First Day out with the Mir

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keithslater

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Jul 19, 2005
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Wanted to try out my Mir, but it was raining out today. I went for it anyway. First pic is of my daughter with a flash. Around the corner I ran into an accident somebody ran into a porch. I guessed all the exposures, shutter speed of 1/60 on all photo's except the one with my daughter 1/30. Some of the pics are grainy, does that happen from the photo developer attempting to correct the exposure? The film was dollar store Konica 200 speed. The lens is a 50mm. I am not sure really what lens it is it uses a tiny filter. Must be around 35mm or so. I would like to know so I could get a lens cap. I traded with Evgeny from Russia. Not sure he ever received the camera I sent him.

PS. While writing this, I received a call from our local paper The Elmira Star-Gazette. The night editor said they were going to use one of my photos in tomorrows paper! He said it was the one of the car under the porch, and that his photographer had cropped the photo a little. He said there would be a caption with "Courtesy of Keith Slater". I am pretty happy!
 
Keith, IMO you've taken some very nice shots with your MIR. The second image of the accident is quite sharp and has good colors too. The shot of your daughter is also a "keeper". I'd say you've done nicely with your FSU camera and lens.

Walker
 
Good for you! That's also a good reminder that the best camera is the one you have with you... I always have one with me now when I go out the door.

William
 
keithslater said:
He said there would be a caption with "Courtesy of Keith Slater". I am pretty happy!
Click to expand...
Well done Keith. From the look of the shots you got, you and the camera did fine on your first outing.

Peter
 
Thanks for your nice comments. There was some things I wished:
I wished I had another roll of film.
I wished I had a different lens.
I wished I had better film.
I wished I had a light meter.
I kept the camera under my coat, I did get a few looks from the bystanders. I knew some of them. Dont really know how the guy ended up under the porch.
Keith
 
Major Crop

Major Crop

Keith,

Very fine photos. I too like the original shot better than the crop. It seems that they took out the mood of the scene with the crop. How do you like the Mir compared to the Fed 2? Just curious.

Mike
 
Mike,
I can not find the roll of film I shot with the Fed 2. I like the "feel" of the Mir. It just has the right weight, the controls are nice also. The lens is so worn on the outside, the dot to set aperture is hard to see. I might paint the dot yellow. I have had this for a few months, this is the first roll I have shot with it. What I do like about this is, the built in strap lugs, flash sync, the viewfinder is clear. I also like the brassing on the back. I wish it had brightlines in the viewfinder. A light meter would also be nice.
 
Nice pictures - reminded me of the William Eggleston picture of the house on fire and the pumpkin stand. I keep seeing MIR cameras on Ebay for almost no money. I have two Zorki 4k cameras, which are very close relations and I have often wondered how the MIR would compare. It looks like it would stand up pretty well. Did you see that the firefighter in the last picture had spotted you and has a slightly unfriendly look on his face?

Best wishes

Donald
 
Thanks for the kind comments. I believe the Mir was a bargain Zorki. The slowest speed is 1/30, (and bulb) the fastest is 1/500. Their is a dot after the 1/500 and I have read that it is 1/1000 just not marked. I have no way to test though. My lens is a little sticky and scratched, I just bought another one, its on its way from the Ukraine. Same lens, a little newer.

I don't think he was looking at me unfriendly. He was bored and looking around. I've lived here all but a few of my 31 years. I know a good number of the fire fighters. These guys are all volunteers and most are blue collar guys like me. Most have full time jobs also. They even buy their own radios and gear. Get up at 2 in the morning all the time, sometimes to even go to the next village to help their department.
 
Keith,
Mir was a Zorki-4 with reduced shooter speeds, yours made in 1959. Dot is not 1/1000 but "B" (manual). The speed scale is 60, 125, 250, 500, B, 30. There is no rotation between 30 and 60. Lens is Industar-50, any lens for Zorki should feet. Older lens may give more pleasant image than new one, despite scratches. Nice photos and really rare camera (I never had it in my hands :))

Here is on-line manual (html version of original document), in russian but with pictures :)
http://www.zenit.istra.ru/mans/mir/mir.html

Regards,
Eduard.
 
Oops! I just looked at picture in that manual and clearly saw a dot which you meant between 500 and B. I have no clue what it is, manual dosn't say a word.

Eduard.
 
The manual won't say but, just as the Spotmatic 500 and some earlier Pentax cameras have an unmarked 1/1000, the MIR does too. In the case of the MIR, some have a dot where the 1/1000 would normally appear.

Walker
 
I would think that shooters which didn't pass production tests at 1/1000 were sent to MIR camera, otherwise they would be used in more expensive cameras. Just a guess...

Eduard.
 
Of course they did. Just that the guy who tests them usually drinks 3 shots of Vodka before the job.

P.S. I think the crop in the papers is much worse than the original, but what did you expect to get with papers with "professional" photographers who "cropped part of the shot".
 
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