Moving On 2: More cameras have new homes

Right, then…

When getting into film cameras I bought a lot of different makes and models. Some out of curiosity, some out of hype, all out of trying to find The One. A fun diversion, that, but it tends to take up space. While I appreciate a collection, I think everything should be somewhat in working rotation, save for the too broken and arcane shelf queens. Also, being a man of many hobbies, I find that sometimes it does well to sell some old toys in order to buy new toys…or in this case, guitars. But for that matter, I sort of narrowed down what I still want, and I’m down to three The Ones, as far as 35mm goes: The Nikon F3, the Nikon F4 and the Ricoh KR5 Super II.

The Nikon’s are fairly obvious choices. These are pro grade cameras with great features that handle well. The Ricoh was surprising, though and I kept it over the K1000. It’s faster (1/2000 sec) lighter (plastic) and has a timer…all while still being a fully manual camera. What’s better is that it takes K mount glass. I liked this as I could take it with me on a trip and not worry about it getting broken or stolen…if that happens, a quick $40 or $50 or so replaces it…I can’t say that for the Nikons. However,the Nikons are better for self defense and mooring small dirigibles.

So that telegraphs one of them that went: the K1000. It was fun to use and was The One until I got my hands on some more ergonomic models.

Next was a Pentax ME. That was an impulse buy at a camera show in Hayward. I picked up a 110 to buy and looked at the ME for the fun of it, guy said $20, so I got it. I liked that it was aperture priority and I didn’t have to think too much. Also, it had a smaller body, but had good heft. In the end, it sat in the camera bin while I selected others.

I bought the Yashica 124G when I first got in to film cameras and put maybe half a dozen rolls through it since, most recently during a trip to Boulder last year. It was cool and old timey and took great pictures, but I found that I liked my ETRS better. If nothing else, the 645 format gave me 3 extra shots per roll. Also, the Bronica had interchangeable lenses, took filters easier, and weighed roughly the same as the Yashica.

Still on the chopping block is the Maxxum 400si. Early 90’s autofocus, a little slow and a little loud, but not a bad rig. Full PASM, and you could one hand it if you’re at a festival and holding a beer. It just never got used and I have the F4 for that, now, which is a superior machine. This one got no bids on eBay which I think is sad.

All told, I still have a lot: the aforementioned 3, above, an XG7 that I inherited from my father that I’ll never sell, an AE1 that my GF’s grandmothers husband owned (no…not her grandfather), an AGAT 18K, an XA2, and a couple of plastic point and shoots, in addition to the Bronica and the Speed Graphic.

What’s amusing is that I was going to use the funds to buy a carbon fiber guitar to keep in my car for lunchtime practice. I was also going to sell my Washburn Rover (a travel size guitar, as I just never gelled with it, and the body is too small so when I’m sitting, I have to hold it stable with my fretting hand, which is frustrating when you’re trying to get better at new chords). In the end, I remembered we have an old 1/2 size Yamaha classical that some friends gave us when our daughter was interested in guitar years ago. I’ll give that some new strings and use it, as it’s that much cheaper. This means I have extra funds to spend…

…but what I don’t have is a 12-string.

Productively Unproductive

Right, then…

Today was a day where I got a lot of what I wanted done, yet chores remain unfinished. This goes against my ‘work first, play later’ ethos, but screw it, I’ll do those tomorrow.

I mean, I wasn’t a complete bum – I showered, go the oil changed in the car, fueled up, quick stop at Trapper Joe’s (GF wanted a TJ’s Christmas Candle Event calendar, so that, and some sweets were acquired.).

But the fun stuff was hobby-related: Guitars and Cameras.

With guitar, it was basically a 45 minute practice session – Folsom Prison Blues, We’re going to be friends, Norwegian Wood, Dreams, Time of your life and Gringo Honeymoon – the last one being a Robert Earl Keen song I’m using to delve into barre chords. Everyone waits to delve in to barre chords when they first start, but I wonder if they should go at it from the beginning so that they get that much more time practicing changing in and out of them. Regardless, working on Bm and F#7.

