My First 135

There was a line at the counter of the photo store when I stopped to pick up some developed film a few weeks ago, so it gave me an excuse to browse the used gear case. Well...like I need an excuse.

Our little Mom & Pop camera store has a pretty decent selection of used SLRs and lenses. There's a community college in town that has a photography program that requires students to learn film photography first, so they do a good business selling simple film cameras. Naturally, the top seller is the Pentax K1000, so there's always a shelf full of Pentax K-Mount glass. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular when I noticed, popping up tall among the 50 primes, a decent SMC Pentax-A 135mm f/2.8. Doesn't it always seem when you see something in a display case that interests you, the price tag is always upside down? It was on this 135, so I motioned for some help. "How much for that K-Mount 135 there?" In my mind, I was thinking about a buck a millimeter, so I was surprised when the sales associate handed me the lens and I saw the price at $50. That's very affordable for a reasonably fast prime telephoto lens. 

I haven't found a Pentax film era lens yet that didn't feel expensive and substantial and this lens was no exception. I asked to try it on a K1000 body. Focus action was superb and the f-stops nice and clicky. The glass on this lens looked exceptional and after a few minutes thinking about what my Portra 400 processing and scans were going to cost me that day, I decided to pick up the lens too.

The first weekend I had to try my new lens consisted of attending a college graduation and oodles of errands I had been putting off. I did get to put the 135 through some basic work outs, mounted on my LX body and shooting Kodak Portra 400.

I mostly shoot standard primes, so this is a first for me. The only lenses I have in my collection that would be considered telephotos are my 85s. And 85mm on a full frame film camera seems barely telephoto. This is a nice lens though. It's not big and balances well on the LX and on my ME Super, making it a good walk about lens. And after this first roll, I am inspired to experiment more with this focal length.

Lightbox Wednesday #21

I rarely have my iPhone on me when I am out and about. It's just a nuisance to carry. And, for the most part, the only time I use its built in camera is to take photos of film cameras I am writing about and using. Those images appear here on the blog and in my Flickr feed.

On January 22, 2012 however, I did have my phone with me as I watched the San Francisco 49ers play the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park. I took the phone because my brother is a big Giants fan and I wanted to be able to text him and rib him when the 49ers beat the pants off the Giants. I could have left the phone home--the game went the other way and the Giants went on to the Super Bowl that year.

As it turns out, I am glad I snapped a couple of shots inside Candlestick as it would be my last visit there before the place was closed down and demolished. Besides the loss, it was a miserable evening at The Stick. Sheets of rain blew in cold from the Bay. I got soaked to the skin and recall eating a cold hot dog in a rain soaked bun.

Cold and Miserable at Candlestick

Even colder and more miserable at Candlestick

Lots of football history unfolded over the years at Candlestick and long time fans here really miss the place. Looking back through all my old photos for the Lightbox project, I am glad I grabbed my phone that day and got a few shots of the grand old park before it disappeared.

Candlestick Park today (Image Courtesy of Google Earth)

Kit Lenses

Back in the dark ages of mostly metal 35mm single lens reflex cameras, the big camera manufacturers created "kits" by packaging up reasonably fast standard prime lenses with their camera bodies. Nestled in the styrofoam box inserts, you'd also find an ever-ready case, camera strap and batteries. If you bought a kit, you saved some money over buying the lens as a separate item, the manufacturer hooked you for an OEM lens and kept you from shopping aftermarket. Win-win!

Most of these kit lenses were 50 or 55mm f/1.7, 1.8 or F/2. It would make sense that Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta or Olympus would skimp on materials, assembly or optics to please the money guys, but I've yet to find one of these kit lenses that wasn't a stellar performer. Honestly, I like some of the kit lenses better than their faster and more expensive counterparts.

Of my two Olympus standard lenses, I prefer the f/1.8 Zuiko over the 1.4 version.

I really like my 50/1.8 Nikkor Ai-s lenses over Nikon's similar 1.4.

The only Canon FD lens I own is a 50/1.4 which is super-sharp and very impressive, so I am anxious to pick up the less expensive f/1.8 for comparison.

In Pentax manual focus, the 55mm f/2 and the 50mm f/1.7 lenses, at least for me, outperform the 1.4 (with exception of the M42 50/1.4 8-element SMC Takumar which is in a class by itself). 

So don't shy away from the slower, less expensive standard primes of this era. They were all very well made and will deliver amazing results at affordable prices.

Lightbox Wednesday #20

With all this nonsense about spending gazillions building a wall at the border with Mexico, I think people forget that there already is a wall there...well, sort of. More of a rusty fence with lots of holes.

