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| My Current Shooters |
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These are my main shooting cameras When we went on vacation fall 2004 I had to decide what cameras I trusted the most for carrying. It fell to 2 of my systems. I had carried the Yashica FR's a lot when Mom and I would go out on day excursions, but the final decision fell to the Olympus OM-2n's. I think their off-the-film meter is one of the most accurate around. Also, I had one body with a matt screen and the other with a matt screen with a grid. These are my favorite screens for scenic shooting, especially the grid. And they are lighter but every bit as durable. |
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Three Yashica FR models I was using a Yashica FR and a Contax RTS (see below) in 1980 when I worked a year for a newspaper. I found them very nice handling and rugged. I did away with most of my cameras in the 1990's and hadn't thought too much about the Yashica FR series when I started collecting again in 2002 until we traded one in where I work. After shooting one weekend with it, I was in love all over again. I had forgotten how well they handled and how natural they felt to me. I now have all 3 FR variations, the FR, FR1 and FRII, and shoot all. The Yashica FR is manual through the lens metering. The FRII is aperture preference automatic only. The FR1 has both manual and aperture preference exposure control. The shutter release has a unusual location. It uses a microswitch located in the center of the the wind lever. It is very gentle - I find it a little harder to depress part way, which you usually do with a mechanical shutter so that firing only requires a slight additional push to fire, thus reducing chance of camera jar. But it does continue to push some after firing the shutter, so that helps reduce the chance of camera jar from the action of pushing the shutter release if you should push it down rapidly.Shown (L-R) are the Yashica FR, FR1 and FRII. The FR1 comes only in black and the FRII only in chrome. The FR came in both, however both bodies I have are chrome color. |
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The FR body and a peppy winder
The Yashica FR was the first to be introduced of the series, and the first one I owned both originally and when I started collecting again. It has diode style match needle metering and no auto exposure options. The shown winder takes 6 AA batteries and is a little peppier than than most other winders of the time (and heavier, largely due to the additional 2 batteries). My old Canon AE-1 barely made the claimed 2 fps, but it also ran on only 4 batteries. I think the FR winder probably was about 2.5 fps, and with the extra battery power it had good pull. |
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I love black bodies The Contax RTS was the first of the new generation of Contax 35mm SLR cameras, introduced in the late 70's. The cameras allowed Yashica owners to select fine Zeiss optics in addition to economical Yashica and independent brand options, or Contax owners to have alternative choices in inexpensive optical options. I presently own no Zeiss lenses, but when I was on the weekly paper, 3 of my lenses were the fine Zeiss optics. This RTS is just a recent acquisition, however I expect it will, like the FR's above, get extensive use. |
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My 3 Olympus OM bodies In the early 70's, Olympus set out to prove that a camera could be compact and still be of professional quality. The result was the Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR. It lived up to their claims and became a success, resulting in other manufacturers also making lighter weight professional back-up bodies for their series, such as Nikon with the FM replacing the heavier Nikkormats. In the 70's I had a very high regard for the Olympus cameras and sold many of them, but for myself I felt they were a little too compact for my large hands. For copy stand and tripod work I did here at work however, my first preference was the Olympus OM-2n with the off-the-film metering. I considered it to be one of the most accurate meters on the market and Olympus Zuikos to be among the best lenses you could buy - very desirable when doing copy work and product illustrations for our store.I have 4 OM bodies. The one I have owned longest is the black OM (not MD, a very early one) in the center. The meter is dead, but other than that it is still a very reliable shooter. The other two bodies shown to left are OM-2n bodies I have added fall 2004. Below is the newest addition, the OM-2s. As noted in the introduction, I have a very high trust of the meter in these cameras. I have only the 3 Zuiko lenses shown, however I have a wide variety of Tamron Adaptall and Vivitar T-4 lenses to give me a well rounded choice of optics to shoot with.I had owned the black OM-1 for years, along with the 3 Zuiko lenses shown above. |
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My Newest OM, and it is black I had been hoping for a black OM-2n, but ones we have seen recently looked like they had a rough life. This OM-2s was very nice, was black, and gave me a different model for my collection, so I grabbed it instead. I have put a matte screen with a grid in it, like my best OM-2n body. It is a very nice screen for scenic photography and to aid in composition. |
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Vacation combination When we went on vacation October 2004, I started out with a limited zoom range but faster wide angle zoom and faster tele zoom the first day. I discovered that for sunlight scenic, I didn't need the extra f-stop capability, and I wanted the greater cropping control of a broader range zoom. I switched to the 28-200mm Tamron Adaptall and shot most of my vacation with the one lens. It is a very fine lens and I have been impressed with it's combination of sharpness and light weight ever since it was introduced. For cameras, I used my 2 OM-2n's, one loaded with Agfa ISO 400 and the other with ISO 800. The ISO 800 was generally used with my 60-300mm Tamron to shoot wildlife (what little we saw this trip). |
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Shot with Kodak 35RF The Kodak 35 Rangefinder was my first 35mm camera back in the mid 50's. This was shot with a 35RF that probably is very nearly like mine. It is shown on the top of the 35RF page 4 near the end of this web site. It was shot at a park near where I work on Konica 200 film, I imagine 1/200 at between f11 & 16 or at f16. It was an enjoyable experience to shoot a camera that I had used almost exclusively for my shooting for about 3 of my teenage years. A surprise was how sharp my negatives were. This is an uncoated lens that shows some age fog. A wagon wheel picture I shot was sharp enough to seen the wood grain. |