After a hard day of shooting, I would always rush back home to develop my film and hope it turns out right. BW development, from what I’ve known has always been an ongoing learning experience for me.

Loading disasters, torn sprockets, shredded film, over-developing, and more. After development, I’m always filled with wild anticipation at what the final image would look like scanned, but I live to wait another day as I am without a flatbed scanner :S

Today, I had it! I decided to test out the El Cheapo method of scanning film, or reproducing a digital image of a physical negative if you will. Armed with my trusty Gitzo tripod, Nikon D300, and my favourite workhorse, the Nikon 105VR micro, I was all set.

Placing a white piece of tracing paper on the screen of my laptop, I secure it with scotch-tape as I arranged it onto a blank Microsoft word document. Pasting the negative on the illuminated tracing paper, I adjusted my settings to f22, ISO 100, and tripped the shutter with a cable release.

After which, I uploaded the working copy of the file into my computer and exported it out as a TIFF file into Photoshop CS4. I created a duplicate layer, grayscale it, then using the adjustments tool, created a curves layer with the “negative” option selected.

Finally, my BW image appeared before me, and after a few tweaks with an additional layer, with smart sharpening applied and opacity dialed down to 70%; the deed was done.

Whew, pretty neat huh?

If a 16 Base lab scan is a lifeboat, I would say the El Cheapo method is a piece of driftwood. You won’t die from the quality, but it ain’t the best you can get out of your negatives compared to a dedicated film scanner.

But hey, at least you get to see your results while waiting for the lab scans.

Minolta X700, MD W.Rokkor 35mm f1.8, Kodak TRI-X 400 @ 800, Kodak HC-110, 1:100, 14 mins @ 28C.

Colleen, my god-mom so very generously loaned me her fully mechanical SLR, the Konica Autoreflex T3 with a Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.4 made in introduced into the market in 1973. Sweet combo. Solidly built, this camera feels so good in hand, and makes handling a breeze. I can really appreciate the the detail that has gone into designing such as robust camera, as well as the nifty little features incorporated here and there without comprising for aesthetic appeal. Its like the Arnold of metal mechanical cameras.

The condition of body is near mint, and I can’t seem to find any scratches, rub marks or dings on it. The lens is in excellent condition and the glass is flawlessly pristine. The leather case for it seems unmarked as well, and frankly, like new. It seemed like the camera was fresh off the camera shop’s shelf.

It was in this immaculate condition before even being sent for CLA (Clean, lube, adjustment). The meter was faulty and the shutter speeds were out of whack, typical of vintage cameras of this age. But nothing a good servicing won’t fix, anyhow its back from servicing and it works like a charm now.

Let’s talk about the handling. Overall the body is quite strong, feels good in the hand and I think this can survive a fifty foot drop down a cliff and still work, but let’s not go there. The  controls are placed nicely where I could access them quite intuitively after getting familiarised with it within 15 mins. A handy and often unknown feature is the DOF preview which shares the self-timer knob, whereby used in the reversed direction allows you to access the DOF preview function. Another interesting feature is the M.E. near the shutter dial, which allows you to create multi exposure, neat huh?

Lastly, I love the shutter sound from this one! My ears were bursting with wild intoxication when i tripped the shutter. Very different from my other film SLR bodies. Call me crazy, but I feel different cameras, have shutter sounds unique to their make.

My Minolta XD7 shutter sounds like soft as a maiden’s kiss in a field of lalang, and my X700 is like a butcher chopping up pork knuckles in a wet market. But for the T3, the the shutter sounds so wholesome, like a potent cup of coffee on that lazy Sunday morning.:)

Of course, when you talk about cameras, besides the importance which film to use, the SLR body is basically just a light-tight box to put it crudely. That’s where the lens comes in, here, we have a Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.4 reputed to be one of the best primes in the market then, and being very sharp wide open. Well, I haven’t gotten off sample shots yet, there’s tri-x loaded and I’m still at frame 10. I’ll post up samples after I’m done with this roll and finish off development.

I always imagined that every lens has a very different colour when it reacts to ambient light, so I was surprised when I saw soft, light purplish reflections from the lens coating. Just lovely. From what I know, there were two versions of the Hexanon AR 50mm f1.4, of which the one I have is the earlier version with f16 as its smallest aperture, its counterpart was at f22.

The focusing ring is very precise, and seems to have a longer draw than the usual primes I’ve used. Its waffle grip feels very secure, almost anti-slip and the aperture ring clicks and sort have a catch at every stop that ensures that it doesn’t run, I was impressed! God, they really pay attention to detail, even for a relatively easy to produce standard prime. No wonder it is said that Konica at that time, catered to a niche pro market then, pity it didn’t catch on. :S

Compared to my Minolta Rokkor lenses, the MC versions have a deep yellow amberish cast, and the MD versions which were the later improved versions had a cyan-purple cast to it, probably due to layers of multi-coating that was reported to improve contrast and reduce flare.

All in all, this camera is probably one of best manual camera’s I’ve ever handled next to the Rolleiflex 2.8E2, factors such as weight, handling, features and mechanical contruction all surpass my expectations. A precision machine made for photojournalists roving warzones in Afghanistan or what not, this one was built to last, weapons-grade equipment man. If you have an uncle, aunt or whoever having a a piece like this sitting in a dark corner, beg borrow or steal, get it out to see the outside world!

I hope Colleen will lend this to me for a long, long time. 

Everytime I walk pass the vintage camera shop, I’ll stare at the glass display for a long time before I tear my eyes away from this gem. Today, I plucked the courage to enter the shop, and found it to be almost MINT.

I just love how small, compact and fast it is. I talked to the storekeeper for a bit before we came to a deal.

I walked out a happy man:)

Foreign Domestic Samurai

Seagull 4 TLR, Shanghai GP 100, Kodak HC-110 1:63, 15 mins,  20C.

They sold their land, travelled to a foreign land, hoping to earn some cash to send back home.

However, some are ill-treated by their employers, where they have to put up with poor working conditions and deal with late payment of their salaries.

This is the foreign domestic samurai, fighting every day, to earn a decent pay.

A new beginning

Thanks to my buddy’s recommendation, I’ve decided to embark on a new blog and see where this takes me. This will probably my photoblog, about photography and some reviews, hopefully on my photography-related purchases. lol.