3 Films from 3 SLR's part 3 Canon T70

The final post about my recent exploits with film is regarding a Canon T70 that I picked up for roughly the same cost as a Big Mac meal.

 

This boxy and heavy girl dates back from 1984 and although it was aimed at amateur's it was packed with technology, enough technology that when stood in a shop with the seller and we couldn't get it to work properly prompted the price to drop in my favour. Only to walk out and discover that there was a switch on top that I'd pushed too far and had not noticed, flick the switch and hey presto that's another camera added to the collection.

 

I slapped a film in that afternoon and went round Amy's, my sister, for a BBQ. I then showed Laura my new purchase in which resulted in a couple of wasted shots when she grabbed the camera for a look and pressed the shutter button in the process, easy mistake to make though as I did the same when she passed it back to me.................amateur!

 

I like this camera, its got a very futuristic feel, for something made in the 80's, that is, everything is button and switch operated with no dials like more traditional cameras. When changing the shutter speed the camera recommends what aperture to use based on the exposure metering mode and displays this in the view finder. From there you can take this info and decide to over or under expose as you like.

 

The camera came with a FD mount 50mm f/1.8 lens which is a shame as I already have something similar, it would of been better if it came with a different focal length because then I would of had another lens to use with Laura's (basically mine as we do share everything) Olympus via an adapter I already own.

 

I like using manual focus lenses every now and then as it adds more of a challenge but it makes things a lot more difficult when trying to photograph a German Shepherd running towards you in the park (such a great dog but those who know me well, already know how much I love my brothers dog Ella), this just resulted in a blured photo.

 

On to some photos.

All photos taken on 200 iso Agfa Photo Vista Plus 35mm film aka cheap and cheerful!

First the photos taken at my sister's, on the day of purchase.

Damn he's got big feet

 Grumpy Ruby

 Bouncy Ruby

 

I'm pleased how this one came out. the camera did not like how dark the room was so I just guessed an appropriate exposure and it came out how I wanted it.

The next shots were taken at a park in Sutton Bridge, it probably has a true name but its always been known as the 'big' park.

Ok. This one has been edited as I just thought it would look so much better in black and white.

 

 Look at this for a dog!

 

Like me, Ella likes exploring too

 

 

All the shots below were all taken inside at home.

 

 

These 2 shots below were taken using a Soft Spot filter that come in the bundle of bits and bobs with the 2 Praktica's mentioned in my previous post. Basically it's a hazy filter with a hole in the middle so everything in the middle should be in focus and everything out side should have a dreamy blur to it.

 

My favourite photo taken on this camera and film is this shot below.

The room was dark, the only light source used was a lamp turned on its side to point the light at Laura, rather than the light spreading across the room.

I went for a 1/30 shutter speed thinking that's the slowest speed I think I could hold the camera steady at. An aperture of f/1.8 was also used along with the long shutter speed in order to soak up as much light as possible in the shot.

I knew this would be the last shot of the film so I took as long as possible, up to the point when Laura started to complain about holding the pose, in order to get the focus as close and holding the camera as steady as possible

Like it!

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Please comment.

 

Ben



3 Films from 3 SLR's Part 2 Praktica MTL-50

This part begins with me walking into a local antiques shop and asking if they had any old cameras. The answer was no however a lady who was sitting behind the till said that she had an old camera at home that belonged to her late husband.

She took my number and gave me a ring when she found and decided that she was definitely ready to part with it.

I drove to Holbeach, Lincolnshire, and was greeted by a large camera bag as well as a tripod positioned on the woman's living room floor.

I sat down and delved into the bag;

1 Praktica MTL-50
1 50mm F1.8
2 28mm F2.8
1 70-200mm
1 x2 Tele-converter
1 Flash gun
1 Pair of binoculars
1 Shutter release cord
2-3 camera straps
Another smaller camera bag
Various lens pouches
Batteries
Various filters including coloured, starlight, soft focus etc.
Various lens hoods
wait a minute......................................OMG..........there's another camera inside another camera bag.......old school camera heaven!!!!!!

I sat and talked with the lady for approximately an hour as she wanted to tell me about her late husband, children, grand children, old pets, pubs, police and probably more that I no longer remember.

When it came down to talking money, she didn't know what she wanted and I ideally wanted to pay as little possible. After a few minutes I said what I actually had in my wallet and also said honestly to her that I had never planned to offer the full contents of my wallet either. It was then that she said that my maximum amount was only half of what she wanted.

After another few minutes she said as long as I use and enjoy the camera I could have it for what I had offered.