During my three decades living in Arizona, I visited the US/Mexico border only a handful of times. Mostly, it was to take out of town visitors to Nogales, where you can park your car in the Safeway parking lot in Nogales, AZ and walk across the border into Nogales, Mexico. There's really not much to do in dusty Nogales other than buy colorful but itchy blankets or knock-off designer handbags. I heard you could also buy antibiotics there without a prescription, but I'm not sure I'd buy medication from some of the sketchy little drug stores I saw there. Each time I visited Nogales, I was always quite happy to pass back through the border station and into the US again.

My favorite near-border town is Bisbee in Southeastern Arizona. Bisbee was a copper mining town and at one time, the the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. When the mines played out, Bisbee almost dried up and blew away. Today, it's an interesting community of artists and eccentrics. There are some excellent restaurants in town and a diverse selection of interesting shops and galleries.

While editing images for my Lightbox Wednesday project, I came across these shots I took during my last visit to Bisbee in 2008. I shot these with a Nikon D70s and 24-120mm Nikkor zoom.

You can spend the night at The Copper Queen Hotel

Business District in Bisbee

Shuttered Movie Palace in Bisbee

Indian Motorcycle Shop

Dial Hemlock 2-3842

One of many vintage vehicles I saw parked in Bisbee

Old Chevy Dealership

Pool Hall

Abandoned gas station, although it appeared a hot rod business had operated here recently.

Kilnes Trading Post

There is an interesting motel in Bisbee called the Shady Dell. All of the rooms are renovated vintage travel trailers, a bus and even a boat!

Dot's Diner is adjacent to The Shady Dell. Great burgers!

The scars of open pit mining in Bisbee illustrate just how careless we have been with our environment.

Abandoned Open Pit Copper Mine near Bisbee

Another shot of the open pit copper mine

The aforementioned US/Mexican border is just a short hop south from Bisbee. The "wall" here is solid rusted metal on the bottom with vertical grating on the top. Notice how it stretches all the way to the horizon. That's Naco, Mexico on the other side.

I feel pretty confident that my skills as a photographer have improved since I visited Bisbee almost a decade ago. It would be fun to return sometime with a film camera and see how much as changed and how I'd shoot it today.

Phones

Something a bit off topic today...

Once upon a time, there was a "home" phone and a "work" phone. Your home phone was your personal phone and you used it to talk to friends and family. At work, you used the work phone to conduct whatever business that required it. 

In the 1990s, people starting using cell phones. Because these phones and the cell service was terribly expensive, most cell phones were used by business people. Having a cell phone then was a symbol of status and importance. A symbol that people even made fun of. I can remember sitting in a bar in Scottsdale in the mid-1990s. There was a guy sitting at the end of the bar chatting away on his flip-phone. Between us were two women and I heard them commenting about the "uppity asshole with the mobile phone." 

As cell phones and cell service became more affordable, lots of regular folk got them. They became a portable version of the personal home phone and eventually even started replacing the landline home phone altogether. There was still a healthy division though of personal and work devices. I was working for a large corporation in the early 2000s and I had my personal cell phone and a company assigned Blackberry. I was not allowed personal calls on the Blackberry. And I never gave out my personal cell number to my work associates--unless they were friends.

For a decade I ran my own successful marketing consulting firm. I worked out of my home and had a landline business phone and a business cell phone. I tried to be very accessible to my clients and worked long hours, but when the work day ended, the ringers were silenced on both devices. I kept my personal cell phone personal.

Over the past six or seven years, I've watched the line between personal and work devices dissolve almost entirely. Today, it is not uncommon for employees to use their personal smartphones to conduct all sorts of business on the job. In some workplaces I have been to, it is expected that you are always connected to work through your personal device. At the company I work for, there are over 700 employees. If you cannot get someone on their landline office phone, you try their cell phone. Many of our younger employees skip using the business line altogether and go right to the personal cell.

Instant, all the time access stretches the work day beyond the normal barriers. I know lots of people who sleep with their iPhones, responding to both work and personal text messages and emails at all hours. When I ended my consultancy and went back to work for someone else, I felt pressured by those around me to connect my personal device to work. Maybe this is just the way it is now and I must do this to be relevant, I thought. For several years, I kept my smartphone with me all the time, responding to texts and emails whenever and wherever I was. Keeping the data flowing was like digging a hole in sand, the more I dug the more sand kept filling up the hole.

One day, fate took over. I stopped to chat with an associate in the parking lot at work. I don't remember why, but I set my smartphone on the roof of my car while we were chatting and ultimately drove off with the thing still on the roof. As I accelerated onto the freeway, I heard a clunk and realized the sound was my phone sliding off the roof, skipping off the trunk lid and bouncing on to the on-ramp. I exited the freeway at the next exit, circled around and saw my iPhone crushed to bits on the ramp.

