World Toy Camera Day – October 18th!
A World Toy Camera Day community affair with like minded toy camera photographers from all over the globe who take part on this day in the month of October. A day where we wake up in the wee hours of the morning and load all of our favorite plastic cameras like the Holga, Diana, Brownies and the like and end the day with our Low-fi, Low-brow, blurry and ridiculously out of focus snap shots. A day also invented by Becky Ramotowski who took the idea from World Pinhole Photography Day. Her idea spawned a world wide annual event using toy cameras and shooting endless rolls of 120 and Polaroid film…oh and even some crappy 35mm too…and has been in circulation for six years now. See you all there.
Posted on October 14th, 2008 in film | 1 Comment »
Another toy camera – Meikai EL
This is a Meikai EL, circa 1963. Bought on eBay, I was the only bidder!
As toy cameras go, this one feels pretty solid. The body is metal and plastic and the leatherette makes it feel like a “real” camera. The film advance is smooth, and there’s an indicator to let you know when the film is properly advanced. The lens looks like it’s made of glass. The door latch is solid.
The fake light meter surrounding the viewfinder give it away as a toy camera, and the fixed focus, fixed shutter speed lens adds to the toy camera gestalt.
The camera has 3 aperture settings – f/8, f/11 and f/16. If you’re not sure which direction stopping down is, the BRIGHT and DULL labels should help to match the weather conditions to the aperture settings. There’s an Instant and Bulb shutter setting next to the aperture setting.
The Meikai EL has an accessory shoe and a PC socket for flash. The instructions recommend using the Bulb setting for flash shooting – flash bulbs need a a slower sync speed, like 1/15th sec or so.
The Meikai EL only has one lug for attaching a strap, so you’re stuck with a wrist strap. This camera CALLS OUT for a two-lug thin leather tourist-ey neck strap.
The pictures I’ve seen on the net have the simple lens elements, soft focus, toy camera look. I’ve shot a roll of 5-year-old Jessops 200 speed film on my lunch hour and should get it back from York Photo in a week.
Somewhere in my garage I have an old Vivitar 16M flash with a PC cord, I’ll have to dig it up tonight.
Meikai Links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/probablekoz/sets/72157601440327601/
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Meikai_EL
http://westfordcomp.com/classics/meikai/index.html
http://www.merrillphoto.com/MeikaiEL.htm
http://muujuu.multiply.com/photos/album/11/Meikai_EL_Camera
Posted on October 10th, 2008 in film | 11 Comments »
Left Lane
I’m still not sold on the Lensbaby – I like it, but I can get the same effect out of a Jazz Jelly camera or any other plastic camera. Or, I could shoot with a digital Stylecam Blink and not have to scan!
I can shoot 10 megapixel raw images with my DSLR, though.
Posted on October 7th, 2008 in digital | No Comments »
Stocking up on film
Sorting through my bookmarks, I found a film vendor online selling Lucky GBR 100 film for $2.00/36 exposures. This is my favorite film for LOMO shooting, as it’s sometimes as unpredictable as the LOMO is. Our joke on the lamented lomo.org BBS was that Quality was not Job One at the Lucky factory – one roll would have a red cast, another a yellow cast, and another one would be spot-on.
Then, I won an auction for 12 rolls of Fuji Superia 400, my favorite non-LOMO film. Skintones are a little harsh, but colors are vivid otherwise. Time to make room in my freezer!
I went thrifting this weekend and found a $2.00 camera for $2.00 and an $80.00 camera for $2.00:
The Olympus Stylus Epic (Aka Mju-Mju II in some countries) was one of my favorite cameras during my film phase in 2000-2004 – I had the champagne edition. A fast, sharp 35mm f/2.8 lens, great fill flash, and color correction indoors with flash made this camera a replacement for an SLR wide angle lens. And, if it was good enough for Helmut Newton, who am I to complain?
I bought 2 CR123 batteries (they’ve gone up in price since shooting film – $14.99 for 2!) and some Kodak Hi Definition 400 ($7.99/3 rolls) film and will go shoot with it this afternoon.
Posted on October 7th, 2008 in film | 3 Comments »
Avaya/Lucent/Orinoco RG-1000 Residential Gateway notes
I have a wireless network segment at home using the Lucent RG-1000 residential gateway. The RG-1000 has been passed around from WaveLAN to Proxim to Lucent to Avaya to Agere and back to Proxim, and so finding documentation and drivers can be a problem. Here are my notes, should anyone else be looking for information about this little router/gateway/access point.
The documentation that came with the gateway covered little more than running the basic setup, and didn’t cover important issues like how to reset the firmware, how to configure the firewall, how to limit access to the RG by MAC address and so on. I was able to learn more about the router on the web, and programs. The routers are quite popular, and googling “RG-1000” came up with a lot of hits.
