Will Gunadi Photography

“Fireworks (use your imagination, and Happy 4th to you as well)”

NOTE: Read Part I if you have not.

Let’s see … one dollar for a pack of 4 plastic film canister, picked it up at a bargain bin in a camera show, never opened, and forgotten since everyone now shoot digital.  These rolls are super easy to load film into; the top just screws open and close.  Next, a ten-dollars Lloyd bulk-loader which still has quite a bit of Kodak Safety 5062 film (a.k.a Kodak Plus-X) in it.

Pair these two and what do you get?

A cool 15 frames rolls perfect for testing new old cameras :)

I finally get to finish the roll and develop it.  As I suspected the viewfinder of the Zenit 3M is quite far from 100%, or even 90%.  Want proof?

I didn’t include the power lines in the viewfinder … seriously.

It is both weird and reassuring to have the viewfinder went completely black after a shot, at least I’m not going to be confused whether I’ve cocked the shutter or not with this camera.

“Two of a kind”

I don’t quite know how to explain the feel of this camera, yes it’s solid and heavy, no it’s not smooth and sophisticated (think Olympus or Nikon), yet it feels comfortably-industrial.  How’s that for a new phrase, I’m so dialing Library of Congress to copyright it… (heh!).

Now let’s talk about the lens for a second.  We’ve established that it’s quite a bit wider than the viewfinder and I noticed that it is sharp!

I read that some Zenit 3M requires an adjustment because the distance from the mirror to the prism isn’t exactly equal the distance to the film plane.  The cause? manufacturing quality variance, which is known to be quite flexible with these particular …  um, pedigree.  However as you can see in the above picture, the focused area is exactly where I wanted it to be.

This lens also has the snap, that’s a technical term for describing highly detailed rendering of the foreground as contrasted with a soft background.   Usually, that also means the lens renders Out-of-focus area in a creamy way (no obvious/distracting patterns).

By the way, in case you are wondering, I did not apply any sharpening filter onto these pictures. Zero, nada.

This particular lens is the older version.  Many claims that it is a direct copy/redesign of the Zeiss Flektogon.  And that it has superior optical performance than the more modern version the Mir-1V (or B in Cyrillic).  I don’t really care one way or the other, it’s just a nice trivia knowledge.

And finally, this is the second 4th of July -themed photograph in this journal entry:

“True Spirit”

As this test roll indicated, nothing wrong with the lens or the camera.  And I may add that I enjoy using them a lot.  Still have to get used to that viewfinder, though.

But hey, where is the fun if every camera behaves the same way, yes?

Technical info:
Film: Kodak Plus-X shot at 125 ASA expired who knows when.
Developer: Rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes.
Metering: Sunny-16 (a.k.a the Force).
Disclaimer: No animals were hurt in the writing of this journal entry.
The horses and eagle are inanimate objects... seriously.