After some moments of panic, I took a deep breath and decided to try an experiment. This was an opportunity, I thought.  I didn't rush out to replace the broken phone. I did without. No cell phone at all for several months. And what happened? Nothing. Work associates asked if I got their text messages. I told them that I did not. I said my phone was broken and I hadn't had time to replace it. For the first few weeks, people called my office landline and told me they'd tried me on my cell and I didn't answer. I repeated the story about leaving my phone on the roof of my car and that until I had time to go to the Apple Store, the best way to reach me was email or office line. People had compassion too..."Oh my gosh! Did you have insurance? No? So sorry...wow... a new iPhone is so expensive!"

Through my experiment, I slowly undid the cell phone leash and discovered how much more effective I was at getting things done when I was in control of the data flow. I realized that my smartphone wasn't a convenience for me it was a convenience for everyone I knew to have access to me. After a few months, I got a new phone and a new phone number. I only gave out the new number to a select few. I've successfully re-programmed my associates to reach out to me on email, which I respond to promptly within reasonable business hours. And it's amazing how everyone now calls me on my office line. And an added benefit--since my cell phone is now just a personal device again without the need for huge chunks of data and unlimited everything, I have reduced my monthly cell phone bill to around $20.

I'm not sure at what point it became acceptable for the home phone and the work phone to become one. I don't think it's healthy. I don't know how people can truly recharge and refresh when they are constantly connected. I am not a luddite. I have an iPad. I am writing this on a MacBook Pro. I use Apple TV. I spend like 10 hours a day staring at one screen or another and using all kinds of technology. However, I think that technology should serve humans. It shouldn't be the other way around. 

Analogbook

I'm selling off or giving away many of my old cameras. To long time followers of my old WordPress blog and this one, it may not seem so, but I am. With the exception of two cameras which are in the shop now and in the queue for a future review, I think I've shot all the classic cameras I care to. I'm whittling down the collection to just those I've really grown fond of. I want to shoot and know these cameras more with hopes of improving my photography and...making some space on my shelves. Here are those cameras...

NIKON F2

I shoot my F2 cameras in spurts, setting them aside for months at a time. I've taken to doing a lot of day hiking around Northern California and the F2 body with a decent lens is quite a bit to heft around. I tend to grab something smaller and lighter. Now and then however, I'll just get in the mood to use one of these mechanical masterpieces, spool up some Acros and wander around town remembering all over again how magnificent the Nikon F2 really is.

CANON F-1N

I never thought I'd take to a Canon anything, but after my first outing with this mostly metal professional beast, I was a convert. The F-1N with AE finder and fast Canon FD 50 lens is a great kit. I was shooting it last weekend when a fellow photographer walked up to me and said "Gosh, that's a real camera!" Yes, it is.

Pentax Spotmatic

Fellow photo blogger Jim Grey turned me on to Pentax cameras, first with the ME Super and then to the Spotmatic series. Be forewarned...buy one Spotmatic and the darn things breed. I now have about half dozen of the various evolutions of this fine camera: SP, SPII, SPF. They are cheap to buy, very reasonable to CLA and a blast to shoot! And Takumar lenses! Don't get me started. The Pentax M42 cameras and lenses are mechanical, optical marvels. Get one. Or two. Or ten.

Nikon F4

I scan YouTube quite a bit looking to see what other photographers think about the old cameras I like. Recently, I've seen a bunch of new posts on the Nikon F4. There are a few reasons for this. One: Prices are coming down on this camera. Two: You can mount most any Nikon lens ever made to the F4 and it'll meter and work just fine. Three: The F4 is just a really incredible camera to hold and use. If you enjoy analog photography you must, just once in your life, shoot a roll of film in an F4. While other Nikon F bodies were mostly evolutionary, the F4 was revolutionary. It set the stage for every SLR and DSLR to follow. The F4 is affordable photographic bliss.

Contax RX

I gotta be honest, I bought my RX because it looked cool. No other reason and not a lot of pre-purchase research either. One night, knowing I had a little balance in the PayPal account and mildly lubricated with some Pinot Noir, I clicked the BUY IT NOW button on eBay. Buyer's remorse set in by daybreak. A few days later, RX in hand on a day trip into San Francisco, I discovered that this was a truly delightful camera to use. The RX is a manual focus camera with auto-focus brains. Frame up your subject, focus and the camera will tell you when you've nailed it. It doesn't hurt that this Contax is the platform for some truly splendid Carl Zeiss CY mount lenses either. Smartly designed and well built, the Contax RX is a fine camera.

