Lloyd K. Barnes Photography

Models: Sandra Dario, Charlene. Hair & makeup by Rhi Yee.

Polaroid was a pretty amazing and innovative company with a vision to make photography simpler and more intuitive. Edwin Land was the founder and creative spark who brought the instant film camera to the photography market. Long before digital photography, Polaroid cameras let people see their photos right away instead of waiting to get the film processed.

Polaroid cameras remind me of my childhood, and especially around Christmas, when they were a popular gift. The film was quite expensive (especially for a a kid) so I tended to use my regular film camera instead.

You can often find Polaroid cameras at yard sales. The best ones are the SX-70 models. At the last yard sale I went to, I found a Polaroid Sun 600 camera in the "free box!"  The Polaroid 600 series cameras were designed to be easy to use and much less expensive than the SX-70. Unfortunately Polaroid stopped making film in 2008. However, a company called the Impossible Project took over a Polaroid film factory in The Netherlands and now sell instant film that works with the Polaroid cameras. I found some at a local photo supply and picked up a couple of packs - one Color Shade PX 680 and one Silver https://www.sihspune.org/proscar.php Shade PX 600. They were about $25 each for 8 prints - very expensive!

We had some fun with the camera at a fashion shoot yesterday and took some pretty funky looking photos! Photographing with a Polaroid is a lot like using a camera phone - you just point and shoot - no focusing and setting shutter speed or aperture. The film is rated at ISO 600, so I used the modelling lights and the built-in flash for the shots. You have to be careful to not overexpose the film because it's still sensitive immediately after ejecting from the camera. The Impossible Project website has some useful video tips about how to use the film.

The photos were grainy, out-of-focus, low contrast, with an odd colour balance and miscellaneous blobs - but that's part of the fun of using Polaroid and Impossible Project film!  Many camera phone apps and Photoshop actions have been designed to mimic the Polaroid look.  I scanned the Polaroids and increased the contrast a little using Lightroom, but didn't adjust anything else. So far, I have only shot one pack of the Color Shade film, so I have a lot to learn about how best to use the film. I'm looking forward to trying out the Silver Shade film soon too!

Have you tried out the Impossible Project film? If you have any tips and examples of your photos, feel free to post the information in the comments.

 

 

 

Minolta Maxxum 7xi 35mm SLR Camera

I have been exploring photographic creativity using old “vintage” cameras. Although digital cameras offer a vast array of powerful features, old cameras and lenses often create images that I would not have thought about doing digitally. Of course, most effects can be duplicated in Photoshop, but it's more fun and spontaneous to use older cameras directly. Combined with different types of film and processing, old cameras are a great avenue leading to creative image making.  Lomography, for example, emphasizes the use of cheap analogue cameras and different types of film.

Tiffany May, a very creative photographer who knows that I like to play around with old cameras, lent me her Minolta Maxxum 7xi (also known as the Dynax 7xi). Released in 1991, it was an advanced 35mm SLR camera, possessing many innovative features. One of the coolest things about it are the expansion cards. They're intended to make the camera easy to use - just load the card and set the camera to P (program). I guess in 1991 it was not feasible to build all of the programs into the camera like modern digital cameras. The cards resemble SD cards, but would have much lower capacity!

The expansion cards that I have with this camera:

• Intervalometer - for time-lapse photography. You can program up to 40 frames at intervals from 1 second to 24 hours
• Sports Action - for fast moving subjects
• Custom - stores custom settings according to the photographer's preferences
• Fantasy -  changes focus during the exposure. Here's an example of the effects.
• Multiple Exposure - up to 9 exposures in one frame
• Data - stores exposure information (exposure mode, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, iso, maximum aperture of the lens and exposure compensation for up to 4 rolls of film)
• Portrait - automatically uses the maximum aperture to reduce the depth of field and blur the background
• Bracket - can set exposure https://www.glenerinpharmacy.com/buy-cipro-online/ bracketing of 0.3, 0.5 or 1 stop over 3, 5 or 7 frames, and will work with burst mode at 4.5 frames per second
• Closeup - for use with macro lenses
• Depth - maximizes the depth of field
• Shift - automatically uses different combinations of shutter speed and aperture to give the same exposure
• Highlight/Shadow (H/S) - automatically compensates for bright or dark scenes.

