For the first time in a month or two, I took the Calumet out for a short expedition. I had my lens serviced this summer, and everything seems to operate fine, but I need to update my rig a little bit to make this work, and practice more in order to avoid mistakes.
First of all, this tripod is not cutting it. I am surprised by this, since the load capacity should be fine, but this thing wobbles like crazy, to the point where I think focus could have shifted during the process of loading the film back. Maybe a different tripod head would do it. I'd also like to find some brighter ground glass, this piece has sharpie marker lines on it, and its pretty dull.
It was a thrill to shoot this camera out in the wild, but I would have liked to have the option of a wider lens. I'll be looking for a super wide lens for landscapes, but it was really cool to isolate the tree line and the sun coming over the mountain. I made the rookie mistake of removing the dark slide while the lens was wide open for focusing, this was really discouraging. Creating a dark space in my apartment takes a lot of work, I loaded up three film holders last night, so ruining an entire frame was a huge let down. I am trying to get past the challenges and shoot this camera more.
I will say, by comparison, it makes my normal MF shooters feel as simple as a disposable camera!
First of all, this tripod is not cutting it. I am surprised by this, since the load capacity should be fine, but this thing wobbles like crazy, to the point where I think focus could have shifted during the process of loading the film back. Maybe a different tripod head would do it. I'd also like to find some brighter ground glass, this piece has sharpie marker lines on it, and its pretty dull.
It was a thrill to shoot this camera out in the wild, but I would have liked to have the option of a wider lens. I'll be looking for a super wide lens for landscapes, but it was really cool to isolate the tree line and the sun coming over the mountain. I made the rookie mistake of removing the dark slide while the lens was wide open for focusing, this was really discouraging. Creating a dark space in my apartment takes a lot of work, I loaded up three film holders last night, so ruining an entire frame was a huge let down. I am trying to get past the challenges and shoot this camera more.
I will say, by comparison, it makes my normal MF shooters feel as simple as a disposable camera!