Weather and the doldrums got me this week and I ran out of time to bring you some new photos. Here's a few more from our wander around Trencherfield Mill and Wigan Pier. You know by now I can't just take one camera, I have to have a back up and it came in the form of my Olympus OM-10, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens and a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 film. Being sensible is something I am not usually associated with, but I make an exception for my photography.
How often have you been to a wedding where the photographer is carrying two cameras? Any wedding photographer worth their salt always has two cameras. It's the same with press photographers and the paparazzi, they always have a back up just in case things go wrong or they need to change a lens. Having another camera, perhaps with a lens that has a different focal length, is a must in their world.
I was going to take my Minolta X-300 with a 28mm lens, but have often wondered how an Olympus consumer grade camera from the 70's would compare to Minolta's last professional manual focus 35mm camera that was introduced in 1981. I used both cameras in Aperture Priority, all I had to do was select an f stop and the cameras selected the shutter speed.
I am not one for going full auto very often, but I do enjoy using aperture priority. It gives my brain a rest and lets me concentrate on the composition rather than the settings. Both Olympus and Minolta were noted for having great light metering and auto features. I'm happy to have faith in the engineers who designed and built excellent cameras for photographers of all skill levels. Even me.
Many of these photos will be familiar to those who read my blog back in October, but I did try to alter my compositions to suit each lens. You can compare them to the ones I took with my Minolta X-700 by visiting my Wigan Pier Quarter blog post. However, it isn't an equal comparison as I used two different films with different speeds. ADOX CHS 100 ii in my Minolta and Ilford HP5+ 400 in my OM-10.
I like a good challenge and the right film for the afternoon was not as clear cut as I thought it would be. Using aperture priority meant I was able to capture well exposed photos with both my Minolta on 100 iso film and my Olympus OM-10 with its 400 iso film. Both cameras showed me their excellent light metering capability is up to the hype that both companies gave them back in the day.
Both cameras also have their faults. The Minolta X-700 suffered from failing capacitors in the later years as Minolta began using cheaper materials. It's important to note the Minolta X-700 was in production for 18 years. It was in the last third of it's production run where cheaper materials began to be used and capacitors started failing. Early ones are fine.
The Olympus OM-10 was quickly superceded by the OM-20 which put an end to the Manual Adapter, a part that was often lost, and put manual shutter speed setting in the camera body where it belongs. That wasn't the end for the OM-10, it was in production for longer than it's successors. However that came to and end when Olympus discontinued all its consumer grade OM double digit series cameras in 1992. Auto Focus had taken over the world by storm.
I developed my roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 in Zone Imaging 510 Pyro diluted at 1+100 for 8 minutes and 15 seconds at 20 celcius, stopped with filtered water and fixed with Fotospeed FX30. On my first look I could see I had well exposed negatives and hung it to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I digitised my film with my Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Pixl-latr and A4 led light source. Processing was done with Affinity Photo 2.
I really enjoyed our afternoon of film photography around the Pier Quarter of town. Here's a few of my favourite photos from this roll of Ilford HP5 and, as always, I have put them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can view by visiting the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Ilford HP5+ 400 - Olympus OM10
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