One thing – and this may be more attributed to the 3 beers I had before, during and after dinner – was that my playing – while not that great to begin with – was less great than normal. I always get a little disturbed by that, but again, could be a combination of rushing and alcohol.

For cameras, it was repair a maintenance and the Ricoh and the Pentax ME. For the Ricoh, Kitty – fucking Kitty – jumped on the desk and used the camera as a handhold, summarily pulling it off onto the floor. Being a cheap camera, the top cap and the rewind handle broke and when I tried it, the meter would not work. My original thought was to just replace the top cap, but being a Ricoh, replacement parts are fairly rare. Further, parts cameras are about as much as working bodies, so I attempted to fix it. This turned out easier than I imagined. While some pieces are missing, I was able to glue the top cap back together. While it was off, I looked at the wiring to try and figure what was wrong with the meter, but nothing was obvious. While I was in there, I pulled off the bottom cap to see if I could find the contacts that trigger the light meter, but no avail. I put it all back together and to my surprise and delight the meter worked! I’m guessing that the batteries got joggled loose during the fall and when I had to remove and replace them when I removed the bottom cap, they reseated and made contact. So all I need to do now I find a replacement rewind handle and run a test roll.

The Pentax was simple a light seal replacement, but it was more of a tedious and messy task. A task made difficult by old eyes that require these light up magnifying jewelers glasses, in order to see the seals. Also, I had to improvise cleaning tools. I got the kit from US Camera, and they recommend – among other things – a dental pick for cleaning the seal channels. Well, I don’t have that and didn’t want to wait for Amazon, so I made due with toothpicks and the wooden stick they provided with the kit, whittled down to a fine point. Of use was a red spray tube, like what you find with a can of WD-40 – this allowed me to get acetone directly into the seal channel, in order to loosen the old adhesive.

Again, none of this was hard, but tedious and time consuming. And a little stressful handling long, flexible pieces of material that has an exposed adhesive backing. I always wonder if I miss a spot and will have to do it again. I just finished the test roll from the K1000 where I had to replace the light door seal, so I’ll try to burn a test roll tomorrow so I can develop them both at the same time.

Of note: When I was replacing the mirror seal, I noted that on the body of the camera, inside of the bayonet mount were….threads! This makes me wonder if I remove the bayonet mount, could I mount an M42 lens? Need to research that. *

All in all happy with the progress made today. Tomorrow, I’ll burn and develop some film.

*Turns out, no, not M42 threads. Just light baffles. That said I have a K mount to M42 when I want to go that route.

Interstitial Holiday Update

Right, then…

So, we’re between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, there’s probably a dozen other holidays I’m missing, admittedly, but these are the ones I celebrate.

Thanksgiving was good. Spent it at a friend’s house where we deep fried a Turkey, which was excellent, as always. This was the first time in a number of years, so it was good to get the band back together, so to speak. It was a little hard on GF as her daughter/my step daughter was visiting her father’s family out of state. Also, as this was the first major holiday since her father passed, but overall, she had a good time.

Last night was GFs annual party she has with her work friends. Always enjoyable, once we get past the monumental cleaning effort, and decorating. This was moved up one week at the last minute so we spent every evening after work working on the house, in preparation. So, between that effort and my social battery being drained, today was a low energy day.

Hobby-wise, I have some color film chemistry that I mixed in August, but is reported to have a one month lead time. Having only run a couple of rolls, I just developed a test strip to see if the chems are still good. We’ll see how that goes in about an hour after the film is dried out.

Every year, from about mid-October on, I sort of accept that the days will be filled with rich food and drink, and there will be associated weight gain. That said, I’m working on my new year plan to start to undo the damage. The rough plan is diet an exercise, because let’s face it: that’s what works. Fortunately we don’t have a winter holiday travel planned so I should have a nice long run to build up some momentum, this year. The last two years we had vacations in February and…I’m not good at being good on vacation. Of course, once I get back, I can’t get back into the groove. So, yeah: diet and exercise.

