The Next Digital Holga?

Pentax Optio H90; The Next Digital Holga?

OK, so although the Yashica EZ F521 was slated to be a “digital Holga”, its limited availability in the US may have generated a false start. After all, by definition a Lomographic camera must also be a camera for the masses; if the masses can’t purchase it readily, then what’s the point?

Nikon Coolpix P5100: Nine Primes in One

In a world where I’m pining after a rangefinder, my Nikon Coolpix P5100 gets better and better as I learn how to use it.

“Mirrorless” is the new “Rangefinder”

A New Breed of “Mirrorless” Digital Camera: The Fujifilm Finepix X100.

A new breed of camera has been slowly emerging from the ashes of the Rangefinder; The “Mirrorless” digital camera.

Just in Time

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS:
A Never-be-without-a-camera-again Camera

So here I am, looking in a shop window in Manhattan on the way to a gig as I come across the Powershot SD780. It was not far from an SD1200. And I notice both have optical viewfinders.

A curious thing about shop windows in Manhattan. They’re not changed that frequently, and you often find discontinued or new/old stock in them. But since I pass by this window every week, I know that it had recently been changed. Whatever is in this window could not be that old.

At my first opportunity, I research the SD780 IS and although it’s still on Canon’s website, it’s clearly standing near the exit. A newer model, almost identical but sans viewfinder, also comes up in a search. Same thing with the SD1200. I can order either one new from Amazon, so I put this in the back of my mind.

Then one day, my wife calls me from the road; “Get your camera ready, there’s a sunset you’ve got to see; be ready to jump in the car when I get there”. Needless to say it was a great photography-bonding moment for my wife and I, but when we got there, it was gone. “I’ve got to get a cheap camera and keep it in my glove compartment”, she says. Hmmm.

Then, a couple of days later on my way back from the city, I see something interesting and say to myself, “Gee, I wish I had a camera with me”. And in the back of my mind, the gears are turning.

So before it goes away forever, today I decided to order this miniature wonder. With a 33-100mm zoom range, f/3.2-5.8 aperture, 15 sec.-1/1500 sec. shutter speed and ISO range of 80-1600, I should be prepared for just about anything. It’s actually the width and height of a credit card, and just shy of 3/4" thick. And with its rounded corners and edges, it’s the perfect shirt pocket camera. I’ve been waiting for the right compact digital to come along, and this is it.

The sense of urgency came with the realization that last year, Canon was still making compact cameras with zoom viewfinders, and that none of the new models have them, a trend I find disturbing. Nikon, never made a camera this size with a viewfinder, so in considering the Coolpix, I wasn’t even aware that this was an option. I prefer to use an optical viewfinder whenever I can. Holding a camera at arm’s length to compose a picture that everyone else can see is simply not my idea of photography.

So, here I am, ever the Nikon loyalist, with a new Canon camera.

Get ’Em While You Can

So smitten am I with the Janco 3-Color Pop-Up Flash Diffuser that I decided to order a second one as a backup. At its low price, why not.

Scanning Holga Images with the Epson V500 Photo

This morning I’m scanning some 6x6 Holga images from my first test roll. I’m quite impressed with the results. Sharp in the center, nice vignetting, nice grain, nice softness and chromatic aberration around the borders. The film stock was expired Kodak VPS 160.

Small-Format Pinhole Revisited

This morning I finally ordered the drill bits I need to make some pinholes. Even though I’m very happy with my Lensbaby pinhole optic, I can get wider with a body-cap pinhole, which is also much more compact.

My original plan was to add a 46-52mm step-up ring to the cap so I can add a filter. I’ve read that dust can potentially enter the pinhole and find it’s way onto the sensor, something that can’t happen with the Lensbaby, as its pinhole is printed on clear film. However, I’ve decided against that for the time being, as the area of the pinhole will likely be several magnitudes smaller than any gaps in the average lens.

I also planned on mounting the pinhole plate directly to the underside of the body cap, which means that the pinhole will be 48.5mm from the film plane, requiring a .26mm pinhole. This would be a good focal length for a “normal” angle of view. However, without interfering with the mirror, I can easily recess the pinhole into the body so that the distance is 37.5mm, making for a wider angle of view. That would require a .22mm pinhole. On an APS-C sensor camera such as the Nikon D90 DX format, it would be an approximate focal length of 56.25mm, considerably wider than the Lensbaby at 75mm (50mm x 1.5).

Large Format
I also plan on building some new 4x5 pinhole cameras, one 75mm “wide” (24mm equivalent focal length in the 135 format) and one 150mm “normal” (45mm equivalent in 135 format). These will require .32mm and .45mm holes respectively.

Medium Format
As good as large format pinhole photography is, medium format using 120 film is much more convenient, and less expensive to process. For this, I plan on buying the Holga 120WPC:

Holga 120WPC 6x12cm Pinhole Camera

Its 6x9 and 6x12 formats should provide plenty of area to develop a nice, “sharp”, detailed pinhole image. I’ve seen some really nice examples from this camera, so I feel it’s worth a try.

To make the pinholes, I’ll sandwich several sheets of thin brass painted on one side with superflat black paint between some thin sheets of plastic, and drill them together to make some pinhole blanks. This will prevent the pressure of the drill from distorting the hole in the very thin brass, and prevent the paint from filling the hole. I could also try drilling them first and painting them afterwards, and using the drill to open the hole back up. Then I can trim the plates to suit, and mount them with gaffer’s tape as needed.

For the 4x5 cameras, I’m toying with the idea of making matching body cap pinholes of the same focal length using a tube as an extension. These will not be for picture taking, but for judging exposure. Film has a characteristic known as reciprocity failure, meaning that its sensitivity to light is not linear; the longer the exposure, the less light it absorbs. This means I can use my Nikon N80 to take test shots with the same film stock as 4x5. I can then document the results so that I can take a meter reading and know, with a fair amount of accuracy, what the proper exposure is including the reciprocity factor. At this point, film is too precious to waste, especially 4x5.