The Olympus XA
An Olympus XA has been sitting in my desk drawer for a while just waiting to be used. Unfortunately, it sat much longer than I had intended. I finally was able to take it out for a spin one morning at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. What are my first impressions?
First, I love it that Olympus designed a rangefinder where I don't have to worry about accidently leaving on the lens cap and ruining a few shots. The sliding shell design works well without getting in the way and the lens is always protected. Nice work by the Olympus designer. Secondly, despite its small size, the camera has a little heft, which helps with keeping the camera steady while shooting. In addition, the shutter replease button is extremely soft and smooth to operate. I swear I could hand hold 1/15s no problem. The only drawback is that there is no AE lock by pressing the shutter 1/2 way down. However, there is a +1.5 stop backlight compensation via a small lever on the bottom of the camera. Exposure was spot on but I haven't tested any complicated situations.
My shots at the Pike Place Market turned out well if you ignore the fact that I'm shooting scenes that have been shot a million times before. There's really not much to complain about. The XA is a nearly perfect aperture priority AE compact rangefinder. The rangefinder patch was a little difficult to see, but that was fixed by simply applying a small piece of square tape to the center of the rangefinder viewfinder window. I'll definitely be shooting more film with my XA.
Konica Auto S2 and the magic Hexanon
With all of my photo equipment experimentation, I hadn't picked up my Konica Auto S2 in quite a while. It has definitely been my favorite fixed lens rangefinder thus far. To be fair though, I haven't yet used an Olympus 35 SP or Hi-Matic 7sII, which are supposed to be excellent cameras too. So, I decided to bring the S2 when the family and I decided to visit the Seattle Center for Wooden Boats last weekend. I loaded it up with some Kodak Portra 800 because some of the work areas were covered and it was a mostly overcast day.
When we arrived at the boat center, several people were working on beautiful cedar kayaks. I started taking a few photos when one of the guys working on a kayak noticed my camera. At first he didn't realize it was an old Konica film camera. When he realized what I was shooting he snootily commented that he was happy to leave film behind. I thought that was an odd comment for someone building a wooden boat by hand.
We spent the next few hours looking at various wooden boats and took a trip in a small steam powered boat. Overall it was a great day filled with many good photographic opportunities. If you are ever in the Seattle area, I highly recommend a visit.
Lately I've switched my film processing from Walgreens to Costco. My local Costco uses Noritsu equipment and prints on Fuji Crystal Archive paper. In addition, the scans provided by Costco are much better than what I've received from the Fuji Frontier system at Walgreens. And, to top it off, Costco is cheaper. The wooden boat photos turned out very well. Once again the Auto S2 surprised me with great sharpness, colors, and contrast. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, it has been a great camera.
Argus C3
The Argus C3 is an old rangefinder that was manufactured between the 1930's and 1960's. Its reputation as a "brick" is well deserved. It has the dimensions of a large matchbox and feels as if it were filled with cement. If you are attacked by a mugger, simply slam him upside the head with your C3 and continue your photo stroll.
The C3 I found at the local thrift store was in fairly poor shape, but the lens was clean. For $5 I couldn't say no. I cleaned it up, popped in a roll of Fuji 200 and shot a roll. The experience was interesting. The stupid shutter spring mechanism kept getting in the way when I pushed the shutter release button. That was definitely a minus. The rangefinder focus viewer is different from the viewfinder for framing the shot. You first focus through one window, then frame the shot in the other. It was kind of cool and wasn't much of a problem. It would be hell for moving subjects I think. The scans from the developed roll turned out surprisingly well. However, the rangefinder needs adjustment because it suffers from a fairly serious case of back focus. But for those shots where the focus was at infinity, the old Cintar f3.5 lens did a nice job.
Leica Z2X versus Konica Auto S2
In the previous installment of my point and shoot shootout, the Leica Z2X proved to be the equal or better of the Yashica T4. This was surprising considering the fixed lens of the T4 and its stellar reputation. Although my Konica Auto S2 is not a point and shoot camera, I thought it would be fun to compare the Z2X to the S2's very sharp and fast lens. Following the same format as the other shootouts, I loaded each camera with Walgreens Studio 35 (Generic Fuji 400) film and shot each scene twice, once with each camera. I zoomed the Z2X to approximately the same focal length as the Auto S2 to make the comparison equal. The meter on my S2 is broken so I used sunny 16 rules to set the shutter and aperture. The result? It was really difficult to distinguish 5x7 photos between the two cameras. The S2 might have a slight edge in resolving detailof distant objects; it was difficult to be conclusive. The next step might be to enlarge a couple of photos to 8x10 or better. One thing that was apparent was that manual metering on the S2 turned out better exposed photos than the automatic metering of the Z2X. Most of the Z2X photos were well exposed, but occasionally the meter was fooled by a stop or two. The other thing I noticed was that theZ2X had little bit of flare on a couple of photos, while the built-in lens hood of the Auto S2 eliminated flair in any of the photos.
