First quick tryout with pixl-latr

What seemed a long while ago, I pledged on Kickstarter a simple device for using your camera to ‘scan’ negatives by Hamish at 35mmc. I have a scanner but it takes time to set up and to scan the images and sometimes (often) I could use a simple and quick method for digitizing negatives and this seemed the ideal solution.

The day has finally arrived when the pixl-latr is here and ready for me to try out and I wanted to do a quick review.

Packaging-wise Hamish has gone for an all cardboard (no polluting plastic) approach which is appreciated and it made it over to the US in good shape; some of the pieces moved around inside but that’s not an issue.

Instructions are simple and clear and the device is pretty instinctive to use anyway.

I didn’t have time on the day it came for a ‘serious’ test but did do a quick setup with the camera handheld, just to try it out

Do I really need this….

As I sit here I am staring at my Canon 7 rangefinder camera.  Arguably the most sophisticated non-Leica rangefinder out there and at it’s time of release probably the most feature-rich rangefinder available.  It has everything you could possibly want in a camera; built-in light meter, multiple bright lines in the excellent viewfinder, easy film loading, shutter speeds up to 1/1000 and an excellent range of good quality lenses.

Due to all of the above and an opportunity to get one at a reasonable price I bought it late last year.  

It arrived and I immediately I  found a problem that was not expected from the sellers description.  But being a reputable dealer they took it back, did a CLA on it and returned it too me in good shape.   It came without a lens but I already had a Jupiter lens with the LTM mount and started shooting a film straight away.  The results came back as slightly mixed, some shots were well focused/exposed and some were not.  I wasn’t sure whether this was operator error (probably) or an issue with the lens; these Russian lenses are known to sometimes not be exactly correct for all LTM cameras.  Also, my particular lens has a very loose aperture ring and it is very very easy to accidentally move it meaning DOF is not what I am expecting and exposure is off.

International

I have been using a new to me Canon 7 recently as you may have guessed from my post here.  I have not done a full review as really I think there are plenty of articles about this camera and it’s brothers & sisters.

It is possibly the most fully featured rangefinder I have used and it is really nice.  I am debating whether I really need yet another rangefinder in my tool-set however and I am sure that debate will continue.

In the meantime I will continue to try it out and find out what (if anything) turns me off.

While I was at one of my customers before the whole lock-down thing came a long I took it on a lunchtime walk. I found this old truck parked in a residential area close by and took this close up image.  I like the way that there is just enough rust with the paintwork old and faded.  Part of me wonders if that is natural or through some clever technique to make it look just like that; maybe a bit of both.

I’m beginning to like concrete

I have noticed since moving from the UK that, particularly here in California, concrete construction along highways is way more decorative.  What would be a plain flat wall along the side of a motorway in the UK here has a flourish or design thrown in to break the boredom.

This particular stretch is a case in point.

I thought I would love the Pen-F but I don’t

As you may have read, a couple of year’s ago I traded my dSLR for a mirrorless Olympus Pen-F digital and haven’t regretted it one little bit; I simply love it.

(if you haven’t read about it, look here).

This post isn’t about that Pen-F

 

My nineteen favourite images of 2019

Here are my favourite shots from this year in no particular order

Voigtländer Prominent with Ultron 2.0 lens using Fujifilm Pro 400 at the Getty Center

Voigtländer Prominent with Ultron 2.0 lens using Ilford Delta at Union Station

Cameras: Kodak 35 ‘special’

I bought this camera a few months ago from Goodwill and it has sat on my shelf since then; mostly due to the fact that the focusing ring appeared to be seized.  I kept picking it up and considering whether to try to take it apart and see what was wrong but each time ended up just putting it back on the shelf.

Then one day whilst pondering this camera I was thinking of ways to try to get the lens to move by applying the right pressure – I considered pliers (with rubber over the tips) and other means of gripping the front of the lens. I picked up a small rubber disk that was somehow conveniently on my desk at the time and with it in the palm of my hand pushed the front of the lens into it and tried to twist – it moved!  I tried again and moved it more; after a couple of minutes I had managed to release it enough to be able to focus fairly easily.  Now I had no excuses, it was time to try it out.

