Minolta AL

The Minolta AL is a heavy weight rangefinder. It weights a pound. Worn around my neck, it feels like my Canon DSLR with a big plastic zoom lens. If this thing had a faster lens, I'd need to wheel it around in a cart. My Mamiya 645 feels feather weight compared to this.

Interestingly, this tank of a camera is a delicate piece of photographic equipment, and deserves to be treated as such. With enough respect and elbow grease, this heavy weight can turn out some of the sharpest images I had ever seen. I paid 15 dollars on eBay, shipping included. I had to clean and adjust the rangefinder. The focus was off by 8 inches at 6 ft. The light seals had to be replaced and the screen mask behind the lens needed to be reattached (the adhesive they used back in 1961 came undone). Elbow grease aside, this is a totally underrated classic from 1961. If you decided to check one out, get a lens hood for it. The lens isn't sunken in far enough to avoid flare.

With a wet lens.
Taken at 3ft, f/5, 1/60 shutter Fujicolor 400
If you don't think this is sharp, edge to edge, I don't know what is.

Taken at 3ft f/2, 1/60 shutter Fujicolor 400

Film Advance Lever

The film advance lever was a much needed evolution for film cameras. Before the film advance lever was perfected, there were worst ways to advance the frames in a camera. The knobs on the Argus C3, or the dials on the twin lens reflex cameras were all very slow and sometimes stiff and very rough to use. This brings us to a point to talk about the different kinds of film advance levers. There are three distinctly different kinds of levers, multiple stroke, single stroke and the single stroke lever with the option to do multiple strokes, which I prefer.

• Multiple stroke: requires multiple full strokes to advance a single frame. i.e Mamiya 645e requires two full strokes to advance one frame on its optional film advance handle.
• Single stroke: requires one full and complete stroke to advance a single frame.
• Single stroke with the option to do multiple strokes: requires one full and complete stroke to advance a single frame, or several partial small strokes to advance a single frame.

The advantage of having a single stroke with the option to do multiple small strokes is that it allows me to advance with a single hand. It comes in very handy when my left hand is preoccupied with other tasks (like holding my three year old sons hand in public). When taking a picture, I advance the frame with my right hand,  put the camera against my face, and use a fast enough shutter speed to steadies the shot. This is why the cameras with the levers that has a single stroke with the multiple strokes option gets more sun and the others stays at home. 

What kind of lever is on a film camera should be a point to considering if you ever need to shoot one handed.

Single stroke lever with multiple stroke option on the Canon AE-1 (1980s).
I use this camera about 5 days out of the week.

Single stroke lever on the Minolta X-370 (1990s)
I use this camera twice in the last 3 months.

Between the Canon AE-1 and the Minolta X-370, the camera industry had a decade to figure out how to make cameras cheaper by reducing useful features, a process of constant cost improvement.

THE WAY I SET UP MY CAMERAS

Any respectable modern camera should have Tv (shutter speed priority), Av (aperture priority), and M (manual control) modes. I use M and Tv modes almost exclusively. I use M and Tv modes to control my aperture. I can't remember using Auto or Program or Av mode this year.

In Tv mode, I increase shutter speed to automatically decrease the DOF (depth of field), and decrease the shutter speed to increase the DOF.

In M mode, I generally want to lock in my shutter speed based on the subject, and the lens used. When I make pictures with my hyperactive kid, for example, my camera settings are, 50 mm focal length, 1/500 shutter, iso 400. I manually adjust the aperture to get a properly exposed picture.

Is there ever a need for Aperture priority while hand holding a camera? Not really. Since I never want to go below 1/(focal length) for shutter speed.


Depth of Field in Portraiture 
There are some factors that drive my decisions on what aperture to use in different situations. If I am doing a portrait of a person with a cool building in the background, I'm going to use a small aperture to create a high amount of focus depth to get everything sharp in the shot.

If I want background blur on the portrait or just instantly blur out unwanted features such as ears, I'd use a larger aperture to limit my depth of field.

