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OK, well recently ariel7515 offered a few shots of a 1970's BMW R5-/5 motorcycle, he came accross in Valencia, taken with his Yashica FR1 camera & 50. (see thread Motorcycle). I offered a fairly lengthy critique on the shots, which were in B&W and I had to admit 'artful', but not to my taste; close crops picking out selective detail, I thought of more aesthetic appeal, rather than technical. Primarily a recordist, interested in such details, this sort of jarred with my own expectations, as I was looking for the bits not in shot I thought ought to have been!
However; TWO DAYS after ariel posted his pictures, and the very next day after I had offered my appraisal of them... bludger me sideways with a 500mm Centon Mirror lens! I happened upon a classic 1960's BMW R69! Parked virtually at the end of my street, would you believe! I was taking my O/H to work at the time, and there was nearly an accident... similar to being bludgered sideways with a 500mm Centon Mirror! As I e-stopped and reached for camera a to grab a few shots; to the utter annoyance of SWMBO, who didn't want to be late for work! But luckily, it was still there after I had dropped her off. So I jumped out and fired off a few frames; to see what my take on the subject might be.
So, lets get on with it; THIS is the camera used.
Frame 0 (From Digital)
Its a 1970's Konica C35, 35mm 'zone-focus' compact, with fixed 35mm f2.8 Hexanon lens. It has Fully Auto, or Aperture Priority Exposure modes, from fully coupled incident meter, in the lens-ring.
Camera's providence is that it was bought new, by my Grandfather, some-time in the mid to late 70's, and used seldom. I was given it some time after he died in 1993, and it lived in my car glove-box as a 'grab-shot' camera; for those highly unlikely occasions I might spot a photo-opportunity and not have another camera to hand! I think I probably ran only two or three films through it in ten years, when in 2003, it was replaced in the glove-box by a digital compact.
Recently sorting through box of 'stuff' off the top of the wardrobe; I picked it up, smiled; checked the rewind crank to check if loaded, and had a fiddle; discovering, remarkably that the battery wasn't flat! Common 'problem' with these, there was no on-off switch for the meter; only thing that limited current draw was putting the oft forgotten lens cap on!
So, quite surprised, I cleaned it up and decided to drop a film in it; and put in back in the car glove box, 'just in case'. And probably less than a week before this BMW chanced into view, on an occasion, I would not otherwise have a camera to hand, just dropping O/H off to work!
I smelled the hands of fete at work here, and little Loki out for a laugh; but hey; when the gods deal you a hand, you play it, right? So lets get on with it.
No particular plan involved, nor pre-conceptions of what I wanted to get. Old camera, not used for a decade; which I was rather concerned probably has rather shot light-seals, if nothing else. Out of Date Greek-Olympics, Kodak Gold 100 film. Zone Focusing and Parallax error... I was listing the potential excuses before I even started!
So, this is what I got. Developed this week at ASDA and scanned at home.
Frame 1: Straight from ASDA & out the scanner, with no adjustment or correction; a basic no-arty farty, straight record shot of the bike, as spotted. Thought the negs looked a bit dark... histograms suggests that the frame was at least two stops over exposed. And the whole set so suffered to greater or lesser degree.
It was a pretty sunny day; almost certainly an f16 sunny rule follower. THINKING about it, that's smallest aperture on the C35, which I seem to recall has fastest shutter speed of 1/650th.. actually I have the thing to hand and... err... yup that's fastest shutter marked in view-finder! So could have been that the shots I tried to get a bit arty on, opening up to f2.8, for a shallow DoF over exposed, running out of shutter speeds! Would have needed something around the 1/2000th mark and camera just don't have it! But still. I thought I put in on 'Auto' for the record shots... thought.... bad move thinking! Maybe it didn't click'in'!
Frame 2: As previous; with a little Post-Process correction, pulling the exposure back a bit and adjusting curve; Not TOO bad. As straight record shot.
Few interesting features of this bike for you;
- If you look at the front wheel, you'll notice that rather than conventional telescopic forks, this machine has an arrangement called an 'Earle's-Fork', that uses a swing-arm and a pair of telescopic shock-absorers to provide suspension. Quite a unique feature of the model, BMW used it for only a short while.
- If you look at the back wheel; you'll notice BMW's renowned shaft drivel that saves the maintenance hassles of a conventional chain drive; but also note the rear suspension arrangement. The frame tubes continue from under the petrol tank and run around the outside of the wheel, almost to its spindle, in the manner of a 'rigid' frame motorcycle that has no rear suspension; but instead of the wheel being bolted directly to the frame, turrets on the end of the frame house shock absorber units. This is known as the 'Plunger' type rear suspension. Its not actually a full, 'plunger' arrangement, as it also uses a swinging arm from behind the gearbox to locate the wheel; some-times known as 'Swing-Plunger' or 'Semi-Plunger' suspension to differentiate it from those motorcycles that just had the axle of the rear wheel mounted on the plunger shock-absorber units without any other location assistance. Again a feature of older BMW models, and I think dating back to the very first BMW R32 of 1929, I think.
