bjhurley wrote:
Don't forget to check out the Voigtländer F-mount lenses as well in the 50-ish focal length range. In addition to the widely praised 40/2, they have a 55/1.2 and the 58/1.4 that you may want to check out. Bastian K. has reviews of them here:
The 55/1.2 in particular looks nice if you need a fast lens, and has some improvements over the original Nikkor.
I really like the 40mm f/2. It's like a gussied up Summicron (with more distortion) for your Nikon camera. The 58/1.4 seems nice. I'm sure the 55/1.2 is lovely, as well...but I find the industrial design a bit weird - the proportions of the lens aren't pretty. I'm sure they're swell, optically.
So I picked up a Minolta Pocket Autopak 450E, because it was at my local shop for $20 in like new condition, and everyone knows 110 is the film of the future.
The new Lomomatic 110 is $180, and pretty much the same thing, so doing the math the Minolta is cheaper.
Size comparison to my Rollei A110 which genuinely is the greatest 110 camera ever made. Incredible Tessar lens that you can focus, excellent shutter speed range, tiny, solid metal nugget construction:
Nice thing about the Minolta is that it takes a single AA battery (no expensive hard to find batteries needed) and it only is used to power the flash and tell you if you should change between the two aperture settings (based on film ISO and the single fixed shutter speed).
Image quality does not come remotely close to the Rollei, but this thing is still fun to use.
All pics using Lomo Mistaken Identity - which is their clever way of covering up a packaging flaw when they sealed up a whole batch of film w/o paying attention to whether it was Lomo Purple or Metropolis. On this roll it was Purple.
Desmolicious wrote:
So I picked up a Minolta Pocket Autopak 450E, because it was at my local shop for $20 in like new condition, and everyone knows 110 is the film of the future.
When I was a kid my father gave me one of those little Minolta 16mm "spy" cameras with interchangeable slide-in/slide-out lenses. Truly pocketable but wow were those photos tiny and grainy. Looks like 110 is an improvement but maybe not by much.
bjhurley wrote:
When I was a kid my father gave me one of those little Minolta 16mm "spy" cameras with interchangeable slide-in/slide-out lenses. Truly pocketable but wow were those photos tiny and grainy. Looks like 110 is an improvement but maybe not by much.
A pedestrian bridge across tram tracks (literally named the Track Arch Bridge, Gleisbogenbrücke) in Zürich West, Switzerland. Leica M-A, Ilford HP5+, Summilux-M 1:1.4/28 Asph., square cropped due to a busy background under the bridge.
Thanks both, made offers on both the 20/4 and 50/1.2 ais on eBay and got both of them for a reasonable price. My F kit will be complete paired with the 28/2 ais and 105/2.5 ais.
That's going to be a solid kit! The 28 and 105 are obviously classics, but the 20 f/4 is also a super enjoyable little lens.
Here's a question for the group: anyone had experience with getting the TSA to hand check unlabeled, bulk-loaded film cartridges? My brain says that the blank plastic cassettes will confuse them...which is not particularly generous of me. At any rate, it shouldn't be an issue, right? They'll just do their swab and hand waving and etc, right? Flying in and out of PHL (I'm less worried about PDX TSA. They are generally pretty ok).
_jim_ wrote:
Here's a question for the group: anyone had experience with getting the TSA to hand check unlabeled, bulk-loaded film cartridges? My brain says that the blank plastic cassettes will confuse them...which is not particularly generous of me. At any rate, it shouldn't be an issue, right? They'll just do their swab and hand waving and etc, right? Flying in and out of PHL (I'm less worried about PDX TSA. They are generally pretty ok).
You’re better off taking factory film and leaving the bulk loaded cassettes home. On our return flight from Europe, getting my little bag of eight rolls of TMax 100 wasn’t a problem at Schipol in the Netherlands and even the TSA at Sea-Tac accommodated my request but my wife was in a wheelchair at the time having broken her leg in Amsterdam. This gave us a bit of preference and I felt more comfortable asking. Also, TSA at Sea-Tac decided my wife needed a thorough inspection.
They have camera shops in Philadelphia, buy some there and improve your chances on the return trip.
_jim_ wrote:
Here's a question for the group: anyone had experience with getting the TSA to hand check unlabeled, bulk-loaded film cartridges?
I did a Google search for this, and you probably did too, but didn't find anything useful. I saw other places where this specific question was asked, but it was never answered directly; people just warned about the risks of flying with film and told horror stories of being refused hand checks (mostly in the UK and Europe). I didn't see any reports that unlabeled film would raise any more questions than labeled commercial canisters.
I do think it's generally safe to fly within the US with film, since TSA is supposed to be good about allowing hand checks for film. But I haven't seen anything to indicate that bulk-loaded unlabeled film canisters would be a problem.
TSA has always been excellent hand checking film for me so I wouldn’t worry.
Then again I look harmless and timid, whereas @_jim_ looks like he would throw down at a moment’s notice.
