Anirban's Corner of the Web

Photography

Now that my interest in classic cameras, as opposed to computers with lenses that the nouveau riche seek is kindled, it is difficult to hit any limits. I acquired this Fujica recently, with a contrasty EBC Fujinon 1.8 for no more than USD 36!

It is difficult not to like the camera -- fully mechanical, uses two SR76 batteries for meter, which is accurate and the camera is small and light with a bright viewfinder. On the flipside, the wind lever is flimsy, and not-so-smooth; and it takes a single long stroke for wind; it is possible sometimes not to wind completely and miss the shutter engagement that causes a "B" speed on the shutter! I have done this twice in the beginning, but easy to remember once you get used to it. I haven't tried the higher speeds 500, 1000 and 1500 yet, hope they don't cap. I have replaced the mirror foam with one from the kit supplied by Jon Goodman -- the previous one was more or less okay when it arrived, but degenerated in the January Bangalore heat rather quickly :-(

These mechanical, fully manual cameras force you to do the job yourself. Only if they had a built-in spotmeter, though.

The typical '70s look, slightly more compact than competition.

Flash sync is only at speeds of 1/60s or less. I have seen no mechanical cameras with horizontal travel cloth shutter sync at a higher speed.

Sample pic with this camera (Yashinon lens): Lalbagh 25 Dec 2005 Fujica ST705 with mirror getting stuck to a decomposed foam. Yashinon-DX 55 mm / f2.0 lens (the old M42 type that does not fit Fujica screwmount properly - the auto pin sometimes hits the mirror, focus off by 10%).

Nova BW 125 film (good for its price), and printed on Kodak colour (!) paper at GK Vale. Some highlights need to be pulled down, though. Scanned from 6x4 print with a flatbed scanner.

A 600% zoom of the above image. No digital smoothening done.

The much-talked about Yashica Electro-35 GSN Rangefinder. This was given to me by my father, who shot hardly 10 rolls with it. I shot four rolls before the Pad of Death died. The lens has a little fungus and it's now on bench waiting to be sent to Yashica guru Mark Hama.

The camera starts to behave erratically when afflicted by the Pad of Death;

The familiar "clunk" sound when winding the film advance lever first became feeble and then vanished completely.
Around this time I noticed that long exposures (the E35GSN can manage upto 30 seconds) behaved like "Bulb" -- that is, if I removed the finger pressing on the shutter release before the end of the exposure, the shutter would fire immediately.
Thirdly, as the disease progressed, I found that when shooting in bright sunlight, an aperture of f/16 should have resulted in a speed of around 1/125s with 100 ASA film; the shutter speed was much less, around 1/30s resulting in overexposure and noticeable camera shake.

The poor man's Leica.

Fill-in flash is possible at all speeds upto 1/500s. The lens is amazingly sharp, and quite good even at f/1.7

The latest acquisition, the Pentax Spotmatic F. Cost of acquisition was less than 20$, for the body, an SMC Takumar 55/1.8 lens and a Sears Auto 135/2.8. Speeds were slow and meter did not work. The Takumar needed to be cleaned of fungus, but otherwise optics were in very good condition. It does have a hint of a dent on the filter that is not visible on inspection, but putting on a filter ring takes slightly more effort. The Sears lens has very slight amount of dust.

The body needed a trip to Mr. Thomas of Cambridge Layout, Bangalore, and speeds were adjusted. Meter could not be repaired (no one in Bangalore seems to be able to handle camera light meters), but with the Vivitar 45, I don't miss it too much.

Strap lugs have been duct-taped to prevent brassing of the sides!

The simple and effective Vivitar 45 light meter. Needs one PX625 1.35 volt mercury battery. I am using an old alkaline LR-76, whose voltage measures as 1.37 on my digital multimeter. The needle overshoots the battery check yellow mark range, and light values are shown 1 stop higher. Temporary fix is to set the ASA dial to one stop smaller value than the speed of the film in the camera!

I had to open the meter to remove a piece of metal from the battery chamber that got stuck to the ammeter. The internal mechanism is extremely simple -- a CdS photoresistor in series with a 2k2 (I think) resistor driving the ammeter. Unfortunately, there is no voltage stabilisation circuit, not even a reverse biased schottky diode.

Almost brand new!

The first of the two Canonets QL17 GIII I acquired on the 1st week of July 2006. The one I purchased later arrived first and within 5 days from the US! Though not mint, it is in excellent condition, and works perfectly. I am still waiting for the other. The QL17 GIII provides shutter-priority auto and unmetered manual mode. Like most of the cheaper (i.e., not Leica or Konica Hexar), the camera has to be held at perfectly parallel to the eye for the double images to be coincident when focussed. This is all the more apparent because the RF spot is large (compared to the Yashica GSN). The lens is quite clean; the viewfinder externals have a few specks of dust so minor that I did not bother to blow them away. No lens cap, so my broken Pentax 49mm sits on the lens now. A legend for USD 40.

Another poor man's Leica! More poor exist on the earth than Leicas.