For the month of February my Analog Project 2012 features the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. This all plastic point-n-shoot camera has built a small following within the lomography community behind it's ultra wide angle lens and it's ability to capture images in just about any lighting condition. The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim features a 22mm fixed focus wide angle lens that captures with a fixed aperture of f/11 and a fixed shutter speed of 1/125sec.The results can be surprisingly sharp and clear when paying close attention to body mechanics (hold still) when shooting with this camera. It's all plastic design makes this one of the lowest weight cameras I own but that's not without sacrifices - the parts inside this camera are so cheap that it's likely to fail due to breakage if handled too roughly. The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim is extremely easy to use, simply load the film, point.....and shoot. But remember to keep your fingers away from the lens or they'll end up in your shot due to the ultra wide angle lens being almost flush with the front surface of the camera. To see a short demo of my Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim jump over ot my YouTube Ch.

Here's my latest vintage camera - the Olympus Pen EF. It's yet another half frame camera added to my small collection of half frame cameras. It's so simple to use offering the operator a full range of ISO settings (25-400), and the use of an internal pop-up flash....thats it.

The Pen EF has a fixed focus 28mm f/3.5 D.Zuiko lens - so you just point-&-shoot! The automatic exposure sports shutter speeds of 1/30sec. (at f/3.5) or 1/250sec. (at f/22). The exposure calculation is done via the selenium light meter and the chosen ISO. If you plan on using the flash as fill light during outdoor daytime shots or indoors with low light simply slide the front mounted switch on the front of the camera down and the flash will charge in less than 5 seconds. The flash requires a single AA battery - and I love the little flash ready lamp that glows orange on the back of the camera when the flash is fully charged....it's so old school.

The Pen EF was sold by Olympus between 1981-1983 and I think most sales were in Japan. Once again half frame cameras give you twice the exposures on a roll of film. Half frame images are 18x24mm each vs. 35mm images at 24x36mm each. I really do love the simplicity of these fixed focus (sometimes zone focus) Olympus cameras with their worry-free exposure system - they truly are great cameras. This Pen EF is now my newest and 5th half frame camera behind my Olympus Pen EE2, Pen FT, Trip 35SP, and the Diana Mini Petite Noir.

Extra Note:
I mentioned in a post on Instagram that I've limited myself to only shooting 24exp rolls of film in half frame cameras - a 36exp roll of film produces 72 shots and thats just too many. Due to the unique frame size I try to take several extra shots of a subject from a few different angles - then choose the best one in post. I end up with about 25 keepers out of 48 captures.

In response to a question:

Dear @patternfreak

I too have experienced being stuck on 'E". This seems to happen most when the film take-up spool fails to properly grab and hold on to the film leader after the rear cover has been re-attached. Simply remove the rear cover again and re-thread the film leader on to the take-up spool and making sure to wind the film advance dial a few times to make sure the take-up spool has accepted the film leader. There's enough film in the film canister to allow for extra winding of the film when loading a camera.

Also, take a close look at the top edge of the rear cover. There should be a little plastic stem on the left side of the cover - it sticks out about a quarter of an inch. That stem fits into a hole on the back of the camera. When the rear cover is removed (and the stem is out of the hole) the film counter resets itself to "E". Once the rear cover is re-attached to the camera and the stem is seated correctly in the hole, it enables the film counter to start counting when you wind the film advance knob on top of the camera. If the stem is missing the film will advance....but the counter will always remain on "E".

Good Luck

Randy (Dred242 and BokehImage)

My attempt at restricting myself to shooting via the hyperfocal distance rule was strained at best. I kept going for the focusing ring on the lens thus throwing everything out of whack.

What is hyperfocal distance? Wikipedia gives two definitions:

Definition 1: The hyperfocal distance is the closest distance at which a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp. When the lens is focused at this distance, all objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance out to infinity will be acceptably sharp.
Definition 2: The hyperfocal distance is the distance beyond which all objects are acceptably sharp, for a lens focused at infinity.

In a nutshell lets say I'm using a 53mm manual focus PRIME lens mounted to my camera and I manually set the focus to a set (static or permanent) distance away from me (say 15 feet away). Lets say I also want to use an f-stop of f/16 because it's a nice sunny day with average shady areas while walking down the street. The hyperfocal claculation would tell me that anything 10 feet away from my camera all the way to just over 30 feet away from my camera will be in focus. The goal is to only photograph subjects that fall within the range calculated by the hyperfocal calculation. This is a technique used by old-school street photographers who didn't want to waste time focusing, and constantly adjusting apertures when the subjects are moving. I can't tell you how many times I missed a shot with a manual focus camera because I was attempting to get a moving subject in focus. Using the hyperfocal distance will allow you more time to concentrate on framing, composition, and capturing the moment.

I was using an old rangefinder with a 24exp roll of Kodak Portra 400. I only took about 4-5 shots then gave up because my head just wasn't in the game - I was wasting shots. I guess I need to wrap the lens barrel with gaffers tape to keep from re-focusing....that's the ticket. Treating the camera as if it were a simple point-n-shoot camera but making sure subjects fall within range sounds easy but has turned out to be harder than I figured it would be.

