Fresh GAS...

Decided that now the Lomo is clearly a bust and the company are just awful to deal with a Kodak Snapic is probably a reasonable and much cheaper alternative. The H35N I really liked using even though it's ridiculously basic. Snapic has motor wind which I'm a sucker for.

Olympus compact I got is fixed focus and motor wind too so it will be interesting to see how the two of them compare. Both are quite wide angle too.
 
srichards said:
Decided that now the Lomo is clearly a bust and the company are just awful to deal with a Kodak Snapic is probably a reasonable and much cheaper alternative. The H35N I really liked using even though it's ridiculously basic. Snapic has motor wind which I'm a sucker for.

Olympus compact I got is fixed focus and motor wind too so it will be interesting to see how the two of them compare. Both are quite wide angle too.
Click to expand...

Or a Pentax Espio. I've been very impressed with the results from mine.
 
Snapic has just arrived. Decently boxed. For a cheapish plastic camera it actually feels reasonably made. Nice little fuzzy pouch to keep it in as well.

Positive impression so far. Will let it warm up a bit then bung some batteries in and load up some Wolfen. Just need it to stop pishing down!

Forgotten the Wolfen has slightly over sized cartridges so they take more of a shove to get them to 'snap' into position. Seems to have loaded ok though. Other film canisters just drop in and snap in more easily.
 
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Interesting camera, I like the two step focus range. I have several so called auto focus plastic P&S cams and discovered that the auto-focus steps are as simple as "near or far", and yet most worked well enough for me.
 
There's a good review with tech specs of the snapic here:

www.analog.cafe

Kodak Snapic A1 Film Camera Review & User Guide

What I like about the new Kodak Snapic A1 is that it’s cheaper than all the new point-and-shoot options and smaller than all of them. It’s also a well-made camera. Yes, it’s plastic, and it mimics the highly regarded Ricogh GR1/R1 in shape only. But despite its limitations, it can take excellent...
www.analog.cafe www.analog.cafe
 
Hi-Matic first roll done. If the results are good then it's going to be a go to camera. I continually forget the red light that shows distance focussed on isn't a warning to use flash... Nice to use though. Size and weight of the MC-A kind of but no manual anything. Wind on feels so much smoother than the MC-A. It's got an idiot window in the back that shows you it's loaded properly and roughly where you are in the roll as well as a frame counter on top.

Second roll through the possibly dodgy Olympus. That sounds slower and slower by the end of the roll and I don't think it can keep up due to wanting flash so much. Was a bit warmer than the last time it was out. Rewound the roll and near the end it sounded like it had lost traction on the film and was free wheeling a bit. That's on the naughty shelf for now.
 
Olympus is definitely weird. Seems soft in the middle with sharper corners then the exact opposite. Had about two photos on the entire roll that were ok. Worse than the plastic lens cameras I've used!
 
Years ago I had a Dynax 7 and it died with aperture failure. Always wanted another but thought the failure mode was totally unrepairable but it looks like Ali express do a gear wheel you can use instead of the one that fails inside the camera. The 7000 I have also has aperture failure so I wonder if it's repairable in the same way?? I ended up with a second 7000 as I managed to forget and leave batteries in so it ruined the battery holder. Original 7000 now has aperture failure anyway :rolleyes:

Dynax/Alpha 7 Aperture Repair: Easy Mode - Dyxum - Page 1

The problem:Minolta chose a very poor material/manufacturing process for the aperture drive gear which...
www.dyxum.com www.dyxum.com

Annoyed to find the Nikon LF35AF2 has a duff flash. It pops up but never charges up.

In dead league: 2 minoltas, 1 canon
Dodgy : 2 Nikons - both bothersome battery doors that cause power issues randomly.
Working fine: several other minoltas, Trip, Agfas, Voigtlander (taped up for flappy back issue) 2 new kodaks and the Pentax 17.
Naughty shelf: B200, reto pano and olympus XB thing that is so bad you may as well use a milk bottle bottom for a lens to get better results.

Getting decent used cameras seems to involve having a number of dodgy frogs before you find a prince. There's too many new frogs too.
 
An addition for my new darkroom...

rsz_img_20260426_105234697_hdr.jpg

I was going to build one but just the fluorescent fittings and tubes cost more than this and my cabinetry skills are rubbish. (Note the brown diagonal bands are NOT visible to the naked eye - it's just my phone camera picking up the fluorescent flicker).

A couple of good shots on those negs - I must get them scanned!
 
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It's pinhole day so I finally bought a pinhole camera. Every year it rolls around and I think, bum, should have done something. Decided on the Holga 120WPC as have no idea about any of them.

It's a 6 x 12 so I assume you can start on frame 1 then wind to odd frames only to get the correct spacing? I'm used to 6 x 6 and assume standard 120 doesn't have numbers for 6 x 12. But 6 x 4.5 is a double up to 6 x 9 and 6 x 6 is a double to 6 x 12.

Also wondering if there's a quick and dirty way of working out exposure? Sunny 16 is 1/box so I wonder if there is a rough correlation for 1/box with f133 for the usual set of apertures?
 
The simplest thing, I think, is to calculate the number of stops between f/16 and f/133.
The series is 16, 22, 32, 45, 64, 90, 128 so multiply the f/16 time by 64.

Would someone check my arithmetic please?
 
