Canon FTb SLR test roll

I was recently given a Canon FTb SLR with 3 lens. This is a vintage fully mechanical SLR with a dead light meter (Batteries made with mercury are no longer available). Last Friday I hooked up the 100mm lens on it and went for a walk in the Montreal Plateau district to test it out. This beast weighs the same as a WW2 German Tiger tank, so my neck got one serious work out!

Here are those amazing images.

Film used was Fuji Superia 400 ISO processed at the local pharmacy and tweaked in Gimp.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

FED2 camera test roll

I recently purchased a FED2 which is a Soviet era Leica knock off. A very hefty rangefinder this is as close as I'm probably ever going to get to a Leica. It is in mint condition and it even smells fresh oil from a recent CLA.

I think I have an issue with the shutter mechanism or I'm not doing something right. The next roll will tell. I'll be going for a black and white film next time since I want this to be my main street camera.

Film used was the $0.99 Likon 100 ISO processed at the local pharmacy and tweaked using Gimp.

Gerry

Canon G12 remote shutter trigger for under $10

The canon G12 comes with a timer but sometimes this doesn't come in handy. The other day I was trying to make a self portrait with an off camera flash when I realized that the flash didn't work with the timer. A remote would have been great just there. A remote is also useful when you want your hands off the camera but want to be able to shoot at will unlike with the timer.

Not being one who likes to spend money for nothing, read cheap, I looked into a few instructables and found out that making a remote was pretty straight forward. So I went shopping at the electronics store.

I came out with a cellular phone headset and a small project box. I already had switches from a previous project. All I had to do was to cut the headset off, strip the wires, make some holes in the box for the switches and solder everything together. The only hard part is figuring out which wire is which. Simply strip them, plug the jack in the camera and start connecting them one by one to see what the camera does. One will activate the focus, one will activate the shutter with the other wire (or wires) being the ground. I put the switch on top for setting the focus and the red momentary switch triggers the shutter.

That's it that's all and for less than $10.

Until next time.

Gerry :)

Why use film?

It's cheaper! Well that's the short answer and I will address it later. Why use film? The main reason for me at first was for the challenge. I shot film back in the day before digital for taking snapshots of events in order to have something to remember them by. Nothing serious. I figured that experimenting for art's sake didn't justify the expense. I felt there was no way I could come even close to the pros without spending insane amounts of money for equipment and the eventual learning curve.

Taken with a Minolta X-570 using Kodak 200 iso film

That was before the coming of the digital age and my first digital camera. I am a graphic artist and now that I had the means to take large amount of pictures without the expense, I could let myself go crazy. I took pictures to document and to please my eye with what I learned in drawing and painting. I was self taught, so I was missing a few elements.

Taken with a Minolta X-570 using Kodak 200 iso film.

This all changed last year when I decided to actually apply myself seriously at photography. Digital was convenient and immediate but I wanted more. A friend hooked me up with a film SLR and that got me really interested into making some nice film images. I'm not claiming that one is better than the other. They both have their usefulness and this all depends on the person pressing the shutter. The photographer makes the image, not the gear.

Taken with a Minolta SRT 202 using Fuji 400 iso film

 Film has taught me about exposure, lighting, depth of field and film speed. I'm still learning but it has made me more aware of what is behind a great image and I even put my new found knowledge to better my digital photography.

Taken with a Minolta 5000 using expired Kodak film.

Film photography also makes you slow down since there are so many ways you can screw up. It's more akin to painting a canvas. Preparation, set-up, planning all come before you even think about the composition of the image. This as had the advantage of making me a better photographer where I take the time to plan my shots. I recently realized that I'm taking less shots on digital and the quality there is better as well.

Taken with a Konica C35 EF using Konica 200 iso expired film.

Now to the money part, how is it cheaper? The most expensive piece of analog gear I have was a $40 camera, every thing else I got for cheaper or free. A quality dSLR that could come close to matching the same image quality from one of my 40 year old Minoltas would cost around $3000 and would have to be replaced within 2 to 5 years. I will never spend that much money on film in that period of time and all of my analog mechanical cameras will work the same way 20 to 30 years from now, if not more.

Taken with a  Yashica Electro 35 using Kodak 200 iso film.

So dust off that old film camera and give it a whirl. You'll see what great images can still be done with it. Is film better than digital? No. Is digital better than film? No, they both serve a purpose and depending on what you want to do, one or both of them could serve you well.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Shooting with the Canon Powershot G12

Vintage looking crappy picture. You'd swear this was taken in 1972!

I had quite a challenge yesterday as I was invited to my Son's place to celebrate New Year's eve. His apartment is very badly lit and it was going to be a challenge even for the G12. It's low light capacity is very good compared to its predecessors but still.

