An Afternoon With My OM-1

Before we get to this weeks topic I must first say thank you to Adam Mindell who helped me sort my blog out. I hadn't realised it looked awful on phone screens and humbly apologise for such a rookie mistake.

Last week I spoke about my Olympus OM-1 getting a much needed service and I posted a few images I had taken with it. I wasn't totally happy with them as I had basically chosen the wrong film for the conditions. It happens, I got over it. To make amends and really get the best out of my OM-1, I kept a better eye on the weather and also purchased a new battery as the old one was, well, old. This does pose it's own unique challenge as the original PX625 battery for the camera has long since been banned as it contained mercury. Not the kind of thing you want to mess with, but in the 60's and 70's they were legal and several manufacturers used them in their camera's. Other notable camera's that used the same mercury battery include the Pentax Spotmatic F, Canon F1, Nikkormat F, Minolta SRT and the Leica M5. I needed a replacement and hit the interweb for info.

A swift search soon found the perfect replacement, the WeinCell MBR 625. This battery by Wein products uses Zinc and a catalyst that keeps a reliable 1.35 volts supplied to the light meter built into my camera. After I had peeled off the tab and allowed the battery to breathe for around an hour as recommended on the label, I put my new battery into my OM-1. For peace of mind I checked it against my DSLR and my Gossen Trisix meter and all three were showing the same 1/500th at f16 on my test subject, my fence at 400 iso/asa. I popped a roll of kentmere 400 into my OM-1 and headed off to the local farm to say hello to the horses again.

There is something special about an Olympus OM-1, It's design has for many years been described as Yoshihisa Maitani's masterpiece of engineering. When I put my Pentax SP500 next to my OM-1 the size difference is definitive of Maitani's design philosophy, compact and light. Both camera's have a built in light meter and both can be used manually if you choose to leave it switched off. A battery running flat during a photo walk is not a crisis with either camera. The difference is in the smoothness of the operation.

My Pentax, much as I love to use it, has a very definite clunk as I actuate the shutter. It is a reassuring clunk, a bold clunk, a clunk that says "I have taken a photograph!" at a volume level a heavy metal band would be proud of. When Pentax designed the Spotmatic range they knew it would need to be up to the rigours of the press photographers scrum as a world leader went on a walkabout or The Beatles came to town. As an interesting side note, The Beatles all had Pentax Spotmatics. Ringo was the bands unofficial photographer and has published a few books of his photo's during that time. The Pentax Spotmatics and accompanying Takumar lenses were built like tanks which is why you see so many of them still being used and traded to this day.

The Olympus OM-1 was Maitani's answer to the big clunkers from Nikon and Pentax. Maitani wanted a camera that was akin to a swiss watch in it's elegance and movement and he succeeded. The OM-1 is light at just 510 grammes/18 ounces. it's compact design means you can easily carry it in your pocket if you wish. The shutter is also definitive on the OM-1, but it isn't as clunky as my Pentax. It's more of a precise movement of mirror and curtains that are timed to reduce camera shake. Compared to my Pentax it's so light I have at times forgotten I have taken a photo when looking for a composition. The precise engineering that connects the shutter to the release button is as smooth as silk. It is certainly quieter than any camera I have used, including my DSLR's.

All camera's are dependent on the quality of lenses they are designed to be used with and if you think Olympus were going to save money  on research and develoment by skimping on the lenses, think again. The Olympus Zuiko OM series lenses are amongst the finest ever made. Mine came with the 50mm f1.4 and it is a formidable combination, especially now my OM-1 is back to it's best thanks to the capable hands of Pierro Pozella. Olympus made their name from designing and making Microscopes and optical inspection equipment. They used their knowledge of making precision optics to give them a head start when they entered the Camera market in 1936. Olympus Zuiko lenses are probably the sharpest I have used, indeed the 42mm fixed Zuiko lens on my Olympus 35RC rangefinder is simply outstanding.