In the old days, I’d work I cycle commuting to work, but that’s not a realistic option until after daughter starts driving next year. I have plantar fasciitis which screws up running. So maybe some after work cycling and walking, maybe?

Though I know I shouldn’t, I can’t help to look back when I was younger and fitter and could run 3 to 5 miles after work (or better during lunch). But now that kind of effort just tanks my energy. I won’t lie, in that my general lack of fitness certainly is a major contributor. That said, I think aging and 2 rounds of COVID is also creating headwinds. I’ll try to do a little this month, to just get going, I think.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve enjoyed Christmas less. I think it’s because of all the effort that goes in to it, it becomes a forced March. And it’s not a generosity thing, either. I like giving gifts, and don’t mind spending the money. It’s just that everything is so overwrought. Decorating alone feels like a multi-day effort. And even after all the decorations, and all the presents and all the parties, no one seems really happy. I watch old movies and at Christmas people are happy to get some fruit or a nice toy or something. Now it’s just hyper commercialized insanity. Things used to be simpler, I think.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, honestly, but I reckon I felt it needed to be said.

Anyway, work is closed from the 23rd to the 2nd and I took a couple of extra days off before and after, so that will be nice.

OK, enough of this…

Experiment: Stand developing with Clayton F76+

Right, then…

This may get a little technically geeky.

I’ve been developing black and white film at home for years. Last year, I delved into bulk rolling, having bought a 100-foot reel of Kentmere 400. I chose this film as it’s cheap and decent, which allows me to experiment without costing too much.

Earlier this year, I experimented with pushing it 3 stops to 3200, with pleasing results The purpose is to see if I could use it for low light shots, like inside of a bar. While I was happy with the outcome, the main complaint was in development: at 20°C, develop time was 32 minutes! Having to agitate every 50 seconds was a biiig pain in the ass.

I did some research on stand development, but all cases involved Rodinal or HC-110. Fine developers, but I only have F76+ under the sink, I like it well enough, and don’t feel like buying a whole new developer just for the few times I might need it.

Normally, with stand developing, developer is diluted 50:1 or 100:1. For chemically reasons you need a stronger solution with F76+. A friendly Redditor recommended 1+29 as a starting point, so that’s what I ran with.

My target was a random walk at Mission San Jose in Fremont. This turned out to be a silly choice as I could have picked literally any target that I coul set up a tripod at, but this seemed like a good idea at the time.

The camera was a Nikon F4 with a 50/1.8 lens, set at f/8. This was a mistake as I originally wanted f/16 for maximum depth of field, but I discovered it too late so I went with it. I chose the F4 as it has autofocus and aperture priority so my assumption was that it would net the most consistent results. I used single servo focusing and matrix metering sir this experiment. The meter was set to ISO 3200. I took 10 shots, 2 each at exposure comp -2, -1, 0 ,+1, +2 (2 shots were taken of each, in case I blew focus, or something got messed up during development.) At this setting, the camera gave me, Hi (read faster shutter than the camera could offer, so, theoretically over 1/8000), 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/1000 and 1/500, repsectively.

I shot 3 rolls of K400: One control and two test rolls. The control was developed the normal way. As my place was a little warm, my solution was about 23°C, so dev time was 24:42. Stop, fix, hypoclear and Ilford low water wash we’re all standard times.

For stand developing, I read that chems need to be 20°C, so I put the 1+29 mixture in a cold water bath to bring the temp down. After that, it was fill the tank, agitate for a minute and then leave it alone for an hour. Again, stop, fix, hypoclear and rinse again we’re standard.

The challenge I had is with scanning the negatives. My Epson scanner died and I replace it with an iPhone 14 Pro and a Lomography DigitaLiza. Not wanting to buy Adobe LightRoom and go through the gyrations of converting the negatives, I used an App called FilmScan. The set up is functional, but the iPhone keeps auto adjusting expousure, which makes 1:1 comparisons difficult. My next go to was to use my iPad as a light box and just take a shot of the negatives side by side.

