Olympus XA2 vs Leica MP + Summicron !

Both take 35mm film, both have 35mm lenses. Both take SR44 batteries, both have a meter, both are  manually wound, both are black, both are ....

Ok, there are a few differences. f/2 vs f/3.5 lens. Manual aperture & shutter speed vs automatic aperture & shutter speed. Manual focus vs zone focus. One is made out of brass and basically indestructible the other is basically cheap metal and plastic. Oh yeah, and the Olympus costs about 1 % of what the Leica will cost you.

Can you tell the difference?

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How to get that film look from your scans.

I used to get frustrated when I scanned my color negatives at home on my OpticFilm 8200 scanner. That scanner is fantastic for slides, how could it be THAT bad for color negatives? 

No matter what I did in post, color negatives from that scanner never looked as good as they did when I printed them wet in the darkroom or had them scanned at a lab.  I almost thought I'll just shoot slides then. Nice idea, but that costs a lot more money for film and processing and sometimes slide film is just not the right tool for the job.

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The lost Generation

All my college memories are gone. No graduation photos, no photos to remember trips, events and friends. 

I graduated in 2007. Digital was the way to go. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Shoot as much as I want and it was 'free' too. Couldn't get any better. It's 2016 now and I have none of these photos left. Between moving countries, buying new computers and transferring from one medium to another things got lost. The only photos I have left is what parents or friends printed. Very sad.

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Do we still need contact prints?

Now that we can batch scan thumbnails? 

As far as I know, the only use of contact prints was to evaluate which ones were keepers and worth enlarging. I've made contact prints in the darkroom twice. Once for black and white and once for color. Never again. Reason being, when I go to my local rental darkroom to print, I have already decided which frames to print. 

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Gear Lust

Did I really get over it?
In the past few months there's very little that interests me. I don't go to camera stores and I don't read any reviews. After my Ricoh GR1v broke I was looking for the perfect replacement and just couldn't find it. The Ricoh was great for parties and indoor events. It fit in my jeans pocket and just worked.
Finally I gave up and now resort to disposable Fujifilm cameras for parties.

I don't want to worry about having to test new cameras and get used to new gear. "Right tool for the job" - I get it, but the less I have to think about what to use the better.

Latest digital experience.

Last Sunday I met up with a friend who just bought a SONY A7r ii. 

I haven't been following news and rumor sites for almost two years now. Once in a while I see stuff pop up on youtube or facebook. It seems that manufacturers are releasing the same cameras with minor changes every year if not more often. It's really mind boggling how people keep buying these things. A7r ii is one of the latest and most interesting releases in the digital camera market. So I had a 10 minute go at it.

It feels great in hand and looks pretty neat. My sample had a 55mm 1. something lens on it. The first thing that shocked me was the electronic viewfinder. I picked it up, peaked through it and everything looked like you're looking at a video game version of the world. According to my friend and numerous reviews online, this is the best EVF on the market right now. I guess EVFs have far ways to go if they will ever be a competition to bright DSLR viewfinders. 

Next I had a go at shooting some people on the street passing by while I was sitting outside of Starbucks having a coffee. People passing by were almost always between 2-3 meters away from me. It was a nice sunny day so I set the aperture to f8 and wanted to focus to 2.5 meters... but you can't! the lens doesn't have any focal range markings. You have to either auto focus for every single shot (which obviously makes the shutter lag even worse) or use focus peaking to manually focus. While focus peaking works, but is not easy, you have no idea if you're focus is still spot on after a few shots. The lens has no markings whatsoever. Looking at the lens you have no idea whether the focus wheel has turned or not.

Every time you take a shot the EVF blacks out and takes a short but very noticeable amount of time before you can have a go at your next shot. 3 years ago I owned a Nikon D600, which beats any of these mirrorless cameras by leaps and bounds. The viewfinder was crystal clear, bright and beautiful. Like any SLR it blacks out at the moment you fire a shot, but it's only for the duration of the shutter speed. Almost all lenses for the F mount had focal distance scales marked on them.  It looks like DSLRs will dominate for a long time to come. 

On Consistent Look

I've been trying to settle on one film for a while now and just can't do it.

I used to love the grittiness of black and white film and decided I should shoot it exclusively for a while and see where it takes me. That experiment didn't last very long. While I still love the grain and the whole experience of developing my own film, I soon grew tired of the monotone! I love Michael Kenna's work for example but it's a mystery to me how he can refraining from shooting color film ALWAYS. 

Once summer came I felt I need to pop in some color film. I haven't shot a roll of black and white for 3 months now! 

I really admire people who pick a film and stick with it. I can't do it. What works best for me is actually shooting one thing on one film. 

For example, I used to bring different types of film with me when traveling and it turned out to be the same damn problem I had with lenses and cameras. I just hate having to choose which one to use. The less I bring the happier I am. Furthermore, it also makes my shots more consistent. At least on the level of albums. 

For my California/Seattle trip in April for example I only brought Provia with me. The same thing for my summer vacation in Yamaguchi, Japan. I was away for 10 days and brought only provia film, but two cameras. My Leica and my Holga. Next challenge will be to restrict myself to only one camera at all times. 

I can't see myself however going on a long trip and only bringing the Holga.  

Extra Resolution from the Frontier

Disclaimer: Technical Tutorial. This has nothing to do with the art of photography.

The Frontier is one of the most popular film scanners. Most people prefer it over the Noritsu for the colors it produces. I am not sure which one I like better. I think I kind of like them both. The Pakon also does an awesome job but doesn't seem to be used by any of the big labs. Probably because it's not supported by Kodak anymore...

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