This post sat as a draft for a long time when I was using blot. Whilst migrating my site to this new Hugo one I saw the pictures I took and thought I might as well write it up quickly. Background I ended up with both the 50mm f/2 and the 60mm f/2.4. The first as I wanted a longer lens for when out and about, but still light and quick focusing, and the latter as I started scanning my film with my camera.
Print out your photos. Please remind me to do this. It’s so fun to hold them in your hand and look at them. You really study them when they’re there and it’s not a queue of 200 images to get through. Doesn’t need to be a fancy printer, or perfectly colour matched. Just print them out on whatever you have. Don’t have a printer? Get one of these for immediate fun!
A few weeks ago I managed my first successful attempt at film development. Whilst I was very excited that it worked, the next thing was actually seeing the images. I did take a tiny picture of several frames using my phone and the filmdev app. That was fun just to see that there was something. The next thing is making larger images. My two choices were scanning onto the computer or dark room printing.
My dad likes photography, but he doesn’t really have a camera. He used to own one, think it was a Praktica SLR. He’s told me the story of dropping it in the sand at a beach and also of setting up a darkroom space in his bathroom, but then never getting a chance to use it before moving. Having said he likes photography, I’m not really sure how many photos he’s taken.
This, the 35mm f/1.4, just arrived today from eBay. I fitted it to my X-E4 and took a selfie in front of the mirror. It’s night time so it’s dark and I decided just to focus on the camera not my tired eyes. I can’t believe how light this lens is, even with the hood on. It’s lighter than my 50mm f/2. It’s quite long, particularly with the hood but because of its lightness it balances nicely on the X-E4.
I’m referring to used prebuilt computers, and not laptops…all of those are prebuilt. Things like HP or Dell or Lenovo desktop or server machines. I do quite like them. They offer good performance at a good price, and generally there are loads of them available. They’re typically ex-business machines and have enjoyed a comfy life in an office. They usually have good CPUs and if you’re lucky you can get decent ram and SSDs in them already.
After the previous attempt, where I concluded the developer had expired, I was determined to continue. First I had to purchase some new developer. I decided to go for Kodak HC-110. This appears to be a classic developer from the beginning of time and it’s high dilution ratio and long shelf life attracted me to it. Initially, I thought it was more expensive than the Ilford ilfosol 3, but that’s because I didn’t notice I was buying 1 litre of HC-110 vs.
This isn’t my first attempt at film development, that was at the beginning of this year with trying out the 4x5 camera. I’ve been meaning to write about that for 9 months, maybe I’ll get to it soon… This was my first attempt at 35mm film though (black and white, obviously). Up to now I’ve just sent them away to filmdev.co.uk as they do a good job and are competitively priced.
A few weeks ago I was passing through London and thought I’d take the opportunity to visit the flagship Leica store of the UK - London Mayfair. If you’ve played Monopoly, you’ll know this is the expensive part of town! It was quite the store. Display cabinets with all the cameras and lenses - M, SL, Q. There was a gallery and various display cabinets. I could’ve spent hours there, but unfortunately I only had about 20 minutes between trains.
The Queen is travelling from Balmoral Castle to Edinburgh, and goes along the main road that’s a 10 minute walk from our house. Couldn’t really be easier to go. There were, unsurprisingly, a lot of people. There were also a lot of police stationed every 100 metres or so just to keep people on the pavements. The road wasn’t closed the whole time, and so people were still trying to drive around but it would’ve been a nightmare.
I was going to call this a review but it’s not that official. Kosmo Foto Mono is a 100-ISO panchromatic black-and-white film. I think I bought it as I liked the box design more than any meticulous research that I undertook. I think it’s made by Fomapan, but I think it’s quite different to the Fomapan line. They suggest you can pull it to 50 and push it to 400, which I think is unusal for a panchromatic film.
My Leica M2 was made in 1962, according to the serial number, and it works just as well today as it did when it was first made. It’s my most favourite camera. I love the rangefinder focusing, and the feel and quality of it are outstanding. With a little care and maintenance this camera will last me another 60 years and beyond. My grandfather was a keen photographer and took many photos in his life.
I like big oranges. Navel or winter or Jaffa or whatever they’re called at various points of the year. They’re always big. Bigger than clementines or satsumas (what is the difference?) or other citrus fruit of that colour but which are smaller. They’re satisfying to eat, they fill you up somewhat, generally juicy, and a good size. They can be a pudding or a snack and you’re not looking around for another or something else.
I’ve looked at them a few times over the years but never bought one. They are pretty expensive - I guess from import duties etc. from Japan - and, you know, it’s just a notebook. However, I saw that the 2H 2022 ones were up for pre-order at a local online store and so I went for it. Being half the year means that it was maybe half the price.
Whilst I’d love to get a Leica Q2 or even a GRIII, they’re quite expensive (quite being the understatement on the Q2). I’m interested in getting a compact camera to just take anywhere without it being a big deal. My Fuji isn’t huge but it’s not something that fits in the pocket or near enough. These last two statements don’t really support the Q2 whatsoever - it’s not that compact and given its price, it’ll always be a big deal - but I still want one.
As much as I love computers, it does turn out that you can have too many. A while back I decided that we needed another computer in the office for when two people wanted to use a computer at the same time. Sounds logically right? I managed to pick up a good deal on a Mac Mini. It was a 2012 model but top spec and still very performant today. The only bad thing is that it’s stuck on an older version of macOS.
It’s been a long time since I last built a new keyboard. I think it was Christmas time 2018 when I bought the Iris keyboard as the store had a sale on. Funnily enough that was a split keyboard. I keep meaning to write up a post about all my mechanical keyboards (there’s been quite a few over the past nine years) and I’d enjoy going back and remembering what I had.
If you visit the Fujifilm House of Photography in London, somewhere on the walls you’ll find a photograph that I took. Afraid it’s been taken down now, and lives at home with me! I had some friends who were keen to go astrophotography shooting and invited me along one evening. We drove out to the mountains and tried several places to take pictures. Prior to going I’d done a little research into how you actually take photos of the sky at night.
A while back I decided I needed (yes, needed) another laptop. I do have a Thinkpad T450s already but my daughter has pretty much taken it completely and uses it for school work. So I went on the hunt for a new one. I wanted it to have USB-C so that I could use my existing dock and setup at home that I have from working at home with my work laptop.
For my Meditations Tiddlywiki, I wanted to make each statement an individual tiddler. Whilst it doesn’t add a great deal to the site right now (beyond just viewing the minimum amount, the random tiddler button, and following the tiddlywiki mantra), I think it’ll be useful later on. Over time I’d like to add my own thoughts or interpretations to them, or maybe categorise favourite ones with new tags. Plus they might be useful for other people who can export tiddlers or download the file.