OFFICIAL I HAVE A NEW (FILM RELATED) TOY THREAD!!
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My first thought would be that you can always resell if you don't get on with whatever you buy.
I bought into the OM system back in 1974 and never regretted it. I preferred the small and light OM to the large and heavy Nikon F/F2 that were my final shortlist. On size, I can't comment on my hands but I find the OM bodies fine and have no problems. On the other hand (no pun intended) I found the Hasselblad too small for me when I entered the medium format world, so there must be a place for ergonomics and personal preference even when it come down to something as objective as size. I have a Minolta 9xi but no experience of what I regard as the classic Minolta cameras (pre auto focus); I prefer the OM handling.
Within the OM range, I prefer the more substantial feel of the single digit models, and if I could only have one body it would be the OM1 as I distrust battery powered cameras. If you want auto exposure, I'd go for preference with the OM4 Ti on the basis that that model fixed the battery drain problem with the original OM4 (which I have - dead battery after about 6 months as the "off" setting still leaves the battery draining. This is about the same as the life of a battery in an OM2 if you keep forgetting to turn it off when you put it away.).
Danones
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Nice. I like the idea you gave me. To be honest Im quite new on the photography world (1 year now) but my interest is so much that not long after I bought my nikon D3300 , a friend gave me a lomography camera (Diana F+) and now I am really interested on the Street photography So I thought about buying a 35mm Film camera.
All of this to explain to you that I like manual cameras, and I operate my Nikon on all manual. Im not sure if with the film I would be probably more comfortable with the OM2 like you have.
One day I will have one!
Im defintly going to have a look on the Olympus.
Do you guys know or do you recommend a place to buy it in the uk? Amazon? Ebay?
Danones
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Stephen Thank you so much for that mini review of the cameras. Really made me think about my purchase Maybe the OM4 Ti so... and do you recoomend any place to buy that? is it difficult to buy one? Cause minolta is so hard and you always get something really old and beaten
Prism arrived today and is sat atop my RB67 now 
it sure is a weighty beast, the RB now weighs a little over 3kg! It's quite difficult to hand hold at eye level whilst focusing the bellows and pressing the shutter, but mounting it to my monopod makes a huge amount of difference.
View attachment 36433
it sure is a weighty beast, the RB now weighs a little over 3kg! It's quite difficult to hand hold at eye level whilst focusing the bellows and pressing the shutter, but mounting it to my monopod makes a huge amount of difference.View attachment 36433
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OM4Ti are hard to find because they're in demand. The OM2SP gives you spot metering (but not the multi-spot of the OM4Ti) and much of the same functionality at a much more reasonable price. Though they do often have a problem with eating through batteries in next to no time so you pays your money, etc. You may be able to find an OM4T - it's exactly the same as the 4Ti but they dropped the 'i' for the US version.
As for where to buy ... try here.
Edit to add quote so it's clear who I'm replying to!
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There is actually an OM4 Ti for sale at the moment (or at least it's on the website) of my local Clock Tower Cameras. I have been tempted by it myself, but given that I don't see myself using 35mm film again, I've been good.
However, given that you express a preference for a manual camera, the OM1 may be a better fit. The OM2 and OM4 versions rely on a battery for the shutter as well as the exposure meter (although they both have a single shutter speed apart from B when the battery dies; the OM1 and OM3 have mechanical shutters. The metering on the OM4 is better than the OM1 and OM2 as it has spot metering, and can be set to expose for highlights or shadows very simply; but I have to admit that the OM1/OM2 satisfied me well enough.
There is an OM2 on sale here at a good price, and I've been more tempted by that as my OM2 is out on loan, has been for years, and I doubt it will come home!
However, given that you express a preference for a manual camera, the OM1 may be a better fit. The OM2 and OM4 versions rely on a battery for the shutter as well as the exposure meter (although they both have a single shutter speed apart from B when the battery dies; the OM1 and OM3 have mechanical shutters. The metering on the OM4 is better than the OM1 and OM2 as it has spot metering, and can be set to expose for highlights or shadows very simply; but I have to admit that the OM1/OM2 satisfied me well enough.