I tried out the camera during a studio shoot using manual exposure, without the expansion cards.  I attached a CyberSync to the hotshoe using a Minolta/Sony hotshoe adapter because the Minolta uses a proprietary hotshoe system (same as the Sony Alpha system). I set the shutter speed to 1/60th sec because I wasn't sure about the camera's sync speed. I looked it up later and found it is 1/200th sec, which is pretty good.  I loaded the camera with Kodak Ektar ISO 100 colour negative film.

Here are a couple photos taken with this camera:

I addition to the camera, Tiffany had a large selection of Cokin A series filters with holders that fit the Minolta lenses. They look like a lot of fun to experiment with (but that will be the topic of another post)! I did try out the Diffractor Univers 041 filter, which gave a cool rainbow colour effect. I definitely want to try that filter out some more.

The interesting thing about the Maxxum 7xi camera is that it's quite sophisticated, with many features that are not always available in DSLRs today, but simple to use with the expansion cards. In 1991, a decade before digital photography took off, Minolta was used computerization to help photographers get the most out of their camera without having to be an expert photographer.

I'm looking forward to getting more creative with the Maxxum 7xi and the expansion cards!

Related Links

Detailed specification of the Minolta Maxxum 7xi

I’ve been using an Olympus E-510 DSLR for almost 3 years and it’s been a great camera. However, it has seen a lot of use (and abuse) and has sustained some damage. The door covering the memory card slot does not lock properly (now I use Velcro to keep it closed) and the USB/video-out port has been damaged so I can't tether the camera or use the cable release. The camera is still usable as a backup, but I decided to purchase another camera rather than getting this one repaired. It would probably be cheaper to buy another E-510 rather than get this one repaired. I considered buying another E-510, but decided to use the opportunity to upgrade instead. So my main objective was to replace the E-510, but also to use the opportunity to upgrade with a budget of under $700.

Of course, when buying a camera, I always keep in mind the offerings from the different manufacturers, and do some research to compare the features and prices. The DSLR market is dominated by Canon and Nikon, who have about 75% of the market, but there are great cameras and lenses offered by Sigma, Pentax, Sony as well as Olympus. I have a substantial investment in the highly rated Olympus Zuiko Digital four-thirds system lenses and I'm very happy with the image quality that I was getting with the E-510 so decided not to change to brands.

My first DSLR camera was the Olympus E-500, which was my primary camera for about a year before I upgraded to the E-510. Even though I liked the E-500, I loved the E-510 even more, mainly because of the in-camera image stabilization and faster autofocusing system. It also has a live view LCD and higher resolution.

For me the choices to consider were the E-620, E-30, E-3 and the recently introduced E-5 (with HD video). I am interested in E-5, but right now the price is relatively high as it is the latest addition and the top of the Olympus DSLR line. The E-620 is quite similar to the E-30 (here's a comparison), more compact but with fewer features. The E-3 is also similar to the E-30 but with a more rugged, weatherproof magnesium alloy body, instead of glass reinforced plastic, but does not have some of the features introduced in the E-30. I do most of my photography in the studio and while having a more rugged camera body would be a great thing, it was not worth the additional cost for me right now, but I'd definitely pick up an E-3 if one came available at the right price range. I'm keeping my eye on the E-5 though - it looks like a great camera! I ended up buying a lightly used E-30 body and started to use it right away! I was lucky that we had some dramatic light in Vancouver yesterday, the day that my camera was delivered. Here's the first shot that I took:

I was happy with it!

What I like about the E-30 compared to the E-510:

• Brighter, larger swivel LCD
• Larger viewfinder
• Better performance at higher ISO
• 11 point autofocus (vs 3 for  the E-510)
• Multiple exposure (up to 4 images)
• Faster sync speed
• Faster burst mode
• Digital spirit level
• PC port for flash sync
• Art filters
• Face detection
• Shutter 1/8000 sec fastest shutter speed
• Wireless control of Olympus flash units (FL-50R and FL-36R

The controls for the E-30 are quite different than the E-510, including a second control dial, and it will take me a little time to get used to it. But the E-30 menu structure is very similar to the the E-510 so it was easy for me to set up the camera with my preferences. After using the E-510 for three years, I found the E-30 intuitive and easy to use. I'm looking forward to more of years great photos with the E-30!

