Of all the things I know
I understand almost nothing

zondag 24 april 2011

Pinhole Day



...and a very Happy Easter, schöne Ostertage, prettige paasdagen, Christos anèsti, Buona Pasqua!

The technique: I had a F 128 hole in my Hasselblad-bodycap, on sixties Agepe FF;
Jeroen had at least F 256 and < 1965 Plus-X in his HB.

woensdag 20 april 2011

The 2011 Easter Lecture


In the Christmas Lecture I spoke about converters etcetera. But they were for sophisticated cameras: CRF, SLR and TLR.
So this time it's about the simple and cheap boxes and how good they can be - sometimes.
Four old cameras with close-up possibilities. As always: not science, just fun (and a bit of experience...) Look at he posts below (Blogger could not compose a big one in 2011) for the surprising results; more pictures (also of the lenses) on the flickr photostream.

With the ± 1962 Agfa Click-II
I have made nice pictures in the past with the not só close-up (8-13 feet) in-built lens. But in the test, as you can see, it was rubbish.

The ± 1946 Brownie Target 616 is the outsider: close-up means removing the first meniscus, not add an extra lens. It's on a spring, very handy: you cannot forget it. Focus 5-10 feet and the picture is indeed sharper. The whole picture, also beyond ten feet... So the single meniscus is better than the double.

And then there is the 1930 Red Brownie 2. You'll have to buy that extra "portrait attachment nr.1" but it is great! "The subject must be exactly 3,5 feet from the lens" (you know how severe miss Kodak can be...) and then it is very sharp. This is the camera I'll take on my holiday in stead of the Hasselblad and I am nòt joking!

The last, oldest one is the pre-1930 Ensign 29. The extra lens is removable attached to the camera, focus around 6 feet and it definitely works better than visible in the test-picture. Reason: I have to put 127 film in the 29 camera and EFKE film wobbles always. (In all my 127 cameras!) So let's not blame Houghton-Butcher.

dinsdag 19 april 2011

Adriawetter in der Bergerstrasse


Eine kleine Japanerin lässt mich Photos machen mit ihrem Telefon. OMG! Wie superschnell und bequem ist doch meine 1938 Frankenstein. Und bitte kein artistischer Kram wie Komposition oder Perspektive sagt sie - oh Hokusai, deine Kinder!
Im Altstadt Restaurant finde ich mehr Flexibilität: da krieg' ich auch was nicht unbedingt auf der Karte steht.
Douze Points, schon jetzt für Bergerstrasse 17!

1945 Elmar 90mm auf RolleiRetro100