This model was produced from 1948 to 1953, comes in many variations of the shutter and the lens. The Tessar version was the high end one. Carl Zeiss now exits as mainly a optics company producting besides camera lenses, but also many other optical products.

Since its a zone focusing camera, i did up a little hyper focusing chart to help me.

Behind that i put a little rangefinder card so that i can judge distances with it. At the bottom in reverse wordings are the shutter timing test that i did, so that i can roughly know how much to compensate, seems like mine is abt 1 stop off in the slower shutter speeds up to 1/50. I did the test using a microphone and some sound processing software.

Lets see what this can do when i put a few rolls through it.

That’s what i like about Medium Format, you don’t get all these small negative/slides, you get nice big negatives and slides that you can see nicely without using a loupe.

Anyway I saw a Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 for sale about 200$, very tempted to get it since i am selling away quite abit of my gear to tone it down and have some cash on hand.

Tell you guys later how all that works out.

Some links to check out for Medium Format folders

Nice intro to medium format folders
http://www.cleanimages.com/article-mediumformatinyourpocket.asp

Jurgen sells medium format folders that he restores.
http://www.certo6.com/

So being curious i went to the website and get a quote, since they don’t really have lens cap as a category I chose “Other electronics”. Guess what, it will cost me 4.99 to insure my lens cap against damage for one year?? Hahaha I wonder why they even bother to quote me, the website should just tell me that’s its too cheap to insure.

Found these old photos that was taken in 2005 during my trip to Taiwan while i was in the Navy, these were all taken I think with my Bessa R and all sorts of film, that time i was mostly using Kodak Portra and asking the lab to scan them.

I was there on an exercise (the military kind) but luckily managed to spend quite a few days on shore having fun, just walking around.

What struck me during that time was that there was all these bikes around, there was even a dedicated lane for bikers to travel in. The most common bike was the scooter, don’t really remember seeing any other sort of bikes.

The bikers are doing what probably be quite illegal in Singapore like ferrying dogs who are just sitting on the floor of the bike or ferrying children who are not wearing helmets.

And they all liked to wear these masks to protect them from the bad air quality i guess.

Walked pass this temple, seems like they were putting up a show for some festival and all these people would just parked their bikes there and just watched it from their bikes.

Click on the images for bigger versions.

My first prints after stopping for 3 years

Yeap should should learn to print if you shoot B&W, hell you should also learn to develop your own negatives if you are not doing that already.

 When i was still in the navy, my seniors once told me, for every appointment that you hold, you should try to expereince the fullness of that appointment, that is to say that you should strive to do everything that the appointment offers. If you are a sonar guy, you need to try and track a real submarine, fire a torpedo and so on.

Go discover the magic! Then decide if you still want to carry on.

First Impressions

It’s a heavy camera, but not as heavy like a D7000 with a 28-70 F2.8 on it. It’s confortable to put a wrist strap on and just walk around the whole day. You can tell that there are lots of metal parts all around the camera. The thing that impress me the most was how all the components seems to move very smoothly, especially the film advance lever, the resounding “tud” when you have reached the end is nice. The shutter is definitely much quieter than the Bessa R, the shutter button is nice and light, unlike the Bessa where there is a certain tension to the button

The film loading is cumbersome you really need to site down and load the film, in case you drop the film spool. The rangfinder patch is nice and bright , but i would probably rate the Bessa R finder better since you can’t really see the 35mm frame lines on the M2 if you are wearing glasses, but on the Bessa R you can see more of the frame line.

Overall feel is that this is a workers tool, well made and designed to last.

Some shots from my first roll using HP5 and the Canon 50mm F1.8 LTM

For the rest of the photos please visit my Flickr page

F15-SG during the flying display

I was quite lucky to be able to attend the Singapore Air Show 2012, the placed i work was one of the sponsors but I didn’t ask for a pass so I was quite surprised to be given a free pass to the event.

I would suggest for those going to these kinds of shows go pay for a trade pass, its less crowded and during the air display there will be plenty of space to stand around to watch.

As with all air shows, photographers with major big lenses are sure to show up. I was lazy since I only brought my D7000 and a 18-105mm kit lens.

Saw some one trying to use a X100 I think to try and take pictures of the air planes. But he was trying to shoot through his sun shade.

Australian Roulettes - The best of the show

The best display came from the Royal Australia’s Air Force Roulettes, they did some major precision flying, they needed to make 11 fuel stops in order to reach Singapore due to the short range of their planes.

Our friendly Singapore Pilots at work.

Haha took this “promotion” shot of my friend leslie and the Boeing Dreamliner.

Copyright Superheadz website.

It’s quite fun looking though those random snaps, most of the time she is just playing around with the camera pushing the shutter again and again while walking though the crowd at my cousin’s place. Haha maybe i day i will make a photobook of her pictures and give it to her.

My colleague said I’ve gave her camera poison liao, for her 10th birthday she will ask for a D8 SLR

A nice big book by Mary Ellen Mark, looking forward to enjoying this.

This book caught my eye at the store, its about Kodak’s Colorama advertisement at Grand Central Station in New York. Since Kodak filed for bankruptcy, i guess I am just trying to have a piece of Kodak history with me.

There are a few books on Photobooth pictures around, (just go to amazon and type photo booth). You get Britney Spears, Val Kilmer and even Micheal Jackson in there, basically lots of celebrities who goofed around when they can’t be seen.

PS. The pictures are linked to the amazon page.