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



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



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

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. =)

MX - A small crush!

Sometimes when I hold a new camera in my hands I fall in love, like when I bought my Hasselblad 500C/M, I felt like I was walking on clouds the first month, ok, that is another sad love story I won´t talk about right now but I can tell you that I have a small crush for my new compact SLR, -Pentax MX!

Pentax MX logo

It looks great and performs great. I have to say that I have yet to see the negatives before I can give myself "all in" but so far it have been great and a lot of joy! I do have to agree with a lot of reviews on the net that the shutter speed dial is a little difficult to deal with while I´m holding the camera at eye-level, you have to use two fingers to get a good grip around it..

Asahi Pentax logo

I know that the idea was to purchase a camera that was all mechanical, beautiful and small, so I could carry it with me all the time without it being a load but I have to admit that I am thinking about buying a winder for it.. The guy that sold me this MX had a winder and the grip felt really good in my big hands. Maybe it makes the camera more firm while shooting? And also, he had a right angle finder with magnifier. These two accessories would make my camera a little bigger but maybe it would be a help my photography. I´m not sure yet what to do but I´ll think about it.. I can always put those things on when I know I´ll go out and shoot an for my non-planned-shooting days I could carry my MX without those accessories.

Pentax MX viewfinder - My cat She-Ra through the window..

 

This picture is not the best, it is taken from the side, but it shows a little bit how big and bright the viewfinder is. Above the image you can see the f-number and to the right you can se the shutterspeed. When you have selected the right speed and f-number, the LED is green. If you are a half-stop wrong the indicator shines yellow and if you´re 1-stp off the LED metering is showing red.

SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/1.7
 

I hope that I can post some pictures taken with the camera soon!

Pentax MX

So I did it.. I bought a nice little black Pentax MX today! It looks great and seems to work just fine. It have new batteries, Hoya 49mm UV filter and Hoya 49mm Lens hood and best of all, a 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M lens. I wanted the f1.4 lens but off course that one costs a little more so I´ll start with this lens.

I have loaded it with a roll of Fuji Superia 200 so now I´m ready to test this beauty and when/if I find the results good I´ll load my MX with some Tri-X!

Pentax MX + Pentax-M SMC 50/1.7

Remind me that I must give Darth his black gloves back, he´s starting to get really pissed!

Pentax MX 1976-1985. Produced by Asahi Optical Co, Japan.
The MX is all manual, fully mechanical construction, a true solid workhorse!
Pentax´s flagship pro-caliber 35mm SLR, until the introduction of the Pentax LX (1980-2001).
Pentax K-Mount. Mechanical shutter of the horizontal cloth type. Weight: 495g (1.09 lb) without lens. 1s-1/1000s + B. The Pentax MX have a 0.97× viewfinder, covering 95% of the field. 2 x 1.5V battery. 1/60 x sync speed.

I´ll get back when I´ve had the first roll developed!