WANSEN WS-603C mod

The RF trigger transceivers made by WANSEN do a pretty good job. I use those in my Canon digital gear.
However, next to the digital stuff, I also shooting film. The cameras I use for this might have a hot-shoe... at max.
Wanna doe wireless with random and oldskool gear?
Here is the solution: get some WANSEN WS-603C an modify those. No, this is not my idea, I found this guy who modified a Yongnuo RF-603N trigger system this way. Here's another chap showing a modification of a RF-603C in video.

The mod add 3V via a 100kOhms resistor to a pin of a multipole hot-shoe. The 100kOhms resistor would be called a "pulled up", i.e. pulling up the potential w/o adding the current. A very safe bet for any electronics.

The WANSEN units seem to be slightly different from the Yongnuo units. So, take care to modify your RF trigger in an appropriate way. Actually, within different WANSEN units, the wiring is different!
I have to say, that my mod is pretty tolerant to various layouts of the main PCB, since it is oriented on the PCB assigned to the hot-shoe.

the pin on the hot-shoe sensing the presence of a camera

here the pin ends, in the middle!

One can attach the switchable pull-up on either the hot-shoe, or the main PCB.
For reduced confusion, I decided to apply the pull-up to the hot-shoe.
Looking out for "done work", I decided to remove the 3.5mm trigger socket, to make place for a switch. One of the terminals of said switch came conveniently close to the hot-shoe's PCB's solder patch for the relevant pin. A very short piece of wire connects the switch with pin, enabling "pull-up".
The green arrow of the following picture indicates the location of the added pull-up resistor.

the mod asks for a 100kOhms pull-up resistor (connected to the battery terminal)

The unit functions as a flash-trigger now... that's the supposed primary use.
Many modern cameras require their very own speed-light systems. Modifying existent systems, such as the WANSEN or Yongnuo, may not provide TTL metering, however, those system form a perfect alternative to the overpriced PocketWizzards.


Actually, I use those trigger to pop a remote flash with an AGAT 18k.

receive mode, all three

device in the middle set to transmit (cf. green LEDs)

Beneficially, the WANSEN and the Yongnuo system are fully compatible in terms of functions.
Personally, I got 2 Yongnuo units and 4 WANSEN units...I will have a hard time figuring out how I can use 5 speedlites....

C-Mount Lenses for MFT Cameras

This topic can be found online all over the place. Cheap and cheerful C-mount video lenses on micro-4/3 (MFT) systems. In particular BMPCC users seem t love those lenses.
Some months ago, I bought my first C-mount lens, a 25mm f/1.4, which was fun to play with for a day, but quickly found its way in the bag to stay there.

Recently, I came across 2 more lenses which caught my attention, ad 16mm f/1.6 and a 35mm f/1.7.

Here is a photo of my C-mount lenses, the MFT adapter and 2 macro-rings, which came with the 35mm lens.

16mm, 25mm and 35mm lenses, respective adapter and macro-rings

The 35mm Fujian immediately became my favorite. The 70mm equivalent fast glass makes a beautiful portrait lens! At f/1.7, the aperture is perfectly round, creating wonderful Bokeh-balls. Down to f/4, the aperture stay reasonably round. At f/5.6 a slight zig-zagy-ness crawls in, which stay down to f/16, which is the official end of the scale. However, the lens can be stopped down further, with the aperture getting more and more rectangular.
The adaptation of the Fujian, using the adapter ring shown above, was no problem at all. Actually, the moves beyond the infinity focus.

The 25mm I did discuss previously on this blog, so I will skip this particular lens here.

Finally, the 16mm Cosmicar... Honestly, I had my issues with this lens!
It is clearly visible from the image above, the Comsicar is the biggest of them all. Not sure why the lens was build that way, since the front-element is hidden deeply inside the huge lens-hood.
Using the shown adapter, the Cosmicar could be focused on extremely proximate objects only, meaning, it did not screw all the way into the adapter, I figure.
At this point in time, I thought I just wasted €20, made my peace with it a put the lens aside.
For an unapparent reason, I picked the thing up again and had a look if it could not be modified (to serve whatever purpose... e.g. put in front of a webcam, for long-exposure astro-stuff.
When looking at the back of the lens, it seems that the rear lens group can be unscrewed. There is not actual image of the unscrewed lens group, sorry! The process of unscrewing the group took a long way, which gave me the idea, that the group could be fixed at a place where the lens would focus on my MFT sensor. After some trial and error, I found the infinity focus position.
For the time being, said infinity focus position is fixed by small stripes of gaffer's tape stuffed in the threads.

