It has been two months since the second part of this series so some of you might have thought the analogue adventures already terminated, but the truth is “getting things fixed” took way longer than initially expected. So this time let’s have a look at these things and if you can learn anything from my mistakes.
Continue reading Analogue Adventures – Part 3: Getting things fixed
The M-System seems to be extremely popular in China, as we still see an increasing amount of manufacturers offering new M-mount lenses from this country. The latest is Syoptic with this 50mm f/1.1, sometimes referred to as “Mr. Ding 50mm lens”. Some of the few samples I found online showed very appealing bokeh rendering, so I ordered one as soon as it was possible in Europe. It took longer than expected, but I finally have it in my hands, so let’s have a closer look.
This lens will be reviewed on the 42mp Sony A7rII and the 24mp Leica M10.
Update March 2022: tests of E-mount version added
Update October 2022: An improved version of this lens has been released under the “Mr. Ding Studios” branding. You can find a full review here.
In one of my drawers I found two rolls of Ektar 100 from the times a roll was only 8€. Expired 2015. Not exactly properly stored. So a good opportunity to see if the exposure meter works and where I stand with the rangefinder calibration of this camera.
Processing and scanning was done at urbanfilmlab in Germany.
Continue reading Analogue Adventures – Part 2: First Roll of Film
When people hear TTArtisan many may connect that name to very fast lenses like the 50mm 0.95 or the 90mm 1.25, but today we are looking at something very different: a compact 28mm 5.6 for M-mount.
A maximum aperture of f/5.6 doesn’t sound that exciting, but then tiny lenses are always welcome here, so let’s have a closer look!
The lens is being tested on 24mp Leica M10 and 42mp Sony A7rII.
I shot analogue with two cameras in the past, a Nikon F80 and a Nikon FE2.
The F80 is actually a very modern camera which supports AF, VR, matrix metering and a few other things, but the rubber got sticky and I got rid of most of my Nikon lenses quite some time ago, so I have little incentive to use it these days.
The FE2 was better at giving the “analogue” feeling, but some parts of the mechanics are broken as the film advance doesn’t work properly. So on my first and only roll of film with this camera I ended up with a bunch of useless quadruple exposures.
The adventure of analogue photography ended for me here.
Until the day I was strolling through Stuttgart and discovered a camera store displaying a Nikon FM2, FM3a and F3 – all in mint condition and all – at least to my eyes – beautiful cameras. I got the idea of getting one of those, because: why not shoot some film for a change?
Continue reading Analogue Adventures – Part 1: Choosing a Camera