When controlling depth of field, there are no magical f/number (aperture) on all lenses of all cameras. A source of confusion can be found here http://youtu.be/oobLnqpuAk4. Depth of field changes due to several factors, sensor/film size, focal length, subject distance and aperture.

How far away are you standing from the subject? What format (6x6, 645, 35, APS, micro 4/3, compact...)? How tight are you framing?

Assuming you like taking portraits at 6 ft with 35 mm format, 85 mm lens at f/5.6 which give you over 5 inches depth of field.

I shoot 645 format so, 150 mm lens at f/11 gets me a little over 5 inches depth of field 6 ft away from subject.

On a Canon S95, 22.5 mm focal length, 4 ft from subject gives you about the same 5 inches depth of field. the framing is tighter, but workable.

If 6 inches depth of field is what you think is the best for portraiture, that's cool.

I'm just throwing this in here since there are a lot of amateur format shooters out there that would get everything in focus all the time and can't seem to create what they want.

(1981-?) Canon AE-1 Program

The AE-1 Program is an evolution of the original AE-1. It was updated to a plastic base plate to save weight. Plastic battery door, and an addition of plastic palm grip. It is not programable. It is pre-programed with paired shutter speed and aperture settings.

The program settings to me is a sales gimmick. I don't use it.

Camera to Human Interface: The Eye Cup

Round rubber eye cup on the Canon AE-1

The Camera to Human Interface

I am amazed with the technology that comes out in the world of photography every minute of the day. Computerized cameras today can automate most of the work. Folks who don't want to learn photography can leave their camera setting on AUTO and get usable pictures. I have friends who are amazed at the picture quality of their new cellular phones, though I highly doubt they would be so impressed when the pictures are enlarged beyond the cellphone screen (no matter what the pixel count). With all these advancements, everything should be great, but there is something amiss, and it's rather low tech.

When I see modern compact and even SLR cameras, they lack a round eye cup. If you have never used one. You don't know what you're missing. Total immersion. To me, there is nothing more luxurious than an AE-1's large viewfinder coupled with a round eye cup (maybe the round eye cup on the Hasselblad H5D?). When the sun is behind me, LCD screens become so washed out that I couldn't compose with color in mind. All I could compose with is shapes. So what about EVFs (Electronic View Finders)? If you own an camera with EVF (I had a Sony A55V), I suggest you set the camera on 50mm (35mm film equivalent) focal length, look through the EVF with one eye and keep the other eye open. You may find the image displayed on the EVF to be surreal and unnatural.

I'm not sure why SLRs beyond the 80s and today came with square eye cups. They do nothing but cushion the user's head, and doesn't block out viewfinder flare and doesn't provide an immersive experience. If ergonomics is important to you and your camera supports a round eye cup, go get one. You won't be disappointing.

50 mm 1.8 FD (Plastic version)

The 50 mm 1.8 FD Lens was a popular kit lens that was sold with many Canon FD mount cameras. The one I'm covering here is the 50 mm 1.8 with the plastic body. If you have read my other postings, you'll come to understand that I focus on the transitional differences between the use of metal to plastic quite a bit.

BUILD QUALITY
Structurally speaking. The 50 mm 1.8 plastic version is as ridged as the 50mm 1.8 metal version. I owned both at one time and I could not tell anything different regarding the lens coating. The pictures were consistent with my findings.

Aside from the weight savings, the metal 50 mm lens is mounted onto the breech lock with a pressure ring that tightens by turning the ring. The plastic version had a locking mechanism that required you to push down a button on the lens and then twisting the lens onto the body. The plastic version's mounting mechanism ensured that you gave the lens just the right amount to pressure to install it. The older lock ring on the metal version of the 50 mm lens doesn't manage the pressure and you can over/under tighten the lens. The other thing that changed is the number of pins that had to be pushed in to activate rings to mount the lens. The older metal version has one pin where as the newer plastic version has 2 pins positioned adjacent to each other. So, why should you care about this? With the plastic version, the lens will always park in the correct position when you undo the lens from the camera. The metal version sometimes doesn't return to the right spot during dismount. Under this condition, it can get a little confusing when it wouldn't mount back on the camera.