Cosmicar 16mm f/1.6 with displaced rear lens group

Of course, I could have dropped in a bit of Loctite, to secure the position... however, I am not yet sure if I want things to be like this, hence, I decided for a temporary solution.
Optically, and in terms of handling, the lens is fine. The equivalent 32mm are too short for comfort, however. The lens shows black vignetting, indicating that the image is too small for the sensor.
Olympus added a "digital tele-converter" function to their E-PM2, which I used for the tests. Here, the lens displays a decently flat image over the entire frame. When shooting in RAW, this does not help at all, in contrast to shooting video.
The Cosmicar being a very smooth lens what controls are concerned, will probably be the best of the bunch for video work, provided Olympus' digital tele-converter is used.
For use with the BMPCC, which is provided with a smaller sensor, this lens my just be the hero... the 20 bucks hero that is.

Poppy-Uppy Flash Mini Soft Box

Lately, I have been asked by some friends, why the flash of their compact camera creates such "crappy" images. Assuming that the problem was flat images with lots of hard shadows and a cold color cast, my answer was always the same: the tiny built-in flash-tube create really hard light.
Hard light, i.e. light that comes from a light source being (much) smaller than the subject, creates a flat appearance and pretty harsh shadows in the background.
Using the built-in, is therefore only good for "fill flash" when shooting in bright (sun) back light.

There are a very simple solutions to make most of the flashes useable, even with the tiny flash being the only light source.

1. diffuse the flash
2. redirect the flash
3. tone the flash
4. redirect the flash with a tone

Options 1 and 2 are obviously referring to making the light softer, which cannot be corrected in post processing, while options 3 and 4 are just an added bonus, and can be added in post.

Options 1, 2 and 4 can easily be achieved by a very simple device... a translucent film canister.

the translucent canister

One simply has to create a template of the cross-section of the poppy-uppy flash's footprint and create a corresponding cut-out in the canister. The cut-out should actually be a bit wider, so that the canister can lean a bit to the front of the camera.
Somewhat like this:

template and modified canister

Going from here, the optional reflector can be created. I experimented a bit with the dimensions of said reflector. And here is my solution:

• length: 43mm (fitting the canister lengthwise)
• width: 23mm (creating a 45-ish degree angle)

the internal reflector

The reflector inserted into the "soft box" looks somewhat like this (red side up):

the internal reflector inserted into the soft box

And there are some of the resulting images, showing one of my messy book shelves. The LX7 was on aperture priority f/2.8 @ ISO1600:

reference shot, bare built-in flash

diffuser (no internal reflector)

white side of the internal reflector

red side of the internal reflector

The difference might be hard to see on the given examples, in particular since blogger will "improve" the photos again, I fear.

An assortment of different reflectors, such as different colors, aluminum foil, etc. can make the mini soft box really useful.

Enjoy photography!

UPDATE:
The original design gave a lot of spill towards the back of the camera. To keep this a bit under control, I attached aluminum tape to the inner backside of the canister,  such that is directed more towards the upper front.

Updated Chardonnol Recipe

Presently, the C41 film is drying.
So far, results look OK, still a little faint though.
I overexposed the film by 2 stops...

Right, here is the recipe:
1/4l Chardonnay
1 tsp ascorbic acid
3/2 tsp soda

I developed for 20 minutes, with agitation ever minute.

As soon as the film is dry, I will scan images and present those here.

Mechanical Cameras (chemical that is)

Some time ago, I got myself a collection of 4 "untested" (i.e. defect) vintage cameras for real cheap from a world renowned auction site.