There is an OM2 on sale here at a good price, and I've been more tempted by that as my OM2 is out on loan, has been for years, and I doubt it will come home!
I got a very nice OM4-Ti with some lens sitting in an box somewhere,at the moment i cant see me shooting film,but just cant seem to let it go at the moment
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Well if you like playing with old M42 screw lenses..then the Minolta will take an adapter but the Olympus won't, same for Nikon
Danones
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I just went to a store and I saw a Olympus (can't remember the model ) for 200 pounds.
It is beautiful but it's not the Om model.
I will keep looking but I'm confused now which one should I buy!
And I am afraid I'm a new user so I don't have access to the sales bit of the forum so I guess I will have to wait the 60 days
It is beautiful but it's not the Om model.
I will keep looking but I'm confused now which one should I buy!
And I am afraid I'm a new user so I don't have access to the sales bit of the forum so I guess I will have to wait the 60 days
Well today was a weird day. I was hunting around for a Vivitar flash thanks to a recommendation from @skysh4rk , and I saw a 283 for sale for 20 quid in Bristol about 90 minutes away. Drove up this morning to have look. Chap in the shop put some batteries in it to test it and it didn't work. Never mind they had two in stock, but the second one didn't work either!
Went to another shop to look at a different Cobra flash and the chap said "we've just sold it but we have these lying about" and pulled out two Vivitar 283s! They didn't have any battery holders so I couldn't test them, so they let me have both for a tenner.
Went back to the first shop hoping to blag the battery holders from two broken flashes. They gave me both the flashes for a fiver so that I could use the battery holders.
Went home hoping to get one of the two flashes working once I put so e batteries in it, and they both worked intermittently. Took the holders out and the contacts looked a little corroded, so I gave them a little clean up, and both the flashes worked perfect, result!! then to make it even better I tried the cleaned battery holders in the broken flashes and they both worked ok now too
Went out hoping to get a flash for £20 and somehow now have four for £15! Two fully working complete ones and two that work but are short of battery holders.
Not bad going
Went to another shop to look at a different Cobra flash and the chap said "we've just sold it but we have these lying about" and pulled out two Vivitar 283s! They didn't have any battery holders so I couldn't test them, so they let me have both for a tenner.
Went back to the first shop hoping to blag the battery holders from two broken flashes. They gave me both the flashes for a fiver so that I could use the battery holders.
Went home hoping to get one of the two flashes working once I put so e batteries in it, and they both worked intermittently. Took the holders out and the contacts looked a little corroded, so I gave them a little clean up, and both the flashes worked perfect, result!!
then to make it even better I tried the cleaned battery holders in the broken flashes and they both worked ok now too Went out hoping to get a flash for £20 and somehow now have four for £15! Two fully working complete ones and two that work but are short of battery holders.
Not bad going
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Nice going Carl.........where a bootsale is handy is when you've broken say your excellent Canon 300TL flash...well mine slid off a table when connected to the T90 and the plastic flashgun hot shoe broke. Anyway saw another one at the bootie and bought it for £2 for spares (so I would take the hot shoe of the bootie one and put it on my broken one and just a few screws holding it in place)......well after a battery compartment cleanup for the bootie one, I've now got two flash guns that work but erm but only one hot shoe for both of them.
Cannyekerslike
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Hi Brother and Sisters of the Celluloid Order,
I am new to this forum, new to all forums this is my only one so if I have posted in the wrong place please correct me.
I have purchased from a local charity shop a Fujica Half which seems to be in quite good condition although the frame counter is not working and the meter readings are very high. With regards the meter I find this very odd as usually selenium meters read low when they are getting on and starting to fail, at least that has been my experience. I have been experimenting with the readings from the camera and my Sekonic meter and am slowly coming to accept that the camera may have been altered to make it more useful with modern film speeds. The options on the camera for setting the ASA are 10, 25, 50-64, 100 and 200. yet experiments seem to prove that the true ASA settings would be equal to 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800 making the camera really usable.
