Classic Car Show photos with my Olympus Pen FT Camera and the Cinestill 50D 35mm film

I am writing this blog especially for Marcus (marcusterrypeddle) who recently read an interview I did with Melvin Mapa and a photo that was featured in the interview appears to have never been blogged about by myself!

I am first of all surprised I never did but I’ve looked through my blogs and cannot find any mention of when I used this film. Perhaps I just forgot at the time as I had a really busy summer in 2018 taking lots of photos.

These photos were taken on my Olympus Pen FT when I first only had one lens for it which was the Zuiko 40mm f 1.4

I visited a classic car show in Stanmer Park along with my friend and we travelled there in her 1965 Mustang.

At the time I posted a lot of the photos on instagram but for anybody not on Instagram, here are some of the photos I took:

I was really pleased with how they had turned out and I was happy that I had chosen the Cinestill 50D Film.

However, I remember at the time feeling frustrated that I only had the 40mm lens as I felt this restricted the amount of car I could really get into each photo. I therefore improvised and did some close up shots of the cars and some of their interiors. I also stood as far back as possible where I was able to, so I could try to fit a whole car into the photo.

It wasn’t long after this that I invested in some other size Zuiko lenses for the camera and I certainly haven’t regretted doing that.

‘Kosmonauts hit Wapping’ Photo Walk

Back in August I attended a photo walk in London organised by the London Camera Project and Kosmo Foto.

The plan for the day was to meet at CitizenM Tower of London Hotel where we would walk around the Tower of London area, then through Wapping, onto the Tower Bridge and Southwark.

What was also exciting about this photowalk was that everyone attending would receive a 35mm roll of Kosmo Foto film. There were also prizes and rewards arranged throughout the walk.

On this particular occasion, I didn’t have anybody to look after my dog, but I desperately wanted to attend this photo walk and thankfully the organisers were happy for me to bring her along.

My dog Daisy and I travelled up to London via the train from Brighton and I’m grateful that I have a pet who is very good at travelling and we have been to London together before on the train so I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. I’m also able to take her on the Underground which is great.

This is Daisy getting settled on the train on our journey up to london (photo taken on my iPhone):

When we arrived at the CitizenM Hotel a little earlier than the official meeting time, it was quite obvious to see who was there for the photo walk because they had camera’s with them. Since I had Daisy with me, I was unable to enter the Hotel, where a lot of people were waiting. However, this was an advantage too because I was able to chat and guide the people who were there for the walk who wasn’t sure where the group was.

Here is a lovely photo of Daisy taken outside the CitizenM Hotel by @lomo_keiko using her Lomo LCA Camera and Lomography 100 film:

© @lomo_keiko

Daisy is with me most of the time so I’ve developed a skill in taking photos whilst also holding her lead. This meant that she really wasn’t a problem on the walk.

Thankfully, she proved quite popular with the other photographers attending the walk and I think a few photos were taken by them of her.

I decided for this particular photo walk to take my Olympus Pen FT camera with me. Whilst I was tempted to take my Hasselblad 500 C/M, I knew the Olympus would be the most manageable camera to take photos whilst handling a dog at the same time.

Although we were handed a roll of the Kosmo Foto film, I still had a Cinestill B&W film in this camera from some other event where I took photos and didn’t manage to use up the whole of the film (since it’s 72 frames!) so thought it would be best to use it up on this walk. I also knew I wanted to take black and white photos.

Here are some of the photos from the walk:

Here is a photo of Daisy and I taken by @lomo_keiko using my Olympus Pen FT:

This photo was also taken by @lomo_keiko using her Lomo LCA camera and Kosmo Foto film:

© @lomo_keiko

As you may be able to tell, Daisy was quite keen to jump into that river and have a swim!

Lastly, here is a photo of Daisy taken by @ermess_ using his Leica M6 and Kosmo Foto film:

© @ermess_

Whilst on the photo walk, we stopped at a couple of pubs along the way and the final one we ended up at was a really nice bar called Hawkes Cidery & Taproom, where further film photography prizes were handed out. They also serve some lovely Pizza’s which I really enjoyed after all that walking!

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun on this photo walk and it was really nice to meet some new people, as well as catch up with some friends I’d made from previous photo walks.

