What camera(s) are you using this weekend?

Here in the southern United States humidity is a fact of life during the summer. What I usually do if I want to use a camera that's been in the air-conditioned house is that I put the camera in a camera bag and place it in the trunk of the car for about 30 minutes. This lets the camera gradually warm up to outside temperature so usually I don't get condensation.

Well I live in Atlanta and have lived in Ft. Worth, New Orleans, Pascagoula, Orlando, and St. Pete. So I know what things are like in the American South. I'm just out of practice and it caught me by surprise because Atlanta is not usually New Orleans humid. It was yesterday though.

When I don't need a fast 50 I like the macro.

Spurred on by Allan Cobb's fine work with the Pentax 67 over on the current weekly thread, I've dusted off this old workhorse, loaded some film and I'm about to venture out, This particular example is the first Pentax 6x7 that I acquired and it survived over 15 years of commercial use without missing a beat. Today, it appears to be in better condition than it's owner! I even found an old box of it's original images use as a background.

This past weekend I used my Voigtlander Bessa L with the lovely little Color Skopar 21mm 4.0. I don't use this camera much because the covering has gone sticky - and it scratches the last two frames of a 36 roll, thus I only shoot shorter rolls which I rarely have available.

This weekend it's a new-to-me camera and lens, a Nikon F90X with a Tamron AF28-105mm f/4-5.6 (IF) lens. I'm impressed; I'll shortly post some results over in the weekly thread.

Nikon F90X

I got myself a Nikon F2 this past week - the dream camera of my youth.

Serial number indicates a 1971 production date and yet it hardly show any signs of use. I was a little concerned that 49 years of modest usage would show itself as unreliable shutter and erratic meter, but everything appeared to work and the first BW film came out fine.

I now have an F2, from Goodwill about two years ago.

As far as lenses, I still have the first lens I bought, AI 35/2.0, which still might

be my favorite lens. Last week I was out with an FT3 with TMax3200,

including some moonlight shots on the full moon.

An old friend this weekend, the first Nikon I bought, many years ago. It wears the original 50mm Nikkor f/2 lens, regarded by many as one of the best standard Nikon lenses, ever.

Nikkormat FTn

I got the 90mm Elmarit as part of a deal 15 years ago. As I rarely shot above 50mm, I think I have shot less than 10 frames during all these years.

This weekend I will put it on my Leica M2 and shoot a whole film with the lens. I hope to find out if we can become friends.

Spurred on by Allan Cobb's fine work with the Pentax 67 over on the current weekly thread, I've dusted off this old workhorse, loaded some film and I'm about to venture out, This particular example is the first Pentax 6x7 that I acquired and it survived over 15 years of commercial use without missing a beat. Today, it appears to be in better condition than it's owner! I even found an old box of it's original images use as a background.

 

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Just got a lens for 59$ from KEH for this unit: the 200mm F4

ralf_j said:

Just got a lens for 59$ from KEH for this unit: the 200mm F4

That's a great deal, Ralf. A good performer, though pretty much at the limit of my ability to hand-hold, even with 400 ISO film.

Shot a test roll with this Super Ikonta 532/16 last sunday, after a shutter transplant and recalibration of the lens and rangefinder. (Kept the original lens and RF housing)

Owner provided a donor camera, as the original shutter had a broken part and wouldn't stay cocked. Probably the reason why it was still in such fine condition.

Also had to suture up the case.

Also still have the same roll of film in my Leica IIIc. Only shot a few frames this last weekend while out hiking/bicycling.

I actually used this one last week, though might also this weekend.

It took until now to get a picture of it to post.

There are three shots left to use of eight year old film that seems to work fine.

Nikkormat FT3 with Tamron 24-70 lens.

It still has TMax3200 (TMZ) which I plan to use the EI 25000 push times for.

I used it last week, and hope to finish the roll this week.

My Nikon FE2 from the mid 1980’s is my favorite auto exposure camera.

My sample is a bit worn and beat up, and I have been eyeballing the market for a while to supplement with one more.

In my recent research for a platform for my non-Ai lenses I also notice, as a side observation, that it appears that fewer nice FE2 samples are on the market, and the prices are going up.

Anxiety that some irrational hype will price this camera out of proportion led me to buy another when a nice one presented itself this week (as if i need another camera).

I will test it during the weekend with the included Ai 50/2.0.

This weekends it's an old favourite, the Minolta XD7, currently fitted with the Tamron Adaptall II SP 28-80mm f/3.5-4.2 lens. (Model 27A)

XE-7 fitted with what some Minolta enthusiast believe to be the best version of the 1.4- The Rokkor PG was seven elements in five groups. There were also some Rokkor PF versions which were six elements in five groups. Honestly, I'm not sure if I could tell the difference. I think the last Maxxum versions had seven elements as well.