New vintage toy from the present past – Photo of the Day #23

January 4th, 2010 • photography
Tags: 35mm, camera, cameras, d90, nikon, photo of the day, photography, project 365, project365, rangefinder, slr, yashica

This is my new vintage Yashica Electro 35 GSM 35mm rangefinder camera. It was built circa 1973 and is a testament to the industrial design that was so chic in 1970s Japanese culture. It was one of the first rangefinders available that made use of electronic step-less shutter which was controlled by an electro-magnet. It’s built like a tank and has atrocious ergonomics, which apparently didn’t exist at all until the late 1980s in camera design — my early 1990s Yashica 230-AF displays a dramatic change in body shape, built for hand-holding compared to the Electro 35 GSN.

Winter, you’re right on time

January 4th, 2010 • chatter, photography
Tags: cameras, chatter, cold, photography, south florida, weather, winter

With the new year comes cold weather for us in South Florida, although it typically starts right around Christmas. Unlike our northern brethren, it only lasts for perhaps 2 months out of the whole year and it looks like 2010 will be following the same routine. I was outside last night and it was a chilly 45F with a ~6MPH NNW wind, that’s very chilly when wearing shorts. It’s going to be like this until roughly March when spring break starts, so I’m eagerly looking forward to March this year.

Unlike many people, I haven’t made any resolutions because I don’t believe in making some future goal I can’t attain, or will be simply uninterested in attaining. This is something I’ve long believed in and find it much more realistic to simply make periodic goals that are both easily manageable and easily attainable. A few of my goals from last year hold over to this year:

maintain a healthy weight

continue academic excellence

maintain professional work environment and demeanor

Some new additions for this year are things I’m very excited about:

Photography project 365

Shoot more 35mm film

Regimented motorcycle maintenance

Build a multi-account savings nest egg

Read more books during down time from school

Some of these I’ve already started doing (project 365, savings) and others will take a little work on my part (books, maintenance). I’m very excited about things photography-related. I’m starting a 365 day project of taking at least one picture a day for the whole year, an idea I got from toomanytribbles whose taken some of the best amateur photographs I’ve seen all year. Her portfolio really grew from January 2009 to December 2009 in terms of quality. My girlfriend and I are also going to work on shooting more film throughout the year. My goal is at least 2 rolls a month, which is extremely attainable given current film costs associated with the film and processing it. Shooting film is going to help us with our digital work immensely in that it definitely helps us understand and associate different settings and their uses to their digital counterparts.

My film work was never great, but never terrible either. It was definitely very mediocre and middle of the road, with a few lucky shots here and there. I’m not sure what cameras she’s going to use to shoot but I’m definitely going to work with my growing cadre of cameras:

Minolta X700

Yashica 230AF

Yashica Electro 35 GSN

Canon AE-1 Program

I’ve had the Minolta for almost 10 years now but it sat dormant for the last 5 years and I just cranked out its first roll of film last month. It needs a bit of an overhaul, as does the Canon. I have not shot either Yashica yet due to not having any batteries or film; the Yashica Electro 35 GSN actually requires a battery adapter to use modern batteries, which I just received on Thursday of last week. I will be buying film for both (cheap Fuji X-tra Superia 400) to see if I need a diopter or if either of them need servicing before heavy use. So far, I adore using the Canon AE-1 Program over my old Minolta. The two bodies aren’t separated by much development time in years but during that time in the late 1970s until the mid 1980s, everything changed almost every day. I love the ergonomics of the Canon over the Minolta, the Minolta has a much clearer matte split-ring focus viewfinder while the Canon’s viewfinder is brighter while sacrificing clarity (requiring a -1 diopter, something I don’t need on the Minolta), the film advance lever on the Canon is more intelligently placed than the Minolta’s (that’s what about 7 years in ergonomic design gives you), the Minolta has better top controls while the Canon is dead simple to literally point and shoot. I’ve heard stories that the Minolta SRT-101 is on par with the AE1P but since I already have a Minolta, I’m not sure if I’ll dive into another one that’s almost identical.

I’m dying to try the Yashicas since they’re from two very different eras, separated by roughly 30 years of development. Not to mention one is a rangefinder (Electro 35) while the other is an early 1990s CPU-controlled auto-focus beast (230AF). Experimenting with this various equipment exposes us to a lot of what went into the development of our Nikon DSLRs we both carry around and helps us understand why some people still prefer film over digital or vice versa. I’m in the middle of that camp. I love digital’s all-you-can-eat abilities and the wide range of functionality that it presents the user however I do prefer film overall. But that’s another story in itself. In fact, most of what I just wrote could have been another post!

2010 is going to be another great year for me, I hope it is for you as well. I’m going back to work!