SPA Modeler

portman wrote:Partly the reason for not doing so much modelling over the past few months has been the resurgence in my interest in 35mm photography and Classic cameras.
One of the oldies I’ve been shooting recently is this beauty – An Olympus 35RC Rangefinder.



The b&W film comes from Eastern Europe – and expired in 1985. I’ve no idea what it’ll come out like but I got it from ebay for a few quid and thought it would be a laugh.

Cheers

Stuart

That is a really cool camera and a very small one if the box is for one 35 mm film roll !?

I see you have my favorite writer, Antony Beevors "the second world war" book behind your camera, have you read it already?

- Kari

Thanks Kari!

Yeah the 35RC is a pretty small camera. It’s one of the range of compact fixed lens rangefinder cameras that came out in the 70’s - before the advent of the popular electronic point and shoot 35mm compacts in the 80’s.

It is indeed small enough to fit in the pocket, has a really nice lens, and has fully manual and shutter priority with a working meter. It also has a really nifty mechanical setting that makes flash easy – not something you get often with old cameras.

Anyway I digress… Antony Beevors book…

I’m about 2/3 the way through it. It’s not a bad book by any means – I wanted a book to give me an overview of the whole war and when certain events fitted in where, to back up the more detailed books I’ve been reading on certain events. My only complaint so far is that I feel he’s gone overly heavy some advents, and really abridged other rather important events - Pearl Harbour was covered in two paragraphs and the chapter called ‘The Battle of the Atlantic and Strategic Bombing’, barely mentioned the war at sea.

But overall the book is really good, and is certainly giving me a good overview. It does deal with the War in the East, and the War against the Japanese which is really good, as a lot of histories can just concentrate on the war in the west.

I’m taking a break for a while and am concentrating on a book by Marc Morris giving the History of the English Castle.

Cheers

Stuart

Cameras and gear: I read the posts through to the last one with great interest. I really enjoy the gentle sparring of "love taps" about Canon and Nikon digital cameras and the honest-to-goodness feelings of joy for analogue in any form. Before I started posting, I considered what to do here, how to set up a mini-studio for tabletop shots, how good the Sony FE 50mm Macro is, etc. I am a Sony shooter with digital work all the way, because their A7RII and A7SII are formidable machines, built extremely well—not quite Fujifilm or Leica well but darn close, and the synergy between the camera sensor and vintage Leica, Canon and Minolta lenses is unbelievable. And before I go astray, my thoughts are: Nikon has superior lenses which as Lyle pointed out are almost all backwards compatible, Canon will do wonders with modified electronics and Contax lenses, but both Sonys are mean machines in very small packages, built properly with controls on the surface and not buried within menus, and I have shot inside an extinct Volcano under summer sunlight with no shade, with one battery using the Sony and it never stopped. Still I would prefer film, but that is not what the clients want. Talking with Guillermo Del Toro's DP who recently shot a commercial on film was like being with someone—a prisoner—who has been locked up within the confines of a medium bright room suddenly step into full sunlight. He was joyful about Super 16mm, its qualities, its tones, but it was just a moment and most clients want digital sharpness.

In the end, I decided to use my beat up iPhone 5c with VSCO app, all natural light—I'm shooting around 12:30-1:00 pm—on soft white paper. That's my current model photography set up.

Bruce / speedgraflex

Bruce, from your profession your knowledge on photography must be wastly superiour to mine. Only, one of the first things I learned was to get rid of this standard white paper as a background. I use different coloured sheets of card as a background for parts or finished builds.

Most WIP pictures these are made using the iPhone 5, while for "glamour" shots I use my Canon. Last one gets calibrated using a grey card, pictures done in RAW, then converted and finished in Photoshop.

My personal working horse:

Casio EXLIM 12.5X.

An old lady, but enough pixels and - more important - good macro mode. You may find it ridiculous, but Im traditional somehow. A PC for internet stuff. A mobile for calls. And - no wonder - a small pocket camera for pictures. Never used an IPhone or mobile for that. Never made bad experiences - cant say that from those superdupernew phonbes. Can you call so. with them after all?

There is nothing ridiculous, Lucas. Everybody may use whatever serves him well. And yes, the more modern iPhones, 5S and up, make really good pictures!

Thomas_M wrote:There is nothing ridiculous, Lucas. Everybody may use whatever serves him well. And yes, the more modern iPhones, 5S and up, make really good pictures!

Yes, my iPhone 7 has a great camera for close up work. Better than any camera I have owned for macro work. All of my photos for the past few months have been using my phone.

Thomas_M wrote:Bruce, from your profession your knowledge on photography must be wastly superiour to mine. Only, one of the first things I learned was to get rid of this standard white paper as a background. I use different coloured sheets of card as a background for parts or finished builds.

Most WIP pictures these are made using the iPhone 5, while for "glamour" shots I use my Canon. Last one gets calibrated using a grey card, pictures done in RAW, then converted and finished in Photoshop.

Thomas, your work speaks for itself, my friend! Your photos are beautiful. In the end, it is what works best. Definitely using RAW works with iPhones 5 and up for the control, and I chose soft white Rhodia paper because it's my favorite and it's always on hand—vellum coated, premium, 80gsm paper—bleed-proof, feather-proof, snow white paper and I always have a notebook of it lying around. However, I think also the quality of light where I live—hard desert light—is very suited to this background. I usually have Savage Seamless for the large backgrounds, rolls of this are lying around as well since my home is a studio.

Bruce

Stikpusher wrote:

Thomas_M wrote:There is nothing ridiculous, Lucas. Everybody may use whatever serves him well. And yes, the more modern iPhones, 5S and up, make really good pictures!

Yes, my iPhone 7 has a great camera for close up work. Better than any camera I have owned for macro work. All of my photos for the past few months have been using my phone.

Carlos, you lucky fella! That's a beautiful camera, and I am envious—do you use a case? I have never been able to find a workable case for any phone I have owned. What do you use for background? I am currently exploring cost-effective black backgrounds for photographing small parts—my current solution is black poster board from Target for $1 a piece.

Bruce