First, the negatives. Remember: 2 shots each at -2, -1, 0 (0 only has the same shot repeated on each picture below) +1 and +2. Also, I wasn’t thinking when I scanned these, so my orginal shot was vertical, with the test roll being on the left – that means when I rotated it, the test roll is now on the bottom, with the stand roll in the middle and the semi-stand on top.

Then the positives – converted using FilmScan app for iOS

This is where I get out of my depth. The challenge, now, is what actually works – I’m not seeing the one. Everything is either compromsing shadown detail or blown highlights. The closest I can find is shots 24/25, on the test roll (+1). On the stand roll (middle roll) 30A/31A is probably the closest to that, I’d imagine. On the semi-stand roll 9/10 is the closest, but even then I feel like the shadows are a little dark.

The main thing was to see if I could do stand development with F76+. I think I’ve proven that. I inadvertently handicapped myself by picking such a constrasty scene. If I were to do this again, I’d shoot something a little more evenly lit or employ the use of filters. That said, I’m glad I did this as it gives me a starting point for more experimentation. Next time, I’ll try some dark scenes and see how they shake out.

I must acknowledge u/P_f_M on r/AnalogCommunity, where this is also posted. They dialed me in to the 1+29 concentration.

Now, on to the next project.

Jimmy Buffett

Right, then…

Jimmy has been gone for about 2.5 months now and it still feels unreal.

On Saturday Sept 2, I was trolling Reddit and on r/GenX someone posted RIP to a legend with a picture of Jimmy sailing. In disbelief, i went to Google to learn what I was avoiding: Jimmy Buffett had actually died.

I mean, I knew it was going to happen some day as he was approaching 80. Despite taking care of himself and being able to afford the best medical care, there was only so far he could go. Also, in the final year, he had been postponing concerts for nebulous medical reasons, which never bodes well.

In the end it wasn’t a surfing or diving accident. He didn’t get brained by the mast during an accidental gybe. He didn’t stack up a plane on final. It was merkel cell melanoma. Then again, considering how much time the man spent in the tropical sun, maybe it’s not such a surprise.

The morning of, I had to go to the storage locker to get the equipment bag for the HobieCat as we were going sailing. Nearing the top of the hour, I tuned in to KCBS knowing they’d have the most recent news. sure enough, they did what I figured they’d do: they opened with hims singing the chorus to Margaritaville (a concert version) and stated he was dead.

You’d think going sailing would be a good way to honor someone who inspired sailing in so many people, me included. But I wanted none of it, really. I wanted to hole up and process it. It was the one time I really didn’t enjoy sailing.

I didn’t listen to any of his music for a few weeks. I didn’t rush to download the new songs off of the yet-to-be released album. I cried a little when I read Paul McCartneys tribute. I watched Kenny Chesney, Mac Macanally, Alan Jackson and Zac Brown do a tribute performance on the CMA awards, with a little melancholy.

I thought about Jim Sullivan, a friend and sort of adopted father who died in 2015. Jim had a passing resemblance to Jimmy, such that he won a lookalike contest in Key west in 1999. We got swarmed at the TGIFridays on Waikiki, before a concert. Jim got punched by a drunk woman on Duval Street when he wouldn’t give a signature. All this added to the sadness.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, to be honest. I plan on buying the new, final album Equal Strain on All Parts on vinyl, this weekend, with plans to give it a listen while having a drink.

New guitar day!

Well…it was new guitar day a couple of moths ago, but still…

Right, then…

As said earlier, I’m on my 5th round of trying to learn guitar, since the drunken guitar purchase in 2001. I sold that guitar in…2019, maybe….in a fit of pique. That being: “fuck it, I’m never going to learn.”

