Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Canon EOS Elan II with a Vivitar 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6 Lens







One of my favorite 35mm film SLR's is a Canon EOS Elan II. Very basic, good functions, reliable & somewhat contemporary. It's all plastic goodness. I primarily use it for street photography or when I'm using expired film and I want to make sure I use a camera that works!. Up to now I've always used it with a pancake 40mm f/2.8 lens shown in this picture.

However, I decided to mount it with a fairly inexpensive 3rd party, Vivitar 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. I RARELY if ever use long lenses on film cameras. I'm more of a 35-50mm street / snapshot shooter. I was given this lens a few years ago, so I figured I would give it a go.




The lens is surprisingly robust. It's not the fastest lens, but for street photography that isn't an issue. It's a pull / push zoom lens so it's extremely intuitive and easy to zoom. It has both AF/M settings to fit your shooting needs and a macro setting (which I didn't use). The AF was surprisingly fast. The only issue is that there is no zoom lock so when you hold the lens down (below horizontal) the lens barrel on my lens went all the way out to 210mm which looked kind of silly. This particular lens can easily be purchased online for under $100. 




I took this combination out the other day loaded with a bulk loaded roll of Ilford XP2 Super 400. Once shot I developed the roll at home with Unicolor C-41 purchased from Roberts Camera. The results. 









Sunday, May 3, 2020

Zorki 2-C Russian Goodness


I purchased this colorful Zorki 2-C a couple of years ago from Roberts Camera's Used Photo Pro division. 

the Zorki 2-C is a Russian knock-off of a Leica II. It's a surprisingly well built, heavy all metal rangefinder. I mounted it with an f/2.8, 52mm Industar N-61 screw type lens. Very inexpensive and surprisingly good.

The Zorki is fully manual. 35mm film is loaded on the bottom via removal of the bottom plate. You need to cut a longer leader on the film for this style of camera.


Speeds are B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250 & 1/500. As with cameras of this type if you want to change the speed you do it BEFORE you advance the film and which cocks the shutter.  Why, no clue, but that's what I've read and have always done. There is no light meter. There is a viewfinder to focus and one for composition. Super basic.




I loaded the camera up with a roll of Arista EDU 400 and shot the roll around Indianapolis. 

The Zorki 2-C is a handsome camera that I enjoy using. 

Here are a few photos from the most recent shoot:







Friday, January 31, 2020

Canon Sure Shot M & Rollei Retro 400S


I really like point & shoot film cameras. They are simple and can be used in almost all situations.  I recently shot this cool Canon Sure Shot M Date. It's a very pocketable camera with all the features that you would normally expect. 

The Sure Shot M (also sold as "Autoboy F / Prima Mini) has a 32mm f/3.5 lens. This is a good lens for everyday use. The camera has a flash that can be turned on/off or set. There is a simple self timer. The shutter release button is rubberized and flush with the top. The camera is DX coded from 25 to 3200 ISO in full stops. If you use non DX film the exposure is set at 25 ISO. Auto shutter speed ranges from 2 seconds to 1/250.



I shot a roll of Rollei Retro 400S through the camera recently. I developed the film using Rodinal at a 1+25 ratio for 10.5 minutes. 

I like the results of both the film and the camera. Here are some examples from the roll.