Contrasts

Another photograph post. Another photogear post. Another Contrasts posts.

1/50@f5.6 ISO1600

Looks almost graphite. Would have loved this to be a graphite drawing, but it is actually a photograph.

EXIF data:
Canon EOS 40D
EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM (@50mm focal length)
1/50@f5.6 ISO1600

Feel free to like, fave or share on 500px or flickr as well.

Tools of Some Trade

Tools of Some Trade

"Tools of Some Trade"; featuring a modern light meter and a vintage folding medium format folding camera.

For the curious, the modern is a Sekonic L-558 light meter, and the vintage is a Franka Solida III with a Schneider-Kreuznach 80mm f2.8 Radionar lens in Prontor-S shutter. With viewfinder, no rangefinder.

And yes, I'm using these things to take photographs.

This photograph is in black and white, taken with a digital EOS-M camera and shows so many contrasts. Old and new, modern and vintage, electronic automatic measuring and analogue manual measures, smooth and rough, a dark chamber and a light meter.

Feel free to like, fave and share from this blog, from my 500px or from my flickr.

Fujifilm NPS160 in 6x8 Medium Format

Was thinking, while this blog is on, why don't I share my photography as well? :)

Here are a couple frames from a Fujifilm NPS 160 expired 120 film roll shot in a Fujifilm GX680 II. That is 6x8cm for each negative. That is a whole lot of image real estate.

Both of these shots are taken in my front garden. Fortunately that won't reveal my address to you. ;)

This first shot is of a single white-ish daffodil that bloomed this year in my front garden. The only one this year, something positive perhaps, taken with a Fujinon EBC 100mm f4 at near-macro level. I used the macro extension rails and long bellows of course.

Fujifilm NPS 160, C41, Fujifilm GX680 II, Fujifilm EBC 100mm f4

The following shot was taken with a much wider 65mm f5.6. Remember, at 6x8cm, 65mm is pretty wide. This decoration lantern that won't turn on can potentially mean so many things for me, not all of them positive which goes well with the lantern's incapacity for giving out any light.

Fujifilm NPS 160, C41, Fujifilm GX680 II, Fujifilm EBC 65mm f5.6

Two images that, in the context of their making, despite the simplicity of their content, can mean a lot. Does the blooming of the daffodil stand as the stubborn persistence of life to grow where the forces seem to be against, as the breakthrough of possibility despite the paralysing circumstances that surround it, or does its singularity reveal the lack of fertility in the carer's home and his incapability of providing what it would have taken for the rest of the bulbs to grow? Does the lantern incapable of giving any light reflect what I feel about my journey as a PhD student stuck in a rut and incapable of either production of getting out of what seems like an impossible situation? Or does the sheer symbolism of the object reflect what is actually happening behind the door it decorates? Will the lantern actually give out anything any time soon? Two simple images that I am struggling to read.

I hope you like them.

Canon EOS 50E door clip repair - continued

 Here is a reprint from the last post with the correct length (it was only 3mm short on the top end; fixed that), and after some filing, smoothening and finishing, swapped the metal tab from the old clip to the new one...

And she is back in commission.

Canon EOS 50E door clip repair

My GOD I've been so absent from this blog! But I've been working on my thesis, I promise you so it's all good. Did you consider donating whatever change you have left in your pocket today for a good cause? Try my tuition fees for example.

Today I decided to fix my EOS 50E. It's supposed to be a very good electronic SLR camera from Canon aside from being too plasticky. Don't get plasticky wrong, plasticky means less weight; long as all the features work, who cares, right?

Well, sometimes the slightest plasticky break can break the entire camera, rendering it unusable. Which is how I got this camera with battery grip for £1.20 + postage. Can't complain right?

Wrong. I thought I could fix it easily. Fortunately, the seller was kind enough to stick the broken piece of plastic on the camera body with some tape to make sure it's not lost. Unfortunately, nothing could actually stick that thing back in place.

The piece of plastic in question was no less than the infamous door clip. Yes, just the clip. And without it, the camera is quite useless.

I tried superglue, hotglue, more super glue, and in the end I drilled a tiny 0.5mm hole and stuffed a piece of needle inside of it as support, with yet more super glue, and still that thing wouldn't hold. See, the problem is, it's the door clip for God's sake! It's gonna have to have enough tension to resist letting the entire film door open back up! So I was able to make it hold for a short while, but then it failed again.

Today, it was brought up on a secret Facebook group as a good camera for my needs (it has some nice custom features, which is why I got it from the first place) so I decided to just fix it.

Enter 3D pritner. I held the clip and got my vernier caliper, took some dimensions and guesstimated the rest of them (because I should be doing something else, remember studying?) and I quickly sketched this on sketchup.

And here is my first prototype.

I got some dimensions wrong so it's a bit shorter

but it fits nicely anyway and proves the concept can be turned into a solution

By snapping the top of it, which is where I got the dimension wrong by being too careless, I was able to let it slide and here it is nicely locking my film door in place.

All I need now is to strengthen the spring tab, get the dimensions right making sure it will slide real nice with the screws tight, and swap the metal jumper from one piece to another.

You are welcome.