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Showing posts from November, 2018

Four-Posted Guest Post

Read my guest post at 35mmc!

Me and a Miranda

I got myself a Miranda SLR a year ago. It is a functional fully manual camera which has the rather rare distinction that you can change the ordinary prism viewfinder for a waist-level one. I also found out that I at a good price could get an adapter to use my M42 mount lenses on it. I mostly use a Helios model 44 58 mm lens on it, and have taken some pictures with ND filters too. The lens is a favourite. It was made in the former Soviet Union and came as a kit lens for Zenit 3 and 3M cameras. Zenit sold a lot of cameras in Western Europe as well. I certainly like the pictures the lens produces. The kit with Miranda equipped with a waist-level finder makes you a very slow photographer since it's difficult to focus with such a small matte-screen inside the finder. And you almost always have to use the loupe for focusing. It takes a while to get used to, but once you're on a roll (no pun intended) the process goes smoothly. I got my d

New Model Barmy

I modded a lens from a very compact fixed-lens camera to my very compact Olympus Pen F. The originating camera is a (how's that for a name!) Zeiss Ikon Voigtländer Vitessa 500 AE Electronic. The lens is a Color Lanthar 42 mm 1:2.8. On the Pen, which takes half-frame pictures, the lens will show what a 63 mm lens would on a full frame 35 mm camera. That's the insides of it. I would have loved to used it but there were several issues with it that I couldn't get my head around.   The distance from the lens to the film plane on this camera is very short. I figured I could mount it on an M39 screw mount and use it on my X-Pro camera but there wasn't enough space. And M42 mount was out of the question since SLR:s have to leave room for that lovely mirror slapping up and down. I did try it on the Pen F and I could get focus! However the albeit differently constructed mirror was in the way. The cylinder which the lens is mounted in was protruding as to collide with th

Cake in Progress

I am in the process of making a special lens mod. Just waiting for a part to be shipped to me. It will result in a rare combination of two rare parts... Oh, all right. On the camera end I am using my Olympus Pen F. Above you can see the lens without its mount. It will be a true 'pancake' lens - which protrudes very little from the camera body. I will not tell which is the lens. Though the camera providing the lens has Ikon in the name... Any guesses? You can't find the lens in my Etsy shop getOurBooks . Nor in the facebook group Analog Cameras & Lens Modding and DIY .