Who Likes Olympus Half-Frame SLRs?

[Donald Qualls]

This applies to baseball as well.

And golf.

I don't play golf. I play a closely related game I call "goof". Rules are the same. Scores are much higher.

 

[Cholentpot]

And golf.

I don't play golf. I play a closely related game I call "goof". Rules are the same. Scores are much higher.

Tackle Golfgall is popular 'round these parts.

 

[alanrockwood]

My secret weapon (and I'm a repair technician, BTW, I fix air and electric power tools) is a 32 ounce ball peen hammer. The whole trick is knowing where and how hard to hit, and being able to deliver that strike accurately on both counts.

As an old acquaintance of mine once said, "Never force anything. Get a bigger hammer."

 

[alanrockwood]

And golf.

I don't play golf. I play a closely related game I call "goof". Rules are the same. Scores are much higher.

I find that golf is a lot more fun if I don't keep score.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Old golfers just loose their balls and putter away.

 

[4season]

Wormy deadwood, Pen F, 42/1.2, Pan F @ 80, Diafine.

It begs for a companion "Deadly wormwood" photo.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

 

[drmoss_ca]

It begs for a companion "Deadly wormwood" photo.

I never did try The Green Fairy. Perhaps I should.

Winter gardeners, Pen F Pan F:

 

[Patrick Robert James]

 

[drmoss_ca]

Back when I had Leicas, I bought a couple of Walter eyepieces that corrected for astigmatism as well as myopia. These are polished to your prescription, and fit inside a ring in which they freely rotate with the bottom of the rotating lens weighted. That means the axis of the cylindrical correction for astigmatism stays right whether the camera is used the usual way or turned on its side. Fortunately I had bought the push-on kind, rather than the screw in. They fit loosely on the grooves of the Pen-F eyepiece (grooves that are there for the cold show attachment), but with some thin strips of paper and glue it fits quite well, and a dab of gorilla tape on top will keep it secure. It will have to be removed to open the back of the camera, for film changes, but the first roll will tell me if I'm wasting my time or not! Looks like I'd better clean that greasy thumbprint off the lens!

 

[drmoss_ca]

Here he is again!


Trying out Kentmere 400 for the first time today (it's been in the freezer for over a decade, so I'd better see if it's any good). I'll expose at 640 just as if it were HP5+ and develop in Diafine. Then when everything goes to hell, I'll make some adjustments. Also, a new 50-90mm zoom to try out. Will need some humans to do that, which is a problem when under house arrest.

 

[Cholentpot]

Here he is again!


Trying out Kentmere 400 for the first time today (it's been in the freezer for over a decade, so I'd better see if it's any good). I'll expose at 640 just as if it were HP5+ and develop in Diafine. Then when everything goes to hell, I'll make some adjustments. Also, a new 50-90mm zoom to try out. Will need some humans to do that, which is a problem when under house arrest.

Love the grain

 

[drmoss_ca]

First roll of bulk Kentmere 400 in the Pen F:

 

[Sirius Glass]

First roll of bulk Kentmere 400 in the Pen F:

About the grain I typically get with traditional grain ISO 400 film. I have to get some tabular grain film to use in my Tessina to see what the grain looks like.

 

[drmoss_ca]

Not than anyone ever manipulates an image here, but I will say there are others on that roll of film that surprised me with their smoothness. The Kentmere 400 needed more spotting than HP5+ generally does, but otherwise behaved just the same. EI 640 in Diafine, Dried in a Kleen-Dri and scanned straight away. Good enough that I loaded another dozen cassettes this morning with 12 frames (=24 frames in the Pen F). I'll try to remember to put up a smoother one tomorrow.

 

[Cholentpot]

Not than anyone ever manipulates an image here, but I will say there are others on that roll of film that surprised me with their smoothness. The Kentmere 400 needed more spotting than HP5+ generally does, but otherwise behaved just the same. EI 640 in Diafine, Dried in a Kleen-Dri and scanned straight away. Good enough that I loaded another dozen cassettes this morning with 12 frames (=24 frames in the Pen F). I'll try to remember to put up a smoother one tomorrow.

