Sunday, February 17, 2013

Tripping Out - Week #6 of 52

Week 6 started out with a 35mm Scale Focusing camera that is pretty automatic, such as the Agfa Optima 1a.  But unbeknownst to me was that the shutter had an issue, which it never had before.
It had started to stick!  I was not impressed, and found this out after it had already become too late.  The roll was developed, and it was entirely fogged.  The weird thing was that the rebate area was perfect. So that ruled out fogging from light entering the camera other than through the lens.
I checked it out, and sure enough, the shutter was sticking.

I have since managed to work it out and it's now moving freely, but damage done, and too little, too late.

So thankfully I still had the Olympus Trip handy, and had just finished a roll in it before the end of the week.

So instead of it being the week of the Optima 1a, it became the week of the Trip 35.
The funny thing is that both cameras are nearly identical in operation.  Click stops for Portrait, two people, group and infinity.  The difference between them is the placement of the selenium cell.  The Trip is beside the lens element which means it'll meter through screw on filters, while the Optima had it up and to the right on the camera, meaning that you would have to adjust the ASA setting on the camera to match for filter effect.  Of course, shooting a 50ASA film and using a deep red filter, and you're screwed.  You can only take off 2 stops, not the suggested 3, so you'll need to push a bit in developing.  The Optima has a low ASA speed of 10, which the lowest for the Trip is 25.

The Trip and Optima are pretty well paired cameras, with them both having sharp lenses, although I think the Zuiko lens is quite a bit sharper on the Trip.

Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in the week and that I lost my beloved Optima 1a for the week, but have found another camera that is quite, and far sharper, lovely to work with.  The Olympus Trip 35.

So loaded with Polypan F 50ASA film, and shooting it at 25ASA, I developed it in Rodinal, except instead of the usual 1+50 I chose 1+100 and stand developing.

So without any further delay, and without much fanfare either, here's the images from.  The Olympus Trip 35.












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