Pentax LX

I'm not sure how or when I first stumbled across what some people call the finest Pentax film camera ever made. Most likely, my growing affection for Pentax screw mount bodies led me to follow the inevitable trail to the K-mount LX--honestly a camera that I never even knew existed. Unlike the Nikon F4, which you love from the first moment you hold it, the Pentax LX is like a woman you've known for a while as a friend and then one moment you look at her and realize you're falling in love. This is a camera that, the more you spend time with it, the more you like it. Then, slowly, you just fall head over heels in love. The Pentax LX just does so many things right: fit, finish, size, weight, controls. Mount any one of the very affordable K-mount SMC Pentax lenses on the LX. Look out onto the world through a big, bright viewfinder that displays everything you need to know in one quick glance. It's easy to see how the LX was the pinnacle of everything Pentax learned through decades of making SLRs

So, these are the cameras that I'm using most these days and the ones I think I'll keep. If it's not on this list, it'll probably go. Probably. Runners up, at this point, are my Pentax 645n, Nikon FM2n, Olympus OM-2n, Canon P. I'm really on the fence with Leica. I traded my M2 for a Leica M7 and I'm putting my first roll through it now. And I'm considering selling my M9-P and buying a Pentax K-1, which will allow me to mount all of my marvelous old Takumars on a digital body. That's if I need a digital body at all.

So this is where I am in my photography hobby, course change subject to PayPal balance and amount of wine in my glass. Cheers!

Lightbox Wednesday #19

For me, the 85mm focal length lens on a 35mm camera is magic. It's my favorite way of seeing the world. These are some shots taken three years ago with an 85mm Nikon f/2 manual focus lens on my Nikon F2AS. Film is Kodak Ektar 100.

Revisiting these images from 2014 reminded me how much I enjoyed using the 85. I need take it along on a hike one of these upcoming weekends.

Lightbox Wednesday #18

I've been reviewing, sorting and sometimes discarding images I've taken during the past seven years. It's been a useful exercise to review my progress and reveal how much more I need to learn about photography. Every Wednesday, I toss a few of these images onto my digital lightbox.

Since moving to Northern California, I've become fascinated with the micro-climates around the Bay Area and especially of the different kinds of fog that develop. Before I moved here, fog was more a nuisance than anything else. Here however, you learn to live with it, embrace it, love it and try to photograph it. My best results so far have been on a Sunday afternoon hike out at Pierce Point Ranch on the Point Reyes National Seashore. The day started out sunny, but as I made my way back to the trail head at the Ranch, a heavy dense fog dropped down hard. I clicked off these shots with my Leica M9-P. I think they accurately captured the mood. You can almost feel the moisture dripping from these photographs.

Hiking with the Super Macro Takumar

I've had so much fun with my Micro-Nikkor lens that I decided to go looking for something similar to use on my Spotmatics. I am always surprised at how very affordable most of the old Pentax M42 lenses are in comparison to the images they are capable of. I paid next to nothing for my 50mm f/4 Super Macro Takumar. Pentax made three different versions of this lens, mine was crafted somewhere between 1966-1971. Like all of the Takumar lenses of this period, focus feel is sublime. I'm really addicted to the focus action on these lenses and love how determined the f/stops click into place. Just a pleasure to shoot!

I decided to give my new lens a try on a very windy Sunday hike on the Kortrum Trail near Goat Rock Park on the Sonoma Coast. In retrospect, navigating cliff-side trails on a day when gusts were over 40 mph probably wasn't the best way to test a macro lens. I had a difficult time getting flowers to sit still for portraits. And the winds blew the ball cap off my head more than once.

I knew that focusing a slower lens like this f/4 might be a challenge with the Spotmatic, so I grabbed my SP with the split image focus screen. I shot these images on Kodak's Portra 400 film and set the Pentax to half the box speed.

Before I buy any camera or lens, I read as much as I can online. Most photographers gushed about this lens, but the negative comment I read over and over again was how disappointing the Super Macro Takumar was at infinity. I had this in mind when I shot this photo near the end of my roll of Portra. When I got the scans back from the lab, I was surprised and pleased. This lens seems fine at infinity, at least to my eye. And it has that classic Pentax color signature as well.

This lens focuses down to about 9 and a half inches. One might be able to use this as an all around normal lens with the bonus of close-focus ability if you could live with its slower speed. With a little patience, you can find one of these on eBay for under fifty bucks. 

Shooting on the California coast on a day when the wind about knocks you off your feet is not advised. Next time, I'll wait for a calmer day and perhaps take my tripod.

