Rusty shutters #33.

Polaroid SX-70 SE Sonar OneStep.

October 2007.

This blue-button SX-70 – that’s why it has “SE” as part of the camera’s name, maybe – was purchased at the San Jose Photofair.

Sadly, I no longer have this camera. It started to produce a series of 4 small, fuzzy, and bright yellowish dots vertically just off-center left. Don’t know why or how that began, but I stopped using it altogether about a year after I got it.

I got some great shots with it before its demise, though.

I did a slight variation of Adrian Hanft’s hack

Auto focus was pretty cool. I was able to use a bit of my 600 film stash, too. At the time 600 film was still available and I would snag 5-packs at Costco for around $40 US, as I recall. A good deal.

To use that film in the Sonar OneStep, I did a slight variation of Adrian Hanft’s hack, which involved just removing the ND filter over the photocell and turning the light/dark dial all the way to dark for each shot. It worked well.

Body: Black plastic with brown vinyl porvair
Focusing: Split-image rangefinder. manual or autofocus
Lens: 4-element 116mm glass
Manual focus: 10.4 inches – infinity
Shutter: Electronic
Shutter speeds: 1/180th to 14 seconds
Aperture range: f/8 – f/74
Dimensions: DWH 6.49in x 3.93in x 1.77in

Cowgirl boots

Marek

Grate|Ripples

Nicki

89

K-scope, revisited.

Hexagon city.

I had one of those days yesterday.

The weather was funky. Grey, foggy, drizzly. I didn’t want to leave the house. At all.

So I played indoors. It’s been a while since I put together the Leica D-Lux 4 and the toy kaleidoscope I keep in my studio.

Play. Play. Play.

I fiddled with that cool little combo for hours. Patterns, shapes, color. So much fun.

Play. Play. Play.

I attended a talk in the Spring of 1998 put on by the UCSC Extension in Mountain View, CA. The speaker was digital artist David Biedny.

It was part of their Creativity in the Digital Age series. I don’t remember much about the talk in general, but the one thing he said that evening that’s stuck with me all these years was that creativity and play go hand-in-hand.

So true.

K-scope #25

K-scope #18

K-scope #17

K-scope #16

K-scope #13

K-scope #12

K-scope #11

K-scope #3

K-scope #1

K-scope #29

K-scope #26

K-scope #23

K-scope #20

Rusty shutters #32.

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS.

May 2010.

I bought this tiny little shooter for one reason only… its size. Amazingly, it’s the same width and height as a credit card.

What I discovered after it arrived is that it has fantastic image quality and super macro capability.

I haven’t used this ultra-compact camera nearly as much as I should, but in putting this post together I rediscovered a little gem that I’m gonna start carrying around.

Resolution: 12 megapixels
Max image size: 4000 x 3000
Display: 2.5in fixed screen
Rangefinder: Optical zoom
ISO: Auto, 80 ,100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
Shutter Speeds: 15 – 1/1500 sec
Aperture: ƒ/3.2 – ƒ/5.8
Macro: 1.1in
Focal Length: 33 – 100mm
Zoom: 3x
Metering: Evaluative, center, spot
Dimensions WDH: 3.4in x .72in x 2.1in
Weight: 4.7oz
Power: Rechargeable Li-ion Battery (Canon NB-4L)
Memory card: SD/MMC/SDHC

Supplies

Winter Rose

VW ragtop

Rusty rings

Markers

A pair of Jacks.

Macro Jacks, that is.

Diggin’ ’round in the archive. These are from May 2013.

A pair of shots, one made with the Olympus E-PL3, an extension tube, and the Lensbaby Composer Pro + Sweet 35, the other made with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 and the Wanderlust Pinwide.

Cool that I wrote about how I made the Pinwide shot on Flickr. “I found it while I was out back watering the roses. It was corroded and covered in dirt. I cleaned it up a bit with water from the hose and let it dry.”

It was corroded and covered in dirt.

“I took the picture later in the day. The sun was on its way down allowing a sliver of light to peek under our old and slightly uneven garage door. I got the shot by laying on the garage floor with the Pinwide less than an inch away from the jack.”

I love the shadow and contrast, not to mention that gorgeous blurry bokeh at the top and swirl at the bottom of the EPL-3 shot. Pretty cool.

Diggin’ ’round in the dirt has its rewards. Same with the archives!

 

Rusty shutters #31.

Olympus Stylus Epic.

February 2008.

I know I bought this camera new, but I can’t recall where I got it. I could find no evidence of purchases online at the usual vendors. I may have bought this at a brick and mortar store in Silicon Valley, likely San Jose Camera or Keeble and Schucat.

It’s a fun little 35mm film camera. So compact, it’ll fit in a shirt pocket. And with the ƒ/2.8 lens and high ISO capability, it performs well in all types of light.

The only bother with this camera is that every time the cover is opened/closed the camera resets to default settings and the flash is enabled.

Other than that, it’s a pretty cool little shooter.

Film type: 35mm
Weight: 4.7 oz
Lens: E. Zuiko 35mm
Aperture: ƒ/11 – ƒ2.8
Focus: 13.8in – infinity
Shutter speeds: 4 – 1/1000sec
Film advance: Automatic
Viewfinder: Real image rangefinder
ISO: DX-coded, 50 – 3200
Dimensions WHD: 4.3in x 2.3in x 1.5in
Battery: CR123A 3V Lithium

Teal collar

’56 Chevy

Magnolia

Pithy

Mudflap babe

2019 Gallery

Faves from the past year.

Among photographers, I’m sure this is not uncommon – at the end of each year, I take a look back at my body of work and pick out the photos I like most.

My choices may be due to a particular memory, maybe the composition, or the planning that went into a particular photo. It could be the happenstance, the color, or perhaps the light. Maybe it’s the mood or a good story.

For those reasons and more, this group of shots – and a few others – are my favorites for 2019 – please, take a peek at my year-end gallery.

 

Rusty shutters #30.

Canon Canonet QL17 G-III.

January 2006.

A good looking little rangefinder, the GIII is the last, high-end version of Canon’s famous Canonet compact cameras.

Mine was yet another eBay find. It had been CLAd and came with new seals at the time of purchase.

Great glass, fast ƒ/1.7, and the quick load feature all add up to an awesome camera.

This nearly 50 year old camera is still working. Nice little shooter.

Film type: 35mm
ISO: 25 – 800
Lens: 40mm f/1.7
Shutter speeds: 1/4 to 1/500sec and B
Focus: 2.6ft to infinity
Viewfinder: Coupled rangefinder with auto parallax correction
Battery: Originally powered by one 1.35V M20 (#625) mercury battery. Battery checker built-in.
Flash: Hot shoe
Size HWD 2.9in x 4.7in x 2.3in
Weight: 22.4oz
Canon Quick Load (QL) film loading system

Light reflection

Open

BUY

Spotted paint

O-Jay