Last year, or maybe the year before, I was camping with the in-laws and my BIL mentioned taking guitar lessons to play around the campfire. That was enough to plant the seed….eventually. I started this round on May 5 trying to self teach with some online lessons. Eventually, I started taking private lessons from Clocktower Music in San Carlos. After a few sessions, the instructor suggested I join the group class that meets once a week. I did and enjoy it and it keeps me motivated to practice which leads to improvement while motivates me to practice more.

Yeah, but about the guitar…

I was saying I was struggling with some chord changes and he mentioned that the classical I was playing while it worked, wasn’t the best for what I was doing. So the next class he took a coulee of guitars off the wall for me to play: a Lag T88CE and a Blueridge BR-43. The Lag spoke to me. Bonuses were coming up, so I held out for a bit.

…a bit…not until I got the bonus, but I helped for a few weeks saying “you’re going to pay off your credit card anyway, so…” off to Clocktower I went, fully intent on gritting my teeth and buying the Lag, The shop owner knew his stuff and suggested I try all the 000 guitars on the wall: so I did. From the ones that were $300, to the $500-600 ranges I tried. For shits and giggles , I pulled one down that cost $1000. Purely ridiculous for my current skill level, no way would I buy this now.

You know how this story ends, right? Of course you do…

I walked out with this: The Blueridge BR-73.

Pretty, ain’t she? And goddammitshit does it sound good!

Now, I have to be honest: I was embarrassed at first. This is way too much guitar for me. I have no business owning this. My instructor mocked me for the sentiment. But I realized he’s right: it doesn’t matter how well I play. Its not like a motorcycle where you really should have a good skill level to ride a high performance machine. It’s an instrument. And if it actually entices me to okay, all the better. Much better than a cheaper guitar that I don’t want to pick, up.

So, there.

Moving On: Yashica Electro 35 GSN and Holga 120N

…at least, I think that’s the model number for the Holga. It’s the classic Holga that everyone thinks of that takes 120 film. More on that later.

So, I can’t remember when, and it’s not worth checking my eBay account, but I have had the Yashica for a number of years. I bought it as I was told it’s a good poor-mans Leica.

To be fair to the camera it worked well and produced some good pictures – no complaints on that. The 40mm f/1.7 lens was terrific. What got me was just…the everything else. The ergonomics were terrible – there was no easy way to hold the camera comfortably, in my opinion. I never really cottoned on to the light meter – it was always a struggle to work that without a) accidentally taking a picture, while b) trying to find the aperture ring to figure out which way to twist it to get proper exposure. Also, the focus ring was right next to the camera body which made focusing a little difficult.

I tried to 3D print a handle and a focusing lever to see if I could improve the situation, but in the end, I didn’t care enough to put in the effort. In the end, I just didn’t enjoy shooting the camera. It’s a good camera, it’s just not for me.

Instead of trying to put it back on eBay, or dealign with the perverts on Craigslist, I donated it to Film Photography Project – they take donated cameras and then re-donate them to high school film photography classes. I wasn’t going to get more than $40 for it, so why not?

While I was packing it, I looked in the camera bin and saw the Holga. I bought that in 2015 based on rave reviews about lomography and such. It was fun to shoot in that it triggered the ‘I don’t give a shit’ emotion – you just shot and if something worked out, great! But it sat on the shelf for years and collected dust and having to tape it up each time I loaded it (I’m not that much in to light leaks), was a pain, so I tossed it in the box as well.

So the camera bin has a little more space…for now.

The 2nd Most Boring Man in the World

Right, then…

So, it’s been a while – I see my last post was Oct 2019 when I ran the San Jose Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon. A lot has changed since then. Work got crazy, domestic life caught up with me, I gained probably 60 pounds since. There was that whole pandemic thing that was highly inconvenient. We all have had COVID twice since. The first time was in January 2021 before any vaccines or treatments – while ours was a moderate case, we did have a ‘flying to the scene of the crash’ feeling as we really didn’t know how it was going to work out. In the end, we wound up with a lot of headache, weakness, nausea, fatigue, but we all survived. I, with even a lesser sense of smell. Also, my energy had dropped of a cliff – not sure if I have long COVID, or just a combination of that, loss of conditioning and getting older. As we’re in the holiday season now, I don’t have too many plans on addressing the fitness portion as that’s a losing battle for me, but there’s always the new year.

