SP for general street photography.

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Last night I spent 3 hours sifting through pages and pages of lighting products on the B+H site. I learned as I went along, googling this and that and by the end I had myself a wish list full of beginners standard equipment. Just before I went to bed I purchased that wish list. I didn’t want to be second guessing my choices because that can go on forever and it usually ends up costing me a lot more money.

I bought the following items:

Lighting

1 x Photogenic Umbrella and Stand Kit - includes: 2- 45″ Eclipse Umbrellas, Mounts, …
3 x Vivitar 285HV Professional Auto Shoe Mount Flash (Guide No.120′/37 m at 35mm)

Film

5 x Kodak TX 135-36 Tri-X Pan Black & White Print Film (ISO-400) USA
5 x Kodak 400CN 135-36 400 CN Professional Black & White Print Film (ISO-400)
1 x Fujifilm RVP 135-36 Fujichrome Velvia 100 Professional Color Slide
2 x Fujifilm RVP 135-36 Fujichrome Velvia 50 Professional Color Slide

Other

1 x Epson Perfection 4490 Photo, 4800 x 9600 dpi, Letter Size, Flatbed Scanner
1 x Tiffen 58 mm Clear Coated Glass Filter

All I’m missing is some triggers for the flashes and I decided to go with the eBay style triggers. I know they have problems but the percentage of misfires is low and they are a tiny fraction of the cost of Pocket Wizards which I couldn’t afford for 3 flashes. I’m also getting a 5-in-1 42″ reflector kit from eBay as that was really cheap compared to the B+H one. I can’t see myself using them that much so eBay crap it is.

 Just picked up a Praktica MTL3 with a Pentacon Auto 50/1.8. It looks like it’s in great condition. These were manufactured between 1978 to 1984 and came with TTL metering. The viewfinder looks fantastic on these things. Looking forward to trying this one out.

Praktica MTL 3 Brochure

On another note, I’m desperately looking for an Olympus 35 SP. They don’t come up often enough on eBay and the only one there right now doesn’t look like a really good example. For this Oly I want an excellent one cosmetically and mechanically. The hunt continues.

I believe I’m not. However, I have bought two more cameras today. Another Trip 35 in good condition and a Canon Canonet 19 from 1960 in excellent condition. The Canonet has a 45mm f1.9 lens and a bottom advance lever! How funky is that. Check out a few pics here.

I fear this is only the begining…

edit following day: Ok so I just bought 3 more in the space of 5 minutes. They come from the same seller so iot made sense to grab them all. Total was about $50. The cameras are some old school Agfa, a Kalimar and a Praktica PL Nova 1.

I couldn’t help myself and today bought another Vintage Rangefinder. This time it’s an Olympus Trip 35 which was more your average consumer P&S camera of its time. This unit sold more than 10 million between 1967 and 1984. The name trip suggests rather bluntly that it was a cheap P&S targeted at the family on holiday market.

It has a Zuiko 40/2.8 lens with 4 elements in 3 groups. From what I’ve read all you need to do is set it to A and snap away terrific photos. It might live up to it’s consumer friendly name. I’ll have to report back on the performance. In the mean time you can check out the flickr group here.

Earlier today I purchased a top of the range camera! I splurged a whopping US$35 on a Canon QL17 GIII which is the end of the line of their Canonet range. It’s a 1972 rangefinder camera sporting a 40mm f1.7 lens with 6 elements. Canon sold 1.2 million units making it the best selling rangefinder of the ’70’s and was often compared to the Leica CL.

Check out the specs here.

I’ve acquired a taste for these old cameras and I think I’ll be buying a few.

Blink and you have missed a handful.

If you watch a person carefully for any amount of time you can deduct whether they are happy, sad, paranoid, nervous and a slew of other emotions. What you won’t see is the many emotions and expressions in between. A person eating a hamburger looks like a person eating a hamburger. However, take a dozen pictures of that person and you will see a dozen unique expressions you would never have expected.

The above best explains in one paragraph why I love street photography. You discover people you don’t know in ways that no one else sees.