Saturday 17 December 2016

Pentax SFXn 35mm Camera.


I was very lucky to have been given this camera by a work colleague!  He said that it had been sitting in his garage for some time and not used.

I am ALWAYS ready to welcome pre-loved film cameras into the fold.  This one especially, since it used Pentax K Mount lenses, some of which I already had.


There was a film still in the camera but that wasn't going anywhere until I got the correct batteries to power it up.  I was a little concerned that I may not be able to get the batteries these days.  I found out that this Pentax takes a pack of 2CR5 Photo Lithium batteries which, are still readily available.  The pack is 2 batteries wired together into a heat shrink type casing which fits onto the side of the camera as part of the grip. Take off the side panel, insert batteries and voila! There was an old film in the camera. It must've been at the end of the roll because no sooner had I inserted the batteries and turned the camera on then it started to beep and rewind the film.

Yes, this camera has motorised film winder.  It automatically winds film on after loading, after the shutter is activated and, automatically rewinds the film back into the spool when the end of the roll is reached.  The camera operates in full manual mode but there are options for Aperture and Shutter Speed priority and, Bulb.  If you're feeling lazy it can also be operated at full auto mode point and shoot.


This camera also boasts autofocus.  I believe it is a 2nd generation autofocus Pentax.  In the body of the camera there is a small motor that drives the focus ring on the lens via a screw thread coupler. The screw thread coupler can be found on the side of the lens mount on the camera body.  The Autofocus is activated when the shutter-release button is pushed down half way (similar to all autofocus DSLRs on the market today).  I think there might be a little cleaning and lubrication required for the autofocus motor and gears on this particular camera.  When it worked, the autofocus motor complained loudly and the gears were grinding whilst trying to drive the focus ring of the attached lens.  I wasted about half of the roll simply because whilst trying to entice the autofocus to work, the shutter release button would sneak past the halfway mark, go all the way down and, expose the frame.  When the autofocus is working..... there is a green indicator in the viewfinder to indicate that the subject is in focus.  


Because the autofocus motor was working intermittently, I decided to use manual focus.  Even in Manual Focus the small green light in the viewfinder will light up when you have manually focused correctly.  

I loaded a roll of Fuji NEOPAN Acros 100 about 2-3 months ago and have just got it back from the lab last week.  As I said, half of the roll was wasted because of the vagaries of the 'autofocus'.  The rest of the roll turned out very nicely exposed and sharp.  The lens I used was a Pentax F SMC 28mm prime f2.8 which is a very capable lens.

Anyway, here are the results (the ones that were in focus at least!  hahaha)

The photos on this Blog Post and corresponding Google+ page are 
© Life with Jordy Photography All Rights Reserved 
and may not be used without permission.

The photos on this blog post are for sale, 
contact me if you are interested.















Wednesday 14 December 2016

New stories from an Old Camera


I hadn't put a film through my Voigtlander for some time.  Pretty remiss of me but, I had a couple of new 35mm cameras that I was trying out and the time just slipped by.

I'd had a Fuji NEOPAN Acros 100 sitting in the fridge for a while and, I decided it was time to load it and start shooting.

The Voigtlander Bessa 1 folding camera is a medium format film camera.  From a roll of 120mm film, shot in 6x9 format, I get 8 exposures.  It's more expensive to develop and scan than 35mm, so I try to be circumspect about what I shoot with it.  It is really a landscape camera.  I would love to use it for portraits but, the top shutter speed is only 1/250 and so I can't really open up the shutter for a shallow DOF because I don't have a fast shutter speed to match.

I took the camera with me on a couple of photo safaris.  The first was to the sand dunes at Worimi National Park (north of Newcastle in NSW).  With this camera, I use a light meter app on my iPhone that I downloaded a few years ago!  A bit funny; using a digital app as a light meter for a totally manual film camera but, it is very accurate!

The sand dune photo shows the latitude of exposure that film has, as opposed to a modern digital sensor.  I had been using the 'sunny 16' method for exposure but, had inadvertently set the shutter speed at 1/250 (using the sunny 16 method the shutter speed should have been 1/100).  Surprisingly, the sand dune photos turned out ok and not way over exposed like I thought they would have.  I am thinking that the faster shutter speed may have saved those shots because it was very hot and the midday light shining off the sand was very, very bright.  Otherwise, they may have blown out and overexposed.

The 2nd safari was out to a small town called Stroud, about a 50 minute drive from home.  It is a lovely rural area with beautiful countryside.

I do have a Kodak Portra 160 in the fridge that I will be getting out at the end of the week.  I have only put 1 colour film into the camera since it has been resurrected (see the results of that here) and am really looking forward to that!

This Voigtlander came with the Prontor-S Color Skopar 35mm lens.  Focal length when unfolded is 105mm.

All photos on this blog and corresponding Google+ page are
© Life with Jordy Photography, All Rights Reserved and
are not to be used without permission.

The photographs on this blog post are for sale.
contact me if you are interested.

Sand Dune - Worimi National Park, NSW.

The Lean To - just out of town on The Bucketts Way,Stroud, NSW. 

Letter Boxes - Alderley Lane, Booral, NSW.

Canon - Silo Hill, Stroud, NSW.  There are 2 cannons on Silo Hill in Stroud.  These cannons were originally set up in Sydney to guard the harbour during the Crimean War (1855-56) and were situated at Bear Island, La Perouse.   They were later sent to Fort Scratchley and became part of the defences of Newcastle. In 1909 they were obsolete.  They were dismantled and sent to Booral via the Karauh River and from there by Bullock Dray to their current location in  Stroud.

More Letterboxes - Booral Rd, Booral, NSW.

War Memorial - Stroud, NSW.  It is always a pleasure to see the many
different War Memorials in small towns.

Dirt Road - Worimi National Park, NSW.



Catching up.

 Well it has been a couple of months since I posted a Blog article.   I don't have any Project or roll of film in particular to share wi...