On the what’s new front, I’ve taken up guitar for the 5th time (at least) and this time I’m doing a fairly good job of staying on top of practicing somewhat regularly. I am better than I was when I started on May 5. That said, I’m still in the ‘sucks less’ stage of learning guitar, and not yet at the ‘getting good’ stage.

But this is just a quick update. Having been dabbling in film photography lo these many years (2015….about 2 weeks after I bought my DSLR), I have a couple of camera reviews I wrote that I’m going to post.

Anyway, enough of this.

San Jose Rock n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon

Right, then…

So, remember when I signed up for a half marathon earlier this year?  I had tons…tons of time to train.  Hell, it was so early, I thought I might even punch through to a full Mary in the fall.  I was on track all through the summer, but things fell apart…at the end of July, out dog tragically died, then I was injured, then I got sick, then I had a surprise work trip to Florida.  As posted earlier, I had a checkride for my pilots license, and that took a lot of prep time.   So, I was nowhere near prepared as I had been in the past (the longest distance I had run was 7 miles).

So, when I showed up on Sunday, I had low expectations.  I’ve already gotten over the “I must run the entire distance” bullshit and planned to run 10 minutes and walk 5…until that didn’t work any more…then I’d walk more and run less…but I was going to compete the race.

There were bands about every 2 miles, but I was glad I brought my AirPods.  Despite being woefully unprepared, I was fueled and hydrated enough.  I had little problem with chafing, save for the ring toe on my left foot, but that was easily fixed with a bandage from the medical tent.  I guess my setup from my last half -10 years ago- still worked.

All in all, I finished in 2:55; 10 minutes slower than my personal best.  For being 10 years older and undertrained, I’m happy with a minute a year

To show that I hate myself I just signed up for the Crystal Springs half marathon in January 2020.  I might just train for this.

Pilots License

Right, then…

So, in 2016, about 2 months after my brother died unexpectedly, I started taking flying lessons.  It was always on the list of things I wanted to do but never had the time and money.

In the interceding years, there was work, family stuff, vacations, business travel, illnesses, injuries and a death in the family.  This meant there was a gap I. Train8ng for a while.  I did have a check ride scheduled in April, but my skills fell apart a week before and I postponed.   Then, when I finally made it to the checkride, the plane had a major oil leak.  At least we found that after the oral, so I got part of it completed.  That, by the way, led to the engine being overhauled.  I was starting to get used to a different plane which had a series of smaller, non critical issues…but I did not want to enter a checkride with those hanging over me, so I got a third plane.  This was fine until the week before and it developed a less critical oil leak…but the mechanic could not get it fixed in time.  Finally, with one week to spare (I had 60 days, or I’d have to retake the oral and worse, pay the full amount again) I finally flew.

it was a bumpy day and holding altitude was a bitch.  But the examiner had me do the normal raft of maneuvers (slow flight, stalls, emergency descent, power off landing, steep turns, instrument flying).  Truth be told, I gave myself 50/50 odds I’d be coming back.  After I pulled up to the hangar and shut down, he told me to tied the plane down while he does the paperwork to make me “officially dangerous.”

Well, god damn!

We debriefed and I fairly agreed with what he had to say.  But honestly, I was in a fog.  When I walked out, another plane similar to what I had (PA28) was getting tied down by a CFI that just got his CFII rating.  He was the first person I told.  He also flew with my club, occasionally.  We chatted for a bit, then he went off about his business. I then untied, fired up and flew 8 minutes back to my home airport.  The first time I did not have to worry about practicing…I could just fly.

September 20 is now known as Talk Like a Pilot Day.