Here are some more photos of Vancouver taken with the E-30 yesterday:

Related Links:

Review of the Olympus E-510 DSLR camera on Digital Photography Review.

Review of the Olympus E-30 DSLR camera on Digital Photography Review.

The Olympus Trip 35 is an interesting and very popular camera. It’s a compact 35mm film camera that was made between 1968 and 1984. According to the Olympus website, 10 million units were made, so it is quite easy to find at camera shops, thrift stores and, of course, eBay.  It's simple to operate with a selenium photocell light meter that doesn't use batteries. Just load the film, set the ASA/ISO and turn the aperture to A for automatic. For focusing there are settings for different distances between 1 meter and infinity. The camera has a high quality Zuiko 40 mm f/2.8 lens and a metal body. While it doesn't have a built-in flash, it does have a hot shoe and a PC sync socket for external flash. Unlike modern cameras, the light meter does not communicate with the flash, so you need to set the aperture manually. I would use my Sekonic light meter for this, but you could find the correct aperture by checking the instruction book for your flash.

The camera has two shutter speeds - 1/40th and 1/200th second. You cannot manually select the shutter speed. When in Auto mode, the camera will use the appropriate shutter speed. If you are using flash, it will sync at 1/40th sec. The aperture range for the lens is f/2.8 to f/22.

I tested out the camera today and it worked great. The first shot I took was a landscape, but I forgot to change the focus to the landscape setting so it was blurry. Luckily, I noticed this and corrected it for the rest of the roll! I was using inexpensive 200 speed Life brand (EasyPix) film from Shoppers Drug Mart, and had it processed at their photo department. For comparison, I also took some shots using my Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera.

From my experience with using the Olympus Trip 35, it was indeed very quick and easy to use. The film was easy to load - it is the same procedure as most 35 mm SLR cameras. Once you have selected the film speed and focus distance, you can concentrate on composition as there are no other settings to worry about. After taking a shot, you must remember to advance the film! If there is not enough light for a proper exposure, a red flag will appear in the viewfinder and the shutter will lock to prevent you from taking an underexposed shot. Also, you must remember to change the focus if your subject changes distance significantly. If you are used to digital and SLR cameras, this will be a little unfamiliar and takes getting used to.

The photos were sharply focused (except for the first one!), and the exposures were excellent. I imported the photos into Lightroom 3.3 from the CD that was provided when the film was developed. I did a little post-processing - mainly tweaking the colours, cropping if necessary and slight adjustments to the levels. I also did similar post-processing with the digital images shot with the Olympus E-PL1. I love the camera and look forward to shooting with it again soon!

Related Links

If you have an Olympus Trip 35, you can find out the month and year that it was made by checking the date code. The camera shown above has the code ?64, which means it was manufactured in April 1976.

Olympus Trip 35 instruction manual

Ken Rockwell Review of the Olympus Trip 35

Website dedicated to the Olympus Trip 35

David Bailey Olympus Trip 35 ad from the 1970s

I learned the basics of photography using the Fujica STX-1N. I got it as a birthday present in 1983. It is a manual focus camera without any automatic exposure modes. It does have TTL metering with an LED display in the viewfinder, so I was able to learn the basics using this camera. The light meter uses the average method to determine the exposure, which means it can be fooled by certain scenes. It is important to adjust the exposure to compensate if necessary. The camera has shutter speeds of 1/2 to 1/700 s, bulb setting, and cable release for long exposures and night photography. It also has a self-timer.

The STX-1N is very similar to the STX-1, https://assaultvictimlawyer.com/buy-cialis/ introduced in 1980, except the STX-1N has LED indicators for the light meter instead of a needle indicator.

One of the things I really liked about the camera was the split prism focusing screen, which made it really easy to focus the camera manually.

In addition to the X-Fujinon 50 mm f/1.9 lens, I have a

Makinon 80-200mm f/4.0 zoom lens with macro capabilty, which greatly extended the flexbility of the camera. The camera uses Fuji's X-mount lens system.

