Tag: slr

Flash Fail

I don’t like using a flash when I take pictures. I just don’t like the way it looks. I use it sometimes, all of the indoor Christmas decorations pics from yesterday (except the owl) had the flash on, but generally speaking I avoid it as much as possible. When I was a kid and we had our cheap little point and shoot camera I thought the flash was a requirement. When Dad bought his SLR he had a separate flash that mounted on top of the camera but I don’t really remember him using it at all. The only times I remember him using the camera were outside during the day. Specifically, our one trip to Niagara falls where he let me use the camera for a while and I realized I kinda loved it.

When my sister found the camera in Dad’s dresser the flash was there and I took it with the rest of the stuff. I never tried to use it though, until today. I knew from my million or so viewings of how-to-use-your-manual-slr videos on the youtubes that there is a shutter speed setting for using an external flash. What about the aperture though? How do I know how to set that? Back to the youtubes I go. I watched a couple of videos this morning and it made perfect sense. The flash has an ISO setting and when you set it to your current film speed it tells you what aperture to use and the approximate distance the flash will be effective.

I set up my film camera, which currently does not have any film in it, to see if I could at least get the flash to flash. The unit wouldn’t turn on so the batteries must have been dead. I found the battery door, opened it up and… The last time the batteries were changed was probably some time in the mid 80’s. They have been sitting there all of those decades and one of them leaked like crazy. I was pretty surprised that only one of them leaked, but it was enough. The terminals are all corroded and changing the batteries didn’t work. I watched still more youtubes on cleaning battery connections and I know what I need to do before I try again, I am just not entirely sure I want to bother trying. Like I said at the start, I don’t like using a flash. I might try to use it on Christmas morning, or something, but other than that? I don’t really see myself going through the trouble of setting it up. Maybe this weekend I’ll try to clean the terminals, just to see how that goes. Until then, I am not going to worry about it.

On an unrelated note, our plans for New York this weekend have been canceled. Not because of Covid-19 paranoia, but because of some back pain issues. We’re still planning to go to Bellana’s concert in Vermont on Sunday. We’ll have to see how it goes. I doubt I’ll bring a film camera there. It’ll be too dark in the room and I don’t want to use a flash.

Let’s Try Again

The sun comes up at 5:11 tomorrow morning. The forecast, via the epic Weather Kitty app, predicts that the skies above Methuen will be clear and sunny.

Let’s try that playing with Dad’s camera in the morning before work thing again. Please Please Please let nothing go wrong. If anything does go wrong I will literally cry in my protein shake.

So photography nerd in the morning followed by a half day at work followed by a doctor’s appointment followed by (maybe) a trip to a music store to investigate trading in my Fender followed by visiting my mother followed by dinner with my love. That’s the plan.

Digital vs Analog

I am pretty nervous about my camera failure this morning. Is the camera broken? Did I break the camera? Will the same thing happen again? I loaded a new roll of film into it when I got home and it seems okay. I don’t know though. Am I screwing up Dad’s camera?

I did another experiment today. Mostly just as an excuse to take a couple of pictures and make sure it’s winding correctly. It is. So far, so good.

I took out my D90, put it on my tripod (which is broken! The head piece doesn’t move anymore. Sand in the gears?), and pointed it at a candle. I used the light meter app and set up the camera manually. I then turned off all of the lights and took a picture. I then did the same thing except that I turned off the lights and then checked the light meter. The only setting on the camera I changed was the shutter speed.

Then I swapped cameras and did it all again. All of the same manual settings, everything. I took two pictures and the film advanced successfully. No issues at all.

Maybe someday I’ll get the pics developed and I’ll be able to compare, but for now I just have the digital stuff.

Aperture f/5.6, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/30:

DSC_0003

Aperture f/5.6, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1:

DSC_0004

Now, we just have to wait for the film… someday. Remember, I just sent a roll off to get developed that is at least 30 years old. So… be patient, m’kay?

No Pain, No Gain, Something Something

I walked/marched in place for 30 minutes this morning before work. At lunch time I rode the exercise bike for 15 minutes. I have been trying to work the bike into my daily routine for a couple of weeks. Hopefully things will work out in such a way that I can do this regularly.

The downside is that my legs feel like rubber and walking is a little bit of an adventure. Yikes.

Here comes some camera nerd thoughts. Ready? Okay, I installed a light meter app on my phone yesterday. Dad’s camera has a built in light meter and I would utterly be toast without it. I assume my Nikon has one built in too, but I don’t know where it is or how to use it (now that I think of it, it’s probably just the auto mode). At lunch today I tested it out a smidge. I picked something to shoot, used the light meter, used manual mode on the Nikon, set everything the way the meter told me to, and took a picture. It looked okay on the D90’s little view screen. I then turned off half of the lights in the cellar and did it again. The picture looked okay but it was a little on the dark side (insert Vader’s breathing here).

I then repeated the entire process with the Pentax. The internal light meter looked good in both cases, so I think the app is probably close to accurate. How will the pictures look when I get them developed? I haven’t a freakin’ clue. Not even a tiny inkling of an idea. It may be a long time before I get the results. I took the roll that was in the camera (the 35ish year old roll that Dad started and I finished) to CVS on Saturday. They said 7-10 days… so I should be getting a call from them any minute now. (For those of you reading this post at some random future date, it hasn’t even been 48 hours yet. I was kidding. Get it?)

What else? Do I need to get a camera bag for Dad’s camera, or do I need to rearrange the bag that I have so that it can hold both cameras? My bag has the D90, two lenses, and some other little things. I can change the size of each section in the bag so I know I can fit the camera in there somehow, I just won’t be able to fit all of the other stuff. I have three lenses for the D90, including one that would be on the camera, and two for the K1000, again including one that’s actually on the camera. I may have to leave the extra lenses at home when I take the bag out somewhere. Maybe I get a bag for the two cameras and another bag for the lenses? Do amateur goofballs do that?

I also saw some youtube videos showing a couple of accessories that have kicked off my camera gear acquisition syndrome. Amazon has a remote shutter that screws on to the actual shutter switch. I could use the shit out of that for long exposures. I also saw a timer that is a little windup clock thing that also screws onto the shutter. I think K1000s might have come with that at some point. I wonder if Dad had one. I can’t find any of those anywhere online, including ebay.

And that, dear friends and neighbors, is my lunch break post for today.

I Have the Bug Again

I have it again. I definitely have the ol’ shutterbug once again. And I ain’t talking about no iPhone here.

I took the roll of film that was in Dad’s camera to CVS today. They will send it somewhere to get developed and I should have it back in 7-10 days. Still no clue how much it will cost.

I spent some time today trying to find stores that actually sell 35mm film. There are none. At least not in a reasonable radius from home. I even put a post onto a film photography subreddit and got nothing back. Looks like film shopping is a fully online experience for me. No instant gratification for this guy.

So I don’t have any film for Dad’s camera. I guess I’ll go shoot the sunrise with my digital tomorrow. The sunrise is at 5:09am. My alarm is set for 4:00. I’m a psycho idiot and proud of it. We will see if I actually get up, and if so we will see how the pictures come out. I’m going to try to use Manual mode as much as I can, duck and cover.