- The 'Duel Seat'.. quite a distinctive feature of this model, and dating it to the early 1960's. A fashionable feature on motorcycles of the era, that had mostly adopted full twin-shock rear suspension by that time, and adopted a 'horizontal seat rail, running horizontally from the tail light to the head-stock, supporting the seat and petrol tank. They were normally a fairly flat cushion, that supported both rider and passenger, in place of earlier, bicycle style individual saddles. The BMW retaining the plunger suspension mounting, and having frame rails running down and around the rear wheel, then, had to blend their duel seat into the gaps between the mudguard and frame, creating something altogether more tailored and distinctive. Also note the bicycle style tyre pump mounted on the frame rail, just beneath the saddle! A very quaint period feature.
- Otherwise, the machine has the distinctive horizontally opposed air-cooled 'Boxer' engine, again based on the very first BMW design of the 1930's retained in lay-out at least in current models. Nice feature of this model is the 'un-fendered' air-filter housing on the rear of the crank-case. And note the pleasing aesthetic 'swoop' of pipe work from there through the carburetor, into the round rocker cover cylinder head, and into the curved 'pea-shooter' exhaust.
- The machine is remarkably authentic, apart from one fairly obvious non original bit of equipment; and that is the modern Michelin M45 Tyres. (Co-Incidentally the same as I have fitted to a number of my own bikes! Very good tyres, they are!) The tread pattern is not the classic block-tread rear and ribbed front that would have been fitted when the machine was new. But I quite like it. Only reason these would have been fitted, is because who ever owns it, USES it! Its not a pampered show-piece brought out on high days and holidays! them tyres are for all weather grip and high miles wear!
Frame 4: View from the front. Horrendously 'blown' & pulled back, probably due to the bright sky, but second record shot, that should have been on Auto; taken to show more detail of that interesting front fork arrangement.
Note also the curved front number plate. Another clue to the bike being in regular use. When made, number plates were required to be displayed both front and rear of a motorcycle; and curved number-plates like that one, would have been mounted on top of the front mudguard, running around it like a Roman Centurions crest. No longer required, (Since I think 1973 or so actually), they were deemed a danger to 'pedestrians' and often referred to as 'pedestrian slicer' number-plates.
Frame 5: Parallax error strikes! This was supposed to shoe that Earle's Fork, from the top, looking down! If you move the speedo in the center of the headlamp nacelle to the center, that's how I had TRIED to frame it! The Camera has a very small correction guide in the top corner of the view-finder frame, to suggest shifting the center slightly up and left for close-ups, I obviously didn't apply enough parallax correction.
And that's picture quota for this post, so... To Be Continued!
However; TWO DAYS after ariel posted his pictures, and the very next day after I had offered my appraisal of them... bludger me sideways with a 500mm Centon Mirror lens! I happened upon a classic 1960's BMW R69! Parked virtually at the end of my street, would you believe! I was taking my O/H to work at the time, and there was nearly an accident... similar to being bludgered sideways with a 500mm Centon Mirror! As I e-stopped and reached for camera a to grab a few shots; to the utter annoyance of SWMBO, who didn't want to be late for work! But luckily, it was still there after I had dropped her off. So I jumped out and fired off a few frames; to see what my take on the subject might be.
So, lets get on with it; THIS is the camera used.
Frame 0 (From Digital)
Its a 1970's Konica C35, 35mm 'zone-focus' compact, with fixed 35mm f2.8 Hexanon lens. It has Fully Auto, or Aperture Priority Exposure modes, from fully coupled incident meter, in the lens-ring.
Camera's providence is that it was bought new, by my Grandfather, some-time in the mid to late 70's, and used seldom. I was given it some time after he died in 1993, and it lived in my car glove-box as a 'grab-shot' camera; for those highly unlikely occasions I might spot a photo-opportunity and not have another camera to hand! I think I probably ran only two or three films through it in ten years, when in 2003, it was replaced in the glove-box by a digital compact.
Recently sorting through box of 'stuff' off the top of the wardrobe; I picked it up, smiled; checked the rewind crank to check if loaded, and had a fiddle; discovering, remarkably that the battery wasn't flat! Common 'problem' with these, there was no on-off switch for the meter; only thing that limited current draw was putting the oft forgotten lens cap on!
So, quite surprised, I cleaned it up and decided to drop a film in it; and put in back in the car glove box, 'just in case'. And probably less than a week before this BMW chanced into view, on an occasion, I would not otherwise have a camera to hand, just dropping O/H off to work!
I smelled the hands of fete at work here, and little Loki out for a laugh; but hey; when the gods deal you a hand, you play it, right? So lets get on with it.
No particular plan involved, nor pre-conceptions of what I wanted to get. Old camera, not used for a decade; which I was rather concerned probably has rather shot light-seals, if nothing else. Out of Date Greek-Olympics, Kodak Gold 100 film. Zone Focusing and Parallax error... I was listing the potential excuses before I even started!
