Notes From The Top Left Corner

They were actually quite palatial and much better than the wooden hut we had before up under South Cliff. The only downside was digging all the shingle away from the entrance after the Spring tides. They were also larger inside and had running water as I recall. I understand that they sell for a fortune these days.
 
Beautiful colours, the late afternoon light this time of year is wonderful.

When I saw the second one the first thing that came to mind was the head of the headmaster figure from "The Wall".
 
Some more experiments with the 10 stop ND filter this afternoon and and at >2 minute exposures, I learnt a little about 'hot pixels'.
It's the last day before the wheel goes down the road on a truck, so...

Unfortunately, I learnt how to deal with them too late for those pictures though!

Two minute wheel.JPG
 
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There was a big event last week!
Anyone mildly acquainted with the nonsense I write on this thread is likely to have worked out that, although I spend often on this hobby, I never...ever...spend big.
I have come to the conclusion that, sometimes you just can't beat having a good, solid, modern auto-focus lens handy and that no matter how much I love my ever growing collection of Takumars, Meyers and the like, I'm missing out just a little on modernity.
I'm happy with the range of options I have for my Canon DSLR but I have nothing better than a kit lens for my little Sony that I like to take on short trips abroad and on some of my forays into the street.

So I have invested in a nice shiny new E-mount lens. This is a major departure for me, because it's only the second new lens I have ever bought. You'll realise just how big a departure when I point out that the other new one was the little Fujian which cost 16 quid!

The device that my gleaming eyes lighted on is a Sigma 30mm f/1.4. I spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, out and about with it and have been thoroughly delighted with the decision I made. This really is a very nice lens indeed.

Favourite photo from the weekend?
It's this one, I think (Link)

But this is fun too.

The Hulk.JPG
 
Anything you like, but keep it under 10kg.

I have been thinking of what to take on an upcoming trip and how to keep it all under the 10kg cabin baggage limit.
The bag weighs about 3kg on its own!

Here's the list at present of the main items, but it may change many times between now and take-off time.

Canon dslr body
Pentax 35mm slr body

Lenses for the Canon
50mm f/1.8
50mm f/2
10-20mm
70-300mm

Lenses primarily for the Pentax but useable on the Canon:
Adaptall 35-70mm
Adaptall 35-210mm
 
I bought an old Yashica FX3 in a charity shop a few months ago. I got it for the lens (a 50mm f/1.9) but I thought I would see if I could try it out. The whole thing cost under £9.00, so no big deal if it transpires that it's a clunker.

After a quick inspection, it turns out that the light meter is out of action and the seals are a bit gooey.

Some new batteries arrived today and they seem to have sorted the light meter out.
The film advance lever is wobbly as hell (a common problem, it seems, but not always easily solved). It was removed and replaced three times - watch out for the left hand thread on that little screw! It's a little better, but not by any means what I'm used to.
I have managed to come by a free set of seals, so when they arrive, I shall make an attempt to install them, then we'll see what we can make of it.

If I can get some reasonable results, I'll replace the tired and flakey leatherette body covering panels.

I'll keep you posted.
 
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I took a lot of shots with the DSLR as well as 5 rolls of 35mm stuff. Picking that lot up from processing at the weekend, so looking forward to seeing what was captured!
 
Some fine shots from Madeira there, Chris. I especially like the lamp and hand.

I used a Yashica FX3 as a second camera back in the mid 80s on a trip to Kenya (the main camera was a Nikon FE, which I still have). Unfortunately it never made it back as it was stolen along with the roll of film in it. :mad: It was lent to us by a friend and they were not particularly concerned by its loss, but we did buy them something to replace it although I cannot recall what. That Yashica you bought didn't happen to have a roll of film containing pictures of Mombassa in it by any chance did it?! ;)
 
Ha! No, 'fraid not.
Funnily enough though, I unearthed a roll of film in our spare bedroom last night, which I recall nothing about. It will be fun to see what it reveals - it could have been used anytime in the last eleven years.

Funny story:
When I was doing my final exams at college, I had my car stolen by some lads who had escaped from a remand centre. They left the car in a ditch just a few hundred yards down the road from the house, walked a bit further to the neighbouring farm and stole a car from there. The police took my car and dusted it, and everything in it, for fingerprints. Roll on about 16 years, and my daughter was getting interested in having a camera. I remembered that there was an old one of mine that I'd forgotten about and gave her that to try using. There were a few frames left on the roll of film in it and some weird white stains on various places on the body that we struggled to clean off.
Emily took her first few shots after receiving a short lesson on how it worked and we put a new film in the camera. She was desperate to see her first photos so we had the film developed. There were a few great shots of the end of my college days, showing long forgotten fragments of time and people I hadn't seen in years. Then there were five or six out of focus flash shots of some rough looking blokes who I didn't recognise. "That's odd" I thought until my wife realised that we were looking right into the eyes of the little sods who'd pinched my car all those years ago.
The car, a hand painted (with a brush!!! - before I bought it) bile green Triumph Toledo with a flourescent pink stripe on the bonnet - was dumped when they realised that it was just a little distinctive to be used as a getaway car from a jailbreak! While they were in it, they went through my stuff and found the camera in the glove box and had fun blinding each other with the flash before they went off to look for a more mundane looking set of wheels.
 
The Yashica FX-3 light seal replacement felt like it went OK, so I stuck a film into it and took it out on Saturday. I could only give myself one hour to use 24 exposures and had to feel like I wasn't just firing off without at least half a good reason.
Here are a few from the session:

Pestle and Mortar

Pestle and M.JPG


Sultan

Sultan.JPG


Swirls

Swirls.JPG

Nland Aterway

Nland Aterway.JPG

The fourteen year old within couldn't resist the last shot. Sorry, I really am so, so sorry.
 
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Given the above results, I've ordered myself a set of leather covers for the body.
Funnily enough, while searching for a supplier, I unearthed a thread on some funny little photography forum about replacing the body coverings on this exact model: http://realphotographersforum.com/forum/threads/re-covering-my-yashica-fx-3-cameraleather-com.3850/
The site referred to still exists but the links are all dead, so mine are coming from Hugo Studio Custom Camera Covers in the US - £14 including postage.
https://hugostudio.com/
 
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