I got an enlarger+stuff(80 wetzlar lens, tanks, baths, lights, grainfocuser,timer etc.) from a friend today.It does up to 6×6.
It’s a meopta Opemus III(i think). It needs a little cleaning, a red filter,a multicontrast filter pack+drawer,50 lens and an easel(I got a small one,I need a 20×30 or 24×36 one). I am excited.I hope I’ll be able to do worthy prints within 6 months or so(taking into account my learning curve when learning film developing.).
Mobile at friends house;shoelaces
pan 400;
trapdoor
tmax 100@64 with yellow filter
tmax 100@64 in tetenal for 12 min at 20C I think.
part of an urban series. I might upload some more images.
Names: Cubicles for cars(near an Office building)
/speed(back from work)
/death
/patriotism
/try to fit in.
I got Shay Yochay into m42 lenses(on his canon 20d). He got several and doesnt have time to try them all. I loaned a cosinon 35/2.8 he got and put it via adapter on the pentax k1000,loaded it with tmax 400. Will try with and without red filter(depends on time of day). He also ordered a zenitar I want to try.
My mouse died a sudden death and I bought a new one. I got a mouse with the red laser(quote unquote the dr. evil way) thingie. I dont respect it.In my days, mice had balls.
I have returned from my reserve duty which was a three day tutoring(by me)the new guys who came to replace the people that came after me.
On the 13th I discovered that the previous night a person I went to school for 4 years got killed in action. He was 24, a platoon leader in the armor corps. He is the youngest of his siblings. He had a girlfriend for six years.His main drive was the ressurection of jewish pride after the holocaust. He wasn’t a friend and I didnt keep in touch but I came to his funeral. I shot some pictures but I did it to distance myself from the scene.I didnt shoot the coffin or the family – I am not detached enough to use them as symbols.I shot the crowd.I dont know about posting the images though.I am not sure it is moral.
I hope the cease fire lasts and not just be used as a time to rearm the Hizbollah as the previous time.UN has a desire to end a conflict as soon as possible without thinking of consequenses and the USA wants to bomb everybody they dont like of the map – if Israel does it for them – even better.
I just want quiet.
The only medium format camera I have. Since I dont have easily accessable medium format scanning I bought it to print the wet way – and my enlarger is ready I just need to pick it up(which may take some time). Medium format always allured me – especially the square. I tried a medium format SLR(mamiya 645)but didnt like it.It’s ergonomics are horrible and the 6×4.5 negative didnt appeal to me.
I wouldn’t mind trying a medium format RF but they seem to be expensive or oldand with film flatness problems(folders). I got the yashicamat from a person in Israel(found it on a internet bill board) and Oleg Khalyavin overhauled it for me. I dont have the fresnel and the battery cap so the screen is a bit dim in the corners and the meter is dead(I use a handeld anyway).
I really like TLRS – their ergonomics and versatility is incredible.I think the esthetics and engeneering are splendid. I would like to try one of the TLR’s that have 35 mm capability(ricohflex,yashicamat 635 and rolleikin adapter) but can’t afford one now. I possibly got a source for scanning the negs so some pics may appear later.
I need lens caps and,ever ready case a hood for it.
For now I use it with a FED hood held in place by tension(the opening is narrowed with padding).
I am called for reserve duty in the military(refresher course) for a couple of days.
The Proposition – Nick caves “Western”.Good.The violence is very graphic. I like his music more(and his book less).
Million Dollar Baby – Nice albeit the mandatory holywood cliches.Clint still got it.
C.R.A.Z.Y. – nice film.excellent soundtrack.
Aguirre ,the wrath of God – Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinsky are children of Satan.They scare me.Great Movie.
Texas Chainsaw Messacre – The remake – not bad – the story changed – the spirit is there.I missed the feeding scene. I am waiting for the prequel.
Pirates of the carribean – dead man’s chest – Good enough if you liked the first one.
This is Vilya-Acronym for Vladimir Ilyich(Lenin)-Mowsowitz-Anna’s grandfather.
He’s 76.He gave me the Start SLR as my first camera but I broke it and got the pentax(got it fixed a year later or so)
Pentax k1000;50/2 A SMC; kodak tmax 100 in tetenal;gimp levels to set blckwhite points and to highten contrast
This message is a tribute to the best SLR the soviets could manufacture.
The start was manufactured between 1959 and 1961 by KMZ. It was intended for the pro market and wasnt a success do to high price.About 80,000 were made.There was a Start 2 prototype with the release on the body and some rumors say TTL metering.
The start has a 1-1/1000 cloth shutter which syncs at 1/30 and a unique bayonet mount which uses a breech lock.The problem that only one lens was made in this mount,the 58/2 Helios 44.It could use m39 lenses via an adapter but you lost diaphragm automation.It doesnt have an automatic mirror return(you cock it and then it goes down).The focusing screen is around 90-92%(compare to the 62) of the much later zenits).It has a removable prism(could be replaced by a waist level magnifyng finder).It has a knife to cut the film inside the camera and in cassete to cassete method.It needs a special leader.The mirror slaps like a bucking bronco.
I got mine from my girlfriend grandfather,broke it and got it fixed by Oleg Khalyavin.I use it rarely and with BW only – the Helios 44 I have looks horrible with slides and color print.The lens is soft and warm.I use it rarely but love to use it for people shots.
The pictures here are old.The girl in the picture is Orly – a girl that served in the army with me(she was an Air Traffic controller and I was the Tower’s technician) with pan F in d76.The light is a lighting tower useed to illuminate hangars.The grave photo is ilford pan 400 in tetenal at a british WW1 graveyard we have in my city 
with the zeiss cap I got it and the fed hood I will adapt for it.
Today a lens like that looks as antiquated as a ford T. Made in 1939,uncoated, in old style apperture stops with no clicks,stops down to only 12.5,with no standard filter thread.
I like the way it sits on the zorki,I like the quality of the build that survived 67 years(longer then both my grandfathers),I like the way it states Ernst Leitz Wetzlar,made in Germany – A person,a family a city,a country – not a cold conglomerate spitting items of production lines manned by faceless underpaid third world country employees.
I like the way light reflects unchanged of the uncoated glass-I’ve heard uncoated glass gives bitching mid tones-I will check it.I hope I will like the way the lens performs,it would be unpleasant to ne dissapointed in such a piece of history – I could probably sell it for the price I got it but I would like it to replace the more common(and appreceated by me) Jupiter 8(mine is 1959,coated and spectacular)and
take it’s share of picture among the russian and japanese lenses I own.
I like the way old lenses were special,not uniformly sharp and contrasty(at least in theory) each lens had it’s color,sharpness and bokeh signature,it’s feel and it’s uses.