1. Finding drivers is a little complicated. Proxim originally sold the router and card as a part of the WaveLAN line. Lucent either bought the line or Proxim and re-named it Orinoco. Lucent then spun off the company to become Agere and/or Avaya. Proxim re-appeared somewhere along the line, and now has drivers available at http://www.proxim.com. Because of this lineage, finding the right driver is difficult. I’m using the card drivers from http://www.proxim.com, the basic setup utility from http://www.avaya.com and the AP configuration utility from http://www.agere.com.
2. The Lucent/Orinoco RG-1000 is a residential gateway with bridging mode, full NAT router mode, and has a feature-set resembling many appliance routers. The Avaya RG-1 appears to be a re-branded RG-1000, and may have an ethernet port. The AP-500/1000 is an access point without the NAT router features and with more advanced bridging reporting/diagnostics. The Apple Airport resembles the RG-1000/RG-1. Oddly enough, the firmware is interchangeable between all the models, so you can convert a bridging only AP-500/1000 into a RG-1/RG-1000 by uploading a different firmware set.
The model I own has no ethernet ports, making it a little useless as a router if you have wired machines. It does have a V.90 modem, and can be configured as a dial-on-demand router. I’m going to use my PPP account as a dial backup.
3. There are two “official” configuration utilities – the RG setup tool, which is basic and lacks several important configuration tools, like MAC address security. The other utility is the Access Point configuration tool, which despite the name, can configure any of the compatible models. Once you make changes with the AP configuration utility, however, if you run the RG setup tool, it complains about non-RG values and resets the router to defaults. There is a freeware configuration utility called freebase at http://freebase.sourceforge.net that also looks promising, but it seems like some features are only available with AP manager.
A summary of features available with each of the tools:
RG Setup Utility : Basic network configuration, will also update router firmware to the latest version seamlessly.
AP Configuration tool: Allows you to set NAT parameters, virtual server ports, access passwords, MAC Address security, PPPoE information, SNMP information, and DHCP server configuration. From the monitor page, you can check on ethernet, IP, wireless, ICMP and bridging information.
Freebase: Network configuration, DHCP and NAT, Port forwarding, access control, login scripting (?) and modem control.
4. The Lucent/Orinoco documentation is not very helpful on some points – resetting the router, for example. To reset the router, if you have an ethernet port, plug into it and run the RG setup. If you have a wireless only model, you need to use the Forced Reload feature. Power the router down, and while it’s booting, press and hold the “Forced Reload” button. The power light will glow amber. When this happens, the router WEP encryption password and access password is disabled. Log in using the RG setup utility, and configure the router within 5 minutes or the router will revert to standard operation.
5. The Windows 2000 drivers shipped with the operating system identify the card as a WaveLan/IEEE card, and do not work. Instead, use the newest drivers from http://www.proxim.com, which as of today are the version 7.4, winter 2002 drivers. The gold cards support their own 128-bit RC4-based encryption scheme, as well as WEP+.
6. Lucent/Avaya/Agere/Proxim/whoever claim that you can’t plug an external antenna into the unit. Inside the unit is an Orinoco wireless card, which has an antenna port. If you drill a hole in the case, you can use the AP-1000 external antenna for extended range. I can reach the upstairs portions of my house, so I’ll probably hold off on upgrading the antenna.
I’m going to use the freebase tools to configure it. Since I’m using it as an access point, once the dust settles I’m going to use the AP-500/1000 firmware to get the enhanced bridging reporting.
Apparently, there’s a way to get this thing to run Linux! The router is an underclocked 486. An enterprising network admin could design a huge centrally-managed wireless network that booted and got configuration information via bootp on the cheap. Apparently at one time, Lucent closed these things out at $60 each with a client PC card!
Some sites of interest:
- http://www.proxim.com – Home of the most current card drivers and firmware images for the AP and RG models.
- http://www.natecarlson.com/wireless/ – Firmware images for the RG1000.
- http://www.vilos.com/rg1000 – Even more firmware images.
- When in doubt, ask Slashdot.
- Some helpful notes including SNMP MIBs are at http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/Rg1000Comments.
- Dell has information about their re-branded model at http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/network/tmrg1000/en/index.htm.
- More notes are available at http://www.murgatroid.com/rg1000/rg1000.htm.
- Information on getting the cards to work under Linux are at http://www.rcbowen.com/imho/wavelan.html.
- Jonathan Sevy has a java-based configuration utility and more at http://edge.mcs.drexel.edu/GICL/people/sevy/airport/.
- Apparently, a company called KarlNet also has some claim to hardware lineage, and have some other configuration tools available..
- More Airport firmware images are at http://www.icir.org/fenner/airport/.
Posted on October 2nd, 2008 in blog | No Comments »
First lensbaby shot
I received my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim in the mail the same day I took my Lensbaby out for a spin at lunch. The irony of paying for a lens to put on a digital camera to mimic a $5 plastic film camera is not lost on me.
