kalimar spirit p

i have this simple camera sitting on my desk for awhile and i decided to take out for a spin tomorrow.  as i have said on this post (click here), i don’t really like panoramas on 135 film.  i feel like its just a shame to waste that small 35mm film real estate just to cover up by masks. before loading up the camera i noticed you can detach the mask on this camera. yipee! so its off to the beach with the kalimar :).

here’s the camera with the mask on.

here’s after i took it out.

the viewfinder window on this is panoramic though. but it shouldn’t matter, i hardly look through focus free plastic cameras anyway. this should be fun.

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test roll: Smena 8M

*a couple of months ago i posted my “newest” cameras (here). i’ve gotten the test rolls weeks back but i haven’t blogged about em yet here. but i have posted the test shots on my tumblr.

Lomo Smena 8M: this is my first Lomo camera (“but you have that snap sights! plastic camera ben?” some would i assume ask. Lomo is a manufacturer people. one person actually came up to me and asked about my “lomo cam”…. i was holding my Olympus rangefinder –facepalm .) i wanted to get an LCA way back, but when i was about to fly out to hong kong where i planned to get it, i found my beloved mju sitting in a cupboard at home. so long story short, i spent my money on something else lol. back to the 8M, it is surprisingly GOOD! i mean forget that its body is made of cheap plastic, shutter release is just hard to press, no coupled rangefinder (yes you have to guesstimate your focus), the list goes on how ridiculously cheap and primitive this camera is but its all made up by the amazing optics this baby has. its just effin’ amazing. also, multi-exposures makes this camera alot more fun to play with.

ferrania 200

the rest of the smena 8M photos are posted here.

 

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test roll: Kiev 4AM

*a couple of months ago i posted my “newest” cameras (here). i’ve gotten the test rolls weeks back but i haven’t blogged about em yet here. but i have posted the test shots on my tumblr.

kiev 4AM: mine was made in 1983. compared to a regular kiev 4, the 4AM does not have a light meter built into the camera. ergonomically, its a bitch to hold.  i had to “relearn” how to hold this camera. on a normal grip, you tend to cover the rangefinder window. so you try to avoid the window by serparating your fingers in a weird way. known as the “contax hold” as matt denton puts it. im sorta used to it now even though i have just used the kiev w/ only one roll of film. this came with a really nice helios 103 53mm 1.8 lens. same as the zorki 4 in the previous post, the kiev is well-built, very solid and has a bright viewfinder. what i find annoying on the camera is the lens locks whenever you set it to infinity. the film advance knob and the shutter speed knob are both not as smooth to turn as on the zorki. but despite this its still a great camera.

ferrania 200

the rest of the kiev 4am photos are posted here.

next up: test roll: Smena 8M