Point and shoot film cameras

Today I'm going to write about my point and shoot film cameras. I have three point and shoot film cameras that I bought in the last two years. The three have a similar focal distance, around 35mm, and the same aperture, 2.8. Each one have some strong points different than the others.

But why point and shoot film cameras? At first, I bought the first one, because is a cheap way to have a film camera. But now, my vision of photography evolved in a way that I feel that point and shoot cameras are the perfect gear for me. I don't like big bulky cameras, and for that reason I don't have a DSLR. All my cameras are quite small. Lately I saw in film a way to improve my photography. To slow down and think more carefully every shoot. And slow down doesn't mean take care of all the parameters. Usually your camera measures the light a lot better than you. For me is take care of the parameters that your camera can't take care, and is what really makes a picture different.

Olympus mju-II
This was my first own film camera. I bought in the online store ffordes, a great place to buy used photography stuff. Has a fixed 35mm 2.8 lens, a bit soft in the corners wide open, but sharp when stops down. A fully automatic camera, the only thing that you can control is the flash and the metering mode, actually this is not very usual in this cameras. The best point of this camera is that is tiny, perfect to bring everywhere. That this is for what I use it. Now I have loaded with Superia 200 film, a cheap and quite good film.

Konica Big Mini F
Last year, when I went to Japan, I wanted to buy a new film camera. Between my options, the one that had more options was the Contax T2. I were the first days looking for one but couldn't find one that I liked. Actually found one, but when I came back to the store where I found, the camera wasn't there. So the days passed and one of the last I went to Kawagoe, a village not so far from Tokyo. There we found a Hard-off store, and how we went to all Book-off stores that we found, you never know when you are going to find a treasure, we go in to take a look. Wasn't exactly like the Book-off stores, the name wasn't the same but the logo was quite similar. Had a lot more type of things, like cameras. And there was where I found it, a Konica Big Mini F. And bought it. And a bit after that, I found a photography store where I bought a roll of film. Yes, in Japan is still easy to buy film, I love you Japan! The Konica Big Mini F has a fixed 35mm 2.8 lens too, that performs better in the corners than the one in the mju-II. Fully automatic but, besides the flash controls, you also can select exposure compensation between -1.5, 0 or +1.5. Isn't small as the mju-II but not big and very light. What don't like is that doesn't have a lens cap and the lens is always exposed. Currently I don't have film loaded on it.

Contax T2
After going to Kawagoe, we went to Nakano. A visit to Nakano Broadway is mandatory if you go to Japan. While the other people go in, I went to the photography stores near there. I wasn't give it up yet. And yes, it was there. A Contax T2 and with a quite good price. Had some small scratches but nothing to worry about. I bought immediately and loaded with a film that wanted to try since some time ago, Natura 1600. The Contax T2 is bigger and heavier than the two others. Build like a tank, the exterior is make of titanium. The lens are a fixed Carl Zeiss 38mm 2.8. Ultra sharp, a lot more than the other. This one is more configurable, too. You can use in P mode and also in aperture priority. And you can choose the exposure compensation between -2 and +2 in half steps. Also has manual focus, so you can use zone focus. But don't really needed because the autofocus is fast. Now is loaded with Provia 400, one of the last rolls that will be able to shoot of that this amazing slides film.

New Year Purposes

After a quite weird year, that I felt that passed very fast and wasn't very profitable, I'm going to share with you a short list of purposes for this new year:

• Write more on my blog than past years. This is not difficult, only need one more post to write more than the last 2 years.
• Shoot more film and less digital. Shooting film I'm more careful than with digital, so this will help me improve in photography. I have the purpose to shoot at least 2 rolls per month.
• Don't buy more gear. No more cameras and lenses this year. Digital or film. I need to learn to use at full power the one that I have.
• Finish the year with less things. Sometimes I bought things only for the pleasure that made bought it. I have tons of things that I don't use or don't need anymore. Want to don't buy again useless things and get rid of the ones that I have.
• Don't forget important people. I'm not very sociable, sure, but this last year I had forgotten some nice people and don't want that will happen again.
• Finish one android application, besides work. I want to upload an app to Google Play before year finish.
• Less procrastination. The holy grail.

A week with the Galaxy S4

Hi people! Has been a very long time since my last post, but you know, blah, blah, blah... [insert here the excuses you would love to read]

Since last week, I'm a lucky owner of a brand new Galaxy S4, the new top range phone of Samsung. And I want to share my first feelings with you. The first what you think when somebody talks about a 5" screen for a phone is, that is huge! Won't be comfortable to use! So, for that reason, when S4 was showed with that screen size, I went to check which was the size compared with the S3. I have one S3 at work and I found it very comfortable to use despite also have a big screen. And here was the surprise, the S4 is smaller! So didn't have too much doubts that would be a device comfortable to use too. And I could check it since first day. Even I can use it with only one hand, and I don't have big hands at all.

About the performance, my previous phone was the Galaxy S, so now I found that all works nice and smooth. One of the first things I did was install Go Launcher Ex, that I love a lot more than the Samsung one. A lot of Samsung programs come installed too. One quite curious is to use the phone as TV remote control. The app also suggest you shows that you would like. For that reason one of the new things included in this Galaxy is a infrared sensor. Actually the phone is full of sensors to do things with uncertain utility. I disabled all, but when was taking the picture this afternoon I realized that one of the sensors on the top was on, emitting an intermittent non-visible light, that was able to see in the camera screen. And I have no idea for what is used that...

The screen is amazing! Crisp sharp and very saturated colors and a lot better corrected than previous AMOLED screens. The camera I also great. The pictures are sharp, and the color looks great even with any correction.

I'm very happy with my new phone. Fill all my needs very well. And also have a good battery life, about 2 days in normal use, quite good for these days. See you soon!

Memories of Paris - 2011-06-12

Second day on Paris started. Was able to sleep pretty well although was on the floor. Finished the day before very tired. So after a good sleep, time for a good breakfast. We went to a Tunisian place to eat something that don't remember the name. But was nice, its flavor was like "churros" but with a diferent shape.

When we finished to have breakfast, started another walk arround diferent places of Paris.

With also time for a sweet mint tea before lunch.

After lunch, and get our's strength back, we continued our walk that finished in the Eiffel tower.

Then we were a bit hungry, so was time for a break and had a mid afternoon snack.

After that, was still very soon to have dinner and had visited all the main places of Paris. So to spend time we decided to go to take a look to a new underground line that Bernat heared that the design of the stations was diferent of the usual. But at last were normal stations... The most special of that line is that trains didn't have driver. This is the only one a bit diferent, with a lot of vegetation in it, like a rainforest:

And later was time to had dinner. I chose one plate plate more typical of the south of France than the north, le Cassoulet:

Was delicious! And the dessert was:

Yes, crêpes. Can't left France without try them. After dinner still visited more places, this time Sacré Coeur and Louvre at night.

And that was the last we did that day. Later came back to home, very tired , to sleep.

Christmas photowalk

Just finished to upload to flickr some of the pictures that I took this week, when I went out for a walk one evening. This is the first time that I took pictures in a more artistic way. Hope that you like it.

You can see the rest in the flickr set.