San Jose Photo Fair

I visited the San Jose Photo Fair today.

And I only spent $5. My Gear Acquisition Syndrome medication must be working well.

The majority of the tables at the fair sell older film camera like Olympus, Minolta, Canon and Nikon SLRs. There is also quite a lot of medium format gear for sale (Hasselblad, Bronica and Mamiya) as well as large format gear and some of the smaller rangefinders (Konica, Canon, Yashica, Olympus). Digital gear is also available but not as common as the film cameras. Some tables also buy cameras and lenses so people looking to offload older equipment can pick up some cash.

Last year I bought a Leica M2 at the fair and this year there were quite a few M4s on sale as well as one or two M3s and M6s.

I was surprised by the amount of Polaroid cameras for sale. I saw at least six SX-70s and some SLR 680s today.

As a sign of the times perhaps, this year also had more tables selling off camera flash equipment. "Strobist" stuff like cables, remote triggers, LED lights, and soft boxes.

The fair takes place twice a year with the next one occurring in October but if you read this before 2pm today and you live in south Bay Area, the fair is still going on right now.

Link: San Jose Photo Fair.

By the way, my $5 purchase was a lens cap for my Leica 50mm f/2.

 

Olympus 35 RC Sample Shots

Update: I have just noticed that the images in this post are missing. Please bare with me as I restore them.

Yesterday I loaded up my new Olympus 35 RC (see the previous post) with some Fuji Acros 100 and went for a walk around the neighborhood. (Actually I went to get milk at the supermarket but I took my camera with me.)

Last night, I developed the film (Rodinal 1+50, 11.5 mins) and here are some of the results.

Overall, I am happy with the camera. It exposed pretty well and the lens was pretty sharp (hard to see that in these low resolution shots). It also worked well in "Flashmatic" mode when I attached my cheap Achiever electronic flash to it.

I do wish I bought an ND filter at the photo fair yesterday though. The thread is 43.5mm which may be difficult to find and with an f/2.8 lens, shooting film such as Tri-X on sunny California days may turn out to be problematic.

While walking around, I felt the camera would be an effective street photography camera. It is smaller than my Voigtländer Bessa R4A and the shutter is definitely quieter.

All in all, I have to say I am happy with my purchase.