So, this is what I got. Developed this week at ASDA and scanned at home.
Frame 1: Straight from ASDA & out the scanner, with no adjustment or correction; a basic no-arty farty, straight record shot of the bike, as spotted. Thought the negs looked a bit dark... histograms suggests that the frame was at least two stops over exposed. And the whole set so suffered to greater or lesser degree.
It was a pretty sunny day; almost certainly an f16 sunny rule follower. THINKING about it, that's smallest aperture on the C35, which I seem to recall has fastest shutter speed of 1/650th.. actually I have the thing to hand and... err... yup that's fastest shutter marked in view-finder! So could have been that the shots I tried to get a bit arty on, opening up to f2.8, for a shallow DoF over exposed, running out of shutter speeds! Would have needed something around the 1/2000th mark and camera just don't have it! But still. I thought I put in on 'Auto' for the record shots... thought.... bad move thinking! Maybe it didn't click'in'!
Frame 2: As previous; with a little Post-Process correction, pulling the exposure back a bit and adjusting curve; Not TOO bad. As straight record shot.
Few interesting features of this bike for you;
- If you look at the front wheel, you'll notice that rather than conventional telescopic forks, this machine has an arrangement called an 'Earle's-Fork', that uses a swing-arm and a pair of telescopic shock-absorers to provide suspension. Quite a unique feature of the model, BMW used it for only a short while.
- If you look at the back wheel; you'll notice BMW's renowned shaft drivel that saves the maintenance hassles of a conventional chain drive; but also note the rear suspension arrangement. The frame tubes continue from under the petrol tank and run around the outside of the wheel, almost to its spindle, in the manner of a 'rigid' frame motorcycle that has no rear suspension; but instead of the wheel being bolted directly to the frame, turrets on the end of the frame house shock absorber units. This is known as the 'Plunger' type rear suspension. Its not actually a full, 'plunger' arrangement, as it also uses a swinging arm from behind the gearbox to locate the wheel; some-times known as 'Swing-Plunger' or 'Semi-Plunger' suspension to differentiate it from those motorcycles that just had the axle of the rear wheel mounted on the plunger shock-absorber units without any other location assistance. Again a feature of older BMW models, and I think dating back to the very first BMW R32 of 1929, I think.
- The 'Duel Seat'.. quite a distinctive feature of this model, and dating it to the early 1960's. A fashionable feature on motorcycles of the era, that had mostly adopted full twin-shock rear suspension by that time, and adopted a 'horizontal seat rail, running horizontally from the tail light to the head-stock, supporting the seat and petrol tank. They were normally a fairly flat cushion, that supported both rider and passenger, in place of earlier, bicycle style individual saddles. The BMW retaining the plunger suspension mounting, and having frame rails running down and around the rear wheel, then, had to blend their duel seat into the gaps between the mudguard and frame, creating something altogether more tailored and distinctive. Also note the bicycle style tyre pump mounted on the frame rail, just beneath the saddle! A very quaint period feature.
- Otherwise, the machine has the distinctive horizontally opposed air-cooled 'Boxer' engine, again based on the very first BMW design of the 1930's retained in lay-out at least in current models. Nice feature of this model is the 'un-fendered' air-filter housing on the rear of the crank-case. And note the pleasing aesthetic 'swoop' of pipe work from there through the carburetor, into the round rocker cover cylinder head, and into the curved 'pea-shooter' exhaust.
- The machine is remarkably authentic, apart from one fairly obvious non original bit of equipment; and that is the modern Michelin M45 Tyres. (Co-Incidentally the same as I have fitted to a number of my own bikes! Very good tyres, they are!) The tread pattern is not the classic block-tread rear and ribbed front that would have been fitted when the machine was new. But I quite like it. Only reason these would have been fitted, is because who ever owns it, USES it! Its not a pampered show-piece brought out on high days and holidays! them tyres are for all weather grip and high miles wear!
Frame 4: View from the front. Horrendously 'blown' & pulled back, probably due to the bright sky, but second record shot, that should have been on Auto; taken to show more detail of that interesting front fork arrangement.
Note also the curved front number plate. Another clue to the bike being in regular use. When made, number plates were required to be displayed both front and rear of a motorcycle; and curved number-plates like that one, would have been mounted on top of the front mudguard, running around it like a Roman Centurions crest. No longer required, (Since I think 1973 or so actually), they were deemed a danger to 'pedestrians' and often referred to as 'pedestrian slicer' number-plates.
Frame 5: Parallax error strikes! This was supposed to shoe that Earle's Fork, from the top, looking down! If you move the speedo in the center of the headlamp nacelle to the center, that's how I had TRIED to frame it! The Camera has a very small correction guide in the top corner of the view-finder frame, to suggest shifting the center slightly up and left for close-ups, I obviously didn't apply enough parallax correction.
And that's picture quota for this post, so... To Be Continued!