Another difference between the Canon 50 mm 1.8 plastic versus metal is the lube used in the metal body lens often leaked onto the aperture blades causing them to get stuck. The plastic lens has much fewer cases of that happening. I have found 3 possible reasons for this.

1. The lube was different (though I have no evidence of this). 
2. Metal body lenses heats up a lot quicker under sunny conditions causing the lube inside to become more viscous thus leaking onto the aperture blades. 
3. The resting position of the aperture blades are different. While the metal 50 mm 1.8 lens' aperture blades are parked at 1.8 position with the lens wide open, the plastic 50 mm 1.8 lens is parked at f5.6. I found that the plastic 50 mm lenses that has oilly blades only has the contamination on the portion beyond the f5.6 opening. 

All metal 50mm f1.8 lenses I have encountered has stuck aperture blades whereas only 2 out of 10 plastic ones have slow but not stuck aperture issues.

Image Quality
Wide open, the 50mm at f1.8 provides plenty of pleasant bokeh (background/foreground blur) and at f22, everything between 6ft to infinity is sharp with maximum sharpness at 10 ft. I tend to shoot the 50 mm with subjects at 10 feet and beyond.

My favorite outdoor landscape setting for the Canon 50mm 1.8 lens is focus at 10 ft, f16 with the infinity symbol and 6ft mark over f22 mark on the distance scale. Shutter speed is 1/125th second on a sunny day and 1/50 on a cloudy day hand held. I can see my cafenated body tremors at 1/60 so I generally would prop up against something at that point. Body tremors not very visible at 1/125th of a second shutter. I shoot sunny days outdoor with Fuji Superia X-TRA 400. When I want some bokeh on a sunny day, I drop it down to f1.8 1/1000th shutter speed.

Columbia River Bridge Vancouver WA
July 28th 2013 10AM
f16, 1/30th, FUJIFILM SUPERIA X-TRA 400
Shot taken handheld with elbows propped up on guardrail

The Academy Vancouver WA
July 28th 2013 2pm
f16, 1/125th, FUJIFILM SUPERIA X-TRA 400
Shot taken handheld and standing

The Academy Vancouver WA
July 28th 2013 1:48PM
f/11 1/100 sec. NIKON D3200 ISO-100

Which do you prefer? Canon AE-1 Fuji Film or Nikon 3200 Digital?

(1976 to 1984) Canon AE-1

The CANON AE-1 is a shutter speed priority, interchangeable lens, single lens reflex, 35 mm film camera. The AE-1 Program model is an update to the AE-1 and offers an attachable palm grip, interchangeable focusing screen, and exposure presets (hence
Program).

The AE-1 has a simple layout.
From left to right as depicted
Battery door
Lens mount
PC Flash cord socket
AE Lock, and depth of field preview/aperture lock

The top of the AE-1 is very straight forward.
From left to right as depicted
Film door release/rewind knob
Battery check button
Flash hot shoe (synced at 1/60th sec)
Shutter release button with Lock and timer switch
Film advance lever on top of shutter speed film speed dial

USEAGE/MILEAGE

Over time, I have collected and used everything from Contax, Fujica, Konica, Mamiya, Minolta, Nikon, Pentax, Yashica, to Voigtlander, and Leica cameras, but I have always found myself gravitate towards the CANON AE-1. Why? With so many different brands of cameras to choose from (in my closet), many, arguably better cameras in every way (and they have to be better to earn their keeps), with less mirror slap, less shutter shake, better ergonomics, and quick auto focus, why do I keep picking the AE-1 over everything else? Simply put, it gets out of the way. If you have time, you can read the list of reasons below, otherwise skip to the Build Quality section.

1. It takes pictures. It is not a high price princes camera like a Leica, or a Voigtlander. It is not something that stays in a box its entire life and only comes out for special occasions. This is a workhorse no matter what the condition may be. This is the camera that gets offended when it's put away. This camera wants to come out and play. All the time. 
2. It doesn't have AF(Auto Focus) hiccups. 
3. It has a very clean and large viewing screen (unlike the ugly black lines on the Nikon F80 or F100) 

   

   AE-1 split range finder micro-prism focusing screen.