Lightbox Wednesday #17

I have discovered another positive benefit of my Lightbox Wednesday project. Revisiting your old images helps fight G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). As I've poured over hundreds of images I've taken over the past seven years with various cameras, it's reminded me on several occasions how I haven't shot a particular camera in a while. 

Such was the case when I came across this series of images taken about three years ago with my Nikon F4 and manual focus 85mm f/2 Nikkor lens. I was trying my first roll of CineStill 800T film. CineStill is Kodak's Vision3 motion picture film which has had the rem jet-layer removed so it can be processed in C-41 chemistry. It's a tungsten-balanced film, so it really shines under artificial light sources, but I got some decent results shooting it under natural light.

CineStil is a film stock that it would take a person awhile to get to know well enough to achieve consistently satisfying results. I suppose that's why I only shot this one roll back in 2014.  For almost all of my color work these days I rely on Portra 400.

Flipping through these CineStill shots did get me jazzed to use my Nikon F4 again and doing that has kept me off of eBay--which is a good thing for my wallet.

The author, his F4, shot on Kodak's CineStill 800T

Lightbox Wednesday #16

Lightbox Wednesday Blog Post...one day late. Hey, it's been a really busy week at work.  :-)

A few years ago, I took on the project of scanning hundreds of Kodachrome and Agfachrome slides my Dad shot many years ago with his Kodak Retina IIc camera. These very old chromes held up really well, stored in old Argus metal slide trays. This was one of my first scans. I was still getting the hang of the scanner and having dust issues. I'm not sure when this was taken. The 1950s for sure. I used to fuel up my 1969 Camaro at this same gas station when I was in high school in the late 1970s. That's my Mom in the passenger seat!

Lightbox Wednesday #15

This little lightbox project I have undertaken this year has been a good reminder for me of which cameras and lenses I have used most often and really gotten my money's worth from. One of those is the fabulous 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens. I've had more rainy day fun shooting stuff around the house with this lens. Here's a shot from a  few years ago. Taken with one of my Nikon F2 cameras on Kodak Tmax 100 film, this is the dial on my old rotary dial telephone.

The Planar Killer

Once upon a time, Asahi Optical Company (Pentax) had a dream that they could design and build the finest standard 50mm prime lens in the world. It was a daunting task in a time when Leica and Carl Zeiss dominated with their Summicrons and Planars. The Japanese threw money at the project. Lots of money. And cash was no object, because pride was at stake. Knocking the German lens manufacturers out of the top spot would forever cement Pentax's reputation for fine optics. So it was that in the early 1960s, the first Super Takumar lens was born. Design and development costs aside, the 8-element 50mm f/1.4 Super Tak was so expensive to build, Pentax lost money on every one sold. The press raved, Pentax took the crown and this special lens faded away, replaced by a less-expensive-to-build 7-element version.

I took my 8-element Super Tak out for a spin on a recent Sunday walk through Stillwater Cove State Park, not far from where I live. I used Kodak Portra 400 film exposed at half the box speed in my Spotmatic SP camera.

This lens is sharp and renders colors wonderfully, just like all the Super Takumar and Super Multi-Coated Takumars I've tried. There is a subtle increase in sharpness over the 7-element version, at least to my eye. What intrigues me is the interesting swirly bokeh this lens produces. I want to experiment more. Any photographic tool that encourages you to get out and shoot more is worth the price of admission.

The 8-element Super Takumar 50/1.4 does not boldy announce itself to the world. The only way to tell it from the 7-element version is to look for the infrared focus tick mark, which is located to the right of the number 4 on the lens barrel rather than the left as is the case on 7-element versions. The rear element also protrudes noticeably.

This lens was produced for only two years (1964-1966), making it somewhat rare. Collectors have driven up the cost, but if you enjoy browsing on eBay like I do, you might come across one being offered by a seller who has no idea they're selling a legendary lens. This is a lens that is worth the hunt.

Lightbox Wednesday #14

Going through all of my old images reminds me that I've taken many shots on film stock that has since been discontinued. A bought a couple dozen rolls of Kodak Plus-X black and white film from the very final runs. I only have a roll or two left in the fridge.

Kodak Alaris has announced that they are bringing back Ektachrome slide film later this year. They are also kicking around the notion of a return of Kodachrome. With TMax 100 film filling the Plus-X void, I doubt they'd start making this venerable 125 speed film again, but...

This shot was taken the last day of 2015 with my Contax RX and Zeiss Planar 50. Film was developed in Kodak D-76 developer.

Pentax 645n: First Thoughts

Of all the classic 35mm cameras I have tried over the past seven years, I can say that there are at least eight or ten that I really love. And any of those eight or ten would be good enough to shoot as my only camera. I can't say the same about medium format cameras. Haven't shot one up to this point that I'd put an exclamation point after.

