Steve Maniscalco Photography

Kiev 60, First Results

I finally got that first roll through the Kiev 60.  It's not that I didn't want to shoot with it sooner, I've just been out of photography all around lately.  Too much other stuff demanding my time.

I have to say, this camera is a beast. At something over 4 lbs with the standard lens, it makes an impression. The ergonomics are pretty bad, though I got used to the shutter release quickly enough. Of course, you don't buy decades old Soviet hardware for its light weight or its ergonomics. Wait...why do I buy this stuff? Oh yea, 'cause it's cheap and fun to play with.

I relied on the prism mounted meter for this first roll, though it is a bit confusing and not terribly handy. Perhaps I should have checked it against other cameras first, because the whole roll looks to be a stop or more underexposed.  Could be the meter, could be operator error. I'll figure it out.

In any case, here are the two shots worth sharing. Both are shot wide open, with the 80mm lens set to f2.8. Narrow dof is one thing my Mamiya 7 cannot do as well, having an f4 lens, so narrow dof is one of the places I will use the Kiev most.  

I like the results and am encouraged enough to buy more batteries for the meter (forgot to turn it off).

Three Brownies

I did get the three brownies out over the weekend and managed to burn 3 rolls of film pretty quick. It's a funny looking arrangement and I was stopped twice by people wondering what the heck I was doing with three cameras at a time.

The results did not quite live up to my hopes. It seems the camera I had on the right side had a very dirty little plastic lens. It was so dirty that those shots just don't look like they belong with the shots from the other two cameras. Now, I'm not really objecting to the crappy images. It's just that all three images need to be at about the same level of crappy to make a decent looking tryptych...for my tastes anyway.

So, I'm left with two choices; clean the dirty lens or dirty the clean lenses.  I went for the cleaning option as having more predictable results.

The other thing I learned from this run is that perhaps a wider angle of coverage...a greater angle between the cameras...would be a better look.  There is just a bit too much overlap on these images.

Here's an example of what I came out with. I think you can see that the concept has something going for it, now I just need to make the execution right.

Catching Up a Bit

When it takes so long between posts, I usually start off with some reason/excuse. I think I'll skip that this time. 

Projects:

Just finished putting this little contraption together and I hope go get some film through it this weekend. The idea here is to be able to take 3 simultaneous (nearly) shots at three slightly different angles. I'm thinking tryptych here, but stitched panos are a possibility as well.

Yep, that's 3 brownie hawkeye flash cameras, mounted about 15 degrees apart, locked and loaded, ready to go.
 Brilliant idea or flop waiting to happen? Time will tell, and I'll show the results either way.

General Business:

I just ordered a 43mm lens for my Mamiya 7. That camera is turning in to my 80% solution. If the 80mm lens was faster, it'd be at 90%.
 $1200 for a used lens...most I've ever spent on any single thing related to photography. I know it's a great lens, let's just hope I get along well with it.

I sold most of my 4x5 lenses, leaving myself only a minimal large format capability. I know I didn't give it very much time, but it's just obvious to me that I don't have the time to devote to large format. It's a shame really.

Been tweeting quite a bit lately. I've found some good photo folks to follow and have over 100 legit followers myself now. Still looking for more film photographers and alternative process folks to follow. Point them out to me if you know of them and follow me on twitter.

Point and Shoot Fun

Life's been keeping my busy in non photo related ways lately (the nerve!). I have managed to run a single roll through the new/old Olympus Stylus Epic.  I love having one of these cameras around. It fits nicely in a pocket and the results are quite good.

The camera came with 5 rolls of Arista film. I have to say, so far I'm not impressed. The 100 iso roll I shot did not scan well.

In any case, here are two from that roll.

The view from my sunroof.

In an alley next to one of my favorite eateries.