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latest :

lomo smena

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so i went ahead and finally got me a lomo smena – the “true lomo” of lo-fi photography. most people seem to start off their lomo career with either this one, the lomo lc-a, or the holga. i’m pleased that my interest for lo-fi is still present. i’ve got nothing against digital photography at all, but since i’m a fan of plastic, mystery, luck and all things old and dirty, i find digital photography too easy and predictable to become really interesting. that and the fact that you have no film advance knob!

luckily, i have roll upon roll of cheap film just waiting to merge with the smena. stay tuned!

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lately :

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lucky

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china lucky is a company who, in their own terms, are “the largest national photosensitive materials and magnetic recording media manufacturer in China”, which i do not doubt at all. this is probably the reason i’ve never heard of lucky film before.

“A 棟六樓的風景” by 2493™ from flickr

i’ve tried collecting as much information as i can about this product, but it’s hard. i know that kodak and lucky have joined forces, resulting in kodak aquiring 20 percent of lucky film co., ltd back in 2003. i’ve also learned people tend to either like or dislike this film – pretty much the way people like or dislike anything in this world, i guess. but i decided to give it a try, so i checked in at ebay.
then, after a little rattling around in there, i checked out from ebay, having just bought ten 120-rolls of 100asa black and white film and another ten 135-rolls, that literally cost me nothing. i can’t wait to try out this exotic new film.

“curves and lines” by 2493™ from flickr

you can read a small discussion on lucky’s b/w films here, and then you can check out a lucky film photography group or two on flickr.

stay tuned for lucky pictures!

dear miranda

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this little japanese gem set me back about $30 (200 norwegian kroner) on the market just up the street. the miranda sensomat re has an interchangeable finder system, which means that i can remove the viewfinder and insert a waist-level finder or a magnification finder (a “critical focuser”, capable of magnification up to 15x, for back-in-the-days microfilm photography, hoho!). interchangeable finders on 35mm cameras are a bit rare and is usually found in medium- and large format systems. the lens that came fitted on this one is a 50mm 1.8 ‘auto miranda’. quite fast i’d say. you can read a little more on the miranda over at camerapedia.org. also, while i shoot and develop a roll or two with my new found friend, check out a few miranda sensomat images on flickr. see ya!

the bug

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hey!

so I went ahead and finally got myself a ‘professional’ medium format camera. i’ve been wanting one of those since i first saw the results from my trusty old holga about a year ago or so – the size of the negatives, the detail, the depth of the images, the format itself. i grew addicted.

now, to the camera in question.

the bronica etr-si is a 4.5 x 6 ” medium format camera. i got it (unbelievably cheap) from a professional photographer that has gone 100% digital (a decision i fully respect and understand), and inside the large, retro green bag he handed me i found two 120 film backs, a waist-level finder, the ae-II prism finder, a speed grip motor winder, two focusing screens (split-image and grid lines), a green filter (…) and two lenses – a 50mm 2.8 and a 100mm 4.0 macro.

i love this camera. the glass is perfect, the finders work like a dream, everything is in mint condition except a few scratches from regular use, and the results look brilliant (considering I’m still just a dedicated amateur photographer…)

i think (i think), that this is the last camera i’ll buy for some time. i’m very happy with all the stuff i’ve got right now, and I have to admit i only use 3 or 4 of my cameras on a regular base. i can’t help checking the markets around town when i’m there, but i no longer feel the urge to buy anything …
other than … the polaroid sx-70, if I were to stumble upon it somewhere!

photos coming soon! see you around.

new cameras

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“THE PENTAX”

the local sunday market across the river sometimes have a few gems to offer. a few weeks ago we went over there primarily to look for some cheap, cool furniture – which we did by the way – but i also found me another one of those pentax beauties, the pentax mg! it came fitted with a very, very cool 35 – 70mm f2.8 macro lens, a flash, and the sweetest little khaki-colored bag.

the camera set me back only 500 nok (around 95 usd). a bargain!
i’ve so far been completely unable to dig up any information about the lens, because it’s got no manufacturer info on it. although it does resemble the standard pentax lenses, i’m really not sure where it’s made. i’ll keep searching, though. i’ve shot a few rolls already, so watch this space!
 