My first MF was the Mamiya 645Pro. I actually liked this camera a lot when I was just fooling around with it in my house and yard. One day, however, I took it out for a day of shooting. By sundown, my neck and back were sore from lugging this behemoth around. There's nothing to complain about with the camera itself or Mamiya's fine lenses. This camera is just not meant for street shooting, hiking or even just walking around. It was designed for wedding photographers and studio work; areas where it excels.

Next up was a Rolleicord I inherited from a friend. Fine camera. Superb lens. I had never shot a twin lens reflex camera before. And because this camera had sentimental value, I wanted to love it. I didn't warm to the Rollei. It was fiddly and I found myself always using the magnifying eyepiece trying to get my shot into precise focus. Bending my head over to look down into the eyepiece and then looking up again aggravated my vertigo (a condition I have suffered with for years). It's bad enough I'm old and shooting an ancient looking camera. I really looked funny stumbling around with dizziness after focusing.

Next up were two rounds of Hasselblad 500-series cameras. To eliminate the viewfinder issue described above, I tried various versions of pentaprism finders for the Blads. The one I liked the best with built in metering was huge and heavy, turning the 500c/m camera into almost a Mamiya 645Pro. Again, the Hasselblad is a beautiful camera and the Carl Zeiss lenses will blow you away. And I loved the removable film backs. The Hasselblads just weren't my cup of tea.

I had almost resigned myself to being content as a 35mm shooter when a friend sent me an email and asked if I'd like to try the Pentax 645n. He had a nice, lightly used one for sale complete with 120 insert and SMC FA 75mm f/2.8 lens. We made a deal and I traded my Mamiya for the Pentax.

Pentax 645n with Pentax SMC FA 75mm f/2.8 and collapsable lens hood

One of the things I do when I get a new camera is pay attention to the way it feels in my hand the first time I take it out of the box and peel away the bubble wrap. If it feels good then...that's a good sign. Don't get me wrong, the Pentax 645n is a big camera and it's not light, but it's well balanced and the hand grip is designed perfectly. This camera felt immediately satisfying. Because the 645n uses film inserts rather than removable backs, it's smaller and lighter than the Mamiya or the Hasselblad. The removable 120 film inserts are the easiest to load of any of the medium format cameras I have tried. The 645 format gives you 16 shots per roll.

The Pentax 645n uses removable film inserts

The 645n shoots just like a 35mm SLR and offers matrix metering which allows you to shoot in aperture-priority, shutter-priority, manual and fully automatic professional/program mode. Wanna see something cool? Look how smartly designed this Pentax is: Green Means Go! Set all of the controls on the top of this camera to green and the camera is in full auto-exposure mode. Easy peasy!

I was surprised at how quickly the SMC FA lens snapped into focus with no hunting and pecking. There's a little beep that sounds when the Pentax finds it's focus, a feature you can disable if you want. For a classic film camera, the 645n has an impressive autofocus system! The only 120 film I had on hand was some Ilford HP5+, not my favorite emulsion, but it would have to do. I spooled up the Ilford in the Pentax without having to read any instructions--nice! Now the real test...a long walk with the camera. 

First up, the sun on my patio furniture.

A wine barrel and my collection of golf balls that fly into my yard from the nearby course.

An intersection near my house.

The side of my neighbor's house.

Pride of Madeira, which grows like crazy here on the coast.

The beach.

And when I got back, the cat...right where I'd left her.

The 645n automatically advances the film on to the take up spool at the end of the roll. Open the back, remove the spool, seal the film up and you're done!

My walk lasted just over an hour and carrying the 645n around was no more tiresome than a modern DSLR. I probably wouldn't want to take it on an 8-mile hike, but this is a medium format camera I might use a lot more often. I think my results in the "auto-everything" mode turned out ok and the Pentax SMC glass rendered Iford HP5+ in a more pleasing way than with past gear I've used it in.

I've picked up some 120 format Portra 400 and am going to shoot the wildflowers, which are in big time bloom here in Northern California. The Pentax 645n is a smartly designed, easy to use and comfortable to carry medium format SLR. It might just be a keeper! (Oh my...exclamation points!)

Lightbox Wednesday #13

My project this year is to go through all of the images I've taken since re-entering film photography in 2009. I'm keeping the ones I like and jettisoning the ones I don't.  Revisiting my work has been a good exercise.

Autumn, 2014...I was learning my way around a Rolleicord TLR. Here are some shots from my first roll. I was shooting Portra 400.

It's hard to beat medium format negatives. I've struggled however to find a medium format camera that feels right. The Rolleicord didn't. I traded some gear recently for a Pentax 645n. Full report on that soon.