Maitani wanted professional photographers and beginners to be able to use his camera with minimal training and gave us the best tools he could. The range of lenses available covers everything you will ever need. I have the 50mm f1.4, a 28mm f3.5 wide angle, a 135mm f3.5, a 35-70mm f4 zoom and a 75-150mm f4 telephoto zoom. I don't need anything else. All are just as at home on my OM-1 as they are on the consumer grade OM-10 that followed in 1979. As Maitani continued to develop the OM series each new model brought a new feature to the system. With the OM-2, which I also own, it was aperture priority and off the film metering, making it more user friendly, and switching the mercury battery for an easily available eco friendly battery. When the final version of the OM-4 hit the shelves it had an advanced metering system and a shutter speed of 1/2000th housed in a Titanium casing. Each new model advanced from the previous, yet all were so familiar in looks and feel that you can easily switch between them and begin taking photo's shortly after picking it up. I know you can do this with any make of camera, but the compact size and light weight of the OM-1 wth a prime lens on just feels better in my hands. It's a joy to use.

Olympus brought the OM series to an end in 2002 after 30 years in production and made the move to digital camera's. For some fans of the system this was a sad end to a brilliant system. For Yoshihisa Maitani it was a natural end to the camera that bore his name (OM = Olympus Maitani) and he was content to have been able to contribute to the world of photography the best camera he could design.  I always wanted one and to finally get to own and use one is so satisfying, especially when finally, after three years of trying, I shot a roll of film and am happy to be able to show them all to you. When was the last time you shot a roll where every single one made you smile?  Yeah, me neither!  Here's a few of my images of the local horses taken on a sunny afternoon on Kentmere 400 and you can see the entire roll by visiting my Flickr album An Afternoon with my OM-1

Childhood dreams do come true, they just take a while....

Film Camera Service and Repair in the 21st Century

The one unavoidable task photographers face at some point is what to do when a camera requires a service or a repair. Camera's are precision engineered to last so we can enjoy shooting thousands of photo's, be they digital or film, with the reassurance that the camera will work as it should with each actuation of the shutter. Whilst just about every camera that has been made has done just that, the possibility of it not happening increases over time. Springs and complex linkages can and do expand and become sloppy. A good visual comparison for this is a Bicycle.
 
In childhood you might have been fortunate and got a shiny new bike for Christmas. When you first rode that bike the tyres were full of tread, the brakes stopped you on a dime and the chain would glide smoothly over the cogs as you pedalled down the street. By the time next christmas was on the horizon, your bike would have been through a set of tyres, the brakes would need more than a fistfull of the lever to bring you to a somewhat eventual stop and your chain would have begun to slip. It's acceptable wear and tear which is why tyres brake pads and chains are reasonably priced. They are classed as consumables.

Old film camera's are full of precisely made levers and cogs and inevitably things will wear out over time. Most folk will just buy another camera and put the old one to one side, but for some folk the camera has more personal value. It may have been a present or been passed down from a parent or grandparent and the owner may have every intention of getting it mended one day. The problem now is where? I faced this question recently when my Olympus OM-1 wasn't behaving as precisely as it's designer Yoshihisa Maitani intended.

I bought my Olympus OM-1 and OM-2 from an estate sale on ebay in 2019. I had wanted an Olympus since childhood, the David Bailey advertising campaign was memorable for it's punchline "David Bailey, who's he?" and was responsible for selling ten million Olympus Trip's. David Bailey made his name in London during the swinging 60's when fashion was changing fast and the music was an ever evolving mix of the Blues, Psychedelia and Rock n Roll. For David, the Olympus gig in the 70's was recognition of his reputation at delivering impeccable images and being in high demand for his skills and creativity.

My childhood dream was finally realised in my 50's and it's not a bad midlife crisis purchase. However, my camera's are 40 years old and in need of some attention. I am not bad with spanners and have been abe to maintain my motorcycles down the years, but camera's are a whole paygrade above my best skill level. I did not want a childhood dream ending in a pile of useless metal and glass, so I set about finding someone to do the job for me.