This 35mm leather film holder was totally inspired by Patrick Ng. I follow Patrick on flickr and last year he posted a photo of a leather case he crafted from sections of leather, rivets, snaps, a clasp and some thread all wrapped around a plastic Rollei dual film container. For me it was love at first sight, I had to have one. I'm sure many of Patrick's followers have offered to pay him to recreate his leather goods for them but I don't think he would - he's such a busy person. I was sure that if I had the right materials I could make one myself - so I set out to find what I needed. I got plenty of tools and supplies from Tandy Leather located here in the Bay Area as well as two sizes of clasps from Ace Hardware - the rest was donated by my mother-in-law who has lot's of leather crafting goodies stashed in her garage. I ordered the Rollei film with container on eBay and I plan to order at least one more. I've also got a roll of Rollei 120mm with container in route and should be here in the next day or so - it too will get wrapped. My mother-in-law gave me valuable tips and plenty of coaching before I got started, and my wife helped out with advise when I had to make decisions about cuts and rivet placement. This project took about 2.5 hours total and to be honest....it wasn't that hard. I plan to make at least two more of different shapes in the coming weeks. I don't own a fancy leather camera bag to hang my new little film holder from but I'll have one soon enough.

Patrick Ng is a connoisseur of fine writing instruments, elegant paper, travelers notebooks, leather goods uniquely hand-crafted by himself, vintage cameras, awesome GTD (getting things done) inspired organizational techniques, Moleskine art, world travel, and so much more.

Check out his flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moleskineart/
And his website: http://scription.typepad.com/

Just finished reading a brilliant how-to post over on the FourCornersDark blog about hacking a roll of 120mm film to fit inside an Argus 75 that originally used 620mm film. I figured if it works for the Argus it should work for my Kodak Target Brownie Six-20....right? The hack is simple. Use a pair of toenail clippers to trim the outer edge from around both ends of a spool of 120mm film roll and it should fit nicely. I did it and it fit perfectly. I also sanded down the edges a bit to make sure that the spool would turn smoothly when advancing the film. The camera is now loaded with FujiFilm Neopan 400 B&W and ready for a test exposure later this week.

The Sprocket Rocket

My Analog Project 2012 kicked off in the month of January with the Lomography Sprocket Rocket. The Sprocket Rocket is a 35mm film camera designed to shoot panoramic sprocket hole images. The camera is very slick looking with a throw-back retro design that looks like the Falcon Miniature from decades past. The Sprocket Rocket does great in bright sunlight with any color film - I can't wait to venture out at night with a roll of 800 speed film to see how it does. I haven't tried the double exposure feature which is done by winding the film backwards with the left-side top-mounted roll-back knob. I will admit that I've never been successful with double exposures.....but I'm willing to give it a try. The Sprocket Rocket is a wonderful and fun "not so toy" camera.

This Vivitar Focus Free PN2011 was cheap, cheap, cheap - I only paid like $5 for this camera at a thrift store. This camera shoots 35mm film, has a fixed focus 28mm plastic lens, a fixed aperture of f/8, a fixed shutter speed of 1/125sec, and a fake panoramic mode via a switch on the back of the camera that activates an internal flip-down mask that crops the 35mm frame from the top and bottom into a panoramic aspect ratio.....kinda.

While surfing photoblogs I saw a post where some drilled tiny holes into verious spots around a cheap plastic camera to purposely create light leaks. I had the ideal that I could drill pin-holes all over the PN2011's body, cover the holes with small pieces of gaffers tape, then randomly uncover / recover different holes throughout the shooting of a roll of film. If it works I should get crazy light leaks. Perhaps nothing drilled directly behind the film's backplate but holes at odd angles and of different sizes everywhere else. Maybe even cover a few holes with gels for tiny pop's of colored flare, streaks, and ghosts.

So as it turns out, this vintage light meter that my Son bought at a thrift store is actually a Sekonic L-136 Micro Clip-On Shoe Mount Cds Reflected Lightmeter sold from 1962-70 for Leica and Canon rangefinders. Takes a #625 battery - PX625 from RadioShack should do the trick. The plastic window on top has come loose and the battery cover has corrosion on it but not too much. In 1962 this light meter sold for $22 new. My Son paid 69¢ for it last week. I found an eBay seller with one listed as "Buy It Now" for $149.99.

My son bought this flash hot shoe mountable vintage light meter a few days ago at a thrift store. It looks to be in good condition on the outside but the cover to the battery compartment is covered corrosion - I'm sure it can be cleaned. It takes a #625 button cell type battery which I should be able to find at RadioShack. If I can get it working, and it proves to be somewhat accurate, then I might be able to use it. At least one of my vintage 35mm cameras has a busted light meter. Other than a serial number listed on the bottom of the light meter, it has no brand name or manufacturing lable - I don't know who made it.