Found Slide

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 2/28/18

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Found Slide

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 2/27/18

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Found Slides, Bells of Chrome

Vintage analog color and black-and-white slide images from way back in the 1980s, scanned, edited and post-processed for enhanced web publishing.

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Went back to rummaging through my slide collection recently and updated the database with a few more found slide images from the latest scan. The scan included this set of images of brightly chromed helmets of a vintage fire brigade squad at a citizen festival. This was way back in the 1980s.

If I remember correctly, I had the Olympus OM-2n mounted with a Zuiko OM 135mm F2.8 lens, and the images were shot on a roll of Kodachrome slide film.

Industar 61 L/Z 50mm f/2.8, A Close Focus Friend

Cameras and Lenses: Images with a vintage legacy Industar 61 L/Z 50mm f/2.8, a compact Soviet-era lens known for its unique star-shaped bokeh, and close-focusing macro capabilities, at a 100mm full-frame equivalent on the Olympus Pen E-P5.

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The Industar 61 L/Z 50mm f/2.8, commonly found as standard lenses on FED and Zorki rangefinder cameras, is a 4-element in 3-groups construction and comes with a six-blade iris providing a range of apertures from 1:2.8 to 1:22, in a simple, sleek, and sturdy design.

The lens is acknowledged as one of the best normal SLR lenses to come out of the FED factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The lens elements are multicoated, images are surprisingly sharp and contrasty, and a focal length of 50mm makes it a good fit as a standard for normal use.

Industar 61 L/Z 50mm f/2.8

Though not designated as Macro, the 61 L/Z has a close focus of 30cm, and with its front element located deep in the barrel, you can go without the need for a lens shade, which also makes macro shooting a very functional aspect of the lens.

Olympus E-P5, Industar 61 L/Z 50mm f/2.8

On the E-P5, the lens looks slightly longish, extending out 95mm (including the M42/M43 lens adapter) from the lens mount face at its closest focal length; it does not add too much to the camera's weight, though. The effective focal length is now 100mm. The focus and aperture rings are easily manipulated with the thumb and index finger of your left hand.

Minolta AF 50mm f/1.7, Getting The Feel

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, image making with a Minolta Maxxum 7, a highly advanced, feature-rich 35mm autofocus SLR with intuitive analog controls, interactive LCD screen, and 9-point autofocus system.

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While the top-of-the-line Minolta model was the Maxxum 9, the Maxxum 7 does have its ways by being smaller, lighter, and more compact, comes with features that are more appealing to the enthusiast, and has an LCD panel fitted to the film back.

Highlights of the Maxxum 7 include a shutter speed range from 30 seconds to 1/8000 second, plus Bulb, flash sync speed at 1/200th of a second, three metering modes, full PASM shooting modes, exposure compensation, AE lock, continuous shooting at up to four frames per second, unlimited multiple exposures, self-timer, both DX and user-selectable ISO control, and more.

Minolta Maxxum 7, Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7

These were the initial shots when trying the camera out, or, as the title says, 'Getting The Feel'. As expected, the nominal functions of the Maxxum 7 were easy enough to operate, with the PASM dial, the shutter release, and the control dial for aperture control just within the grasp of your right hand.

Minolta Maxxum 7, Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7

The camera was easy to get started with, autofocus is fast and accurate, metering seems equally flawless, and as these images show, it looks like the Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7 RS is also equal to the task. Beyond this scratch on the surface, it looks like I still have a long way to go to really understand the full potential of the camera. Let's not wait too long for that.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, Black & White I

CCD Resurgence: Images with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, a super-zoom digital bridge camera with an 8.1MP CCD sensor, an 18x optical zoom lens (28-504mm equivalent), manual exposure controls, and RAW format support.

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The DMC-FZ18 was part of Panasonic's popular range of compact superzoom Lumix cameras. It was introduced barely half a year after the launch of the DMC-FZ8. Being almost identical to the former, the FZ18 came with a bigger zoom, more pixels, and a range of new features.

The camera came with a bigger 18x zoom lens (28-504mm equivalent), more pixels with 8.3 MP on its 1/2.5-inch sensor, and features that include a dedicated AF/AE button, Face Detection, Intelligent Auto mode with integrated Image Stabilization, Intelligent ISO, Face Detection, and Scene Detection modes.

The Lumix DMC-FZ18 has a rather diminutive form factor. It does, however, look its part as it came fitted with a flower hood. It feels stable, safe, and solid in your hands, and operating the main controls (zoom and shutter release) is equally easy. The excellent handling, balance, and weight, with the support of image stabilization, make it even more comfortable to use the camera with one hand.

Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18

The top-of-the-hill aura of the camera was, of course, the superb Leica DC Vario-Elmarit f/2.8~4.2 lens, where images remained exceptionally sharp and clear even at the extended zoom limits. Exposure modes available on the camera were Programmed AE with shutter speeds at 1-1/2000 second, Aperture Priority AE / Shutter Priority AE at 8-1/2000 second, Manual at 60-1/2000 second, and Starry Sky Mode at 15, 30, and 60 seconds.