My new Mamiya M645 1000s arrived today!

Ever since I was lucky to borrow my friends 1000s I have been wanting one for myself. That was last autumn and I couldn´t afford a new camera until now..

What a beauty! And she´s all mine! I bought her from Germany last week and now today she´s here in Sweden with me. It was a great deal in my opinion, a full kit including:

Mamiya M645 1000s body with cap
PD Prism, TTL metering with leather case
Waistlever finder
Two 120-film inserts
Sekor C 2,8/45mm with case, caps and sunshade
Sekor C 1,9/80mm with both caps
Sekor C 4/150mm with both caps
Three filters
Mamiya strap
Metal case, good for storage and travel



Mamiya M645 1000s with metal case

Mamiya M645 1000s + Mamiya Sekor C 80/1.9
 

Shooting film in the rain

 

I love rain, I even like to get wet in the rain (if I´m close to home). I think that there are too little pictures of rain and of course, it could be because most people don´t like to go out with their cameras on rainy days. But there are roofs and umbrellas and I think rainy pictures are awesome..

So, go out and shoot in the rain!






Rain on the station - Pentax MX - Kodak TX




Drop - Pentax MX - Kodak TX



New roads and new choices

Where will they lead us, all the roads that can be chosen? I have to make a turn in life, choose new roads but I wish I didn´t have to.. You can´t see what´s ahead of you but you may have a safe picture of what you think the future will look like. Then one day something happens that changes that pictures and suddenly that road is closed so you have to take another road..that can be scary. For me it is anyway..

This picture may not look that scary but it is a road at least. I did not take this road, I just took a picture of it with my Yashica-Mat 124 and Kodak Ektar.

Heading for new roads - Yashica-Mat 124

Yashica-Mat 124 - Kodak Ektar

Street photography with a film camera

I like to see pictures from the street but I´m not to sure I am very good at it myself. I have tried a few times, it takes a lot of guts! That´s probably why so many street shooters have a M Leica, they are very quiet and small cameras. Street photography needs a lot of practice, you need to frame, focus and a perfect timing to get the good shots and all that in next to no time. I believe a lot of snapshot photographers waste a lot of film but it may be worth it when you´ve captured a masterpiece. I´m not sure if this is the kind of photography I want to do but it is sure nice to try it sometimes. I am not yet really there when I dare to get up close to strangers but a picture like this, from behind is ok for me.



A train of thoughts - Pentax MX



TLR in the autumn

I just had to shoot this window of Klara Church in Stockholm! Early October 2012 and the sun was awake, perfect for a trip to Stockholm with a TLR and tri-pod.





Yashica-Mat 124 - Klara - Kodak Ektar

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/from_what_far_star/5712817201/" title="YASHICA MAT 124 TLR by whatfarstar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2386/5712817201_a729529211.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="YASHICA MAT 124 TLR"></a>

Grandparents

I like this picture. We were celebrating easter at my mothers place and my grandparents were there. I had a Contax RTS II back then, a beautiful black camera designed by Porsche and with four nice Carl Zeiss lenses. We took some fresh air on the balcony and I took a couple of quick shots of my grandparents there with my Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135m f/2.8. My RTS was loaded with Fuji Superia 200 and this picture was a 3rd price winner in the swedish Metro Photo Challenge, the people´s choice 2011 in the category "relationships". It felt nice that other people appreciated my picture and I felt it was also a little triumph for film photography!

Grandparents - Contax RTS II - Fuji Superia 200

Mamiya M645 1000s - The ultimate camera?

I had the opportunity last year to borrow a great looking Mamiya M645 1000s with Sekor 55/2.8 and 80/2.8 lenses. I fell in love! It was a joy to handle, so much like my old Hasselblad 500C/M but much smaller and not as heavy! I did like my Hasselblad very much too of course and maybe one day I´ll get a new..

But mosly, I have also been thinking a lot about getting a Mamiya M645 1000s for myself...could be the ultimate camera for sure!
So today I made up my mind and bought a lovely Mamiya M645 1000s from eBay. It is a great looker and comes with the Sekor 45/2.8 and 80/1.9 and 150/4. It even have the metered prism w. new battery, handstrap, filters, a few rolls of film, extra film insert and also aliminium case so it was a great deal and a great kit! The seller says the camera works perfect so I really hope it does! I can´t wait until it gets here, I´m very exited and happy!

Must say I love these old magazine ads!

Mamiya ad/ NG/  1977

I hope I will be able to show some pictures of my new Mamiya soon and also, pictures taken with it.

Expired film

I´m not very much into the expired film thing but maybe if I´d buy a Holga it would be fun. I have some rolls in the fridge, expired 2002-2006. I´m a little affraid to use it. I think it may ruin my pictures, I don´t know. I should load my Yashica-Mat 124 with another exp.160VC. I have at least 4 old rolls of that film left. Too bad Kodak doesn´t make 160VC anymore, it was my favourite color film.

 

This portrait here is made with a roll that expired 2002, I like the retro-effect in the colors.

 

 

Yashica-Mat 124 - Kodak Portra 160VC (exp.)

Frosty Mamiya mornings

This shot was taken last year. I know that cold autumn mornings and winter makes you want to stay inside but there is always something interesting to capture out there..grab your camera, grab your lens and get out there!

Frost - Mamiya M645 1000s

Into darker days

Autumn, and winder´s knocking on the door a few blocks away...we´re going towards darker days. But still we can enjoy a few more sunny autumn days and that is nice..This picture is taken on my lunchreak at work a couple of weeks ago.