DEAL!

When I got home I layed the contents of the bags out on my living room and spent the next couple of hours cleaning the cameras, lenses, filters and anything else that looked as though it had 10-20 years worth of dust on it.

Both cameras were the same, albeit one was in better condition than the other. In hand a MTL-50 is a solid beast and makes you think 'this thing could last another 20 years'. After looking on the net I found the camera was from approx.  1983-1985. The camera uses a M42 screw mount which means there are loads of lenses out there that will fit the body....yay vintage photography bargain hunting can continue with a reason.

Enough babbling onto the photos from the first roll of film put through the ol' beaut.

Here, ill quickly mention that a couple of months ago I bought a stash of Kodak black and white films off Ebay that have been sat waiting for me to use them.

Being a film that can be developed in C41 chemicals (the same as most high street film kiosks such as Boots) it has various colour shifts so black and white can often be green, blue, sepia etc.

I took the camera urbexing with me, the 400 ISO Kodak BW400CN is a very grainy film in low light.

Urbex selfie

 

Bawsey ruins, Kings Lynn, Norfolk





The wife

I went camping in Ipswich with my sister Sadie and brother in law Spen as well as my niece and nephew Harriet and Mackenzie on a very wet August bank holiday, a great time as always though despite the weather.

 I love street art.

 

 Christchurch Mansion

 

 Damn I had I good time on this ride.

 

 That's my name don't wear it out

 

Thee lady who I bought the camera etc from said that I should pop round to show her the results, I do plan on doing this but first ill need to remember her name LOL!

Tune in next time for part 3; shots taken on an 80's Canon film SLR.

Thanks for reading.

3 films from 3 SLR's Part 1 Pentax MZ-60

I cant believe how much my camera collection has grown over the passed few months.

Towards the end of the year I purchased a Holga and then got my Cosmic Symbol also very soon after, damn 'Cosmic Symbol' is such a cool name for a camera, my love for old film cameras begun there.

I was quite content with these as well as my DSLR and Laura's compact system camera for a good 6 months but a chance trip to Wisbech to get some films developed from the 2 film cameras mentioned above was a game changer.

While I was waiting for 1 hour development at approx £9 a film, rip off, I ventured into a local shop to check out what cameras they had lying around and asked the guy at the till if he had any cameras out back too which he replied 'actually we've got a whole box of cameras collecting dust' OMG I struck old cool camera gold!

Out came this box of camera that even before it was put down I could see things I was interested in; a few Polaroids even one in its original box. While I was digging through the collection of simple plastic cameras that I wasn't interested in I opened up an old Argos bag that contained a silver Pentax SLR with 2 lenses, at this point the shop worker came over and said 'how does £2 a camera sound?', that sounds lovely mate.

 Safe to say I liked the pricing of this place and treated myself to some bargains.

It took me a while to finish off a film because since that day I probably picked up another camera almost every week.

This camera; the Pentax MZ-60 was produced in 2002 and is easy to use. Its light and fits well in the hand. it has all the modes that a photographer would want. There are no dials like traditional cameras or even modern DSLR's instead there are buttons to press to alter exposure. The autofocus and exposure metering is simple but does the job with practice.

On to the photos.

The first day I loaded a film we went for a walk in the now gone summer heat down the marsh.

Enjoying a drive with the roof down

 

One of my main criticism's for the camera is the shutter lag between pressing the button and the camera taking the photo, id ideally prefer Laura's feet to be further from the edge of the frame but because of the shutter lag she'd walked further into the shot than expected.

My nephew and I found this last year and Josh thought this was hilarious 'cheese is go'!

 

 

Stone in your shoe mate?

One of the many times I've sat taking photos of Laura while she's done her nails

 

 

Sunrise over the River Nene, on a 6am bike ride to work.

 

 

Ella, loves to pose for a photo moment.

Damn she's an awesome dog!!!

 

 

I've taken the camera urbexing

 

 

I loved the colour of the sky on the morning of which this photo was taken, I went for a different composition here.

 

 

One boring rainy day, I decided to take photos out of the living room window using a polarising filter to limit reflection

 

 

Laura's going to be so pleased I put this one on the blog.

Testing out the built in flash, sat on my sofa while Laura did the housework around me.



 

This has got to be my favourite selfie yet, after a drive in the ol' mk2.

 

 

The following photo I'm pretty darn pleased with as I guesstimated the exposure time and it came out like this, I really like the colours and contrast.

 

 

Tune in next time for part 2.