Whilst I wouldn’t normally take Daisy with me on a photo walk, on this particular occasion, because everyone was very accepting of her, it was really nice to have her out with me and I know she loves to visit new places.

In Le Havre with my Olympus Trip 35

Back in June I visited Le Havre for a holiday where my husband and I travelled across on our boat from Brighton. The journey took us approximately 4 and a half hours which was fairly quick and the sea was lovely and calm during our travel.

Whilst walking around Le Havre, I decided the Olympus Trip would be a perfect, compact film camera to take around with me.

I also decided to try out the Hillvale Holiday 35mm film which has an ISO of 200 and came all the way from Australia:

I had received this film in the Emulsive Secret Santa that I took part in last December and I had been waiting to use it whilst away on holiday somewhere sunny this year.

I initially took some photos around the harbour where we were staying:

We had travelled here for a music festival which happened at the weekend although we decided to spend a whole week in Le Havre.

One of our friends wanted to come to the music festival too but due to work commitments, could only make the weekend part so she travelled over from Brighton on a ferry then stayed on our boat with us for a few days whilst the festival was on. Here is a photo I took of her enjoying the sunshine:

I didn’t take many photos of the architecture since most of the original buildings were unfortunately destroyed during the bombings in early September 1944. This meant Le Havre had a lot of buildings re-built in the 1950s/60s so the whole place had a post modern feel.

I also had time to visit one of the beautiful gardens in Le Havre where I took some photos:

Using this type of film camera for a holiday, really brought back memories of the feel of my holiday photos that were taken back in the 80s/90s.

Using the Flash Shoe Accessory for My Olympus Pen FT

Several months ago I purchased a flash shoe accessory which was made specifically for the Olympus Pen FT.

When I initially fitted it onto the camera, I was really worried about it breaking the plastic around the viewfinder (there are many FT’s I’ve seen for sale with broken plastic on their viewfinders due to this particular accessory breaking them) so I was a bit reluctant to use it for a while….

Here is a close up of the viewfinder of the camera:

Here is a close up of the viewfinder with the flash shoe accessory attached:

However, the other week it was a miserable rainy day in Brighton and I desperately needed a photography fix! So I decided to carefully attach it to my camera and try it out at home by taking photos of my pets.

I had previously bought a Mirage 200 flash which I picked up for around £4 on eBay and it came with new batteries in it so that was a bonus! There was also the metal attachment with it in case I wanted to mount the camera on that instead of using the flash shoe accessory which means the flash sits to the side of the camera.

Here is the flash mounted on top of the camera:

I decided to use my 40mm 1:1.4 G.Zuiko Auto-S lens since I thought this would be good for portrait shots of my pets.

In my 35mm film stash, I had some Kodak Portra 160 colour film which, I decided to use for this project.

The Mirage 200 Flash provides an exposure table on the back of it which, suggested that I shoot at an aperture of f/16 if taking photos of around 1 metre (3 foot) away with a film ISO of 100, or it would be f/22 for ISO 200 film.

Since the lens I was using only goes up to f/16, I decided to shoot on that aperture.

I also had problems with the viewfinder being quite dark whilst shooting indoors so I really had to concentrate on getting the focusing right because it wasn’t very clear.

I ended up having to take photos of my pets over a couple of days since there was 72 shots to use up on the roll of film!

Once I got the film back, I was very pleased with the results! The film had exposed really well.

Here are a couple of photos of my dog, Daisy:

Here is one of Daisy next to a cushion which I had printed up and made from a Polaroid photo I took of Brighton Bandstand:

Here are a couple of photos I took of my cats:

These final three photos of my cat, Mr Robinson, made me laugh. I can only think I perhaps wasn’t giving him any more treats for the day!

I would definitely use the lower ISO Portra film again for taking indoor photos as I really liked the colours.

Due to my fear of chipping the plastic viewfinder on the camera, I cannot see me using the flash attachment on a regular basis but it’s good to know I’ve got it for when I do need to take some indoor shots using this camera and I’ll just have to be extra careful when mounting the flash.

Olympus Pen FT Malfunction

Several weeks ago I decided to test out the Lomography Black and White Berlin 35mm film in my Olympus Pen FT Camera.

