Grabbed an OM-1, Olympus a while back and will be taking her to Europe shortly. The problem is I've never used a film SLR and not sure which lense's to take, or what speed film would be best. ..?
Bought a 28mm 2.8 yesterday that seems to do the trick and am also considering taking a 50mm lense but unsure if needed. Surely some of you older people know what to do here?
Portability is an issue with a heap of lenses, starts getting a bit heavy.
You'll also find that traveling companions can get a bit testy with all the time spent composing shots , it's a hobby best spent alone for me.
It really depends on what you're likely to shoot, for my trips I've taken 28,35,55 and 200mm(non-tele) lenses and a good 2x teleconverter(kinda like a barlows for scopes) to use with the 55 and 200 to get 110 and 400mm.
~100ASA film for the fine detailed shots, and 400 or 800 for general shots on the light starved days and long shots(400mm @ f7-f44!)
And get some B+W film if you can, it's worth it for the fine-detailed architectural stuff.
Have fun!
Edit: Oh! and a little travel tripod is an absolute must! I take one that collapses to less than a foot long, but can extend to about 4-feet.
It's fine with the smaller lenses, but only just handles the weight of the 200mm at full extension, but is very sturdy sitting on a wall or something with the legs un-extended. It's a SLIK 450G, bought from Cash Converters for $10.
The 28mm will be great for those wide views and some architectural shots in city streets - great for shooting from the hip too when you get that unexpected event happening like a clown busker doing something outrageous to one of your friends when you least expect it.
The 50 is also a pretty versatile lens length.
But, gee, when your travelling is when zoom lenses some into their own! I'm sure you'll find the need for a lens longer than 50mm. If you have any zoom lenses I'd take them (but I'd still take the 28!)
My choice would probably be 400ASA film. I got the point of pretty much using 400 for everything towards the end of using the OM-1. It gives you that extra range in dim light, and indoors, etc and 400ASA these days is about as grainy as 100ASA was when I first started in photography.
Another little tip that I used to do with the OM-1, that I really miss on my DSLR: between shots, I would adjust the aperture as small as possible for the conditions (approaching f/22 say) while maintaining a fast enough shutter speed for hand-holding (<1/30s max), and adjust the focus so the DOF was from infinity back to as close to me a possible, so if something happened I could snap a quick photo (even from the hip if necessary). My mates with auto cameras could never understand what I was doing (they thought I was nuts, not taking time to focus!) but I rarely took too many flops!
I would adjust the aperture as small as possible for the conditions (approaching f/22 say) while maintaining a fast enough shutter speed for hand-holding (<1/30s max), and adjust the focus so the DOF was from infinity back to as close to me a possible...
Hyperfocus. I love it.
But I never considered using it for 'surprise' photo's, great tip!!
Set the lens to f16, line up infinity on the right-hand '16' line and the left-hand '16' line would fall on roughly the 1.2M mark, now everything from 1.2M to infinity is in focus... simple
In the pic, everything from about 1.75M to infinity is in focus.(if set to f11)
Don't need infinity? go the other way.... set min distance required on left mark.
Apologies if stating the obvious.
But, gee, when your travelling is when zoom lenses some into their own! I'm sure you'll find the need for a lens longer than 50mm. If you have any zoom lenses I'd take them (but I'd still take the 28!)
Al is on the money there, while you're fiddling around changing lenses, chances are your shot will be gone, I learned the hard way on a trip many years ago. I had 3 fixed focus lenses and my mates all had zooms. They took many more and better shots than I could manage, many of them while I was fumbling changing lenses, better because they could select optimal focal lengths.
That said, if it were me going to the expense of travelling to Europe, I'd be putting my hand in pocket and buying either a decent compact digital or a DSLR.
That said, if it were me going to the expense of travelling to Europe, I'd be putting my hand in pocket and buying either a decent compact digital or a DSLR.