4. No beeps (Program version's Battery check beeps) 
5. Smooth and reliable film advance. (My EOS cameras hang/snags once in a while and skips a frame during frame transport.) 
6. Long battery life, it just keeps going and going 
7. Tripod socket is centered 
8. Depth of field preview button locks 
9. Large selection of existing FD Lenses from Canon, Tamron, Focal, Avanar, Toyo, Sigma, Soligor (see my review of the 50mm 1.8 FD Lens here)
10. Shutter lock out comes in very handy 
11. I have yet to see any purple fringing or color shift regardless of which lens I picked 
12. Accurate meter (point it at the shadow areas of your subject) 
13. It is patient when I'm patient, which means I can compose with the optical view finder and wait for my subject to come into the frame. With digital cameras nowadays, the evf or lcd screen or gps would have drained all the power by the time that happens. It doesn't matter that the memory card can store a million billion 24mp pictures when it's out of juice, it's out of juice and you can't go to the store and buy yourself an 80 dollar battery pack to keep you shooting and get the shot you want. What do you do, bring a back up camera body, bulky additional batteries that are also drained and empty? Yeah, I have been there and that's just absurd (drained a whole battery waiting for the squirrel to pop up the other side of the fence). 

BUILD QUALITY
The build quality is superb but not all AE-1 cameras were created equal! Canon openly claimed they used "automated modular construction techniques" to lower production costs. The technique was new in the 70s for the camera industry and they were proud of it.

Over the years, Canon substituted metal parts to plastic to lower costs. Something they didn't advertise. For example, the battery door on the AE-1 with serial numbers below 2 million are made of steel.

Metal battery door

AE-1's manufactured  with serials near 2 million and beyond are made of brittle black plastic. On most surviving AE-1 cameras, the plastic doors are cracked or broken off partially or completely. The plastic attachable palm grip on the AE-1 Program seems to be a literal "cover up" for their cost cutting plastic battery doors.

Broken plastic battery door

Another way they cut cost was making the top cover of the camera out of plastic. It may look like nickel plated brass similar to that of the Canon FT, but I assure you, it's not. The top plate is plastic.

Brown plastic showing through the nickel plating

These aftermarket straps does nothing but destroy AE-1 and other cameras.

On the AE-1 Program, the bottom plate was changed to the same nickel plated plastic (AE-1 bottom plate are all brass). Once the nickel skin wore off, it's all ugly gray/yellow plastic from there on. I don't have any personal misgivings on the use of plastics. It saves weight. It's dent resistant (but it cracks instead). I grew up with everything made out of plastic, but not nickel plated plastic. According to my father, the use of plastics were a high tech concept in the 70s. I believed him when comparing the weight of the AE-1 to the full metal cameras like the Canon FT. I've owned a hand full of AE-1 cameras that suffered from the chronic rub of neck straps with the chrome metal torture hooks. I had many (50+) AE-1 cameras coming through my hands for repairs and maintenance. Battery door aside, and I can assure you that Canon used the best quality plastics available. I had never found any "stress cracks" near the screws on the AE-1, unlike my Mamiya 645e a camera system that was manufactured over 20 years later.

INCONSISTANT INFORMATION

Wikipedia claimed Canon sold over 1 million units. Todd Gustavson's book "500 Cameras" claimed over 5 million units. The serial numbers on the cameras supports Gustavson's claim. Wikipedia isn't wrong in that 5 million units is a number over 1 million, but it's a stretch on accuracy.

This post isn't complete but I thought I'd get it started.

Camera Blog Introduction

This is where I will brain dump my experience with my camera collection. These blog posts are not meant to be comprehensive reviews of these cameras by any means. There are many websites that already have the technical data on the cameras. Instead of wasting my time and yours on the technical specifications, I'm going to explore the interesting points of each, and point them out. Each camera is done on a separate post to keep things organized.