St. Thomas

I went on a cruise mid-November to the Caribbean and had the most relaxing time of my life. The unfortunate thing is that we were only docked for 4-9 hours at a time, so I could not really explore the destinations, but I did the best I could with the time allotted.

Here are a couple of shots:



View from a bay in St. Thomas.

Single-Coated vs. Multi-Coated Lenses

A thought occurred to me the other day. I believe that single-coated lenses are worth far more bang for the buck than their younger multi-coated brothers. For the most part they perform exactly alike, except that single-coated lenses generally make for a less contrasty image with slightly softer colors.

A less contrasty image is of great benefit to render greater detail in shadowed areas. If the initial image is too contrasty, information can not be brought out.

In the darkroom or on the computer you can always easily add contrast to an image like the picture above. If the concern is of colors, those could easily be pumped as well, but not too much, please.

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Camera News and New Work

The repairs on my Olympus OM-1 are going to be a bit pricey, but I am going to bear their burden. I already have money invested into the camera from the purchase alone and I could not guarantee that another one would be in much better condition. The meter and prism needs replacing, the battery chamber needs conversion, and a CLA (clean lubricate adjust) is needed because shutter speeds are off. Argh. Well, I think it would be worth it since the camera and lenses are small and indiscreet while maintaining an altogether different look than Nikon has provided me thus far.

I took my Nikon FE out today with an off-brand 28mm f/2.8 lens today and I am quite dismayed. Something seems to be off - either the lens or the camera. Focusing to infinity did not seem to align properly so I am wondering what about the problem. I need to investigate further, but I would hate to put more money into another camera.

All that being said, I am excited about getting the OM-1 back. If you do not know, it is a completely manual camera (only having a battery for the meter). The ergonomics are excellent by having the shutter speed and aperture adjustable easily adjustable with one hand. The viewfinder is larger than any other camera I have ever used. The OM-10 (its little brother) comes close.

Why not just use the OM-10? Well, there are a few issues that I would need to sink money into and it is not as well built as the OM-1. The meter on my sample is off and it eats the batteries within a matter of days, so I constantly need to take them out after use because the shutter will not fire otherwise. The OM-10 was built as a consumer camera that gave you aperture priority, and if you wanted to control the shutter speed you would need to purchase an accessory (which I have) that is in an unusual shot, and not too conductive to use in manual mode.

I have a Zuiko single coated 35mm f/2.8 lens coming in the mail and I am looking forward to using that focal length - so far I have used 20mm, 28mm, 40mm, 50mm, and 55mm primes, so this will be new and different :)

I am getting the single-coated version (though mixed reviews abound) because black and white photographs come out less contrasty and color photographs come out a little more subtle. Due to the lessened contrast, single-coated lenses appear to be a little less sharp than multi-coated lenses - but I do not find myself losing sleep over that kind of thing, and in fact I am a fan of a slightly melty look.

Well, I think I have meandered enough, so let me show some photos from my Voigtlander Perkeo I with the single-coated Color-Skopar 75mm f/3.5 lens!


This is my black and white photography classmate that was kind enough to help me finish my roll of film. I love how the blur came out! Humorously enough the teacher showed us that night some work from a portraitist who always blurred his subjects.



I saw this girl standing on a rock and looking at the tree, so I got my camera ready to take an indiscreet shot, but as I was setting up she got off the rock and started leaving. I said "Excuse me, would you mind if you get back on the rock and look at the tree so that I can take a picture?" a silence, "Are you a photographer?" "Yes." "Okay." "Is that a little weird?", "A little, but I can see why you would want the picture." Now I have this image, which I am quite happy with, but to me it is not as honest as the clandestine shot I was aiming for.



A Washington Square Park pianist.


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