I used to own a Holga 120 WPC. It has the advantages of having a cable release adaptor which makes it easy to time your exposures without risking a shake when you open or close the shutter.

The camera has an insert which allows 6x9 frames to be shot. Without the insert it's 6x12. There is a switch at the back, with an arrow pointing to the two options for frame size. I made mistakes at the beginning by having this set wrongly.

There are many apps which can be used for exposure, such as Pinhole Assist for iPhones. I use Film Photography Viewfinder on Android. You are likely to be into reciprocity failure territory with the long exposures needed, but the apps can calculate that too.
 
There's also one for the Diana F+ pinhole which is more sunny 16 equivalent for both 100 and 400 speed film. That looks the sort of thing I was after. It was from shootitwithfilm.com

Diana-F-Pinhole-Photography-by-Amy-Berge-on-Shoot-It-With-Film-05.jpg
 
@srichards

hi - last September you posted......'' awaiting the results from FilmDev ..''

I've acquired several FSU 35mm rangefinder cameras this year and am now looking for a UK mail-order B&W Develop & Scan

FilmDev forwards scans via WeTransfer

but...WeTransfer has bad press about their T&C - from REDDIT
''WeTransfer have updated their T&Cs, [ a breach of copyright in my opinion - this is the worrying part:]...........
'You hereby grant us a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty free, transferable, sub-licensable license to use your content'......
'Such license includes the right to reproduce, distribute, modify, prepare derivative works'....

then Bending Spoons -- in July, the company agreed to acquire the Dutch file transfer service WeTransfer, then announced in September they were laying off 75% of the company's workforce


have you [or anyone] had problems with WeTransfer....?
 
@Yardbent Nope. Not noticed any issues with WeTransfer. All seems to work the same as normal.

Analogue wonderland seem to have their own system of some kind so if the WeTransfer issues are of a concern then AW might be a good choice. They are slower and more expensive than FilmDev.
 
@srichards

thanks for quick reply....I'm now looking for Labs who use ''DropBOX''

FYI ... if you're happy with WeTransfer, then the cheapest I've found so far is photoHippo - Option 2
Develop and Download 36exp , no prints just digital scans sent via WeTransfer.....£8.50

not used yet so canna comment on quality
 
Annoyingly the cable release I thought I'd got working stopped working and locked up again. Then I realised it wasn't actually opening the shutter fully if it was retracting properly.

Bought another. That arrived broken!

I've never really used cable releases but I don't remember having this much bother. I've normally just screwed them into the cable release thingy and they just work.

Order another off Harrison cameras instead of Amazon. The design is different. The locking mechanism is a side mounted screw not a twist collar. I don't think I've seen a cable release that just doesn't have a locking mechanism as that seems to be the main cause of problems with them.

Are holgas just a pain in the butt?
 
Success at last! 3rd cable release from Harrison Cameras that is a Kaiser branded one works perfectly. Just screwed it in and bingo. It opens the shutter fully and retracts quickly rather than snagging.

I'm sure these cheaper ones with the plastic sleeving hamper the cable actually releasing properly which is a bit dumb.
 
srichards said:
Success at last! 3rd cable release from Harrison Cameras that is a Kaiser branded one works perfectly. Just screwed it in and bingo. It opens the shutter fully and retracts quickly rather than snagging.

I'm sure these cheaper ones with the plastic sleeving hamper the cable actually releasing properly which is a bit dumb.
Click to expand...
I've found the cheap plastic sheathed ones sometimes split and they stop working. I bought a bunch of old (non sheathed) ones from eBay a while back and they all seem to work fine.
 
Loaded up the holga. It's a tricky biscuit. A lot of it's wonky feeling until the film is in and there's tension on it. Did wonder whether it was winding on at all at one point. It's a very long way to 1 with that winder!

Have put two bits of insulation tape on it to encourage it to stay in one piece rather than have the back drop off like I had with the normal holga. Using up the fomapan 100 that I got from somewhere years ago that has lived in the fridge.
 
Should have taken a tripod is my lesson for today! Tried to be clever and use the camera bag as a support and also bits of fence and a picnic table so hmmm. Roll complete. Exposures guessed. Might have over lapped due to being unable to count at one point but who knows. Joy of pinhole is that if it's a bit weird that's just as good as happy accidents can produce all sorts of interesting results :LOL:
 
One other alternative to a tripod is a piece of string. How long is a piece of string? It depends on your height...

Basically, a piece of string attached to something that can be screwed into the tripod bush on the camera, trailed down to the ground and your foot placed on it. You exert upward pressure on the camera which then prevents movement in a vertical direction.
 
StephenM said:
One other alternative to a tripod is a piece of string. How long is a piece of string? It depends on your height...

Basically, a piece of string attached to something that can be screwed into the tripod bush on the camera, trailed down to the ground and your foot placed on it. You exert upward pressure on the camera which then prevents movement in a vertical direction.
Click to expand...

I have heard of doing that. Reckon i would find a way of tripping over the string!

I have found an amazon basics tripod thats about half a kilo. Got a quick release plate on it too it’s ideal. The tripod i have already is very old school snd heavy in comparison.
 
Did I ever tell you about the perfect example of camera shake I used in my book, where the camera was on a tripod and my foot caught it?
 
I have a photo (taken by Sue) showing me in mid fail, and the resulting photo. I'll dig them out and stick them in a new thread.
 
ICM at its most basic!!!
 
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