A Holiday or Four
We were in Illinois visiting my family over the Thanksgiving holiday so we kicked off the “Christmas season” there. I love that shot of Desh and Veda (my family’s cockapoo) because they’re both looking in different directions–and not even at me! We were able to spend the Christmas weekend in Indiana with Adam’s family and this weekend we’re back to Illinois for Christmas #2!
Who decided to create all these holidays so close together? The photos were shot on my Minolta SRT-201 with Fuji film (400 ISO). Not a lot of shots turned out. There was weird creasing and a lot of grain. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I shot in a lot of low lit settings. Next week I’ll finally post my DSLR vs Analog vs iPhone post. I’m excited to share!
A Consideration
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Comments (4)
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Hi Bob!
Dang all your questions make me feel like such an amateur :) I’d love to email you some of my creased shots. All of the creased and grainy ones were shot in low light.
I use the internal meter. Could it affect it if the battery is low? it’s still working enough to where I wouldn’t notice?
I’ve never used the iPhone light meter app! Is it just called light meter?
Thanks for the comment!! Looking forward to hearing your response!
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Heh. No worries. I’m an amateur too, but also an old fart who remembers trivial things well.
The internal light meters on older cameras tend to go bad and not read well. If you are lucky, the meter is of in a linear fashion and you just have to correct your ASA on the dial to get it to read correctly. Most likely though, the CdS cell is going bad and the accuracy will fall off in low light. This is generally where you give up and use a handheld meter.
Batteries are also an issue. The old mercury cells that these cameras require aren’t made anymore. The alkaline replacements are higher voltage (1.5v vs. the required 1.35v) and don’t provide consistent power which will lead to metering errors. The Wein Air Cells are the only good replacement for the mercury batteries.
I actually don’t carry my handheld meter anymore since I found the iPhone apps. The one use is Pocket Light Meter (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-light-meter/id381698089?mt=8). The current version has some pretty crappy reviews, as they made the interface pretty crappy compared to previous versions.
Email me one of your scans. I’m assuming that the creases run top to bottom (perpendicular to the shutter travel) and are inside of the frame. If they go outside of the frame lines and onto the sprockets, they are probably light leaks :(
The grain is probably scanner noise from trying to gain-up to read the underexposed negs. Some better scanners with wide dynamic ranges or the ability to make multi-pass scans can deal with this a bit better, but can’t create image if there isn’t one there.-
Great! I’ll email you the scans when I get back from visiting family on Monday. I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Downloading the light meter app now! You rock.
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Bob O'Shaughnessy
I’d be interested in seeing a scan of the “creasing.” My first guess would be a shutter problem, but that wouldn’t show too much at slower speeds (wider distance between front & rear curtain).
The grain is probably from trying to scan/print underexposed photos. Are you using the SRT’s internal meter? I think you’d need correct batteries (Wein Air Cells) to get it to work correctly. Do you have a light meter app on your iPhone you can use instead, or to test?