Outside the cathedral (and new cameras)

November 28, 2020 fishyfisharcade5 Comments

I’ve picked up some new cameras this week. Today I collected a box very kindly gifted to me containing a Pentax ME Super, with 50mm, 35mm, 70-200mm and 70-150mm (Tamron adaptall) lenses. Oh, and a teleconverter. There was also a Topcon RM300 with 55mm Topcor lens and a faulty Pentax MG. The ME Super appears to work ok (although I’ve not done much other than dry fire it so far, and the previous owner had not used it at all, so we’ll see). The Topcon appears to work, but the film-advance lever is loose with a long stoke, so will have to see with that one too. It’s also missing it’s battery cover, so it can probably only be used with manual metering of some sort. The MG is in pretty tatty condition so I doubt I’ll do much with that.

Even if the other two cameras turn out to be faulty, the lenses are all hopefully in good working order, so I can use them with my Pentax P30T.

The other camera I got this week was a purchase – one that I’ve been mulling over since the summer when I put some money I’d saved aside. After watching the prices gradually increase, I decided to finally take the plunge and hit the buy button before they went above what I was willing to pay. So I’m now the proud owner of a Fujica GW690. I’m hoping to get time (and weather!) to try it out this weekend. It came with a roll of Velvia already loaded with one shot taken, so I’ll finish that off and hopefully get it developed next week. After seeing what this camera is capable of, I’m looking forward to it. While I was expecting the size – it’s not nicknamed the Texas Leica for nothing – the weight was a little unexpected. Someone else I know had described theirs as a “big plastic box”. I’m assuming that they must’ve had one of the more recent models because the one I have is built like a tank, and weighs about as much too!

Photos will appear here in due course.

All the photos in today’s blog were made back at the start of the month while walking past the cathedral on a day of lovely sunshine, which granted me some great contrast and shadows to work with.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 1 November 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Cathedral in a perspex case

November 3, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

While wandering around Sheffield city centre last weekend I went into the cathedral to see if there were any photos to be had (and also, because there’s a cafe in there, to get a coffee).

Past experience of shooting film in the cathedral have proven that, given the use of tripods and flash are not normally permitted within the premises, that 400asa film is very limiting in terms of the photos that can be achieved. Even opening my 50mm f/1.8 lens to its widest aperture would still only allow shutter speeds of 1/30sec in the best cases and considerably slower in most others. As a result, while there are some great subjects within the building, without a faster film (or a digital camera on a higher ISO) most of them ar unachievable without significant risk of camera shake.

Today’s photo is one of a couple I made on the day, and even this one – from a relatively well illuminated area – was still shot at 1/30 wide open. It depicts a scale model of the cathedral itself and was located on ground level a little behind the brightly lit tower that can be see at the left side of the model.