The jewel of the collection was a Minolta A5, with a jammed shutter (blocking the film advance lever). I slowly pealed the layers off that thing, and like an onion, it presented the guts, ever so slowly. Finally, I got the lens barrel holding the shutter mechanism separated from the rest. Some tweaking even got the shutter back to work... However, to the present day, I was unable to reassemble this particular camera.
Main problem: I can't get the lens back into the threaded mount. Potentially this camera is a total loss :-(

Second in place was an Argus C3. This camera had a problem with the cocking mechanism, which opened the shutter incidentally. Not good, that for sure. Also the tripod mount was fill with a broken off screw, which is not good either.
The quick fix for the shutter cocking mechanism was to tighten up the shutter release and fix it in the timed position. OK, now, the bulb mode is gone ... but what is a bulb mode good for, if you can't use a tripod? Mind you, the broken screw in the tripod mount.

In third place, a Fujica Half. Actually, this camera was the main driver to place a bid! Again, the shutter was jammed, blocking the film advance lever, similar to the Minolta A5.
Seems that fixes are much simpler with the Fujica. Carefully removing the black rubber, the front-plate of the camera, which is held by 4 screw only, can be easily removed. W/o the front cover, the shutter release mechanism is exposed. Upon wiggling said release a bit, it loosened up and finally released, allowing for cranking the shutter.
The Fujica Half is back in business! Even the automatic exposure stuff seems to work.

The forth and final camera in the bundle was some cassette film plastic thingy not worth any further mention....

At the end, 2 out of 4 cameras a working fine. A third may potentially be rescued, although, I doubt if there is any incentive to rescue this particular Minolta A5 over just trying to get a working one for cheap.

Long live 135 film!

Load 135 Film Correctly

Lately, there are many videos on FaceToob and YouBuke telling people how to load 135 film... guess what most of those are plainly wrong. (Search for "load 135 film" and see for yourself!)

Well, of course you can put the cartridge in the camera first. That means that now you got to pull out film and fiddle it into the take-up spool. Well, since the film is somewhat stiff, and you already set a constraint, things are more complicated from here on, in particular since now the perforations have to be matched to the film sprocket. This way, and this is what you can see on those videos, people make sure that all is fine by cranking some frames just to watch the film exposing and winding on the take-up spool.

No, I am not going to shoot a video, not yet...

However, here is how I load a film (assuming the usage of a camera in which the film cartridge goes into the left hand side).

• hold the (open) camera in the right hand
• pull out the cartridge axle
• press the film rewind button for a free-wheeling sprocket
• hold the film cartridge in the left hand between palm and middle finger, ring finger and pinky
• hold the film leader with thumb and index finger
• now you have all the dexterity to smoothly insert the film into the take-up spool's retaining mechanism
• with the thumb of the right hand, hold the film in the take-up spool's retaining mechanism
• gently pull the film across the sprocket (it will self align, since it is free) and across the exposure chamber, using your left thumb as a brake
• gently slide the cartridge into it's place
• now, hold the camera with your left hand, the thumb still resting on the film, this will ensure no unwanted movement
• with the right hand, gently push in the cartridge axis
• with the right hand, very gently (!) crank the film "back", i.e. into the cartridge, in order to straighten out the film - if the film does not slip out of the take-up retention mechanism all is fine
• now close the camera
• crank forward 1 frame (which will be partially exposed during the loading) and observe if the backwinding crank moves correctly and the rewind button pops out

Although the method above seems to involve a lot a steps, with some practice, this is the fastest method to load a roll of 135 film.
It also is the most economical method, usually it get's me about 40 full-frames and 81 half-frames from 1 shop-bought cartridge. (With the BelOMO Agat 18k this method will result in 82 half-frames).

I already mentioned one less common camera, the Agat 18k. There are other cameras (in my collections) such as the Argus C3, which may require either taken 'em up-side down of reversing the hands. I tend to just use the other hand...

Just remember, the cartridge goes in last!

PS: Wow, I found 1 video explaining film loading the correct way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSoDNrxTWjs
Congrats to expert village!

PPS: Unbelievable... the same channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXKTgaM8HBg
Oh boy!

The Poor Man's Leicas - The Petri 7 S & The Fujica Half

Yet another post about film on my blog... sorry you electronic (aka digital) shooters, I have a topic prepared for you too. However, since I rediscovered my love for CHEMICAL (!!!) or "wet" (for good measures) photography, I would like to focus on that stuff today.