Camera repair technicians are not as rare as people perceive them to be, even I was pleasantly surprised at the number folk who take worn out camera's and return them to being reliable creative tools again. Some folk have spent their entire working lives in the industry whilst others are relatively new to camera repair, often self taught and have learned the hard way. I wanted my camera serviced by someone who knew what they were doing and spent some time doing my research online. Whilst I could find several places I could send my camera to, I soon learned with camera repair word of mouth is still the best advertsement for a skilled technician. One name kept coming up time and again. PPP Camera Repairs.  I took a leap of faith and sent an email.
 
Pierro Pozella is a young chap making a name for himself in the world of Analogue Photography as a man who can mend many makes of camera. Not content with being the Pentax guy or the Olympus guy, he turns his hand to just about all the different formats and brands that are still popular amongst the film photography community. He is just as happy to service a Rollie Twin Lens Reflex medium format camera as he is my Olympus OM-1. After a couple of emails back and forth I decided he was the man to do the job and arranged to send it the next day.

Never have I been as nervous about sending anything through the post as my OM-1. I packaged it as securely as I could and sent it first class. A couple of days later Pierro had received it and had a look to see what needed to be done. It wasn't as bad as I feared, new seals plus servicing the light meter and shutter and cleaning the prism was diagnosed and I said yes to it being done. Pierro is a man who doesn't hang around, he had my OM-1 sorted and back to me in a few short days for a very reasonable price. I just had to put a roll of film into it and try it out. I loaded my film and headed off to a local farm to see the horses

In my defence, it was sunny when I chose my film, Foma 100, but by the time I had arrived at my destination the clouds had appeared and turned a promising day into more of a 400 speed day. It didn't bother me too much though, I was just happy to be using my OM-1 again. I could tell the difference as soon as I tried it, the sloppiness is gone, the viewfinder is bright and clear and the light meter is accurate again. It's amazing how a little attention can give you confdence and speed up your thought processes, I shot a few close ups whilst having a good natter with the horses, they enjoy a good chat, then headed off for some wider shots. A couple of kids had appeared with their Mum and wanted to see the horses too, so I stepped away.

I realy enjoyed using my OM-1 again, it is back to being the precision professional grade camera Yoshihisa Maitani intended when he designed it back in the late 1960's. It might be almost as old as I am, but it is in far better condition and will probably be capable of producing stunning images far into the future. It will outlive me for certain and that makes me happy knowing at some point in the second half of the 21st century someone may be able to load some 35mm film into my OM-1 and have the joy I feel today, seeing their images as they hang freshly developed film in their bathroom to dry.

I am from the generation that saw film in it's all it's glory as the dominant force in photography. The new generation that have come to love film photography have a multitude of digital camera's and smart phones to choose from, yet they chose to discover and come to love film photography for the same reasons. It's not a snap and chimp process, it's much more of an immersive experience than that. From the moment we load a camera with film to printing the images we have created, we all smile like a cheshire cat when we see the results of our photography. We don't always create wall hangers, but when we do there's no feeling quite like it.
If you live in the UK and have a favourite camera that needs a little tlc, I am happy to recommend Pierro to you. You can find Pierro at www.ppprepairs.co.uk where you can see his portfolio, check out a couple of interviews he has done and take a look some of the items he has for sale. Pierro is one of the growing band of 20 somethings that have taken the plunge to keep film alive by taking care of the one item we all depend upon. He is not alone, I know of a few like Pierro around the world who are doing great things bringing old worn out cameras back to life and long may it continue.

Using Expired Film

I have been shooting a lot of black and white film over the last few months, some of it fresh, new film and others expired film I was given. My posts about the FP4 Party was done with expired film and it taught me a lot about the quality of Ilford film if kept refrigerated and I learned how to develop film with that expired film. Recently I have been learning how to alter film speeds, development times and chemical dilutions to get the best out of old film stock and It is quite an education. The Ilford FP4 was not the only expired Ilford film I was given, in the consignment was several rolls of Ilford HP5 and a solitary roll of Ilford Delta 400. This gave me the opportunity to extend my developing skills and a great excuse to experiment.

