The Film Retriever

Loads of glass. How do they perform? So what happens when you find yourself in a lock down with plenty of free time and zero photographic opportunities? Well, you find a project to keep you busy – at least I did. Having had a roll of Delta 400, the wrong developer to go with it (HC110) and two lenses, I thought I could compare one lens to the other. The two lenses in question is the Olympus Zuiko 50 f/1.4 (sn# 400100 - i love this serial number) and an AF Nikkor 50 f/1.4 D (sn# 4581646). To minimize differences due to development, I only used one roll of Delta 400 that I swapped it a couple of times from one camera to the other. The two cameras used were the Olympus OM4 and the Nikon F4s. The rather unexciting set up was arranged in a room at home with the light coming from the right side of the picture. Both cameras were set on a tripod and used the self-timer with the mirror lock up to take each picture. The setup Here is what I did – I taped this newspaper on the wa...

This is a review of two cameras, the two Chinons CE-4s and CM-4s. I've been having the CM-4s for quite some time now and the CE-4s landed on my hands a few months ago as a donation. After having shot a couple of films with each here is what I think. The Chinon CM-4s   The CM-4s is the mechanical one. Uses batteries only for the light meter which is a (typical for the early 80's) centre-weighted. Overall, judging from the pictures, it has a tendency to overexpose slightly, possibly by 1/2 to 3/4 stop. I don't know if this is typical for the CM-4s or it is my sample but with the film i shot (ILFORD HP5+ rated at 400) it resulted in nice pictures.The viewfinder is very spartan - only the split image with microprism is visible - nothing else in there. There are 3 LEDs that are outside the viewfinder - two reds and one green - which indicate correct exposure. Shutter speeds between 1sec to 1/1000 on a good quality Seiko metal focal plane shutter. ASA range is a modest 2...

Such a beauty! This is a review of the Olympus OM4 - a camera I bought on a car boot sale a few months ago for the grand total of £9 including a G-Zuiko 35-70 f/3.5-4.5. The OM4 hit the shops in 1983. It was meant to replace the classic OM2n by giving it a more modern touch. The OM3/OM4 had a few updates (T for the US market and Ti for the rest of the world) both of them updating features like battery consumption, high speed flash synchronization and adding a Titanium frame. Whilst the OM4 sold well in it's different versions, it's sibling, the OM3, was a commercial disaster. Few were sold due to the extortionate prices for what it was essentially an OM1 with a spot metering - these cameras command now high prices in the second hand market. The spot buttons The OM4 feels so familiar. If you ever held an OM2 then you know that this is unmistakably it's sibling. There are a few changes though. Next to the advance lever there are the spot button...

Pretty little things... The xi series was Minolta's nemesis. The 7xi was greeted as a technological marvel, it's announcement was written on newspapers of that time as it introduced "fuzzy logic" - a 90's way of refering to artificial intelligence. Minolta spend millions of dollars for the development of the camera with part of its technology being used in the rest of the xi cameras. And yet, those cameras did not bring in the revenue Minolta expected. The xi series was deemed as full of unnecessary features, overcomplicated, with high battery consumption and no extensive line of exotic lenses. This was a blow for Minolta that saw their sales plummeting behind Canon and Nikon.   The Minolta 7xi The Minolta 7xi As already said, the Minolta 7xi was hailed as a technological marvel back in 1991 with technology still used in modern Sony digital cameras. The 16bit RISK chip set integrated focusing and metering. It was able to distinguis...

The Mighty 35SE This is a review of the Rollei 35SE - a camera that was generously donated to me back in December. There are very few cameras that I can think of that attract the controversy that the Rollei 35 does. All these for a good reason, it is quirky, it is finely made and it is a viewfinder camera, meaning that you have to guess the distance. And this is usually where everything goes wrong. There is no shortage of information online about these cameras, Wikipedia and 35mmc websites are the places to start if you want to know more about the ins and outs of this camera plus a bucket load of historical information that led to the creation of this camera.But I will limit this review down to the user experience.  Rumors have it that the Queen ditched the Leica for the Rollei Once you pick the camera up you notice the small square-ish size of it. With the lens collapsed it easily fits in a jacket pocket. Another thing straight away obvious: the fil...

A 8000i lurking in the shadows... This is a quick review of the Minolta Maxxum 8000i. I was not sure whether it would be better to add it as a footnote on my previous post about the 7000i or not but I am convinced that the 8000i needs a separate post of it's own as in many ways it is a different camera than the 7000i.   In terms of looks and user interface the two cameras look identical. I like the way they look, low profile with a chubby handgrip and a tilted LCD Panel. In terms of features, the 8000i offers a bit more: multiple exposures and a high eyepoint viewfinder that makes it easier for people with eye glasses to look through. Expansion Card compartment The biggest difference thought is the shutter, Minolta had to keep up with both Nikon and Canon who introduced cameras with 1/8000 sec shutter speed. So, new shutter and mirror box was developed for the 8000i. Also flash synchronisation went to a very decent 1/200. The AF feels slightly faster ...

Cute little thing! This is a review of the Rollei XF 35, a camera that i bought in a carboot sale and stayed with me for a few weeks before deciding to pass it on. The Rollei XF35 came out in the now distant 1974. It followed an increasing trend of fully automated cameras like the Olympus 35DC (reviewed in my blog), the Minolta H-matic or the Petri Computor II just to name a few with fast lenses and compact dimensions. The  Rollei XF 35 was an affordable camera made to supplement the already very popular 35-series. In the early 1980's it cost around $60 almost half the price of the more prestigious siblings. One thing that you notice when you pick up this camera is its light weight and small dimensions. It is smaller than the Olympus 35 DC and lighter. Main selling point for this camera is the lens, it is a Sonnar design, 5 elements in 4 groups and multicoated, a lens of honorable background and well regarded in the photographic industry. I shot half a roll of film fo...