Autumn leaves - Pentax MX

The rose

A portrait of my son. I guess this must be at f/1.7 because only his left eye is sharp. I scanned this, by mistake, as a negative color film. I later made it b/w in PS elements.

 

Pentax MX

Autumn in black and white

This shot was taken 7 October 2012..It was Sunday and my head was aching from the night before, but I was filled with enthusiasm and happiness over my new Pentax MX so I had a long walk, almost two hours with my new little friend.

This time I used Kodak BW400CN, a black and white film that needs to be processed like ordinary negative color film, in C41. This was because it is cheaper for me to get it developed. I have not yet started to do it myself, I think I´ll have to sooner or later.
Anyway, the results from this film is pretty good, I have not compared it to other films side by side in a competition or anything, better just to take it for what it is. I like to shoot and try different kind of films..



Pentax MX



The colors of autumn

Pentax MX - Autumn colors

Analog Photography

Just have to say that I love it! Nothing new..waiting for my roll of Kodak BW400CN to be developed. I went to a camera store today in Stockholm. They had those beautiful Zeiss Ikon Rangefindercameras there behind glass. I did not ask to touch them, I am not into rangefinders right now but I love the way they look, amazing little things. I had a little chat with the owner about different films, among them Kodak Tmax 3200 wich is soon just a memeory, think ´m gonna try that film before it is out of sale. But today I just bought a roll of Agfa APX 100, it was dirt cheap. I don´t really know if I need it right now but it can be handy next summer or on a sunny day. I will put it in the fridge.

Yashica-Mat 124 - Gotland mist

Olympus OM-1n



Earlier this year, before I bought my Pentax MX, I was looking for a small slr just as I was now. That time I happened to buy a beautiful black OM-1n. I was very happy with it and it was really a looker. I had been wanting one for quite some time and now I could afford one at a nice price. unfortunately the meter was faulty so I had to send it back to the seller. He offered me a chrome OM-1n but I wanted the black finish. I have always liked black cameras. 

 

 

Olympus OM-1n - Zuiko 50mm - kodak 400TX

 A friend of mine happened to have two OM-1n´s so I borrowed one from him a few weeks. I really liked the camera, it was small and light, easy to carry around for long walks and so on. I think I had decided to buy a new used copy for myself but I never did. I lacked inspiration and bought some watercolors, papers and brushes instead. I still had my medium format Yashica-mat 124 to shoot with when I felt inspired.



My dog - Olympus OM-1n - Zuiko 50/1.8

 It´s really nice to have a small slr in your bag, pocket or around the neck. And 36 frames is a lot of shots, for me anyway. I often only shoot a scene one time, only when I feel that I maybe didn´t get the right focus or something, then I can take another shot.



 What I really like about analog photography is that it makes my shooting slower, I must take some time to frame the object, make the right manual settings etc. Just feels great! Makes me think...

Olympus OM-1n - Mirror

That´s why I was looking once again for a small slr and this time I happened to find a perfect working Pentax MX. The MX and the OM-1 are very similar. Small, B-1/1000s and big bright vewfinders. Both have wonderful lenses and both are great!

Into the dephts

A picture today, also from my first roll ever in my new Pentax MX. Autumn bush with shallow depth of field, probably at f/1.7.

Pentax MX - 50mm - Superia

Just a Pentax MX picture

 

I will keep it simple today, just a picture from my very first roll of film that went through my new Pentax MX. Taken with the standard lens, SMC Pentax-M 50mm 1:1.7 and Fuji Superia 200.

 

 

 

 

Ivy - Pentax MX - SMC 50/1.7 - Superia 200

First MX roll developed!

Yes! This feels great! Today I went back to my local photo store to get my developed fuji-roll back and I was really happy to see some images on the negatives. That means there are no major errors in the camera body so I was really excited to get home and scan the film.

There has been quite some time since I scanned some film in my scanner so there were a lot of dust and stuff there even though I tried to blow away most of it. I have not tried to be super-artistic in these shots, it was more like a "test-roll" to see if the camera and light meter work as it should. And to my big joy, it did! Everything looks great, even though the pictures was not my best.

I have one shot that I really like from ths roll and I´m going to show it to you. I use a Canon CanoScan 9000F, which is some kind of amateur-scanner but it is ok for now because  can´t afford a better one..It makes some kind of weird lins over my pictures, hard to explain but it tsakes some time to fix in Photoshop Elements 8, that I use. Sometimes I can´t save the shot so I have to re-scan it until it get´s better..very annoying...

Ok, here´s the shot from my first roll of film in my newly aquired Pentax MX:





The fallen one, a autumn leaf - Pentax MX + SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/1.7

While I´m waiting...

Today I shot the last frames on the  first roll in my new Pentax MX. I went to my local photo store to get it developed. The guy told me I could get the negatives back on Friday so I have to wait a few days, feels like I don´t want to wait, I would really like to see how my picturs turned out, if the lightmeter works and if there are any light leaks etc.. What can I do, time is all I´ve got so I guess waiting is ok. I feel that I would like to put a new roll of flm into my MX but I guess I will have to wait with that too. I could always polish a little more, that is always fun with new cameras..

Autumn Leaf - Yashica-Mat 124 - Kodak Portra 160VC

I bought a roll of Kodak BW400CN. I have tried this film once before with great results. The good thing about it is that it can be processed like a color film in C41, that is cheaper for me as I have not yet tried to develope my own B&W films, and I know I should... in the future maybe. =)