Ilford HP5 is noted for it's exposure latitude, ie the amount of under or over exposure it will handle and still give you a usable image. From talking to friends online about shooting expired film, I was encouraged to try a roll at 200 asa, one stop below box speed. The reasoning being that as film ages, it's sensitivity to light degrades over time. Keeping film in the fridge for several months does extend it's life and carefully freezing film can extend that life indefinitely. However, it must be done properly. If you do try keeping film in your freezer it is important to keep moisture out. Placing the film in a zip lock bag, squeezing the excess air out and then putting it in a tupperware box or an old ice cream tub will do this. I also learned that allowing the film to acclimatise for an hour or three before loading it into my camera would remove any condensation that would inevitably form if I just popped the can open and chucked it in my camera.

Armed with this information I set about working my way through my stash of expired film with varied results. One roll was seriously water damaged, but I managed to salvage a couple of images. Other rolls were pretty much ok and gave me a lot to work with. I was nervous when I developed my first few rolls, but with increasing experience I can develop 2 rolls in my Paterson tank without any bother. As well as using Ilfosol 3, a one shot developer that produces fine grained images, I also invested in Kodak HC-110, a popular developer that has a lot of information on the "Massive Dev Chart" website. This is an invaluable resource for various dilution ratio's and development times for just about every film available today and several that were discontinued years ago, but have been hoarded in freezers by folk saving it for the future. HC-110 is also re-useable and I have been getting several films from one mix. Film photography isn't the cheapest hobby, but with reusable chemicals it becomes less of an economic burden over time. You really do get your money's worth.

I am well aware that using expired film can, and frquently does, disappoint, but it does take away the horrible feeling you would get if you shot a fresh roll then made a pigs ear of it during developing. Having this film has helped me more than hindered and I'm growing as a photographer because of it. I think I have mentioned previously that a bad experience of developing film in my youth led me to resist doing it again for three decades. I must admit I was never the most attentive to details back then. Coming back to film has given me a lot of joy over the last few years and with maturity has come an appreciation for doing things right. The next logical step is to give printing in a darkroom a try, but the expense of second hand equipment means I will have to save up for a while before I can go down that particular rabbit hole. In the meantime I will enjoy scanning my negatives and printing images from my computer. There is a still much to learn, but I'm getting there.

Here's a few images from the expired Ilford HP5 and the solitary roll of Ilford Delta 400 that I have shot over the last few months. They may not be the most technically perfect images I have produced, but they taught me a heck of a lot.
 

HP5 shot at box speed with Olympus 35RC.
This control shot was with a fresh roll of HP5

HP5 @ 200 with Nikon F801

HP% @ 200 shot with Nikon F801

HP5 @200 shot with Nikon F801

Delta 400 shot at box speed with Nikon F801

HP5 @200 shot with Nikon F801

HP5 @200 shot with Nikon F801

HP5 @ 200 shot with Nikon F801 S.
Yep I bought the sporty version to compliment my original F801

HP5 @ 200 shot with Nikon F801 S

HP5 @ 200 shot with Nikon F801S

HP5 @ 200 shot with Nikon F801

HP5 @ 200 shot with Nikon F801

Kodak Vision 3 250D 35mm Colour Motion Picture Film

Cast your mind back to my blog post on April 13th 2020 and you may remember I waxed lyrical about Cherry Blossom and shot a roll of Kodak Vision 3 250D Motion Picture Film that was to be sent for processing. The good folks at Nik & Trick Photo services have done their magic with my film and I received my scans a few days ago. As promised, here are some of those images and a few thoughts on the current state of Film Photography in 2020.

For over a century, Kodak has been at the forefront of the Film Industry. Whether it's an action filled Hollywood blockbuster or the holiday snaps you took on your travels before the digital revolution, more often than not they were shot on Kodak film. If you look back at the history of photography things got interesting when George Eastman decided he could make his own photographic plates cheaper than he could buy them and set up his business on the third floor of a building on State Street in Rochester, New York. It wasn't long before Eastman was making a few bucks from his enterprise and he took a gamble on buying the patents for a new product called "Roll Film", invented by David Houston to use in camera's designed by his brother Peter Houston, and began to sell both film and the camera's to shoot it with under the Kodak brand name in 1888.