Before actually diving into today's topic, I would like to shortly discuss the misuse of the attributes in photography. Nowadays, photography using CCD of CMOS sensors is called "digital". There is nothing digital about collecting charge created by photons in a photo-diode! Believe me, this is an analog process. OK, if you want to be really picky about things, Planck has got the last word, and yes, the collection of photons is quantized. Quantization, however, is not an synonym to digitization. In fact, in the photosensitive emulsion of a film, the same quantum electro dynamical processes are taking place as in the die of an electronic light sensor.
The difference between film and "digital" cameras lies in the recovery of the "latent image".
In "digital" photography, the latent (analog) image is read out electronically (analog) by a CC (charge couple) process, or by process similar to access memory in a computer ("CMOS") and digitized by a ADC (analog to digital converter).
In film photography, or "analog" for those who insist, the latent image is processed and fixed by chemical reactions.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the poor man's Leica!

In my time (my youth that is), I had a lot of fun playing with traditional photography, using 135 film. The dark room was my second home to the time. First in school, later at home. Film photography, however, needs some dedicated space, which I was not available to me any longer when I was at university. Hence, the entire action came to a hold... none of my cameras/lenses was of any use any longer. Actually, I was not taken any substantial amount of photos for nearly 30 years!

Digital cameras just lately came close to what I expected. And only with the purchase of the Fuji X100S, the spark was back!
I know, I did not share a lot of my Fuji X100S experiences here, but I can tell you, the possibility to use it in full manual mode, just like a camera I grew up with, brought me back to film.
You may have noticed my earlier posts about the "sunny 16 rule" and how to determine exposure.

Now I was aiming for a shooting experience like the X100S using film.
My SLR's (all of them) are pretty noisy. Hence, I was on the hunt for a camera that is quiet and fully manually controllable.

You would be surprised to know, there are not a lot cameras out there to fulfill such a simple requirements!
Many legacy cameras involved some sort of automation, be it shutter, be it aperture. Yep, this is exactly what I was not looking for.

After a long search, I ended with one camera that I really love, and another one that will be my workhorse.

Let's start with the workhorse: the Petri 7 S. This camera comes in various flavors, all of which employ a range finder and full manual controls. The shutter speed ranges from 1s/500 to 1s, while a bulb mode is available. Depending on the model, apertures from f/1.8 to f/16 are available. I personally own 2 cameras with an f/2.8 lens, and a third camera, having a f/1.8 lens, is on it's way.
I shot several rolls of film with my Petri's and I am very pleased with the results sofar. Really silent cameras.

The Petri 7 S is very easy to maintain. Cleaning the viewfinder and the rangefinder might be necessary, infos can be found here.
There is a service manual available for free.
Actually, I opened both my Petris and cleaned / aligned the viewfinder / rangefinder.

Still more on the Petri 7 S: They made an auxiliary lens kit for those cameras. The kit came with a wide angle attachment, and telephoto attachment and a cold-shoe viewfinder. The attachments screw right on the 52mm filter thread of the Petri 7Ss' lens. Actually, there are folks who use those AUX lenses on X100(S) cameras with a respective filter thread adapter.

Leaving the Petri and moving on to my very favorite camera today, the Fujica Half 1.9!
The Fujica Half is not a real replacement of any Leica or other type of range finder cameras ever made. There is no range finder on that camera! Although there is a lever for focusing, typical to a range finder. In the viewfinder, one will see an indicator for  "mountains", "a couple" and "portrait".
In theory, the Fujica Half has got a light meter... well, the light meter of my camera is dead.
No light meter, no range finder... why is this still my favorite camera as of today?
I am not even using it's wide open f/1.9 aperture as often....

The Fujica Half offers the opportunity to re-think framing. In it's normal position, the Fujica is in portrait mode. When you think of it, portrait is much more natural to photography than "landscape" (unless one photographs a landscape...).

The Fujica offers the same exposure options as the Petri 7 S, however, being "half frame", the Fujica offers twice the amount of exposures on one 135 film.

Next in the line: AGAT 18k (waiting for it to arrive).