The image is still surprisingly crisp for the lighting condition. No tripod or flash.

First off white balance was hard to establish and I never got the setting right. I had to go with high ISO (800) to get some kind of decent shot without a flash. This high ISO rating brings out a lot of noise on the image.

Using the onboard camera flash on manual setting.

The best setting turned out to be black and white in manual mode with a set zone focus and flash. I like the vintage look of it enhanced by the 1:1 square format that brings back memories of 120 film 6X6 images. I guess I'm in a black and white phase right now. Don't know why, I just love it.

The additional lighting present in the kitchen shows here. Same settings as previous.

The closer the subject to the flash, the better. Same settings as previous two images.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Canon Powershot G12 an honest review, first impressions.

The Brick

 Why am I calling this an honest review of the Canon G12? Because I forked the $429 bucks for it. Some of my blog readers also contributed thru their donations and I owe them a big thank you. You won't be getting a corporate song and dance here.

Notice the level at the bottom of the screen. Very practical.

First impressions are that this baby is rugged! The hard plastic shell protects the camera from abuse and feels pretty nice to the touch. It doesn't feel cheap. I've read a few comments about some of these dropping on to concrete with no ill effect.

Program mode, no flash, no tripod.

If you've ever owned any Canon Powershot camera as I have, you will feel right at home with the G12. All the controls are where they should be with the usual icon and buttons. However, the G12 affords you the luxury of a few more knobs and buttons to shortcut those controls right on the body. ISO, modes, exposure, shutter speed, aperture and manual focus can all be controlled on the camera itself. There is also a button that can be assigned a function of your choice. I use mine for white balance. It's great to be able to take care of all these things on the fly without going deep in the menu. Mind you Canon has one of the best layouts on menus that I have ever tried.

Manual mode with auto focus not given a chance to react!

Did I mention "manual"? Yes, this baby has a real manual mode. You can have as much control or as little as you want with this camera. If you only want to shoot on Auto, I don't know why you would bother with it. There are also a bunch of special effects available in the scene mode. Black and White and sepia of course, but they have also added a tilt shift, fish eye, poster and nostalgic mode as well among others. I haven't seriously played with the fish eye mode yet but the others offer some interesting results.

Scene mode, miniature or tilt shift effect.

3 things stand out for me on this camera that I wouldn't expect from a point and shoot, a flash hotshoe, a viewfinder and a swiveling LCD screen.  The hotshoe is great for a better flash unit on or off the camera, the viewfinder is not that great (but still useful) and the swiveling screen is great for street photography or self portraits. The display also offers a rule of third grid and a level on screen option.

Program mode with Macro setting no flash.

The camera is operated by a Canon specific Ion lithium battery that promises 370 shots with the LCD on. The charger is off camera so I'll be getting a spare battery.

Full manual mode with preset zone focusing.

Start up, auto focus and shutter is lightning fast. One area where this camera has done miracles compared to my last Powershot is low light performance. Wow, it even outperforms my Nikon which is very good in low light.

Scene mode with nostalgic effect (or "film", pretty much the same.)

How does this camera compare so far to the one it replaces? I know it's not a fair comparison, but the Nikon S8100/9100 is the one being set aside in my camera bag and comparing them is inevitable for me. The Nikon has a bigger optical zoom (10x instead of 5X), more mega-pixels (12 compared to 10), a better wide angle lens, cost less and it is more compact. But the Nikon, apart from some exposure control and white balance, is automatic everything. I need more control for what I want to do. This is not a DSLR but it does a whole lot for what it is and the picture quality is outstanding.

Very low light, no tripod, no flash, program mode.

The bottom line is this, would I buy another one if I would *shiver* lose this one? You bet. Keep posted as I get to learn more about this great camera and try to push it beyond, 'cause that's what I do!

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Santa delivered!

Well Santa was nice this year as I got some new gear, the Canon G12. So here is the new camera that I'll be using to document most of my next 365 Project: Trooper #2.

Trooper #2-"Do you have your papers?" G12-"No, there on a CD for Mac and Windows so if you run Linux, you're out of luck."

I had to download the manual off the web but it was well worth it.

Of course both of these pictures were taken with the Nikon S8100 that I will keep for wide angle shots.

Here are some of the first shots taken with the G12. Now it's just a matter of getting used to it and learning just how far I can push that thing. It is very rugged and it has the same Canon layout menus as any other Canon Powershot, which I'm already familiar with. Except this one has a few short cuts to the functions in the form of buttons and knobs readily accessible on the body of the camera.

The coolest Grandson

The swivle screen makes self portraits easy.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)