This was the beginning of film photography as we know it today. Kodak has designed and sold a multitude of films, both black and white and colour that, over the last century and more, has been used by amateur photographers like me and Oscar winning film makers like Quentin Tarrantino. Motion Picture film is basically the same as Stills film that has a protective layer called "Remjet" added to help it survive the rigourous environment inside a movie camera. Kodak Vision 3 250D is one of Kodak's current Motion Picture film stocks and I was convinced to give it a try by a chap named Skyler King. He absolutely loves the cinema and cinematography and he was extolling the virtues of Kodak Vision 3 250D to such an extent that if he can't shoot 250D, he doesn't want to shoot film. Period. That's a bold statement and convinced me I had to give it a try. I found a supplier here in the UK, Nik & Trick Photo Services in Folkstone Kent who also develop the film too and promptly ordered 2 rolls.

I shot the first roll last autumn using my Olympus OM-2 and was impressed enough with the autumn colour tones to save the other roll until spring to capture the local cherry trees in bloom. I know the trees put on a great display each year and boy was I in for a treat! I had been keeping my eye on the cherry trees trying to time my roll of film to capture them as they had begun to come to full bloom. Unfortunately for everyone, lockdown had just begun and I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted and shot my roll of Vision 3 over two days in early April 2020. The weather had been glorious for a few days, making it just right for cherry blossom. I can see why the Japanese people put cherry blossom into their cultural identity. From the "Sakura Zensen", the cherry blossom front, to the picnic beneath the blossoming trees, Japan makes the most of the delights of spring and I was no different. I loaded the roll of Vision 3 250D into my Nikon F801 and went for a walk. We were allowed out for an hour of exercise per day and I made the most of mine.

The local cherry trees had put on a grand display this year and I said in my previous blog that the drop in air pollution caused by the lockdown over corona virus would prove to be beneficial to woodland and forests around the world. Oxides of nitrogen from vehicle exhaust emmissions in our towns and cities are down by at least one third and the lack of aircraft in the skies has also seen a huge drop in CO2. You can smell the difference in the air as nature recovers from our addiction to fossil fuels. Clear skies, glorious sunshine and less pollution will give nature a much needed chance to undo our damage. It may not be enough to totally reverse the damage we have already done, but it shows us that we can change our ways and save our planet for future generations to enjoy cherry blossom long after we are gone.

Ecology and Photography go hand in hand, a few images shot either digitally or on film gives our descendents a look at how we lived and what the world around us looked like. The quality of images shot on Kodak Vision 3 250D will give my descendents a true colour picture of what life looked like today. It's also worth mentioning that all the Hollywood film studio's have recently signed a deal with Kodak to ensure the supply of film will continue for many years to come. When you next go to the cinema, take a moment to see what film the movie was shot on and I will be surprised if it wasn't one of Kodak's Vision 3 films.

I have only tried 250D, but Kodak also make 50D, 500T and 200T. I am reliably informed that Vision 3 500T is what Cinestill convert to 800T by removing the remjet layer from the emulsion to make it easier for home developing. If you do decide to give Vision 3 a try, don't take it to a lab that only does C41 processing. They will hate you forever as the remjet layer makes a mess of the C41 processing chemicals and the machine and it takes ages to clean out. It can also ruin your negatives leaving you with nothing. Vision 3 requires bespoke processing that is best left to a specialist. Thankfully there are still folks out there that have the skills and the equipment to make your images look their best.

I bought mine from Nik & Trick Photo Services and sent it back to them for processing. So far I have been more than happy with their services and will continue to support them. Without the small independent labs we would be a bit stuck, not everyone has the skills or the room to develop their own film. Independent Labs like Nik & Trick here in the UK have kept film photography viable, particularly quirky and specialist film. The current lockdown has made it harder than ever for them all to continue in business. Wherever you are in the world, support your local lab and show the world that photographers stick together in times of strife.
 
Nik & Trick - https://ntphotoworks.com/

Here's a few autumn shots and a riot of spring cherry blossom shot on Kodak Vision 3 250D motion picture film. I used my Olympus OM-2 for the autumn shots and my Nikon F801 for the cherry blossom and none are edited. I have also put all my cherry blossom images on Flickr.

Flickr - https://flic.kr/s/aHsmMWCuAz