Tag: film

The Other Lens

I changed the lens and I think it works! The light meter is not a big fan of this lens in this room. I expect the two pics I just took will be underexposed and blurry.

I feel like I am becoming a little obsessed with Dad’s camera.

Light Meter

Dad’s camera has a built in light meter. It runs on a little watch battery. The battery hasn’t been changed since the 80’s (if ever). Luckily I had a pack of the correct batteries (thanks to the pocket watch reclamation project from last year) and it turns out the meter works!

I took a couple of pictures, despite my microscopic knowledge of full manual camera operation. I’d use one of those pics for my photo a day thing but… you know… film. No instant gratification here.

The film in the camera has been sitting there since the 80’s. I don’t know anything about expired film besides the fact that it does expire. When the roll runs out, will anything be developable? Will anything work? Who knows. Also, there were six or seven shots taken before I got involved. I’m a little afraid to find out what they were. I haven’t a clue.

I think I’m going to try to put the other lens on next. Sweet!

User Manual

Remember two posts back when I asked if anyone had a user manual for my father’s old camera?

I found it.

Pentax K1000. Now all I need to do is find someplace that develops film. Weeeeeee!

ADDENDUM: That manual is actually a service manual. The owner manual lives here.

The Hobbit: An Expected Worry

I’m worried about The Hobbit.  I’m afraid it’s going to end up as nothing more than a visual sleep aide.  I’m afraid it is going to be to the Lord of the Rings trilogy what the Star Wars prequels were to the original Star Wars trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings is a seriously long story.  Three books.  A massive amount of information.  Almost every character is developed in detail.  Most of them are dealing with deeply personal issues on top of the whole end of the world crisis.  There is just so much there.  If they had shortened the films at all an enormous amount of important story would have been sacrificed.  Even more than there already was.  The story required three ridiculously long movies.  There’s no way it would have worked otherwise.

The Hobbit is, what… 400 pages?  For the most part it’s a light weight tale of short people wandering around a fantasy land.  Compared to the intricacies of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is kids stuff.  The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, no one except Bilbo does any growing or changing throughout the story, and Bilbo only does in that he acts in ways that are unexpected.  He doesn’t so much grow as a person as roll with the punches.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book.  I just think it’s a little insulting to have this story ballooned into three, three hour films.  It’s going to result in exactly two things.  One, a shit load of money in the studio’s bank account.  Two, lots of really bored movie goers.

There, I said it.  It’s going to be boring.  Really boring.  Even if they add in mountains of content from the Lord of the Rings appendixes and what not, it’s still going to be hours on end of a bunch of Dwarves walking around with a Hobbit.

I still want to see it, but as the reality sinks in… we’re looking at nine hours of movie to interpret a 400 page book.  Even if it’s decent, it’s still never going to live up to the Lord of the Rings.  It’s never going to live up to its own hype.  This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen.  I hope I’m wrong, but somehow… I don’t think I’m going to be.