I agree. When I was in Canada in November I had a twin zoom lens kit for my camera. Having the zooms was great but I still missed shots because I didn't have enough zoom in one lens - particularly taking shots from ferries! They just won't wait while I change lenses!
A dslr with say an 18-150 zoom would be great... failing that, a good compact is not a bad option at all!
Bit dangerous using a film camera for the first time on such a trip. You need to be much more discerning with film, you cannot just delete the dud images and you do not know if you stuffed up till the pikkies come back, but don't let this discourage you, I got some great photos on my very first roll of film tested just prior to a walking trip in Tasmania, which also yielded some beauties. This was the start of my rather extreme 35mm SLR passion/obsession. On the plus side, if you get a great shot, it can be enlarged substantially. A 28 f/2.8 is a very usefull lens if you are after brute quality, but a zoom, while not having the resolution, gives the versatility of not having to crawl up or back away from the subject. A 28 to 70 and an 80 - 200 zoom is probably all you need. A small flash is also very usefull for fill in or very low light. Get someone to show you some basics, eg how to load film and rewind properly and metering tricks. If you are in Sydney,I have a Tamron 28-70 SP and 80-210 SP Tamron with Olympus mounts for sale which belong to a friend of mine who has entrusted me to sell these items for him. A small tripod is usefull. Of course, you can take me in the luggage as personal photographer!
I suppose the only other thing I would take is a GOOD technical book on photography for the flight. Immerse yourself, if you're a little unsure.
Other information you could obtain from www.photoforum.com before you leave, if that is soon, jump on and ask away with those guys, they may also add to the tips etc, as well as suggesting interesting places off the beaten track.
FWIW when we were in Russia at the beginning of last year I took a D70 with zoom and a 503 cw blad with 80/120 mm lenses and they were sufficient. I had both film (B&W and Colour trannies) as well as 5 gig of cards. If you also take digital, take the cards in 1 or 2 gig capacity and then if there is a problem, you don't lose all of the images. Mind you, I also took the laptop and downloaded each day and then transferred onto a dvd.
Well we'll be taking my girlfriends compact with plenty of cards, this is the insurance camera. The little cannon takes very good photos and batteries last all day. It's just a little boring to use, being way too automated.
The Olympus OM-1 is slowing leaking funds away from the trip. Had to buy a mercury battery converter, allowing us to use today's manufactured batteries. Seems the old mercury batteries were banned some time ago. $50 odd.
Also I decided to clean the prism mirrors and get a clearer image through the viewfinder, despite knowing something would go wrong. Alas Acetone straight onto the plastic focusing screen! $60 odd replacement.
Good to hear the 400 speed is recommended Al. Wasn't sure if it would be 'too
grainy'. Might take some 100 for any super sunny days as well but use 400 as the staple. The light meter's untested but it certainly operated in some capacity when original batteries still had juice. Fingers crossed no problems here.
Managed to get a 50mm F1.8 lens which is yet to arrive. So this and the 28mm are the planed combo. I think the zooms will have to wait. They seem a bit more expensive and look rather heavy and bulky while traveling.
So about 1/30 is the limit by hand? Any other tips please let me know .. thank you, Travis
I too highly recommend 400ASA as a good all-round film speed.
I'm not too sure if these days you need to worry about the x-ray machines at the airport affecting your film, someone else here may know for sure.
A flash unit (as already mentioned) may be handy at some point.
I'll go out on a limb here and suggest an alternative to a small tripod.
I know how quickly it becomes bothersome to lug around all the acquired gear especially in a foreign country and the less gear you are seen carrying, the better.
In terms of ultra portability and considering you'll be using say a 28mm and a 50mm lens, why not try making yourself one of these. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/104194...se_the_tripod/
I too would highly recommend the ISO 400 film speed. It is general purpose (indoor and outdoor). You just don't have the luxury of beeing able to change film speed on the fly like with a digital camera.
I doubt you'll need a tripod if you're only taking 28mm and 50mm lenses. You will be wishing you had more reach though. Something like a 50-200 zoom would be good.
