Category Archives: Gadgets

Aug11

It worked!

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It worked!

Voigtlander Vitomatic @ East Coast

Took the Voigtlander Vitomatic Ia out to East Coast on a roll of Lomography Redscale Negative 100 over the National Day weekend. It was great sunny day, I was really praying hard that at least something will work and not having to waste an entire roll of film. Had no idea if there is any light leak on the camera, if the mechanical parts were going to work, furthermore the thought of shooting without a rangefinder convinced me that I'm will probably have less than 20% chance of success. 

Surprise, surprise! Went by the photo development shop today, the first thing I asked the lady shopkeeper was "有东西吗？"

“有啦！全部三十六张都有出来。” 

Not only that all 36 shots worked, with the exception of a handful, most of them came out pretty much in focused … woohoo! Love the whole vintage feel brought out by the Lomography film. Super!

Voigtlander Vitomatic @ East CoastVoigtlander Vitomatic @ East CoastVoigtlander Vitomatic @ East Coast

Aug8

Voigtländer Cameras

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Voigtländer Cameras

Voigtlander Vitomatic

The Voigtlander Vitomatic cameras are really heavyweight 35mm rangefinders, you can no longer find such solid constructions in modern cameras anymore. I took a measure of the Vitomatic Ia, and it came in at almost 800g! It's exactly this same reason why 50 years later, finding a working piece in the market is really not that difficult, these machines are built to last. 

I have a Vitomatic Ia and a Vitomatic II. The Ia, manufactured in 1960-1963, comes with a view finder while the II, manufactured in 1958-1959, has rangefinders built in. The "a" and "b' models means having the meter instrument mirrored into the finder. The design and engineering of these cameras are simply amazing. Especially when you consider that these were made back in 1950s with limited technology, yet they came up with such sophisticated equipments that doesn't even need battery to operate. 

The 1a I'm having is in mint condition, both function and cosmetic. I intend to run a roll of film through it to see if I can get anything interesting. It's definitely not easy to use, as least for someone like me who's been on digital all this while. Found a good site with downloadable user manuals for most of the Voigtlander models. Meanwhile, I'm also gonna try to get a piece of rangefinder to go with it. 

specifications … 

Voigtländer Vitomatic Ia (1960 – 1963) Viewfinder
Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film (135)
Optics: Color-Skopar 1:2,8  50mm
Shutter:  Prontor 500 SLK-V  B + 1 sec.. => 1/500 sec. 
Misc.: Rapid wind lever, coupled lightmeter, twin match needle type

Voigtländer Vitomatic II (1958 – 1959) Rangefinder
Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film (135)
Optics: Color-Skopar 1:2,8  50mm
Shutter:  Prontor SLK-V  B + 1 sec.. => 1/300 sec. 
Misc.: Rapid wind lever, coupled rangefinder + lightmeter, match needle type w. external read-out

 
Reference
Aug2

The Impossible Film – Possible

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The Impossible Film – Possible

Finally tried out the PX100 film from the "Impossible Project" on the SX-70 Polaroid. I was so excited that the SX-70 actually worked! Love the sound of the film getting ejected from the camera, that's something modern cameras can never reproduce. 

According to Mijonju, the PX100 film is extremely sensitive to heat. This film is supposed to be work best at temperature below 20ºC and first 10 seconds of taking the picture is most crucial as the film is still sensitive to light. So for my little experiment, I had the aircon blasting at 20ºC and pointing straight at my table. Once the film is ejected out, I immediately turned it over and left it on the table under the aircon to let it develop. It was fun (to the point of being hilarious), and I do wonder does that mean that I can never get outdoor with this film? Let's see how it goes. 

At US$22/- a pack for 8 pictures, that works out to about SGD$3.80 per picture, this is certainly not cheap. Hope the price will get a little more affordable if this gets more mainstream.   

The Impossible Project has just released a new colour version of the film, PX70 FF Color Shade. Apparently this new film no longer have the problem of being too sensitive to heat. I'm gonna give it a try soon.  The 2+1 triple pack is now going for US$44/-. 

Jul24

Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera – Such a beauty

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Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera – Such a beauty

Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera

After a stupid scare that the package went missing, this finally came via DHL today. A 1973 (July 24, 1973) Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera. 

Purchased this from Yai & Yeam Art Store on Etsy for US$189/- a couple of weeks ago. The camera and the leather tote are in fantastic condition. This camera is supposed to be in fully working condition, now I just need to wait for my impossible film to get ship and I will be able to try shooting with it. 

This is my first polaroid … and I have a strong feeling it will not be my last :)

folded upPolaroid SX-70 Land Camera

Jul3

I heart zinio

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I heart zinio

Zinio is simply god sent :) Combined with iPad, I'm getting (almost) all the magazines I want, CHEAP!

I have since subscribed to

  1. Macworld – 12 issues for US$19.97
  2. Esquire – 12 issues for US8
  3. Maxim – 12 issues for US$5
  4. PC Mag – 12 issues for US$5
  5. Marie Claire (for wifi) – 12 issues for US$8

Each issue is pushed down automatically when available within the Zinio app. This model is something that I totally agree – low subscription rate + auto push within app. Wired really got it all wrong … $4.99 (now $3.99) per issue and requires an app update each time, that just doesn't make sense. For that I will wait for it be made "available" via Apptrackr.

Zinio, can you please add Wired and Fast Company?

For newspapers, I'm still trying out PressReader. While I did temporarily terminated my International Herald Tribune (IHT) subscription for my Kindle while I try this out, I'm not 100% sure yet if this will be a good replacement. Partly because they don't have the Asian edition of IHT which I much prefer. But if this works out well, then my only problem left is … what am I going to do with my Kindle?

Jun9

Dry Storage

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Dry Storage

Went out to buy a dry cabinet today. Mostly motivated for  more storage space than actually needed to keep dry. 

Ended up with a Digi-Cabi DB-036 (it's a 30L) from John 3:16 for $118/-.

The relative humidity stayed at 20% after running it for a day, that's even when the door was left opened for a couple of hours. That convinced me that the psychrometer is not working. True enough, took it apart and immediately saw one piece of resistor like part has came out. Made a random guess and "plugged" it back into one of the many set of holes, and viola, it worked! :)