i'm so excited!

back alley

back alley

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(can you hear the pointer sisters in the background?)

i dropped off my little oly 35rc to have a cla and change out the light seals this morning. (day off)
i knew of this old camera store but had never been in it as it's on the other side of town and i'm kinda lazy...
anyway, it's a treasure trove of new and old stuff. old leicas, russian copies and quite a few rf cameras from the 60s & 70s.
he had 3 canonet glll 1.7s in the display case and said he thought he had some more in the back.
so we started talking and one thing led to another and he takes trades...so, i'm heading back there soon with 2 old enlargers and some other darkroom stuff and doing a trade on a black canonet.
i wanted the black one - it needs some work - stiff focus and light seal replacement, general cla. this means it will be a while before i actually get to shoot with it as he will start the work as soon as we make a final deal.
this place is great, i can see me dropping in once a month to look over 'new' inventory.
maybe i can finally kiss ebay goodbye!
although i did see a.......

joe
 
Heck, joe, delete your ebay bookmark and cultivate this new "link"! Nothing replaces talk with a knowledgeable and friendly seller, who can speak the same lingo and share the same excitement over gear. I experienced a similar thing during my month in Costa Rica (I taught a summer class), when I ran across a very small store, with fairly reasonable prices, and very well stocked up! And the owner, even though he didn't sell them, knew about rangefinders and their ilk: was relatively knowledgeable about Leicas, Contax (both Classic and the Kyocera kind)... and he let me handle an huge Mamiya RB67 and a beautiful Nikon F100!

In my experience, these sellers do better with people like us; would you swindle someone who lives in town? No way! You lose more than you think you win by a murky operation! His image is your best warranty, so congratulations on all these achievements! And, if we ever drop by your neck of the woods, lead us to your secret place... 🙂
 
it's a done deal!

i went back to the 'classic camera exchange' to see what kind of deal i could get for my 2 old enlargers and a small box of darkroom related stuff. i looked at the black canonet, along with a couple of silver ones, took another look at the display case at the back of the store and there were 2 konica auto s3s sitting looking back at me.
oh, i was smiling now.
anyway, i'm trying to decide on either the canonet or the konica, the s3 was in really nice shape, the best of the 3 canonets was in very nice shape. the black one needed some work.
while thinking it over, wally says to me take any 2 cameras you want - even exchange. i about fell on the floor as i had been expecting the usual harsh bargaining process. i also received a couple of straps and batteries. what a pleasant surprise, cleaned out my basement and got 2 cameras in exchange.
he also said if he got the black one in good shape he would exchange it for my silver one - and he thinks he may have a minolta 7sll somewhere hidden in the back room. he's gonna look and have it ready for me when i pick up my oly 35rc.

i feel like i've died and gone to camera heaven.

joe
 
lucky you joe !!!!! 😀

you've find a source of treasures ! finally that cla for the 35rc resulted in a great deal isn't it ??

best of luck with your new camera heaven ! 😉
 
francisco,

the black one needed some work and he thought it might take some time, so i took the silver and he said he would trade straight across for the black one if/when it's repaired.

so i have a silver canonet 1.7 and a black konica s3.

i'm a happy man!

joe
 
We can clean this guy out pretty fast if Joe shares the address.

I am interested in your opinion of your two new cameras Joe. I like both, but prefer the Canon, just my opinion, I think the Konica is just a little small for me. Both are great though.
 
i think you guys should take a field trip to my fair little city and come see for yourself.

rover, i'm having breakfast with a friend this morning and then heading out to our 'tourist' part of town to walk around and shoot some pics with my 2 new cams so i will know more later on.
first impressions? i was surprised at how heavy and solid the canon feels. i like the size of both but prefer the konica. my oly 35 rc is very small and light and maybe i'm more used to that.
i like the quick load feature on the canon, much easier for my old hands and fingers to manipulate. i also like the battery check.
i am also curious about the sharpness and or character of the lenses. both have good reps but i think the canon has the edge, from what i've read.
will let you know more later.

joe
 
I have found that the lenses on my cameras have very different qualities. They both are sharp, but the Canon is the sharper of mine. It produces images that jump out and wow me. The Konica lens is also very sharp, and produces very true colors. It is very nice for candids and general people pictures.

I know that the Oly 35RC is very small, possibly smaller than the Konica, so you are going from a smaller camera to the Konica where I was comparing from the Canonet. Regardless of all of this stuff, all three are very good cameras.
 
I have Konica experiences only with the S2. Now, as for the Canon... anything you do with it won't let you down. I really like its serious weight and size. Some of my favorite images were done with my Canonet. Believe me, it won't let you down. Once the lens is down to f5.6 your shots will beam. Check this one out... and kindly excuse the washed-out colors due to my initial ignorance of PS... I still like it... and I think I made it at f8, 1/30 or 1/60 during our local town's festival, called "Cornfest."
 
Last edited:
Faded colors

Faded colors

Hi Francisco -- Here's a shot of the histogram of your photo, showing two problem areas. This is a graph of the pixels in your scan, with the light ones at the right and the dark ones at the left. Medium tones in the middle!

You'll see that some of the lightest tones are chopped off at the right... IOW "blown highligts" indicating overexposure (could be either in the camera exposure or the scanning). It's that vertical wall at the far right; should taper off more like the dark tones at the left end. There are some light tones out there that haven't been recorded in the scan.

Ok, it's at the left end that's the source of the "washed out" look. The very darkest tones in the scan have been recorded as a medium-dark tone rather than black, which would be at the far left. But at the far left, and for quite a ways up toward middle tones, there's nothing recorded in the scan.

If you drag that left (black) triangle up to where the data actually starts, you'll be telling the software that should be a black tone. And the shorter distance between the far extents of the histogram means a boost in contrast.
 
Ok, here's another shot of the histogram seen in the Levels control... Now the slider for the darkest tone has been moved to the right... To the spot where your darkest recorded data is. This changes your darkest tones from medium-dark to black.

See how the "after" sample at the upper right now reflects the change. Look better?
 
Next I'll slightly fiddle the controls in the Brightness and Contrast control, again with before and after samples shown... I brighten up the colors a bit and add some saturation.
 
And, hoping you'll forgive my reposting your now-fiddled photo in the "interests of science"!

This was not done in Photoshop, but rather a Mac shareware goodie called GraphicConverter. Photoshop has the same controls, while they'll look slightly different they do the same thing.

Hope this will help! Have fun... 🙂
 
Doug, thanks for the explanation about the rationale behind the histogram. I did know about the sliding of the triangles to the points where the data starts (base of the histogram), I just didn't know the principle behind it.

And, of course, I had thought of doing some of that work you kindly did on my shot in my office computer (which has the Adobe Home edition of PS), but you beat me to it and did it a lot better. Thanks for taking the time! 😀
 
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