I have compared the camera and meter against a white board in the house with even illumination and out of the window and they agree with the new settings to within 1 stop. The problem is it is very driech here in Scotland today and I cannot try the two with much brighter light. So I am wondering if any members have come across a camera so altered or is my theory just pie in the sky and a coincidence.
Driech = dull, overcast, drizzly, cold, misty and miserable weather
Regards.....Andrew
I am new to this forum, new to all forums this is my only one so if I have posted in the wrong place please correct me.
I have purchased from a local charity shop a Fujica Half which seems to be in quite good condition although the frame counter is not working and the meter readings are very high. With regards the meter I find this very odd as usually selenium meters read low when they are getting on and starting to fail, at least that has been my experience. I have been experimenting with the readings from the camera and my Sekonic meter and am slowly coming to accept that the camera may have been altered to make it more useful with modern film speeds. The options on the camera for setting the ASA are 10, 25, 50-64, 100 and 200. yet experiments seem to prove that the true ASA settings would be equal to 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800 making the camera really usable.
I have compared the camera and meter against a white board in the house with even illumination and out of the window and they agree with the new settings to within 1 stop. The problem is it is very driech here in Scotland today and I cannot try the two with much brighter light. So I am wondering if any members have come across a camera so altered or is my theory just pie in the sky and a coincidence.
Driech = dull, overcast, drizzly, cold, misty and miserable weather
Regards.....Andrew
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Welcome Andrew, I've never heard of such an altered camera, and not sure how the alteration could be done. I'm guessing it would have been by a very knowledgeable professional with access to the original circuit boards? No battery or anything to alter the voltages...
Anyway, sounds very interesting. Once it stops being dreich and you can get out and take some shots, can you post some up here? Particularly interesting if you can record some light values from a meter and the selected values from the camera, at least for a few shots...
Anyway, sounds very interesting. Once it stops being dreich and you can get out and take some shots, can you post some up here? Particularly interesting if you can record some light values from a meter and the selected values from the camera, at least for a few shots...
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I've just had a look at the instruction book for your camera, and as the film speed setting appears to be accomplished by aligning the rotating scale with an index mark, it seems possible that someone could have simply relocated the scale. You can check (and disprove) this theory by seeing whether the scale matches in position the one in the book.
Cannyekerslike
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Hi simom ess, Yes some lovely words originating in this corner of the world, very descriptive, mind you I do get some odd looks when I pronounce them in my West Yorkshire accent.
Greetings ChrisR, Yes I will post some photos and details, I will have to get my head round that procedure., I hope to put a film through later in the week. With 72 frames to shoot I will be busy.
Hello StephenM, Yes the scale is as shown in the instruction book, so is the index mark for the scale. It could all be just a crazy old selenium cell but I have never experienced them reading high when they start to fail and the readings are consistent, at least the ones I have been abler to make so far.
Jon Kincaid
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I've got a Yashica Minster III with a selenium meter on it that seems to read too high. Today was quite bright and it read 18 which is fair enough but it did the same yesterday when it was raining at the Goodwood Breakfast club (photos to follow) so I measured it against several meters on my phone and it seems to be reading 3 EVs too high. I'm just going to manually compensate and see how things pan out. Problem is I was using colour film so will gave to get them processed to see if I'm right, as I've not progressed to c41 developing yet.
Wouldn't the same manual adjustment apply on yours?
Wouldn't the same manual adjustment apply on yours?
Jon Kincaid
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I have a couple of handheld selenium meters and the one on the Yashica and they all seem to read too high, I thought I was going mad, because surely they would become less sensitive over time, not the reverse. I posted about it before, so I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing this.
freecom2
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You're paying for his time; with a camera as well documented and ubiquitous as the F3, I wouldn't bother using a specialist service. JCH is much better for rare cameras, or limited edition versions of otherwise popular cameras, or for collectors - that's where his contacts and expertise come in useful.
skysh4rk
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Why are you enlisting Japan Camera Hunter for a Nikon F3 or Olympus SLR? They're very common cameras.
For instance, Ffordes have several F3s to choose from and a bunch of Olympus SLRs in stock:
There will be many more of these cameras out there; Ffordes was the only place I looked.
