Another Last Four Rolls of Kodachrome with a Canon F-1 :)

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Eggboy's thread reminded me that I had also shot four rolls of Kodachrome right before the deadline. And as coincidence would have it, the camera that I used was also an F-1 -- an F-1n in my case -- the second model of the original F-1. Those old cameras were designed to take the 1.35v PX625 mercury battery, which is no longer available in the US. I've been using 675 hearing aid batteries in my F-1. They're 1.4v, which is close enough so that the meter isn't noticeably affected. But I discovered a problem with them when I was out shooting with my F-1 and the Kodachrome film. Suddenly the meter was reading four or five stops under, which would have resulted in severely overexposed images. The weather was also very cold and it occurred to me that the hearing aid batteries might be more sensitive to the cold than the old 1.35v mercury batteries. Fortunately, I had brought along my Gossen Luna Pro F meter, and was able to use it for most of my metering applications.

Some of the images required a bit of post processing. I didn't do any sharpening to them, but I did do some contrast and brightness adjustments to several of them. This was due mostly to my rustiness in shooting slide film and forgetting about just how narrow its latitude is. I'm out of practice, what can I say?

BTW, I didn't scan these slides -- I used a duplicator rig with my EOS DSLR that I've cobbled together. At the heart of the rig is a pre-AI Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5. I illuminate the slides with a flash pointed at the duplicator rig.

I've always loved Kodachrome for its brilliant rendition of yellows and reds, but it does pretty well with pastels too.

The Houston skyline on a cold December day.

And here comes the reds and yellows.

A couple of my friends and their bikes. My bike is the one all the way to the left.

Yes, I miss Kodachrome, but I have just recently tried Fuji Velvia for the first time, and I am amazed by Velvia's saturation and almost non-existent grain. Three of these four rolls I shot were Kodachrome 25 and the grain level of K25 -- which used to be the low-grain King -- was coarse compared to Velvia 50. So, even though I can't get Kodachrome developed anymore, having Velvia available makes up for it in a big way. Just wish it weren't so expensive, although the unboxed stuff at Freestyle isn't too bad, I suppose.

IAZA · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 2587 Location: Indonesia

I can't believe those are with films, looks like digital
Great series

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Congrts Michael. No reason to go digital. First class. I love them all.

Would you pls so kind and show us (me) a pic with the equipment you used for the scan. The results are really superb, no reason to work with a scanner.

Wink

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

Oh DAMN those rose hips are GOOD! Shocked

or I guess they aren't rose hips?

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I don't know from rose hips, Jussi. You talking about the berries? Those are holly berries. We have a large holly bush/small tree next to our house.
The flower, I don't know the species, but I can find out. That photo was taken over at my sister's house and she will know. The red leaves were taken there too. That is a Texas Red Oak. Sort of an unusual tree.

I have posted a thread here about my duplicator rig, but here's a pic of it:

The rig is composed of the Micro-Nikkor at the center, with the barrel only of an Opteka "digital" slide duplicator attached to the front. I removed the close-up lens from inside the tube. The two stages -- one for slides, the other for film strips, I scavenged off an old zoom slide duplicator. They slide onto the front of the duplicator tube and provide me with some adjustment capability. And then I've attached 30mm of extension tubes to the rear. This provides me with almost exactly a 1:1 image for my 1.6x crop body Canon.

[EDIT: I've changed what I wrote originally below after a bit more investigating]

If you wanted to build a similar setup, the digital slide duplicators I see advertised on eBay now are kind of strange. I don't recommend any of them, unless you buy one like my own Opteka and modify it the way I did. It's still available:

Click here to see on Ebay

Otherwise, I recommend you buy from these people. They have a variety of products that will allow you to build a rig like mine and have the ability to dupe slides and film strips:

http://slidecopier.com/

I just did a search on eBay on "slide duplicator" and I got several hits for the old zoom slide duplcators. They sold for $80-100 back in the 1980s and probably earlier, but they sell for dirt cheap nowadays. So, you might be able to do as I did and scavange the parts off them that you need. Besides, they do have uses for cropping slides.

Here's a link to the thread where I originally discussed my duplicator:
http://forum.mflenses.com/slide-copying-scanner-vs-duplicator-t22881.html

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

The end of an era! Sad

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Many thanks Michael.

Wink

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I agree with you about the reds and yellows.
Sigh, we'll miss Kodachrome.

Any news about that KC lab that was considering keeping up the dev job?

