February 2013 – tim dobbs photography

Another reason to keep my Olympus EPL-1……….

If you have read my last post I was thinking of selling my Olympus EPL-1 since getting a Fuji X10 but have had a change of heart.

Looking back through my Aperture catalogue I came across a folder of photographs where I was playing with the various Art Filters that are built in to the camera.

To be honest the 2 filters I found I used over and over were the Pinhole and the Gritty B&W featured here.

The Pinhole is not to overpowering and boosts the contrast and colours while adding a vignette.

While the B&W is an acquired taste….. I love strong, contrasty B&W which is how I shoot my film photography so I love the filter.

The only thing I don’t like about the Olympus is the lack of viewfinder but since being able to use my Canon lens and the Art filters make up for that and the camera will stay in my bag and not on eBay 🙂

A new lease of life………..

Since buying my Fuji X10 as my walk about digital camera I was going to sell my Olympus EPL-1 as I didn’t think I would use it anymore but after reading on the internet that you can get micro 4/3 lens adapters that allow you to use all manner of older lenses depending on which adapter you purchase.

As I have got back into film photography and even though I shoot Nikon primarily and have quite a big collection of lenses I also have a few Canon FD mount lenses and decided to buy a Canon adaptor just to try it out for myself.

The adaptor just cost £10 on eBay and I didn’t really expect much from it when it arrived.

After fitting the mount to the camera I attached my 28mm f2.8 which equated to approximately 56mm in 35mm format and played about for a while.

The lens metered automatically but obviously it was manual focus which on the EPL-1 was very easy to use as you can press the magnify button and get a live view close up of your subject for accurate focussing.

Shooting at f2.8 was a utter joy and the close focus was great with the 28mm, stopped down to f4.0 and over and it was sharp as a tack over all the frame.This has given my Olympus a new lease of life and I will not be selling it in the near future.

I would recommend anyone using a micro 4/3 camera to have a look at one of these adapters especially a Canon FD mount as these prime lenses are going for a song and are very good quality.

Thanks for looking…………..

1st roll of film in 4 weeks…………

For the last 4 weeks I have been really neglecting my blog due to a really persistant chest infection which not only laid me very low but it stopped me doing what I love…. shooting film.

So this weekend as I am feeling much better I was determined to shoot at least one roll of film so I loaded up the Bronica with some Ilford Delta 400 and set it to shoot at 800 as I was visiting my parents and knew that the light indoors would not be the brightest.

My dad is getting used to me pursuing him around the house with my camera so gave up and posed for me for once 🙂

Mum doesn’t really like having her photograph taken so I had to be a bit sneaky and managed one or two frames.

The same goes for my wife so most of the shots of her are candids not really portraits 🙂

I found that shooting at iso 800 in 6×6 format on Delta doesn’t really increase the grain much when processed in infosol 3 and really helps when trying to hand hold in poor light.

I think I will most probably shoot at 800 most of the time as the benefits out weigh the little extra grain you get ( I love film grain anyway ).

Thanks for looking and I am hoping to post a lot more frequently this year.

Comments most welcome 🙂