Danones
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I guess because I was so fascinated by how much JCH understands of films and I wanted to make sure I was getting a good deal but i now think its not the wise thing to do off course....
Stupid question maybe.... http://ffordes.com/product/1007231635768
This one, what type of lenses works there? A DX lens that i use on my DSLR can be used on that nikon?
Stupid question maybe.... http://ffordes.com/product/1007231635768
This one, what type of lenses works there? A DX lens that i use on my DSLR can be used on that nikon?
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Strapps
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Hmm, thought I'd answered this one when I posted a link to the suppliers thread but maybe that was missed. Just scroll up, you'll see it.
As for Southampton, there's LCE opposite the Civic Centre, they often have film cameras in stock and display them in the window. Or you could try City Photographic in Bedford Place, who sell a lot of film cameras and also develop C41 in store. Or at least they did when I worked in Southampton a couple of years ago.
HTH
skysh4rk
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No, DX lenses will not work with 135 format SLRs. You need a lens that can cover the full 135 format frame (a.k.a. full frame or FX in digital parlance).
Edit: Actually, to be clear, DX lenses will technically mount on a Nikon film SLR, but you'll get vignetting because they were designed to cover a smaller image area (i.e., aps-c sensor), so it's not really advised.
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Danones
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Guys thank you for helping me ... Its very kind from you.
I went today to LCE and I bought a 35mm prime lenses for my DSLR. Regarding the used film ones, couldnt find anything worth my money here so i guess i will have to have a look online
I went today to LCE and I bought a 35mm prime lenses for my DSLR. Regarding the used film ones, couldnt find anything worth my money here so i guess i will have to have a look online
Cannyekerslike
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Hi Jon Kincade, This is very interesting because my experience is that they read low when they start to deteriorate, at least this has been the case with my old meters. I am really confused now. However I did manage to get into the garden for twenty minutes this afternoon with the Fujica Half and my Sekonic meter and whatever the cause I am getting consistent readings for a scale which translates to ASAs of 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800 all within a stop of the Sekonic taking incident readings, some up, some down and some bang on. I now have to see if the readings are actually being set on the camera in auto mode so I have ordered a 100 asa film, used my last one at the end of last week, so when that comes I will put it through and see what I get. If it works then it is going to be a vey usable little camera to carry in my pocket all the time.
Have you tested your meters that read high against a reliable meter to see if they are consistent and could be assigned another scale so you can use the......................Regards Andrew
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Jon,
Had a bit more time to play with the camera this morning, the middle three options marked on the camera for selecting ASA, are 25, 50-64 and 100. The 25 setting gives results pretty much agreeing with my meter set at 100, the 50-64 setting agreeing with the meter at 200 and the 100 setting agreeing with the setting for 400, all within plus or minus a stop. The bottom setting 10 asa is much further out compared to the meter as is the top setting of 200 asa.
I spent some time on the internet last night, problems sleeping, and I found a couple of posts on forums where folks were replacing dead selenium cells in cameras and meters with the silicon photovoltaic cells from pocket calculators together with a small circuit including a variable resistor to adjust down the current from the new silicon cell which produces more than the old selenium cells did. These posts were over 10 years ago and I just wonder how prevalent these DIY fixes were and could that be the reason we are having high readings from equipment. Perhaps they no longer have a selenium cell inside and have been adjusted to give a more reasonable choice of films to use with them. I gave up on C41 proccesing as it is cheaper to drop them off at ASDA these days and let the machine develop them. I get them to develop them but not cut them up and give them me back rolled in along length in the film tube. I cut and scan them at home, if you let ASDA cut them they cut them into strips of four frames and my fiing sytem will take strips of six.
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I've the f2 version of this lens. Absolutely identical apart from a small baffle that makes the f1.8 into f2. It's a brilliant little lens and absolutely underrated. I love the rendering it gives. Nice purchase!
So this arrived in the Mail for the Praktica, i couldn't resist! Should be better than the Pentacon one at least!
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I think I have some spare battery holders. If I find them, you can have a couple (I will send a PM).
Steve.