Pentax LX meets Minolta XD7

Posted by AlanClogwyn on January 31, 2012

So I got fed up of the ridiculous optech strap ends on my LX, and decided to do womething about it. Enter my old XD7 (scrap) – my what lovely strap lugs you have!

A large amount of wrestling with wire cutter pliers to unscrew the Pentax fittings from the body, and a good glug of Epoxy resin later and the Pentax can now take normal straps, that don’t get in the way when shooting!

It;s very much a non reversible process, but considering my LX is not far away from scrap itself, I’d say it was worth it.

Digital compacts have come a long way….

Posted by AlanClogwyn on January 21, 2012

My LX5 is actually useable to take photos with, although there is no hope in hell of any shallow depth of field, Being able to use f2 in a landscape situation as if it were F11 is very useful for situations where there’s no time to set up tripods and such like.

Here’s a few examples from Dinorwic Quarry, all shot handheld ISO 200 and at f2 (or whatever it stops down to as you zoom). I leave it in Aperture priority at F2 and never have to worry about it!

Would be nice to see a landscape scene mode where it sets itself to hyperfocal distance and stays there, would certainly speed up shooting in fun changing light!

Home Brewed XP2

Posted by AlanClogwyn on January 13, 2012

Some from a batch of XP2 done in Caffenol, a bit overdone really but still some go results, the grain is much reduced compared to c41 processing, but development time is long and you loose the multi speed ability.

Shot at EI200 and developed for 38minutes in Caffenol CH.

Infra Red on Film

Posted by AlanClogwyn on January 10, 2012

Finally got round to developing some Rollei IR 400 that had been sat waiting since October. Not only was this a good thing to finally see the images, but it was my first ever home development and the first attempt at using Caffenol.

The first film was given 16minutes, wrong move unfortunately, but the 2nd at 25 minutes was just right. There is also a 3rd at 30 mins but it’s not got a lot of interest on it. Luckily Film no.2 was a real cracker!

Now I just need to perfect my Negative handling as I’ve noticed a fair few drying marks and so on, although dust is considerably less than the labs I’ve previously used!

New Toys

Posted by AlanClogwyn on January 7, 2012

This is another little toy to keep me amused – a Minolta XD11 in black, fresh from the states. It appears to have previously been the property of a Mr. Leinwohl of Illinois, wouldn’t it be great if I could find out who that was?

Anyway, I’ve been tinkering and replaced the black dials with chrome ones for a nice old school look and may well carbon wrap it similar to the Pentax ME I did last year.

First thing’ first though, it seems to have a bad earth so it’ll be off to Mr Whitehead for a full service when I get chance.

2011 in focus

Posted by AlanClogwyn on January 6, 2012

So a lot happened in 2011.I moved back to film for a start, and in 2012 that is being progressed to processing said film too. So let’s look back at what I shot in 2011…

January was a cold month…