I just might be turning into a Pentaxian

I gotta tell you, the more I shoot with Pentax gear, the more I fall in love. From the M42 screw mount Takumars to the K mount SMC-M and SMC-A primes, the lenses are simply amazing. And amazingly affordable! I haven't yet found a Pentax lens that has disappointed. Or a Pentax camera that I didn't gush over. My current rush of enthusiasm for the brand made me bold enough to pack only Pentax gear on my most recent trek to the photographic holy lands of the Monterey Coast. And if that's not adventurous enough, of the two Pentax bodies I packed, one was an un-film-tested MX I picked up off of eBay just before my trip!

Pentax MX 35mm SLR with SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4 lens

First, the camera. The MX is a nifty little K-mount 35mm manual everything body from the 1970s. I'd compare the MX to Nikon's FM/FM2/FM2n bodies; TTL center-weighted metering that provides the photographer with exposure information which is then set manually. The MX has a very nice viewfinder with a unique circular display of shutter speeds and a series of LEDs that let you know when you're good to go. This camera is a little bit like a Spotmatic that has been shrunken down a size or two with all of the controls feeling very familiar to any Spotmatic shooter. The MX is small, well balanced and very light. I carried it over my shoulder for hours on end without issue. My MX came with a SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4 lens.

I shot mostly black and white (Tmax 100 in my Pentax LX) during my four days bopping around Carmel, Carmel Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands. Before packing the MX in my camera bag, I loaded some fresh batteries and tested the metering. It seemed to agree with my digital meter. I dry-fired it through its shutter speed range and it sounded close enough. 

Here are my first two shots with the MX on day one; an old John Deere in front of a winery in Carmel Valley.

Carmel Valley Road begins as a busy four-lane at the Pacific Coast Highway. Over the next 30 or so miles of its length, it narrows to barely a lane and a half while twisting and turning through some dramatic scenery before depositing you into the Santa Lucia Highlands wine growing region. It's far enough inland here to think that they would grow Cabarnet or Zinfandel, but the cool coastal breezes sneak their way up the gap allowing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes to thrive here.

The buds were just beginning to break at Hahn Vineyards.

It was such an overcast day. If the sun were shining, I can only imagine how well this lens would perform.

Odonata Winery was my favorite! I bought several bottles of their wine to take home. This is the view from their parking lot.

Later in the day, back in Carmel, the clouds began to break up and finally, some sun!

The old MX revealed a shutter capping problem towards the end of the day, one of the risks of traveling with an untested camera. It's an easy and cheap CLA fix, but it spoiled my sunset shot.

I woke the next morning to sunshine and the sound of the Pacific. I snapped this shot out of my hotel window. I was impressed at how well the MX's meter performed here. Hey, who needs matrix metering?

Later that day, relaxing with an Arnold Palmer.

I enjoyed using the MX enough to spend a few dollars and have Eric Hendrickson service it. It's a simple, inexpensive camera that is robust enough to throw into the car and take anywhere. And these Pentax lenses...oh my! I'm toying, seriously toying with the idea of selling off all of the rest of my cameras, throwing the funds into my retirement fund and just shooting Pentax from here on out.

Lightbox Wednesday #12

Besides the camera in my iPhone, my Leica M9-P is the only digital camera I own. I often consider selling the Leica as I only shoot it occasionally. I eased myself into this expensive camera gradually, trading several other cameras and a bit of cash for it, but it's still an extravagance.

One thing I like about the M9-P is its ability to allow me to mount all of the old Leica lenses I own. Leica lenses have always been stunning performers. Here is a shot I took in the little market in Pt. Reyes Station, CA with an ancient Summicron lens.

Two rolls in the Pentax LX

The Pentax LX straddles that line between the mostly mechanical, metal 35mm 1970s era SLRs with dials and levers that I love and the electronic, plastic, blobby, multi-function, menu-driven cameras of the 1990s that I don't. With an amazing 21 year production run (1980-2001), it seems that during that time, the LX would have morphed into a computer-driven techno-blob at some point, but it didn't. Pentax took the best of what their Spotmatic series offered (build quality, reliability, fine lenses), combined that with the small and light M-series bodies with bayonet lens mount, added system capability with pro-level fit and finish and quietly created a SLR masterpiece in a classic design. I say "quietly" because, when you think of pro-level 35mm cameras of this era, the Pentax name rarely gets mentioned. I've been dabbling in photography since the early 1970s and I had no idea that this camera even existed until recently. Only my recent positive experiences with Spotmatics led me to discover, research and desire my own LX.

