5 Frames of trains with an Olympus Pen FV

For many people movie images comes with many benefits. The disconnect from the world digital expertise. The enforced rituals and meditations. The overall psychological and bodily involvement in producing that ultimate bodily asset, the destructive, and possibly even a print. Few of us would come with dimension and weight in such an inventory. Vacation journey on trains and buses with our k9 companion in tow, forces us to pack mild. My beloved OM1-N is modern, however full body lenses, even the Zuikos, usually are not.

My seek for a digicam that might give me the management and involvement I crave, but match within the spare house I’ve has introduced me to the Olympus Pen FV. That is the third incarnation of the Pen half-frame SLRs, that includes the brilliant viewfinder of the F, however with single stroke advance and improved shutter of the FT. The physique is small, if not precisely mild (with commonplace lens it is available in at 615g). The clip-on mild meter is much from important, however is an affordable fast verify of my sunny 16 guesses.

The factor that has really made me fall for this method although is the 38mm f/1.8 commonplace lens. That is equal to about 54mm. Not solely is that this a bit of longer than regular, the default portrait mode, and 4:3 facet ratio make it really feel fairly a bit longer. That may usually put me off, however I can’t stress what a pleasure this lens is to make use of. The main focus throw is just below half a flip, and buttery easy. It additionally has a minimal focus distance of 35cm, when coupled with an in depth up filter, this makes for excellent element pictures. Unfocused areas are greatest described as “characterful”, with pentagonal spotlight, however we don’t all the time get to decide on the issues that we fall in love with.

One other benefit of half body is, in fact, needing much less movie. 76 pictures on a roll 36 body roll is widespread, I’ve gotten 80 by loading rolls in a darkish bag. The lust of eeking out that additional shot has include an sudden situation. The digicam’s single stroke movie advance (in comparison with the Pen F’s two stroke), permits it to impart appreciable drive. In my eagerness to get the shot of the locomotive, I didn’t discover this was the final shot on the roll and wound on with sufficient drive to tear the sprocket holes, therefore the additional crop.

The large commerce off with half body is grain. As a lot as I like grain, half body can actually push the boundaries of the aesthetic. Movie selection is vital. I’ve discovered Ilford FP4+ in D76 1+3 to be a sensible choice. For our newest journey to the Forest of Dean I wished one thing a bit of sooner. Earlier effort with HP5+ have been OK, however I’ve had nice outcomes earlier than from XP2+ in D76 in full-frame.  My unique intention was to develop this roll in 510 Pyro, hoping that the staining property may soften the grain a bit of, maybe approaching the dye clouds of C41. Because it occurred I had two different rolls of C41 unprocessed for a while, so opted for my native pleasant excessive road lab. I’ve tried one print from the ensuing negatives, from the shot of the engine, which printed very simply and I feel we be completely acceptable at 8×10. I discover scanning C41 tough, and my course of isn’t from optimum,  so these photos  might not present these photos at their greatest.  General although I’m very happy with the outcomes.

There’s a lot to like in regards to the Olympus Pen FV. The lenses are wonderful, compact, and enjoyable to make use of. The brilliant view finder, and true SLR nature makes focusing fast and simple. Basic grain 100 velocity movies can nonetheless look nice in half body. For sooner movies  XP2+ carried out properly right here, however each HP5+ and Kentmere 400 give outcomes I’m nonetheless proud of too. I think Delta 400 could be even higher for these extra assured of their metering. The largest draw back of half-frame isn’t picture high quality, however a direct results of it’s greatest promoting level. In case you shoot movie to decelerate, 72 frames is an terrible lot of pictures!