Sometimes with half-frame you see the frame to frame grain differences more apparently. I have no clue why the same shot at same setting in the same light will differ frame to frame.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Back when I had Leicas, I bought a couple of Walter eyepieces that corrected for astigmatism as well as myopia. These are polished to your prescription, and fit inside a ring in which they freely rotate with the bottom of the rotating lens weighted. That means the axis of the cylindrical correction for astigmatism stays right whether the camera is used the usual way or turned on its side. Fortunately I had bought the push-on kind, rather than the screw in. They fit loosely on the grooves of the Pen-F eyepiece (grooves that are there for the cold show attachment), but with some thin strips of paper and glue it fits quite well, and a dab of gorilla tape on top will keep it secure. It will have to be removed to open the back of the camera, for film changes, but the first roll will tell me if I'm wasting my time or not! Looks like I'd better clean that greasy thumbprint off the lens!

View attachment 291224

I can't see far away without glasses and I can't see up close with glasses, so I got some cheap reading glasses of the appropriate strength and ground a lens to shove into the viewfinder eyepiece of the Pen. A bit of a kludge but at least I can see to focus now.

 

[drmoss_ca]

I'm getting one of the cold shoe adaptors that slid into the slots alongside the viewfinder frame:

And then I'll grind the screw thread (made for a Leica) off another Walter eyepiece and epoxy it onto the frame that slips around the viewfinder. I only have -0.5 diopters of myopia, but all sorts of cylindrical correction for astigmatism. Having a corrective lens that works whichever way up I hold the camera, and which easily gets out of the way when I need to open the back and change films will be helpful. Amusingly, I see the prices of Walter eyepieces have become astronomical ($433USD - I can fill my house with Overgaard 5G protection cards for that kind of price!). I e-mailed him so he could enjoy what I was doing. Apparently he disapproves strongly enough not to reply.

 

[drmoss_ca]

Here's a smoother example of Kentmere 400 in the Pen F. This thick stem of honeysuckle has been growing at our house in NS for 35 years. It came from a cutting that my mother had grown elsewhere in NS, and also at several homes in the UK. Curiously, it was an illicit cutting stolen at a garden party at Buckingham Palace in the 1930's when one of my forebears had done something civic-minded and was rewarded with an invitation. It still flowers each year and we will be sure to take cuttings to the new house.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Here's a smoother example of Kentmere 400 in the Pen F. This thick stem of honeysuckle has been growing at our house in NS for 35 years. It came from a cutting that my mother had grown elsewhere in NS, and also at several homes in the UK. Curiously, it was an illicit cutting stolen at a garden party at Buckingham Palace in the 1930's when one of my forebears had done something civic-minded and was rewarded with an invitation. It still flowers each year and we will be sure to take cuttings to the new house.

Where they ever invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace again after the poaching?

 

[drmoss_ca]

Where they ever invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace again after the poaching?

No, but I doubt they ever did anything again worthy of such recognition.
My father-in-law was invited and was accompanied by my wife after a number of years of senior naval service. She failed to walk out with a cutting of anything green in her purse, much to my mother's disappointment (she was a rabid horticulturalist).

 

[drmoss_ca]

Neglected Nikon lenses and a roll of HP5+ waiting to go in the Hasselblad.

 

[drmoss_ca]

Fuji Neopan 400 in half-frame (8 mins in 1+47 HC-110 @20º). I never could make Tri-X quite that smooth!

 

[drmoss_ca]

Further to an entry above, an Olympus cold shoe arrived today. They have a reputation for cracking if a heavy flash is carried on them, but that won't be a problem for me. The only thing that matters to me is that it slides around the viewfinder. Here is the basic, unaltered device:

And here is a Walter Eyepiece made for a Leica, that corrects for myopia and astigmatism by rotating freely so that the axis of cylindrical correction is always correctly placed, epoxied to it:

Finally, it sits perfectly in place on an Olympus Pen-FV. It is easily transferred to any other member of that small herd of cameras I own, and does not interfere with the back opening to change films.

Pity Walter didn't see fit to be pleased his eyepiece wasn't going to waste when I moved on from Leicas. Maybe he'll be selling them for other cameras soon!

 

[drmoss_ca]

Talking of Pen-Fs, I seem to have one that works, one that works but its rewind is so stiff that I know the film take-up spool needs lubricating (a CLA should fix that) and a third one that's just for parts. One FT that's gone as a donor to make an FV work properly, and a second FV that seems to work OK, but the back is slighltly wobbly so may have a light leak. Current film should tell me.. Let's not talk about lenses, as they seem to multiply without me trying...