I headed to Brighton Palace Pier since I thought that would be a nice place to try out the film.

It was an extremely cold day and the shutter decided to jam several shots into the roll.

I felt like I had no choice but to remove this roll of film from the camera to see if I could identify the problem.

I’ve since put the film into my Pentax K1000 as I didn’t use much of it so hopefully I’ll still get some photos from this roll of film.

In the meantime once I removed the film from the Olympus Pen FT, the shutter still remained jammed so I immediately knew it wasn’t the film that had caused the shutter issue.

I didn’t want to force the shutter and make things worse and I don’t know enough about the mechanics of the camera to take it apart myself.

I knew if it could be repaired, I would want it done immediately upon quotation from the camera shop. I therefore saved some money together for a few weeks, preparing myself for the costs that would potentially be involved or even worse, if it couldn’t be repaired and I’d need to buy another one.

I decided to head to my local second hand camera shop, Clocktower Camera’s in Brighton who do repairs on vintage cameras.

After a quick inspection we found out that for some reason the lens had caused the shutter jam and with the removal of the lens, then placing it back onto the camera, it worked absolutely fine again.

I felt really stupid for not trying something so obvious myself as removing the lens before taking it to a camera repair shop but at the same time there was also a great sense of relief knowing that my camera still worked and that I didn’t have to pay out any money for repairs.

I wanted to blog about this in case any other Olympus Pen FT owners end up having the same problem with their shutter so my advice is, remove the lens and put it back on. Hopefully yours will then work again too!

Trip Zine Issue 2

A Couple of months ago, I blogged about a new magazine that had recently been published called Trip Zine.

The magazine is completely dedicated to photos taken on the Olympus Trip 35 camera.

Trip Zine recently had asked for submissions for their upcoming second issue and I was pleased to find out that three of my photos taken on the Olympus Trip had made it into the magazine:

Trip Zine Issue 2 can be purchased at https://www.etsy.com/shop/TripZine

My Olympus Pen FT Camera and Cinestill BwXX film

I’ve been a fan of the Cinestill film ever since I tried the Cinestill 50D colour film using my Olympus Pen FT and got some great photos at a car show.

I’d also used the Cinestill 800 colour film with my Pentax K1000 and had managed to take some nice evening shots.

In a nutshell Cinestill film is a motion picture film for still photographers.

I’m fortunate enough to have a shop in Brighton called Zoing Image which stock Cinestill 50D and Cinestill 800 colour film.

However, when I discovered the Cinestill BwXX black and white film, they unfortunately didn’t have any in stock for me to buy. I therefore had to look online and bought the film through Analogue Wonderland  as there were a couple of other creative style films I wanted to try that they sold so I bought them altogether.

I already knew that I wanted to use my Olympus Pen FT camera for this film because I love the high quality lenses this camera has and I also knew I mainly wanted to take architectural style shots. Also, the size of the photo taken on a half frame camera is very similar to cinematic style photos.

The Cinestill BwXX is a high speed, classic black and white film emulsion with a recommended ISO 250 under daylight.

What I also love about this film is the fact it’s a classic black and white film stock left relatively unchanged since it’s release in 1959 for still and motion picture use so this really adds to that vintage film feel of a photo.

I’ve read that it’s a classic film stock to fill the void left by the discontinuation of it’s sister films, Kodak Plus-X (which was discontinued in 2010) and TXP320.

The film produces 36 exposures (or 72 on a half frame camera) and is a 35mm film format. It’s not the cheapest of films and retails at around £10 per roll.

Here are some photos I took whilst out and about in Brighton

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Since I had architectural photo’s in mind for this film I also visited the Barbican in London and took some photos:

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I got the film developed at my local lab and I scanned the images using my Epson V600 scanner.

One thing I did notice when the negatives were developed was the high quality negatives produced. They were really thick and not flimsy and the images on the negative were very bright and clear to the naked eye.

As I expected, the photos have a real grainy, cinematic look about them which I do think has worked well with the architectural shots.

Going forward I would definitely use this film again if I had a black and white vintage style photography project in mind as i think the film would work well with that.

Olympus Pen FT Half Frame Camera

I first discovered this camera when I was reading the Tokyo Camera Style book by John Sypal.

