Astbury's Adventures in Photography

I've been shooting away with my dad's old Nikon FE , loaded with some very old and long since expired film but progress was cut short by a problem with the camera. I was getting a situation where I would press the shutter release and the camera would lock up, the viewfinder would go black suggesting the mirror was locked in the up position, the shutter may or may not have been stuck open. The camera is a mechanical/electrical hybrid, what I found was that if I set the shutter speed to M90, the mechanical option, this then allowed the mirror to return to position, the film could then be advanced to try again. This gave me a temporary workaround however the problem quickly became more frequent, then happened every shot. So I decided to stop and develop the film with whatever was on it to that point. The colour negative film needed the C41 process, a time and temperature sensitive process which is usually best done by a lab, and I needed a lab that would process expired film, so...

Almost time to load the film and get started so I need to understand my options and have a practical approach to setting the exposures on the Nikon FE. Invariable The first thing I have to remember is that I can't change ISO . The old films I plan to use are ISO 200 so that will be my ISO value in all cases (let's ignore any options to pull and push the subsequent processing for the moment). Max Spielmann MX 200 colour print film The second thing I can't change is white balance . The film packaging doesn't appear to show any white balance recommendation so I'll assume they are daylight balanced (e.g. maybe 6000k). The traditional way of handling this would be to use warm up or cool down filters but for the more casual photographer they probably wouldn't bother. Like many (mostly) digital photographers I don't have a set of colour correction filters so won't worry. Ambient manual The simplest option is to set the camera manually. Aperture...

Along with the Nikon FE ( see earlier post: From Voigtlander to Nikon ) there was also a flashgun, the Nikon Speedlight SB-10 (factoid: Nikon use the term Speedlight but Canon use the term Speedlite ). NIKON SB-10, front NIKON SB-10, rear SB-10 mounted on NIKON FE, front SB-10 mounted on NIKON FE, rear When I opened up the battery compartment I was pleased to find the flashgun had been stored without batteries so no leakage. However when I put new batteries in I sadly found the unit was dead. I'm guessing maybe the electrolytic capacitor had failed sometime in the 36 years since the unit was manufactured. So what would make a good alternative to deliver a similar lighting effect to the original unit? Well the SB-10 worked as a manual unit (and also had a limited auto option). NIKON SB-10 Exposure Calculator disc The Guide Number was a very modest 25. My nearest equivalent is a Yongnuo YN560 which offers manual power setting with a max Guide Number of...

My first ever camera was my grandfather's, a Voigtlander VITO B, dating back to 1958. I put a number of films through this but have not used it recently. My grandfather's Voigtlander VITO B VITO B top panel and lens Note that in addition to ISO the Vito B also has a DIN setting, this refers to Standard 4512 of 1934,  by the Deutsches Institut für Normung. When I say 'setting' the camera is in fact entirely manual so really this just acts by way of a reminder. I now also have my late father's camera , a Nikon FE, it's nice to have them both. The FE dates back to 1981 and was a mid range camera of its day. Voigtlander, 1958 and Nikon, 1981 Nikon FE Nikon FE with Nikkor 50mm 1.8 lens I find a 50mm a little tight, I prefer 35mm or maybe 40mm, however I'm expecting the Nikkor 50 1.8 to be a solid performing prime lens. I can see a number of dust spots but I wouldn't expect these to impact final image quality. The Nikon needed ...