I used this camera until I bought my first digital camera in 1999. It has travelled with me and taken photos of my family when they were growing up, so I have happy memories of the Fujica STX-1N!

This is a pretty cool camera, made during Soviet-era Russia in the late sixties. The Zenit-E was produced by the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ - Krasnogorski Mechanicheskii Zavod) near Moscow starting in 1967. It is a fully manual SLR with a selenium light meter above the lens. The available shutter speeds range from 1/30 to 1/500 s, with bulb setting and cable release for long exposures. The flash sync speed is 1/30s. It is rugged and reliable. It was a popular camera because of its low price.

The lens shown with this camera is Helios-44-2 42mm screw mount 58mm f/2.0 lens.

The camera remains popular today and gets great reviews. Although film photography is not as popular today since digital has taken over, there are many fans, new and old, who like this camera! I haven't tried it out yet but will post photos when I get the chance.

Here are some more photos of this camera:

Related links:

Zenit-E camera in Wikipedia

Zenit-E on Camerapedia

Zenit-E Antique Russian Cameras

Zenit users on Flickr

Click here to check out more images of vintage cameras in my growing collection on Flickr!
This is a pretty cool camera, made during Soviet-era Russia in the late sixties. The Zenit-E was produced by the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ - Krasnogorski Mechanicheskii Zavod) near Moscow starting in 1967. It is a fully manual SLR with a selenium light meter above the lens. The available shutter speeds range from 1/30 to 1/500 s, with bulb setting and cable release for long exposures. The flash sync speed is 1/30s. It is rugged and reliable. It was a popular camera because of its low price.

The lens shown with this camera is Helios-44-2 42mm screw mount 58mm f/2.0 lens.

The camera remains popular today and gets great reviews. Although film photography is not as popular today since digital has taken over, there are many fans, new and old, who like this camera! I haven't tried it out yet but will post photos when I get the chance.

Here are some more photos of this camera:

Related links:

Zenit-E camera in Wikipedia

Zenit-E on Camerapedia

Zenit-E Antique Russian Cameras

Zenit users on Flickr

Click here to check out more images of vintage cameras in my growing collection on Flickr!

The Minolta Maxxum STsi (also known as the Dynax 500 SI Super in Europe and the Alpha Sweet in Japan) is the most modern 35 mm SLR that I own. It has all the automatic features that you would get in a modern entry level DSLR but of course it is a film camera.

It has an automatic pop-up flash, price TTL metering, ambulance both spot and average, autofocus, a variety of exposure programs and a panorama mode.

The Minolta camera company merged with Konica in 2003, then sold their photography business to Sony in 2006. Sony took over and further developed the camera system as the Sony Alpha system.

The Minolta cameras use a proprietary hot shoe (the same type as the Sony Alphas). I use a Pocket Wizard to trigger an external flash unit, so I needed to buy a hot shoe adapter. They are available in most camera stores or online.

This camera is great to use, and being a modern camera, it feels a lot like using a DSLR. I occasionally look for the LCD screen, forgetting it is a film camera!

The autofocus is fast and sharp. It has an autowinder so the next shot is ready to go very quickly. I use the camera in the studio with a light meter and external strobes, on manual exposure mode, and it has worked very well. Here are some studio shots that I took with this camera using Kodak Ektar 100 negative film.

Overall this is an excellent camera for people who want to use a 35mm SLR but also want the modern features of a DSLR. It is also compact and lightweight making it easy to carry around.

Here are some more images of this camera, as well as the 70-210 mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens and camera bag.

Related links

Features of the Minolta Maxxum STsi

The PDF version of the user manual is available online too!

Download the User Manual

This is a pretty cool camera, made during Soviet-era Russia. The Zenit-E was produced by the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ - Krasnogorski Mechanicheskii Zavod) near Moscow starting in 1967. It is a fully manual SLR with a selenium light meter above the lens. The available shutter speeds range from 1/30 to 1/500 s, with bulb setting and cable release for long exposures. The flash sync speed is 1/30s. It is rugged and reliable. It was a popular camera because of its low price.

The lens shown with this camera is Helios-44-2 https://sgs.nsw.edu.au/cialis-online/ screw mount lens" href="http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/M42" target="_blank">42mm can i buy antibiotics over the counter screw mount 58mm f/2.0 lens. This particular camera was made in 1978 based on the first two digits of the serial number on both the lens and body.