I initially fell in love with the design of the camera but was also very intrigued when I discovered on the internet that it’s a half frame camera.

Half frame camera’s were popular before I was born so I wasn’t sure what this type of camera was.

After further research I discovered that a half frame camera uses twice as many frames at half the normal frame width on a 35mm negative to an ordinary film camera. For instance, if I loaded this camera with a 36 exposure film, I would be able to get 72 images instead of 36. This was because developing pictures back in the 1950s/60s was quite expensive so this was a great way to get twice as many photos developed for the same price. As development of photos got cheaper in subsequent years, the half frame camera became less popular.

I found this highly fascinating and immediately knew I would love to add a half frame camera to my collection.

After further research I found lots of half frame cameras had been released into the market over the years. Initially Olympus had released the Olympus Pen F camera and some of these camera’s have a cool F design on the front of the camera (like the lens cap design in my picture) but these didn’t include a self timer. Olympus also released other types of half frame camera’s as well as these Pen SLR camera’s.

I also discovered that Canon released a half frame version too. In the end I decided that the Olympus Pen FT was the camera I really wanted to own and use. The main reason being that it had a self-timer.

Unfortunately my local second hand camera shops didn’t have any in stock and although they’re not rare, they are not as readily available as perhaps an Olympus Trip 35 and they also come at a higher price tag.

I’d already decided that I was willing to pay more for a nicer condition one as I prefer to have my cameras in great condition, especially if I’m going to use them regularly.

Initially I found that most of these cameras are available for sale on eBay but are mainly for sale in Japan. Ideally I wanted to purchase mine from a UK seller so knew I had to be patient as they are few and far between.

After several months of searching and checking in with my local second hand camera shops to see if they miraculously had one come into their shop I finally found the one I wanted on Etsy.

I bought it from a gentleman in Scotland who is a professional photographer and refurbishes vintage camera’s as a hobby. He mainly finds his vintage camera’s in charity shops and he told me a lot of them are a complete write off and beyond repair but every now and again, he’ll find a camera in amazing condition or which he’s able to easily repair and cosmetically it’s in great condition.

This camera was one he had discovered in immaculate condition and only needed some slight refurbishment. He had personally owned the camera for over a year but found due to other photography commitments, it wasn’t getting the use it truly deserved so reluctantly he decided to sell it.

The camera came with it’s original leather case and the Zuiko 40mm f1.4 lens. The Olympus Pen FT camera was in production from 1966 to 1972 and what I loved even more was that the camera came with the original receipt which showed that it was purchased on 11th June 1972 and written on the receipt was the serial number of the camera and the serial number of the lens which matched my camera and lens.

The shutter speeds on this camera are B/1 to 1/500 and it has a unique rotating disc design that syncs with the flash at all speeds. The aperture is from f1.4 to f16. It has a light meter reading in the viewfinder which is numbered with a needle rather than a needle which you aim to point to the centre which I found unusual but was easy to understand. Basically the needle in the viewfinder will point to a number (ranging from 0 – 7) and you’ll match the number on front of the lens to make sure you get the right exposure. You can adjust the shutter speed to change this number if you need to.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed when I received and started using this camera. It’s an SLR and has interchangeable lenses. I also loved the half frame viewfinder and how I had to think a bit differently when shooting an image in comparison to taking pictures with a normal camera.

It’s a much smaller camera in comparison to my Pentax K1000 so I can literally pop it into my handbag which is great.

Here are some photos I’ve taken using the 40mm lens. I took the film for development to my local film development shop called Colourstream in Brighton. They told me they could only develop the film on a normal frame width which means that there would be two photos on the frame with a black border. They also informed me that the exposure would be a compromise between the two images rather than each individual one.

I was keen to get my first film developed asap so was happy for them to develop the film this way and was interested to see how two photos would turn out printed together.

Here are some of the results which I shot on a Kodak Colour Plus 200 (36 exposure) film:

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I also experimented using the self-timer which was great fun. However, one of my friends who is a photographer and has a lot of knowledge on vintage camera’s since informed me that I was taking a great risk in using the self-timer option as vintage camera’s are notorious for having the mechanics of the camera break on you if you use this because they are old and fragile. I therefore haven’t risked using it anymore but below is an image on the left where I used the self-timer:

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