Minolta Hi-matic 7s
Today the Seattle Flickr group met at the Olympic Sculpture Park for photos and fun. The group was very nice and welcomed my vintage gear. I brought my Minolta Autocord TLR and my Hi-matic 7s. This was my first roll through the 7s. It was sunny but the light was fairly dull. I thought that Kodak 400UC film would work fairly well. Operating the camera was easy and the light meter worked well. The 7s is heavy which makes for steady holding. Overall, I believe the Hi-matic 7s to be well designed and constructed.
The resulting photos left something to be desired. They lacked good sharpness and contrast. The contrast problem was somewhat due to the light and time of day. The sun was overhead there was some haziness. However, judging from the photos taken from my wife and son, the photos from the 7s should have been of better quality. Overall I'd say I was disappointed. I was expecting qualities more along the lines of what I saw with the Konica Auto S2. The camera deserves another roll of film on another day before I pass final judgment.
Konica Auto S2
I finished up the light seals on my S2. Today was a nice day in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle so I decided to walk about and shoot a color roll of film. Oh my, what a nice lens! I couldn't believe how nicely the photos turned out. They were sharp, colorful and showed very nice contrast. The meter on the S2 is broken so I used an exposure chart. Frankly, I think I did better estimating the light and consulting the chart than I would have with a meter. The film was nothing special; Fuji Superia 200.
I haven't shot the Hi-matic 7 yet, but the shots from the S2 have been the best I've obtained from any of my cheap old rangefinders; that includes an Electro 35 GSN.
Rangefinder focusing revisited
Having shot many more rolls of film through a variety of rangefinders and SLR's, my opinion of rangefinder focusing has changed. At first I thought that focusing a rangefinder was more difficult, especially under low light. What I've found is that a good rangefinder is easy to focus precisely most of the time. I don't find SLR's easier to focus, just different. Both have difficulties under low light. Practice and judicious use of depth of field solves most of the problems you might experience whether using an SLR or rangefinder.
Fixing an Olympus 35 RD
The thrift store gods were kind and provided an Olympus 35 RD. The body was in very good shape but the shutter release button was stuck in the down position and the film advance lever would not move forward. Luckily I recently read that the 35 RD had a common defect where the shutter would stick. This was due to a design flaw that allowed for sticky oil to slowly migrate to the surface of the shutter blades. My guess was that I could clean the shutters and the camera would be fixed. I found an article here and here on how to clean the shutter blades. I spent about two hours carefully following the disassembly instructions and I was successful in fixing the camera. Yahoo! I'm confident that if I had to do this again, I could probably complete the work much more quickly. However, it pays to move slowly and carefully when dealing with small and delicate camera parts. I can't wait to run a roll of film through this camera. The only downside to this successful repair job is that I now want to find an Olympus 35 SP to round out my collection. It never ends.
Olympus 35 RC Battery Compartment repair
I found another Olympus 35 RC at the local thrift store. Only $8.00, so I thought it would be a good candidate for disassembly and repair practice. My other RC is in very good shape except that the electronics don't work. I suspected that the connection of the wire from the battery to the electronics had corroded away, but there was no easy way I could see to access the other side of the battery compartment. I therefore disassembled the spare RC and found that I needed to remove the lens and shutter assembly before I could access the battery compartment connector. What a pain. It also means that that several adjustable camera elements could get thrown out of whack. I've therefore decided to leave my good RC alone and use it manually. It was a good learning experience.
Canonet G-III QL17
The local thrift store had a Canonet G-III QL17 on sale for $15. I have a serious cheap camera problem so it was inevitable that I plunked down the cash and brought it home. The first order of business was cleaning the battery compartment which had a tiny bit of corrosion. After a little treatment with a cotton tip swap and some vinegar, the battery check blue light lit when pushed. Awesome. Thiswas a nice improvement over the Olympus 35 RC which had corroded to the point where the wiring from battery compartment to camera had disconnected; rendering the automatic metering inoperable. What a shame, the Oly 35 RC is a nice camera. Anyways, I spent about two hours removing and replacing the gummy light seals in the QL17.
The family and I headed to Seattle Center and the Pacific Science Center to have some fun, have a bite to eat, and generally enjoy a nice sunny day. I took my K100D as well as the QL17. I reserved most of my photo opportunities with the Canonet to outdoor shots, although I did take a few indoor shots with my old Vivitar 2500. So, how did the photos turn out? Very, very good. I'm similarly pleased, if not more pleased, with the results from the QL17 compared to the 35 RC. ConsideringI was using generic Walgreens (Fuji) 400 speed film, the photos were sharp and well exposed. The QL17 is bigger than the 35 RC, so I give the edge in pocketability to the Olympus. They are both great cameras and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a small rangefinder film camera. There are some drawbacks to these types of cameras. The minimum focus is almost 3 feet so shots of the butterflies at the Pacific Science Center were taken with my DSLR. There is no zoom lens, so you have to zoom with your feet. There are times when moving nearer or farther away is not feasible. I also feel like there are some advantages to using a good old rangefinder and film. Shots of brightly lit subjects mixed with darker subjects didn't seem to blowout the white highlights. Manual focusing is great when you want to be 100% sure that focus is on the correct subject. I look forward to comparing prints from these cameras to a modern point and shoot like theCanon SD700 IS.