Tag: film

Aiptek Pencam SD — Digital Holga, or a better Digital Harinezumi?

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

 

I took this picture with a Aiptek Pencam SD, a camera I liken to the Digital Harinezumi. The Pencam SD is roughly the same size, and does 1280×960 max resolution (still), and 6-8 frames per second at 640×480. Like the Digital Harinezumi, the Pencam SD has 64MB of built-in memory and an SD card slot. Instead of an expensive CR2 battery, the Pencam SD uses AAA batteries – I have a stack of rechargeable AAAs at home.

Unlike the DH, the Aiptek is less than $20.

Is this a “Digital Holga”?  Probably not, while it can vignette, it can take impressively sharp pictures in the right light.
Is the viewfinder a best guesstimate of the image area? Definitely.
Is it fun to shoot with? Extremely – I prefer not being able to see the photo until after I get home.

Being able to record sound with the Digital Harinezumi 2 would be interesting, but I really like the effects people have created by adding soundtracks to silent video created with the original Digital Harinezumi.

FUN NATURE FDC01, A New “Digital Holga”?

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

FUZZYEYEBALLS wrote about the “Fun Nature FDC01”, a new toy digital camera. While other camera manufacturers have been beating each other to market with higher megapixel sensors and features, the FDC01 stands apart. It’s a 1.9 megapixel camera with 64 MB on-board memory, SD expansion slot, rechargeable battery, 8 fps “movie” mode, and 3 photo effects. What it doesn’t have is a viewfinder, flash or display!

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On Lomography

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I’ve known Sarah Zucker for some time through her photography online. her essay, On Lomography echoes many of the sentiments regarding “Lomography” that I’ve been feeling.

Other “Lomographers” inspired me to begin capturing intimate and mundane moments in my life on film. I shared my photos on lomo.org and lomo.us, two online bulletin boards, and shared visions with other lomographers. We started an occasional tradition of “LOMOCrawls”, photo get-togethers open to anyone with a creative eye and any sort of camera.

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It’s Not The Photographer, It’s The Camera!

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I enjoy reading the high end DSLR discussion boards on the internet. Those gearheads go ape over minute differences in “chromatic aberration” and “barrel distortion”. They peep at pixels in Photoshop to see if their lens is able to give them a sharp image blown up to the size of the side of a barn. But all they seem to ever shoot pictures of is brick walls and cans of soda at varying distances lined up on their dining room table!

I think if you are going to make a fetish over camera equipment, it should be junk store cameras, not DSLRs. There’s something about a fifty year old scratched up plastic lens that makes magic happen. The proof is on exhibit at JunkStoreCameras.com.

Marcy Merrill, a professional photographer, has been accumulating cameras at swap meets and thrift stores and running rolls of film though them to see what comes out. She has captured some remarkably atmospheric images and each one is accompanied by a photo of the two dollar plastic camera that took it. Check it out…

[ Marcy Merrill’s Junk Store Cameras via boing boing ]

Update… Gizmodo picked this up, too. You go, Marcy!

Fun with a Vivitar PN2011 “panoramic” camera

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I went out shooting with a Vivitar PN2011, a 35mm panoramic plastic camera. This is probably my favorite plastic camera to date, but I don’t know why. I think it’s big enough, the lens is wide enough, it feels sturdy enough and it’s got a lens cover to protect that $1.00 piece of plastic. They’re cheap and plentiful, too.

swing

bench

What Every Aspiring Photographer Should Know

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

Here’s a wonderful bit of advice for aspiring photographers from Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai at PhotoDino.

What Every Aspiring Photographer Should Know

These are my thoughts, nothing more and nothing less.

I get asked all the time, during workshops, in e-mails, in private messages, what words of wisdom I would give to a new and aspiring photographer. Here’s my answer.

LOMO’s New Mystery Camera

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

@lomography has been all (ahem…) atwitter about a mystery camera announcement this week. The folks at Tongue in Chic seem to have blown the lid off of the announcement of the Diana Mini, a half-frame/full-frame 35mm version of the cult classic Diana plastic camera.

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Miroslav Tichy, redux

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

Miroslav Tichy is a reclusive artist who has resided in his hometown of Kyjov, Czech Republic, for most of his life. Born in 1926, he was a painter until the late 1960s, when he started taking photos, mostly of local women sunbathing, using equipment that he built himself. The cameras are made of cardboard, bottle caps, and rubber bands. Tichy mounts his photos in his own handmade frames and enhances them with pencil markings wherever he sees fit.

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Exposure-Mat, a free light meter (no batteries required!)

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I’m a big fan of the Sunny 16 Rule for determining exposure. Print film is forgiving enough that you don’t always have to get the exposure *exactly* right to get a good shot.

The”Sunny 16″ rule, paraphrased, says, “Set the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the film speed, and set the aperture to f/4 for open shade, f/5.6 for overcast, f/8 for hazy sunlight, f/11 for sunlight and f/16 for snow, water, or bright surfaces in sunlight.

Here’s a great link to a do-it-yourself paper slider exposure meter. Use one of these and you won’t need a meter for 90% of your outdoor shots on print film.

Shooting an old retro camera without a meter and guesstimating exposure is a liberating experience. I recommend it.

[ http://expomat.tripod.com/ ]