the MP has landed…. full review to follow.

this guy is hilarious!

one of my all time fave bands…

“barcelona in 18 frames” provides a glimpse into the makeup of this vibrant and fascinating city. a city that started life in the year 10 ad as the roman colony barcino has evolved to a vibrant and dynamic city in the form of present day barcelona, the capital of catalunya. often referred to as one of europe’s cultural and fashion centres, the city showcases beautiful people fed by gastronomic delights, surrounded by architectural masterpieces, and schooled in modern and contemporary art, all in a stunning landscape which extends from the hills of tibidabo to the many beaches that line the coast.

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bicycles represents an integral form of transportation in many major cities across the globe. in amsterdam, the ubiquitous two wheel wonders work themselves into the very fabric of city life, providing a means of transportation that is both earth-friendly and efficient. the bicycle has managed to achieve what all other modes of transportation aspire to do: weaving seamlessly over the many canals and through charming pathways with the minimum of fuss.

however, though they have served us well, there is still much for us to learn about the makeup of these fine vehicles: what happens when we leave them unattended? in this series, you will discover a previously hidden part of bicycle life that has never been documented… until now.

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having recently acquired a yashica GTN, i was quite excited about receiving a camera that ive heard so much about over the net. this particular one came with the whole shebang: nice black camera, hood, half case, wide and tele adapters with external eyepiece.

btw, in case you’re wondering. the GTN is the black version of the GSN. functionally, they’re both the same.

looks:
but of course, when it comes to aesthetics, black cameras are the dog’s bollocks just look at it.

sexy.

size, build, and feel:
for some reason, maybe because its a fixed lens camera, i expected it to be a small compact unit, say smaller than the Leica CL. Obviously this turned out not to be the case, as the GTN is COMFORTABLY bigger in all dimensions than the CL.

build quality is outstanding. save for some corner brassing, this particular camera held up well. holding the camera in your hand feels nice, everything is in the right place, and i particularly like the shutter lock flip switch, very good idea, wished the Leica had this.

using the camera:
the camera is a aperture priority camera, with 2 arrows in the viewfinder that tells you if you are over or under exposed. there are also 2 lights on top of the camera: slow - which tells you that the shutter speed chosen will be longer than 1/30th of a second, and the other over - which quite frankly i dont pay much attention to and not sure what its supposed to mean!

film loading was easy and quick. loop the film through the 2nd barrel and make sure the holes align with the notches and away you go. the pictures you see here are from a roll of ilford XP2 rate at 320, processed in a 1 hour machine and digitized using a simple flatbed scanner.

as far as i can tell the camera uses a spot metering, and it works fairly well as you can see from the examples below.

so no complaints with the metering per se, but i have to say its uber annoying to not know how far under or over exposed i am in a particular shot. this is probably a personal preference, but i find it to be a slight limitation for the control freak in me.

the other gripe i have with the GTN is the focusing patch. unlike what you see in the Leica, the focusing patch is in sort of a faded yellow diamond, which to my eyes seem to fade in and out. this makes its quite difficult to focus for me. consequently, just under half the roll turned out with captures that were out of focussed. of course, this could be a matter of getting used to the patch, but 1st impressions are that its quite a strain on the eye, and above all eyes, is the biggest negative for me of the GTN.

ok, enough with the bitching, here’s a selection of pictures off the 1st roll.

old china cafe

light at the corner

mirror mirror on the wall…

dark corners for dark deeds

chinatown

obligatory shot of jonah

conclusion:
all in all, the GTN wasnt quite what i expected. its big, with a slightly faded focusing patch. but i love it. its one of those cameras where you can use without much thinking. yes, i know its quite a contradiction to what i said above about wanting to know about shutter speeds etc, but sometimes you need to forget all that. this is probably as close to a P&S as i’ll get (famous last words), but its a really good compromise judging by some of the shots from this camera.

i purchased the GTN really as a companion to the leica CL, something i can just throw in the bag and take everywhere. given the price and its capabilities, i’ll say its a really good buy, though not exactly what i expected (notably in size). i should also note that it came with the tele and wide adapter which i made zero use of, and probably will not in the near future.

i suspect on a longer term, it very much depends on how i get on with the focusing patch. if my eyes dont enjoy much sexy time with the yellow diamond then it’ll probably be gone.

we’ll see how it goes.

Andreas Gursky’s “99 cent, dyptch” sold for over US$3.3 million in a Sotheby auction in London (GBP 1,771,653 to be exact). here is it.

if you need to impress your photog friends, artnet gives a nice rundown on Gursky’s work as well. clicky de linky. the original article appeared in new york magazine.

ok, after MUCH grief, im really glad the meter turned out to be OK. shot off a roll to check the metering.

as you can see the meter works fine. I popped in a 1.5V alkaline battery, not the usual 1.35V required. you can easily offset the difference by fiddling with the ASA units until the meter readings match that of your external meter.

in my case, i pretty much stick to ISO 400 b/w films so setting the ASA/DIN to 200 seem to do the trick. of course, if you do use a variety of films, then its advisable to recalibrate before shooting each roll. im not that hard working, and for general peace of mind, ive already placed an order with Frans for one of his battery adapters, which uses 1.5V silver oxides and lower them to 1.35V for the CL.

a more thorough review of the CL to follow…. here’s a few to tide you over.

jonah

remus

urban jungle

shirts

going up

there’s something out there

door

hard day’s night

finally, i should also say that the meter can be a bitch to figure out, especially if you’re new to the CL (as i was). there are a few things you need to do before the needle will swing into place. they are (in no particular order):

1) TAKE OFF THE LENS CAP (dont laugh… it happens to most people!)
2) take the shutter dial off B
3) pull the film advance away from the body
4) make sure there’s a battery in there (DUH)

Similarly, if you want to stretch the battery life, try to always turn the shutter dial to B (not sure if film advance position or lens cap has any effect on battery life). remove the battery if you want.

cant beat him when it comes to the funnies. if you dont have his comedy albums… you should!

a roll of ilford XP2 fresh off the 1 hour processing machine.. most shots were taken by estimating exposure (no battery, so no exposure meter), and sometimes metered off a canon SLR.

photography

coffee club express

escape hatch on the roof?

stalls

multi level marketing

we’ve got big balls

oh yes we do

girls and big balls

enter at your own risk

arty stuff

more arty stuff

sit under the light, it’ll make you smarter

yet more arty stuff

dome

peek through the roof

overall, im quite pleased with how they turned out. i was half expecting a roll of all solid black or whites. will give my impressions of the CL a little later when im done fondling with it.