Lomography

Testing out which of my camera bodies work, (the good, the bad, the ugly) and what lenses I have been able to find for all manual use.

Last night I spent a couple of hours checking each of my 35mm camera bodies that I plan to use for my Analog shoots. I didn’t manage to get through all of them, but I did manage to test all of the Pentax K-Mount gear. Since I am not really planning on using any of my Canon or Nikon auto focus gear, just the manual focus bodies, I set all of that gear aside. In addition I decided to leave some of my known good, high end 35mm gear out of my analog shoots, for a couple of reasons.

First, because almost all of that gear is/was top of the line for it’s time frame, and has more bells and whistles then I want to mess around with at this point. I am really looking to use cameras that are simplistic, basic K1000 styled. Full manual mode. Why? because this makes me stop and think about the shot I am taking, no just fire away, like I have gotten into the habit with using Digital. Also because it is a lot easier to get creative, if you have to work at it. (just an opinion).

So, off my list to use, at least at the moment are: Canon F1N, Canon A-1, Nikon F5, Nikon F4, Nikon F3HP (maybe), Nikon 4004s, Olympus OM77AF, Canon Rebel G, Canon Rebel 2000. I am keeping the Canon EOS A2’s and the Elan on the list to test and shoot with, only because putting them in full manual mode is second nature to me, and because they are such a joy to shoot with.

Back to the body tests. I found several of my K-Mount compatible bodies unusable and unrepairable :( Most common was shutter or film advance failure. Here’s the list:

Ricoh XR-10 (bad film advance)
Sears KS-1 (Broken shutter)
Ricoh KR-10 (broken film advance, bad light seals)
Vivitar V2000 (no film advance)
Olympus OM-10 (totally seized up, shutter, advance)
Nikon EM (broken film transport)
Canon FTb QL (Broken mirror, shutter)

But the list of tested good, working is longer :)

Ricoh KR-5 (all functions good)
Ricoh CR-5 (all functions good)
Ricoh XR-5 (all functions good)
Chinon CM-5 #1 (all functions good)
Chinon CM-5 #2 (all functions good)
Chinon CM-4s (all functions good)
Pentax ME Super #1 (all functions good)
Pentax ME Super #2 (all functions good)
Pentax ME (all functions good)
Honeywell Pentax SP500 (all functions good)
Vivitar 220/SL (all functions good)

So plenty of bodies to play with. I love how light most of them are, I can slip one into the cargo pocket on my pants, and carry it all day long with out discomfort. :)

My lenses tested are all m42 or K-mount, and I can cover most any range from 28mm to 200mm. It is an odd mix though.

28-200mm F/4.0 m42 (only 28-200mm M42 I have ever seen)
Promatic 80-200mm F/4.5 K-mount
Beck 135mm F/2.8 K-mount
Chinon 50mm F/1.7 K-mount
Chinon 35-80mm F/3.5-4.5 K-mount
Tokina 28-135mm F/4-4.5 K-mount
Sun 35-135 F/4-5.6 K-Mount
Gemini 35-70 F/3.5-4.5
Pentax 50mm F/1.2 K-mount

I will need to pick up at least a 50mm, 28mm or 35mm M42 lens, because I have both the 220/SL and the SP500 bodies that are screw mount, and the 28-200 is a huge, heavy piece of glass, not something to carry around all day. Otherwise, I have the K-mount bodies covered pretty well, especially for recreational shooting. The Honeywell Pentax was my father’s camera, and he left it to me when he passed on. It was the camera that I first really started using for “serious” photography, and I plan to get a 50mm for it and return it to just the way it was when my dad gave it to me. I wish I had kept the original lens for it. :/

I know this is pretty boring info, and that most folks will blow right past the blog, but for me, well I am kind of documenting my journey back into film and analog shooting, and I am really happy to have found so many working cameras that I had let fall to the way side.

Now to go order some black and white film….. :)
Cheers!