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Hey Orio, I'm assuming you're talking about the guy who posted to the Kodachrome Project that he bought a K-14 lab? Yeah, I just went back and checked on the thread over there and his last posting was back in January. He mentioned it's in storage with a bunch of their personal belongings as they are waiting for their house to be built. Discussions continue in the thread, though. It can be found here:

http://www.kodachromeproject.com/forum/showthread.php?t=674

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Thanks Michael, yes, I was thinking of that guy precisely.

eggboy · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:21 pm Post subject:

@ cooltouch: Great to see you got them up! I like the holly berries (I thought they were cranberries...in Texas?) I like red.

I will try Velvia, which is expensive, but I really liked the process of shooting slide film. For the Kodachrome, I really had to slow down and think and see, since, essentially, each frame was irreplaceable.

For me, shooting with these old mechanical beasts is such a pleasure, and a deliberate act, that, done in small measure as to not bankrupt yourself, can really help one's digital vision also. I find I shoot less frames in digital now....I was in a canoe drifting towards shore, peering thru my 40D and Sigma 10-20mm and found myself whispering 'wait for it, wait for it" as the perfect combo drifted into view, and I snapped one picture of it....

I've managed to get pretty much a sample of all the cameras I lusted for in my youth. A few years ago, you could pick up Nikon F's, Canon F-1's etc. for dirt cheap.. as in less than US$100 with 1.4 lenses!!! So, I now have a stable of these.

A final (long) note on this rambling post: I find, of all the vintage SLRs from the golden age, the F-1/F-1n first version to be the best 'feeling' camera of all, exceeded only by my recently-sold Contax RTSII. Smooth and refined. Better than the Nikons, which they had to be, as Nikon was THE SLR line of the time, so Canon had to try really hard to exceed, which I think they did. The Nikon F is the most evocative of all of them, as when I picture the late 1960s and early 1970's, with all the good and bad, I always picture the photojournalists with them. The Minolta SR-Ts are the best value right now, IMHO, and uses fabulous and still fairly cheap, for the most part, Rokkor lenses...(I'll get a roll I shot recently using the might 28/2.5 Rokkor SI up soon) Canon FTb's are cheap too. Nice thing about the Canons, which I've said before, is that you can mount Nikon, Exakta (the adapter for that is fairly scarce and will cost about US$100) and M42 lens to it, as well as the FD/FL lenses.

Film. Cameras with big, bright viewfinders that are really easy to focus. And if you stick to the common garden variety lenses, pretty dang cost effective.

I've got to get back to work!

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Well, eggboy, I found myself nodding in agreement with just about everything you wrote. I too still really enjoy shooting film, especially slides. I just wish it weren't so expensive now.

My favorite 35mm SLR is also the old Canon F-1/F-1n (I prefer the 'n' model). It just feels right in my hands and I like the viewfinder display too. I owned an FTb (an 'n' model) before I owned an F-1, and found myself enjoying it for much the same reasons. So when I finally got an F-1, I was already comfortable with it. Not too long after that I bought the gargantuan Motor Drive MF and I was in Old-School Heaven. Cool

But then, some years later, I went over to the Dark Side, and bought into Nikon. My rationale was that I wanted to have a path open to AF while still being able to use MF glass. I wound up with both a Nikon F2 and F3 and outfits for each, including motor drives. Ironically, I never bought an AF Nikon camera or any AF lenses. I must admit however, that I enjoyed shooting with the Nikons, but there was always something that seemed to be missing. My love for the old F-1 had never disappeared entirely.

Years later, and I still have my Nikon F2, and I consider it to be the best mechanical Nikon ever made, and one of a very few best SLRs of all time ever made. But still. I like the F-1 more.

About adapters, I've owned a Canon made adapter P for M42 for years and have just recently gotten to try it out for the first time -- just never had the occasion to buy any M42 glass until a few weeks ago. I also picked up a Chinese made Nikon F to FD converter that is well made, so now I can use my Nikon glass with my FD cameras. I'll probably never need one for Exakta.

A few more from the four rolls:

Rico

Houston's Buffalo Bayou, just outside of the downtown area.

The isolated red flower

Jalepenos!

Incidentally, I failed to mention the lenses I used for the photos. My friends and their bikes were captured using my Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 SSC, the city skyline was taken with my Tamron 24mm f/2.5, the townhouses were taken with a Tamron SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4, and the close-up of the berries was taken with a Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 macro. The rest were all taken with my Canon 85mm f/1.2 SSC Aspherical.

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Simply gorgeous colors and photos, CT, a shame to see this film pass on.

Nice choice of equipment for this swan song.