Welcome back to the family, KBR

KB Reflex 1st 2
2012
Dad and Grandad
1969?
The first roll has turned out better than I could have expected. Out of twelve exposures, a couple were too underexposed, a couple more (taken on a dreich day on the Isle of Arran) are somewhat dark, but the rest are fine.  2 or 3 seconds indoors seems to work, too.

On the 2012 photo, Molly was about 6 ft away from the camera, and she's a bit OOF.  Dad and Grandad are about the same distance in 1969, shot on the same model, and they too are a bit OOF.  So forty odd years have had no effect on the shape of a lens or the laws of physics.  The lamp behind The Bairn is about 10 ft away, and it's fairly crisp.  Even the doll's face is clear, and that's a foot or so deeper than Molly.

So the focusing distance is looking like 7ft plus, as a rule of thumb.  In fact, at 10 ft or thereabouts, it's remarkably clear for such a low end camera: the scan's 1600 dpi, and I can read all the lettering on the framed poster by zooming the scan in Windows Photo Gallery.

There's a bit of vignetting, not as much as a Holga.  And a couple of the exposures have the same light leak as this one, which is fine.

The next stage is flash.  The wee cold shoe electronic flash I have has a PC lead, as does the hot shoe adaptor.  But the KBR has a wee two point (male) attachment on the front, for the lead, so I'm going to have to search for something with the right kind of lead.  There may be an adaptor for the PC cold shoe flash, but I doubt it.  So I'll start to garner flash bulbs: their price on eBay varies, but I got ten last night, (on eBay with Glenfiddich taken, tut, tut) for three quid with the postage.

The advantage of the KBR over the IS4 is the B setting.  Not only that, but the viewer and the shape mean I could use the B setting in a bar, say, sitting securely on a table, (tripods in bars aren't really companionable). But the IS4 is nice and light and pocketable, and has that wee electronic flash, also for bar scenes.

As for the film and processing: Rollei Retro 80s and ID11 with a pinch of bromide.  It's produced high contrast, which is what I wanted.  A bit too much, though, on the outdoor, dreich exposures.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leech or flatworm? Ants and Swiss Chard

Image
For the 2nd time in a week or so, (1st time regarding dwarf beans ), I'm following Alys Fowler's advice, this time with regard to Swiss chard .  Long story short, after midsummer plants which often bolt if planted in spring will resist the impulse to do so, probably because of shortening days; (I say shortening, but in Glasgow, in July, we're still getting 18 hours of daylight).   I got a packet of Bright Lights , at a good price, (another reason to wait until July before sowing, lots of bargains, I've noticed). But where to sow them? Most of the 2nd bed is under a tarpaulin, but it wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole bed, so the last 5ft or so went under a sheet of plastic, (in the background of the photo in this post, here .) Transparent plastic was a foolish idea, weeds were growing underneath it, so I covered most of it with sheets of metal from the old shed. I decided to leave the tarp, but use the area beneath the plastic for the chard. Who-ah there...
Read more

"Chevy Chase. Fuck ever happen to him?"

Image
As Paulie Walnuts said in The Sopranos. It got me thinking. As it happens, he's been working steadily , but you can see what Paulie means. It's like that with film and television actors: you don't see them in anything for a year or two, and you wonder if they're dead or perhaps on a lengthy charlie and booze session. Or maybe doing proper acting on the stage? Only appearing on the telly gives them meaning to us. That video with Paul Simon was on one of the cable music channels the other day. It always makes me smile. As for Paulie and the rest of the crew, the clock's ticking. Of course, America already knows how things finish, but we don't. My mate Ian was telling me about a friend of his, visiting the States a few weeks ago, flicking through the channels in his hotel bedroom, he hit on a repeat of THE final episode, just beginning. What a quandry! He watched it, as it goes, but kept shtum when he came home.
Read more

How many pallets can you fit in the back of a Fiat 500?

Image
At least 1. Maybe I could have got 3 altogether, at a pinch. Also 200+ gorse seeds, which have begun to look in danger of damping off, so I'm thinking they'll be better off at the allotment in the fresh air. I'm worried about slugs, snails and woodpigeons, though, so I put them in a wheelbarrow, covered with a net. Also this morning, planted a row of beetroot detroit.
Read more