The camera remains popular today and gets great reviews. Although film photography is not as popular today since digital has taken over, there are many fans, new and old, who like this camera! I haven't tried it out yet but will post photos when I get the chance.

Here are some more photos of this camera:

Related links:

Zenit-E camera in Wikipedia

Zenit-E on Camerapedia

Zenit-E Antique Russian Cameras

Zenit users on Flickr

Soviet and Russian Cameras

Click here to check out more images of vintage cameras in my growing collection on Flickr!

This is the Pentax P3 35mm manual focus SLR, shown here with 50 mm f/2.0 lens.  The camera was introduced in 1985 and was marketed towards beginner SLR photographers. It can use Pentax-A lenses allowing full auto exposure mode, but can also be used in manual mode with Pentax-A or Pentax K-mount lenses. It does not have a built-in flash, but has a hot-shoe for attaching an external flash. If a Pentax flash is used it can automatically set the exposure as well.

The camera has a built-in LED light meter, making it easy to set the exposure by manually changing the aperture and shutter speed. The maximum shutter speed is 1/1000 s and it has a 1/100 sync speed for external flash. Other features include a self-timer (up to 12 s) and a depth-of-field https://www.rossitchpediatricdentistry.com/buy-ativan-online/ preview. It has a light weight plastic body, which is quite durable, making it a popular camera for traveling.  One of the best things about this camera is it is available for a low price - around $50, often including a 50 mm lens. Since it uses the Pentax K-mount lens system, there is a huge variety of lenses available for this camera!

Overall this camera is great for beginners or for photographers who want a basic light weight 35 mm SLR. It has some limitations. One is that it uses the DX coding on the film canister to detect and set the ISO automatically (ISO 25 to 1600), and it is not possible to override it. This is a drawback for more advanced photographers who may want to set the ISO manually.  Another limitation is the slowest shutter speed is 1 s, although bulb/cable release is available for long exposures.

Related links:

Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page

The Pentax ME Super featured aperture priority automatic mode and TTL light meter. It also has a fully manual mode and syncs at 1/125 s.  It was a manual focus camera and used the Pentax K mount lenses. The camera shown above is equipped with the Pentax 50mm f/1.7 lens. It was a very popular https://selectmedicalspecialists.com/buy-clomid-online/ camera buy tramadol online with advanced amateur photographers.

I haven’t tried out this camera yet but will test it and post some photos later – assuming that it works OK!

Links:

Wikipedia entry for Pentax ME Super

A look inside the camera

I woke up at 2:30 this morning to look for the aurora borealis, which is brighter than usual due to recent solar activity. But the city lights in Vancouver are too bright to see much happening in the night sky, so instead I took this shot. At 2:30 a.m. it's good to see most of the office lights in the buildings are turned off to save energy. It was a beautiful night with the crescent moon rising and Venus shining brightly. There's a haze in the air caused by the smoke from forest fires in the region. The haze was lit up by blue light over the city which was quite beautiful contrasted with the yellow city lights.

I woke up at 2:30 this morning to look for the aurora borealis, which is brighter than usual due to recent solar activity. But the city lights in Vancouver are too bright to see much happening in the night sky, so instead I took this shot. At 2:30 a.m. it's good to see most of the office lights in the buildings are turned off to save energy. It was a beautiful night with the crescent moon rising and Venus shining brightly. There's a haze in the air caused by the smoke from forest fires in the region. The haze was lit up by blue light over the city which was quite beautiful contrasted with the yellow city lights.

I have a collection of film cameras and will be posting photos and information when I have the opportunity. I will also be testing them out and posting photos taken with these cameras (if they still work!).

The Canon T70 was a revolutionary camera when it was introduced in 1984, site with an LCD display, multiple program modes, and 2 through-the-lens (TTL) metering modes. It also was the second Canon SLR (after the T50) to have an "advanced on-board computer". Another convenient feature is the autowinder. It is a manual focus camera so does not have autofocus capability.

Shown with the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.

For more information on the Canon T70 check out:

Canon T70 (1984)

Wikipedia

Very detailed review