While Nikon and Canon were building beefy, heavy, robust (and well known) professional 35mm cameras, Pentax went a different route. The LX is small. Really small. With a 50mm f/1.7 lens, the LX easily slips into a jacket pocket. Don't let the tiny size of the LX fool you though. This is a pro-level camera with aperture-priority auto and manual exposure modes, interchangeable finders and focus screens, an add-on motor drive and an arsenal of fine Pentax SMC lenses. And the LX is built for professional duty with a tough metal body and controls that have rubber gasket seals to keep out moisture and dust.

This is a camera that really grows on you. I shot my first rolls of film in the Pentax over a couple of weekends, taking the LX with me on Sunday walks. By the second weekend, I was really enjoying it. The LX has a big, bright viewfinder with split image focusing and a very clean and simple display of aperture, shutter speed and exposure mode. I might go so far as to say that the presentation of information in the LX finder might be my favorite of any vintage film camera I have used. Cameras need to be designed to make you WANT to use them. The LX begs you to pick it up. It feels good in the hand and is well balanced and very comfortable to shoot, even without the add on grip. And because of its small size and light weight, I've found myself taking it with me when I normally wouldn't even grab a camera.

My first test shots were on Fuji Pro400H, a film I've not had great luck with. It was a partly cloudy day with muted sunshine. Here's the beach near where I live.

I shoot into the sun a lot, so lens flare is pretty common. Aside from that, the LX's meter did a good job with this difficult-to-meter shot. Sloppy processing at the lab, I think, is responsible for that little blob in the center near the vegetation.

Back home, I got my usual new camera selfie.

By the second weekend and with a fresh roll of Kodak Portra 160 loaded, I was getting more comfortable with the LX. As I left the house and headed towards Doran Beach Park, I saw the first signs of Spring.

l cut through the campground at Doran Beach.

And out to the Bodega Bay Coast Guard station.

No, I didn't trespass on US Government property. I went around and down to the little cove where you can see the Coast Guard dock. I was surprised to see a ship speeding away from the dock just as I arrived.

I scrambled up the banks and over to the jetty where Bodega Bay meets the Pacific. The fire department and Sonoma County Sheriff were on the scene. Apparently, two kayakers had fallen into the water. One called 911 while clinging to his overturned craft.

The all clear sounded just a few minutes after I got this shot. Both kayakers were plucked from the water safely. In my seven years living in Bodega Bay, I have watched some amazing rescues by the Coast Guard, the Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter and our fabulous little fire department. Brave and dedicated people that we are so proud of. Moments later, this boat sped by with the kayakers on board.

I'm not going to ramble on with more technical information on this camera. I will simply say that the Pentax LX is truly wonderful to shoot. It may not seem so from this blog, but I am actually beginning to whittle down my arsenal of cameras, posting the ones I don't shoot often to my eBay feed, keeping only the ones I truly love to shoot with. The LX will not be sold.

Now, the disclaimer:  Membership to the LX club does not come cheap. Decent bodies go for $400-$600. Many on eBay are in Japan, so you have the added expense of shipping. Deteriorating seals and pads contribute to "LX sticky mirror syndrome," which can be cured with a CLA. A CLA for an LX isn't cheap either. If your LX doesn't come with a grip and if you want one, expect to spend a hundred bucks on that. They also make one that you can carve down with a knife for a custom fit. The LX doesn't have normal strap lugs either, just little posts to mount the proprietary Pentax strap rings. My LX was missing these. I found a set on eBay for $50. Yikes! 

Now this last part is really going to make me sound like a goofy camera geek, but as I was heading back home, I took this last shot of the setting sun. After clicking the shutter, I said to myself..."Man I love this camera!"

Lightbox Wednesday #11: A bottle of white. A bottle of red.

I've used the opportunity of moving my life over to a new MacBook to review the hundreds of images I've taken since my re-entry into film photography. The process has allowed me to really clean up and organize my "digital garage." It has had the added benefit of allowing me to relive some moments of personal photographic joy and sometimes even to ask myself "why did I take this photo in the first place?"

Today's lightbox image is a photo from four years ago and one that I got quite a bit of satisfaction out of when I first saw the scan. I had just picked up a very nice pre-Ai 50mm Nikkor-S f/1.4 lens on the cheap. I popped the lens onto a Nikon F2 Photomic body and shot a test roll of Kodak Portra 400...mostly just snaps of things around my house. For fun, I placed two bottles of Coppola wine on my window sill, moved in close and got this shot.

Wine bottles, Nikon F2 Photomic, 50mm Nikkor-S f/1.4, Kodak Portra 400

I remember how pleased I was with the sharpness and color rendering of this old Nikkor lens and how this shot inspired me to really get to know Kodak's Portra 400 film and to shoot my Nikon F2 more often. The joy of photography!