 

“THE POLAROID”

i also bought myself a polaroid 600 camera from an online marketplace. it’s the impulse autofocus series. the one I bought had a grey body, otherwise it’s exactly as displayed here:

(image by timmy toucan, used under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-share alike 2.0 generic license)

the only drawback with this baby is that the lens cover is removed only by activating the flash. but hey, it’s not a real big deal, i can always cover the flash to avoid the ugly wash-out look.

i recently gathered a dozen or so polaroid enthusiasts and together we ordered 50 packs of polaroid 600 film from this fantastic seller at ebay. the package has arrived, i’ve done a few test shots, and the camera works like a dream. so: look out for polaroids too!

design issues

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hey!

i will be redesigning the site to better suit the needs of both my (few) readers and myself.

expect bigger.

seeya.

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the borrower

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as i mentioned earlier, my good friend bought with him a couple of boxes filled with old cameras, gizmos, flashes, lenses, filmcameras and gadgets with no name, from his folks’ house back home. his father had bought all of it at a market or a second-hand shop somewhere in sweden.

among the very well kept cameras were kodak brownies, a beautyflex, a zenit 12xp and a praktica pentor super tl.

i got the honor of doing test runs on the praktica and the zenit. the praktica had a small problem with the winding mechanism, but nothing that a wiggle and some good karma wouldn’t fix. the zenit went right into shoot mode and had absolutely no objections – well, apart from the focus ring being a bit on the “sticky” side… at least it makes for very precise focusing! the viewfinders are, let’s see, not exactly crystal clear, but what else could one expect from cameras this old? i guess there’s some corrosion in the glass itself. anyhow, i have no problems seeing what i need to see through them.

i’ve loaded the cameras with some fuji slide film because they both have relatively fast lenses (pentacon auto f1.8 / 50mm on the pentor and a helios f2 / 58mm on the zenit) and these guys are fully manual, so i guess getting flawless exposures should be quite easy (knock on wood!). i’m halfway through both rolls now so i guess you can expect some results here soon.

agfamatic 100

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i found this tiny and wonderful agfamatic 100 pocket camera in the attic back home last christmas. it belongs to my father, and, scrupleless as i am when it comes to borrowing things, it ended up in my bags before i returned to oslo.

a while back i bought some old flash cubes at a market nearby, that i really thought would fit on top of this little gem, but they didn’t. as the camera only takes ISO 200, 126 cassette film, having a some kind of extra light is sometimes crucial.

but all is not lost! my good friend came to me the other day and told me he’d found tons of photographic equipment back home recently. he brought it all to town and as we sat there drooling over all the fantastic old stuff he’d found, to my great surprise i discovered 2 packs of magicubes – the one and only kind of flashcubes that the agfamatic accepts.

stay tuned for agfamatic pictures!

well, wouldn’t you know…

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… the scanner arrived today. i spent my last few coins on a bus ticket so that i could pick it up myself rather than having to wait for another three days. yes, i know, i’m mental.

oh, and as i recall, the scanner i handed in was a canoscan 8600f. the gizmo in the box i picked up today had a big brother in it – the canoscan 8800f. am i happy? i am happy. i’m doing a bunch of scans as we speak. more to come, watch the main space. pii-ho!

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drool

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ebay sucks. it makes me drool. there are items in there that i really, really want. i’ve been slavering over a bronica, a hasselblad, a nikon. none of them will ever be mine of course. i’m an underpaid asshole so it’ll never happen – besides, most u.s. residents selling stuff won’t even ship outside of the u.s.
 
 
 

also, a guy selling his mamiya 6 has tempted me into considering selling a relative or two to be able to afford it. it’s a fantastic camera. you can read more about it here. this is the guy that I bought the pentax me from, and he claims the m6 is in mint condition. i have no reason to doubt him. and it’s being sold with a mamiya g 75mm f3.5 and a mamiya g 150mm f4.5. if i get a deal this time too, i’ll never buy another camera, i swear.
 
 
unless it’s a hassy.

no scanner

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i’ve had some problems with my scanner (a canoscan 8600f), so i dropped it off at the local canon service shop a couple of weeks ago. i called them recently to ask how everything was going and they told me i’m getting a brand new one – they could’nt fix it due to lack of spare parts.

good stuff.

now if it could only arrive here right now. tomorrow.
next week, hopefully. some time soon.

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