old Pentax 35mm film camera without mirror lockup

I am working on a [hobby] art project for which I want to use old 35mm cameras that I scored secondhand. My fave

is a Yashica Electro 35 I got at the thrift store around the corner from my house. It has a decent lens, leaf

shutter, and

good auto exposure, so I get good, sharp photos from it.

 

 

BTW my workflow for this project is as follows:

 

photography: indoors on a tripod using available light, on Fuji Reala 100

 

drop off for professional processing

 

selected negatives are professionally scanned at 6000DPI

 

work on scanned files at home and print via Shutterfly at about 300DPI (20x enlargement)

 

 

 

I am worried about sharpness. The Yashica does fine, but has a fixed 45mm lens, which is too long for some of my

subjects. I already have truckloads of good old Pentax manual lenses for my cheap-and-frustrating-but-gorgeous

K100D, so it made sense to pick up every old k-mount body I found, which was K1000's and a couple variations on

the ME Super. I ran a test roll of cheap film through each camera and they look great on 4x6 prints, but I'm

wondering how much the lack of mirror lockup is going to hurt the sharpness. I know it's 35mm and not the most

detail-rich format, but I want to really squeeze what I can out of it. I may be imagining it, but I could almost

swear I can feel the ME's buck in my hands when I hit the shutter release - the mirror really snaps!

 

I am looking for any advice/hacks/tricks/recommendations. I would like to use the gear I have already

accumulated, but I really want ideal sharpness. Should I just use timer/cable release and not worry about it?

Look for a different old Pentax 35mm film body that has mirror lockup? Abandon photography for an easier hobby

like talking about sports over beers?

drink beers, and take photos of sports! best of both worlds!

sorry I got nothing else, but I am curious about the tips that will be coming your way...

> Should I just use timer/cable release and not worry about it?

 

Yes, just use a timer or cable release, a sturdy tripod, and get on with it. By going the scanned film route, you're already giving up the "ideal sharpness" you are aiming for, so no need to go buy another film body.

 

Your K100D on a sturdy tripod would be better for sharpness, IMO.

Also depends on the shutter speeds in use. Mirror slap will be the biggest factor in a fairly limited range of shutter speeds. You said "available light" so I have a suspicion that you may be shooting in that range.

 

Not too many of the older bodies had mirror lock-up. K2, KX, and LX if memory serves. I don't think any of the M, A, or P-series bodies had it.

Don't know the Pentax bodies real well but many brands/models of cameras bring the mirror up when using the self timer, then drop it down after the shutter fires.

>Yes, just use a timer or cable release, a sturdy tripod, and get on with it.

 

That sounds like good advice. I know 35mm film is not ideal, but I want to try it for this project.

 

>Mirror slap will be the biggest factor in a fairly limited range of shutter speeds.

 

I got the idea for this project from a bunch of pictures I took one day with a Canon G9. Looking at the EXIF data in those, I see a lot of shutter speeds around 30-125. Is that the danger zone? What should I aim for as an ideal shutter speed?

I do mostly critical work at slow shutter speeds. My habit for years has been to rest my hand on the camera, putting the whole tripod system under a bit of stress, and firing the shutter directly, by hand. I have done this with 4x5, 6x7 and 35mm over the last 25 years. I never lost a shot, and recently I switched to strobe because of elevators in my new building (vibrations I can't control), and guess what, things are NOT sharper now. I always felt that a shutter release invited vibration because the camera/tripod are springy and not damped. I can't say that this is going to work for you, but it has worked very well for me, and it's worth trying.

<i>"I see a lot of shutter speeds around 30-125. Is that the danger zone?"</i>

 

<p>My offhand memory is that the vibrations are most severe in the 1" to 1/30" range, perhaps someone else remembers the rule of thumb. Also, the shutter speeds you use on your G9 may or may not match what you use on a film SLR--you may end up shooting slower once you stop the lens down for sharpness and depth-of-field. And you may want to use slower, less grainy film.

<p>I'd suggest working with what you have first before being overly concerned about this one point. Every link in the chain from focus to lens quality, aperture, vibration, film emulsion/speed, scanning, digital post-processing, etc. will all take their toll on sharpness.

Cable release and bolt it to a heavy tripod.

Thanks for all info. I will try clamping down with my hand. That sounds slick.

 

>And you may want to use slower, less grainy film.

 

I thought Reala 100 *was* the good stuff. What would have a finer grain? I can probably exchange the stuff I

already bought at the friendly local store where I got it.

Reala 100 is very good film. Good old Kodak Gold 100 is quite good as well. for higher ISO, I like Fuji Superia Xtra. Heck, I get excellent results from my K-Mart Kodak Perfect Touch service for prints at a great price.

 

I second Andrew's statements. But I would add that telephoto range is generally even more prone to any shake effects, as is macro. The actual lens and camera combo also presents a variable in how vibrations may travel through the whole system.

 

The MZ-S and the PZ-1p do also have MLU with the 2 second timer, but not the PZ-1.

If you have M42 lenses then you might look for a Canon Fl or FD body and an adapter for using M42 lenses with a Canon camera. The Canon FT QL has mirror lockpup. In the FD range the FTb, FTbN, EF, F-1 and F-1n also have mirror lock-up. If I could find my TX and TLb bodies I would check them but I don't remember them having the feature. The only mechanical K mount camera made by Asahi and with mirror lock-up is, I think, the LX. These are hard to find and expensive. The mechanical Nikkormat cameras have mirror lock-up but I find the lock-up mechanism on the Canon cameras earier to use.

 

A good friend of mine has two Canon EOS RT cameras. These are Canon AF SLR film cameras which have fixed pellicle mirrors. You lose a small amount of light but the quality of the image on the film is very high. If improved fast film and IS didn't come along when they did, the pellicle mirror concept might be more common today.

The Yashica Electro 35 was the first 35mm camera my folks owned (a friend of my Dad's brought it back from his trip overseas). They promptly got rid of their Kodak Instamatic camera.

 

Like Craig Schroeder, many cameras would pop the mirror up when the self timer. I had one or two of these, just don't remember if they were Pentax or not (I remember a Miranda I had that actually did have a mirror lockup lever, though I never used it).

I and others have found that Pentax SLR's with the horizontal travelling cloth shutter can "pre-release" the mirror (aka mirror lock up) by flicking the shutter or tapping the shutter release lightly. It's described within some other threads or elsewhere on the web. It takes just a bit of practice and isn't difficult to do reliably. I've a Spotmatic and a MX in which the mirror can be pre-released in this way.