Out in the country with the Petri

I took these a while ago and hadn’t posted them until now.  They were shot with the Petri 2.8 Color Super on Fuji Pro 400 and came out a little on the hazy side for some reason and I hesitated to share.

I suspect that the lens has some issues which weren’t fully apparent previously which I guess a good clean might resolve.

Expired film in Mamiya C330

As I have mentioned before my Mamiya C330 is living on borrowed time due to a small gear wearing out in the winding mechanism; a gear that is no longer available for replacement.

I recently bought a replacement an here are a few shots from the first roll (#25).  I used an expired roll of Ektachrome and used the +1 stop for each decade rule to compensate the exposure.

Mamiya 35 Executive

As well as being roll 22 and 24 of my 36, this is also a review on another new to me camera; the Mamiya 35 Executive.

I am not really sure why I bought this as I have several other 35mm rangefinders two of which are very good and my ‘favourite’ brand.  But Mamiya is also a trusted brand for me and when browsing recently to find a replacement for my soon-to-be-dead Mamiya C330, I stumbled across this.  It wasn’t cheap so I can’t use that to justify my purchase.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I didn’t actually know that Mamiya made 35mm rangefinders and so seeing this, I was intrigued. 

A change in direction…

At the beginning of this year I started a project to shoot all the film I had in stock which amounted to about 36 rolls.  I am three quarters through the year and pretty much on target for what I set out to do.

However, although it has been interesting and I have shot a lot of film through a small selection of my cameras, I think I am going to slow down and pretty much call an end to the project.

I have come to realize that I am trying to shoot rolls just for the purpose of keeping up with the project and as a result I am somewhat wasting rolls (as well as time and money) achieving a goal which is not about creating quality images.  Some of the images I have posted recently have been great but I think many were posted just to show that I shot a roll and they are below the standard of quality and interest that I would like to present.  I also don’t think I have giving anyone interesting in terms of my experience or learning through the process.

I will keep shooting but it will be in my own time and not trying to achieve an unnecessary goal set by myself.

With a baby under 4 months getting quality photography time is hard and so the opportunity for taking good pictures is limited; this just makes me shoot things for shooting’s sake and that’s not my goal.  I could go out and spend time taking the sorts of pictures I like but I would rather spend time with my family.  Also, many of the pictures I want to take right now are of my family and I rarely share those images here.

So, I will keep posting images and sharing (hopefully) interesting things but not in the same way or rate and if I happen to shoot 36 rolls, great – if not, I don’t care.

In the meantime, here is am image I shot recently using Ilford Pan F Plus in my 1937 Voigtländer Bessa folding camera (roll 23).

My Top Five (film cameras)

So this year I got close to owning 50 cameras.  I know there are those that own way more than that (or have) but for me it’s just a little too many.  To settle this, I have been trying to whittle the numbers down and pass some cameras on to new owners; I still have a long way to go to get to where I want to be and for some of them its a painful experience to let go.

It’s also not helped by me continuing to acquire more 😀

In the process though I am identifying the few cameras that I really like, use regularly and expect to do so more going forward.  Those few will get (or already have had) a CLA so I can be sure they are in good shape to provide me with years of enjoyment and reliability.

So what are those few favourites and why do I like them?

In no particular order….

The Thirty Six: Film #21

I shot a roll of Fuji Pro 400 using a new camera acquisition in the form of the Mamiya 35 Executive; I’ll do a full review of the camera in a later post when I have shot another roll (or two) through it.
In the meantime this roll came out really good and I’m very happy with the results that this camera returned.

I shot some of the film on the streets around where I work just capturing scenes that I saw.

You’ve got to like a hovercraft!

A few pictures from a recent trip to Portsmouth in the UK where there is (as I understand) the only operating passenger hovercraft service in the world.

It takes passengers prom Southsea (Portsmouth) over to the Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

Shot on Voigtländer Prominent on Kodak Porta 400

The Thirty Six: Film #20

This the second film from the recent UK trip (see the first here).  I took used a roll of Ilford FP4 this time; one of my favourite black and white films.

I only took the one film camera on this trip so again this is using the Voigtländer Prominent.

Took these around the beach are at Southsea