Posted on October 2nd, 2008 in digital, lomo | No Comments »
Plastic Cameras
I love my TIME camera – it’s a Holga/Diana with the chromatic aberrations and vignetting, but without the cost of medium format film and development…
Light leaks around the film sprockets, loose film
Posted on October 2nd, 2008 in film | No Comments »
Just so you know…
Even though my site now looks an awful lot like 4 corners dark from a distance, it’s unintentional! Really, it is! I like the look of soma fm, my favorite streaming radio station, liked their fonts and “borrowed” some of their CSS. The darker background, while not quite 18% gray, does show off images better than a white background.
I will definitely buy a soma fm t-shirt now.
(update: I’m switching back and forth between gray and white…)
Posted on October 1st, 2008 in digital | 2 Comments »
Blogs Kurt is reading
Nic Nichol’s blog: Four Corners Dark: Holga, Lomo, and low-fi photography.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I’m reading my own mind. He’s loving the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera (my own reviews forthcoming), ranting on the ranters who claim you can duplicate low-fi with photoshop, so why bother with plastic, and the lucky bugger has gotten his hands on a BlackBird, Fly 35mm TLR. He even posted an article on Miroslav Tichy when news of his work made the rounds.
Poindexter sez: Check it Out.
Posted on September 29th, 2008 in blog | 1 Comment »
Lomographic Society at Photokina 2008
It’s the 5th time Lomography has been invited to participate in the world’s largest photo-imaging event, so we are going all out in celebration of the unique creative use of film coming from one million+ Lomographers worldwide! The LomoWall forms the focal-piece of our “Future is Analogue†exploration and bursts with over 100,000 amazing film images.
The fantastic LomoWall takes centre-stage in the immtense Lomography Lounge – which will play host to a huge array of analogue talks, events and parties over the next 5 days!
Posted on September 25th, 2008 in lomo | No Comments »
Jazz Jelly camera, revisited
My fixation with LOMO LC-As and film photography began in 2000. About that time, I started collecting toy film cameras. I like the aesthetic, I like the disconnect from technical frippery that a plastic lensed, single aperture, single shutter speed gives. I like vignetting. I like chromatic aberration. I like soft focus.
One of the cameras I loved was the Jazz Jelly. It looks like a $5 Olympus Stylus, with its dove bar shape, built-in flash and sliding lens cover. The 28mm lens is simply designed – if it has more than 2 elements I would be shocked. It’s light, and it’s disarming. People don’t concern themselves with someone taking their picture with a see-through purple, red, or green camera.
The Jelly has a panorama setting. It crops the top and bottom of the photo, and some film processors can crop that onto a wide print. I think back in the APS days this was more common, but most places will probably print on 4×3 paper and print the borders, like a letterbox DVD.
Since the Lomographic Society has brought the Diana back from the dead and renewed interest in the Holga, I’ve rediscovered toy cameras. 35mm toy cameras are getting hard to find! Cameras like these used to be available at Wal-MART, drug stores, convenience stores and even office supply stores. Cheap film cameras have all but gone from retail, and I’m afraid they were so cheap that they may have all ended up in landfill.
I’ve combed the junk shops hoping to find that Diana in mint condition, but alas, have never been that lucky.
I found a Jelly on Amazon for a reasonable price ($7.99 with a battery and 200 speed film!) and will throw it in my bag, see what I can do with it.
Crank up the contrast in PS and it looks a little LOMO-like!
Posted on September 25th, 2008 in film, journal | 7 Comments »
Linked networks
Ok, so I post to WordPress. WordPress posts an update to Twitter via Twitter tools and to Livejournal. LJ gets the whole post with comments redirected to WordPress. Twitter posts a shortened URL to the blog post. Twitter gets slurped once a day into LoudTwitter, which also posts to LJ. And, Facebook also gets updated by Twitter. Which redirects people to WordPress. I couldn’t get Wordbook to work, but since Twitter already updates Facebook via Loudtwitter, I figure I have it covered.
My head is spinning.
Posted on September 22nd, 2008 in blog | No Comments »
Tubes
Another Pencam SD shot at Urban Ore in Berkeley, CA.
Posted on September 20th, 2008 in digital, journal, pencam | 1 Comment »
Ride
Posted on September 20th, 2008 in pencam | No Comments »
Toy camera effects with digital SLRs
I love lo-fi photography.
Shooting lo-fi removes any obsession with capturing the “perfect” image. With lo-fi photography, I focus more on composition, creativity and experimentation than when I shoot with a “real” camera. Vignetting, soft edge focus, light aberrations, limited exposure latitude, color casts, even light leaks – the imperfections add a level of personality to the photo.
I have a collection of my lo-fi photography up at http://lowresolution.kataan.org.
