Old Dog, New Tricks...

A few months back, I purchased a new old lens for the Rolleiflex SL66 -- the 80 mm f/4 Distagon. This lens has an interesting trick up its sleeve -- a leaf shutter, originally for syncing with studio lights. But for me, the lens, with its internal shutter, is part of the contingency plan for my old SL66. You see, if the camera's focal plane shutter ever craps out on me, I'm going to set it to bulb and rely on the leaf shutter for exposure... Anyway, I finally got around to testing the thing out the other day. Long story short, it is a marvelous lens, noticeably better optically than the 80 mm f/2.8.

Tasting notes: Ilford HP5+ exposed at ISO 800 and pushed two stops in DDX 1+4.

Family resemblances

On a trip to Chicago not too long ago, we spent the entire day at the Art Institute. It was mid October and the temperature was what you might call coldish -- with an abundance of wind and rain as accompaniment. A perfect excuse to spend our day inside looking at art. I was documenting the trip with my trusty Contax G1 fitted with the wonderful Zeiss Planar 45 mm f/2 lens. I was shooting Ilford HP5+ pushed two stops. In general, I'm not one to push film -- if anything, I'll pull by a stop. What's the old saying, "Expose a lot; don't develop too much"? Words of wisdom as long as the light cooperates, which it did not do on this overcast day.

One of my favorite frames shows a sculpture called Family of Robot: Baby by Nam June Paik. It was made in 1986 using state of the art (at the time) Samsung monitors. According to the artist,  “One must … know technology very well in order to be able to overcome it.” Thirty four years on, I think there's still plenty to work on in this regard...