A FUNNY THING. (17/09/15)

Yesterday I was quite busy. I decided to create a folder and pop some images in it so that I could try and determine whether film was worth messing with from an aesthetic and quality point of view. It is worth it to me for the joy of handling quality old cameras.

I went out to a vantage point looking across the glen with the sun behind me and to my left. I set up a sturdy tripod…..I have yet to hear anyone say they set up a cheap flimsy tripod……and mounted the Bronica with a roll of 100 Velvia loaded. I have quite a posh Sekonic incident and flash meter, it can do almost anything with the exception of making tea or coffee. I got it some years ago as it didn’t work,  I was lucky, it transpired the battery was in the wrong way round and it didn’t have a case or instructions. It now works a treat but all I do is set the ISO and aperture, point it at the camera and see what the shutter speed bit says. It will wire into studio light set ups and remember lots of readings but I can’t understand those bits nor have I got the cords to connect it to anything or anything to connect it to.

Anyway having set the film camera and taken a couple of shots I swapped it for the Canon 1Ds and used the same settings.

Nothing much wrong with this. If the Velvia processes as well then I’ll be happy. I was packing up and then thought I’d give it a whirl with the Canons internal reflective meter. I set the camera to aperture priority and the metering mode to, whatever this icon is called. On this setting the camera meters about fifty or so bits of the view and comes up with an exposure.

Again an acceptable result. I then set the camera to spot metering, pointed it at the sky and pressed the tiny little button marked FEL. I did this again on the barley and on the trees. You can do this quite a few times and the camera again calculates the exposure. Very clever are those folk at Canon.

This what I got……I should have remembered to shut the eyepiece off as light leaking in had somehow confused the camera, I have never had this happen before. Must have been lucky or maybe I composed in live view previously. I usually do when the camera is tripod mounted.

The exposure meter battery for the Minolta has arrived and the meter works so next week when I send the films off for processing I’ll order some 35mm film along with some more 120. I’ve not decided what film to get yet. I’ll definitely get some FP4 and HP5, I’ll also get some Velvia 50 but it is blasted expensive. Velvia 100 is dearer still. I suspect I will have to go for 100 ISO as slow films are really not much use in Scotland; definitely not hand held unless I want the arty blurry look and I get enough of those by accident.

Ken and Andrew started combining yesterday afternoon so I wandered up the road to pick some brambles and check on progress. I met the lass from the top of the glen with the posh horses, had a good chat which was more exciting than brambling. I am a bit short of fruit for my porridge but it is a sacrifice worth enduring.

Fifty five years old and still going strong. It seems to be doing a good job as there is very little to no grain in the straw. If it doesn’t rain I’ll go and get lots of video later. I’ll also record sound. I have a story line written down and would like some time lapse in the video. This field isn’t very good for time lapse as there isn’t a good view point for the camera. I’ll wait until they do the field by the van as there is a really good vantage point in there. The video will be a good week away as it will be several days before they get round to the time lapse field and I am a very slow video and sound editor.