One of my favorite lo-fi cameras is the SiPix Stylecam Blink. It only shoots 640×480, but has a wonderful dream-like plastic camera effect. And, it was only $10 on eBay!
I would like to get a little more resolution than is possible with most lo-fi digicams. Enter Randy Smith at Holgamods. He’s made tweaks to Holga cameras for years, adding black flocking to the insides, adding a bulb setting and remote shutter release threads. Dude from peculiarplanet.com has done some wonderful night-time photography with his.
Randy has taken a Holga
Some photo examples with the digital Holga lens are online here.
Lensbaby.com has another alternative – a tilt-shift lens made for several modern camera mounts. Version 1
If you want do get that same toy camera effect digitally, see my previous post about the Holganizer. In addition, there are Holga actions for Photoshop that let you automate the effects process. But, it’s a lot of fun to shoot with a plastic camera!
Posted on September 14th, 2008 in digital, pencam | No Comments »
Lomography+JPG Mag+Photojojo meetup (Updated)
See http://www.kataan.org/blog/2008/sf-lomo-meetup/ for the whole story. Now, with more photos!
Posted on September 9th, 2008 in lomo | 1 Comment »
How to spend quality time on the web?
Here’s an interesting post from Merlin Mann, one of my favorite productivity gurus on how he’s going to improve his approach to the web:
…To be honest, I don’t have a specific agenda for what I want to do all that differently, apart from what I’m already trying to do every day:
- identify and destroy small-return bullshit;
- shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful;
- make brutally fast decisions about what I don’t need to be doing;
- avoid anything that feels like fake sincerity (esp. where it may touch money);
- demand personal focus on making good things;
- put a handful of real people near the center of everything.
All I know right now is that I want to do all of it better. Everything better. Better, better.
#2 resonated the most with me – continually evaluating return on investment (whether it’s time, money, emotional investment or whathaveyou…) should be a continual process.
Posted on September 9th, 2008 in uncategorized | No Comments »
Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home
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I’ve never been a fan of camera bags that looked too much like a “CAMERA BAG!!! “. Much of my photography is done at dusk, early mornings, and urban street street photography in dodgy neighborhoods. I need to be able to pull my camera out, take a shot quickly and stuff it back quickly, all the while looking innocuous.
My current bag is a cheap $12 messenger bag, and is stealthy as hell. As a day to day bag, it’s WONDERFUL. It holds my laptop, all my computer peripherals, a LOMO LC-A, papers, pens, my lunch, and whatever else i could throw at it. |
| Unfortunately, there’s no padding and no compartments inside, so lenses, flashes, cameras, film, and whatever else is free to jostle about. One good drop would total a camera.
Enter the 7 Million Dollar Home. From a distance, it looks like a plain old messenger bag, but it’s got stiffeners, padded, reconfigurable dividers, a zipper compartment inside the flap, an expansion pocket on the front of the bag, a pocket that might work for a tripod, an adjustable strap with removable pad, and it looks like it’s built to last. I’m taking it out tonight for a test-drive, wish me luck! Product page (Crumpler), Buy a 7 Million Dollar Home (Amazon) |
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Posted on September 3rd, 2008 in uncategorized | No Comments »
“American Photobooth”, a book review
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American Photobooth is a new illustrated history of photobooths, which first made their splash in the 1920s. Photographer Nakki Goranin became obsessed with the technology after creating a series of her own photobooth self-portraits now in the collection of the International Center for Photography in New York. She then spent nearly a decade tracing the history and culture of photobooths and collected thousands of vintage photobooth prints, like those above. The new issue of Smithsonian profiles Goranin and includes an online slideshow of images from the book. |
Photobooth article (Smithsonian), Buy American Photobooth [via boingboing.net ] |
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Posted on September 3rd, 2008 in uncategorized | No Comments »
BBF, a TLR 35mm camera?
(updated, more picture-y goodness at the bottom!)
A little birdie told me about the BBF (Blackbird, Fly), a camera that the LOMO Society was planning to sell. I hadn’t heard of it before and decided to do a little research.
A little googling uncovered this post with some information. It sounds fun – a 35mm TLR with basic manual controls that shoots a square image? I wonder who would be able to develop them as square? I suppose anyone who processed 6×6 prints should be able to figure it out.
My first experience with a TLRs was with old 120, 620 and 127 cameras I had originally collected as interesting wall art. When I dusted them off and loaded them with film, I found the combination of a coupled viewing and taking lens, the distinctive upright shape of a TLR, and the old-school feel of a waist finder to be a unique experience in photography. With a TLR, I was more in touch with the shot, spent more time composing, more time taking my shots and ultimately took better photos.
The manufacturer’s official page is at http://www.superheadz.com/bbf.
Check it out!
Posted on September 1st, 2008 in lomo | 2 Comments »
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