If a zoom/tele is too big, I definitely recommend a 2x Teleconv. for the 50 to give you 100mm, but at twice the focal length, ie: f3.6.
Good ones introduce minimal to no distortion, Nice and compact too.
No room for a small tripod? A bean-bag(rice or something) will allow some adjustment when sitting on a wall etc.
To give you an idea of what I mean, commercial ones are here: www.cam-pod.com
and yes it would be a good idea to grab a HAMA Film Safe Super from a camera store to store the film in for the x-ray machines. I played safe last year with it.
Tip no 2703: When winding on the first few blank exposures of a new film, check that the rewind lever is rotating (you may have to pull out the lever to check). This ensures the film is properly winding on and not mis-loaded (i.e. jumping on the film transport sprockets and/or slipped off the take-up spool).
Tip no 2704: It helps to remember to rewind the exposed film back into the cassette before opening the camera back ... oops!
I don't beleive you need to worry about x-rays affecting 400 ISO unexposed film, but there's a possibility of some minor effect on exposed stuff. Best to put the exposed ones in a clear plastic bag (if this is still allowed) and show what they are. If you have films in an x-ray-dense bag, I've heard that they can turn up the x-ray machine intensity to see what's in it!
Interestingly, I've never had a problem with x-rays and my films(mostly B&W in hand luggage), never even noticed an increase in base fog... guess I'm just lucky?
(Travelling to Italy next week, probably just jinxed myself!!!)
I've got an OM1n, OM2n and OM10 plus several lenses. On hollidaze, I usually took the OM2n - it basically does (almost) everything the OM1n did, but with auto exposure which makes it a lot easier and quicker.
Anyway, on holiday in Europe, I usually used 400 ASA in winter and 200 ASA in summer. In autumn and spring, usually either will do.
As for lenses, I have a 28 f2.8, (did have - stolen), a 50 f1.4, 135 f2.8 and a 28 - 80 f2.8 zoom. The zoom I called my 'tourist lens' as it was reasonably fast, covered a good range and basically was all that I usually needed. After carrying around a huge (5 kg+) camera bag with heaps of lenses and gear, I finally ended up just carrying around the camera, zoom and the 50 f1.4 for low light shots, a mini-tripod and a T20 flash.
Unfortunately, good zooms for Olympii are very hard to come by and most 1980's - 1990's zooms are pretty crappy. I can certainly notice the difference in image quality between the zoom and the fixed focal length lenses. I've now gone Canon digital, and for the tourist shots I use a Canon 17 - 85 zoom, but for the good shots I use a fixed focal length lens as the 17 - 85 is still not that great. (I should have blown the budget and got a L series zoom or at least the 17 - 55 f2.8 zoom).
If you look hard on eBay, you might find a reasonable zoom - one of the later Olympii or a late model Sigma or Tamron etc. The earlier ones were pretty crappy.
As for the battery and metering, in my OM1n, I found that you can use the zinc-air hearing aid batteries. The mercury batteries were ... 1.3 volts??? or whatever and the silver etc batteries were all too high voltage and give incorrect meter readings. However the zinc-air batteries are ... 1.35 V?? and the meter reading is only slightly high - maybe 1/4 - 1/3 stop. The batteries only last about 6 months (they have high self-discharge) but otherwise work fine. The zinc-airs are slightly smaller, so I just made up a small spacer with a bit of plastic.
You also need to remember the 'f16 rule' - in bright sunlight, set the aperture to f16 and the shutter speed is the same as the ASA'. So in bright sun, if your'e using 200 ASA, then f16 and 1/200 (or 1/250) sec is about right. Or some variation of this - f11 and 1/500, or f8 and 1/1000 or f22 and 1/125 etc. And then if it's cloudy, make an allowance for that...
, it's a hobby best spent alone for me.
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How quickly, we forget!
They just won't wait while I change lenses!
