Revolog Teslar 1 film

Surpirsing film. As stated in the film wins blog, its not a portrait film. I took her advice and stayed away from people subjects. As with the tecture film, my biggest issue with this film is cost. Its a bloody expensive film. Its 12 exposure, its €7.50 per roll plus the outrageous postage cost. ALSO to develop a 12 expoure film, it costs as much as a 36. Its ferrania. I know most people love ferrania but I don't. I border on loathing for ferrania. Its yellow. No matter what camera I use, what settings or light avaliable, its yellow and I have to change the white balance. ALL this aside. This is a damned fun film. You know you will get lightning so you try to find subjects that will suit the bolts. Of course you do not know where the bolts will be. And as with the exture film, the more under exposed the brighter the lightning bolts.

This worked surprisingly well as the bolts followed the web

St Marks. Soft focus with Canon lens on Nikon cam

Soft focus with canon len and Nikon cam

had to correct the horrible yellow cast. The bolts look cool here.

Vaby's near the station

Doesnt work as well without a building or object to attract focus. The bolts seem lost here

The Woolshed

Would I use this again. No. Unless they make a 36 or 24 exposure film, its too specialist. You need to shoot outside and avoid shots of people. It just looks weird, check out the Film Wins blog for her opinion. If you have a friend who loves lomo and fun films, make sure they try this.

Nikon EM

This is a beginner's level SLR. It was avaliable from 1979 to 1982 the same time as the Canon T series. (Same level SLR)

This camera's main problem was it was designed and marketed to women who sneered at the cheapness and were insulted by the implication that they needed a dumbed down camera with no manual mode. So it was a flog as was canon's t80.

This camera looks cheap but is actually extremely sturdy. More so than its T80 rival. None of my T50, T70 T80 have survived time, the battery compartment failing to pieces. This camera has no such issues. Nikon making their camera from Copper/aluminium body.

The original cost was $231 and came with its own series of lens. The E series.

EM stands for Electromechanically controlled and the camera needs a battery to function fully, BUT !! If you have a flat battery, it will fuction at 1/90th of a second, its flash sync speed. Other than that, there is no manual mode.

The viewfinder is resonably dim due to nikon using a cheap prism.

Any shutter speed lower than 1/30th of a sec, will cause the camera to beep at you, its telling you about handshake but will still take the shot. It also has an exposure conpensation function which reduces the shutter speed to allow two stops increase in exposure. You can always change the film speed to trick the camera into taking your chosen exposure.  

If trying to choose a beginner SLR and you have Nikons in your house, buy this. Mine cost $30 and it's in excellent condition. It's a superior product to the canon of the same features and much cheaper. A great point and shoot as long you are happy with a fully auto camera. That's my biggest complaint, but then anyone even a child can hold this. The e series pancake 50 mm it's small and light so children find this easier to use then the canons. I feel this camera is greatly under rated and should be more loved than it is in the market

Revolog Film #1 Texture

Before I start, I bought these at great expense to myself. I received no discount or anything from Revolog or any subsidiary so I shall say as I please. They are mine after all..


Texture
Thoughts. My first thought was €7.00 for 12 exposures... this is a damned expensive film.. I am not including postage form germany I bought the package of all the films as I wanted to try them all once (See previous post about Revolog's film stock.) The package is €52 or $64AUD plus €16 so a total cost of €72 or $88.90AUD. Making this the most expensive film in my collection. Put all that aside and lets put this in the Camera.

I chose (For some reason) a Nikon FM. I also had a canon 50mm f/1.8 with adapter on the camera. Being a canon user, I do not know why I didn't choose my usual test camera the Ae1-Program. SOO here is the test bed..



and the film after the session.


ALAS I made mistakes and Don't worry I have a spare texture to re-shoot just to be fair. OK me and ferrania film don't like each other.. and this film gives odd results. I find the ferrania is unforgiving of a manual camera. But I have to say I LIKE the texture idea. As you underexpose the image, the texture bubbles show up and really start becoming distracting. This film is NO GOOD for night shots as I found out. Day time only. (Yes its asa 200 but I do shoot at night too with all films) This film is unforgiving is under exposure. Very. More forgiving of over exposure. I like the effects on houses and buildings, and flowers work surprisingly well too. Alas my set up was not perfect so I buggered up my shots, not as sharp as I would like to shoot but what did I expect from a franken camera. I promise next time nikon lens, nikon camera. But look past that and look at the film.

I rather like this, the texture is there and rather adds to the photo

Again the Texture adds to the photo

Inside a Waratah, It wasn't that dark, but the film didn't like it. Cool bubbles though..

5am predawn at Sydenham. Hmmm The bubbles dominate! Crap pic anyway but still

Early afternoon and the bubbles are starting to take over. If the big bubble wasn't there but a smaller one, it would work better. Oh well its pot luck

Early Morning Just after sunrise. Almost no bubbles!!

The other issue that arose was, it is confusing to the photo lab. They see the bubbles and freak out. WARN them!
For all the Lomo fans out there, this is a fun but VERY expensive 12 exposure film. If you are wanting a fancy pants film for a summer's day BBQ this this is your film. If you want to use a fancy film at dusk or overcast or anything other than sunny 16 forget it. The texture is overwhelming and obliterates the image.

Would I use this again?? If I found some of special?? YEs sure, if I was in the mood to be silly.. Australia has heaps of sunny days.. but most likely I wont be getting lucky after my back up texture roll is shot. Think I'll save that film for the Tulip festival.

You can buy revolog from from their web site. Postage to OZ and the USAis  €16 I hope cheaper to Europe. This cost is even for ONE FILM so buy a bulk pack.

Next film is Teslar1stay tuned

Developed the film out of the Werra 1

Finally. LOL I had the camera in my bag just so I could finish off the roll, but of course things don't always go to plan.





Adorable little cameras made in East Germany by the original Zeiss Jena works, after the rest of the company moved to Oberkochen.
The WERRA was produced from 1954 as the "Volkskamera" ("Camera of the peopleand continued until 1968, a total of about 560,000 units have been produced.

It has a unique shutter cocking system, with the shutter leaves rotating unlike a conventional shutter design. THese do not reverse direction and hence you get a very high (for the time) shutter speed of 1/750th sec. Of course this also means the shutter machanism is complicated needing a secomd pair of blades for when you cock the shutter again. (The keep the thing light tight.) The shutter speeds are 1sec to 1/750th and Bulb. My two have working shutters although one is stiffer and less reliable than the other.

I have seen that the werra 3-5 have interchangeable-lens i dont have one nor the alternative 35mm or 100 mm lens anyway.

The base plate on my black Werra had me puzzled for a long time. It has these symbols and they don't seem to do anything much. Asking Dailyaviator, websitesarelovely and egeaus about these symbols as it was due to their talk that I bought the camera anyway..
In the middle of the base plate is a large ribbed collar with the tripod socket in its centre.An arrowhead is cast onto it. The base plate has a “C,” an “R,” and a black spot, then "V", "X", "M".
The black spot is “closed” or "lock"; “R” is the rewind clutchand “C” is the open position. BUT what the hell are V, X and M which are on the open side of the "C" Still don't know and I have looked at the user's guide.



The counter is not much help but my black one does seem to be close to the mark. THe green one not so much but just shoot until the shutter doesnt reset. Easy.



Now my two are both werra 1 One (The olive one) only has shutter speeds to 1/250th, has a flat top, the knurled (Alu)silver coloured shutter twist and no markings on the base plate. It has a narrow lens to the other. The covering is like crocodile skin.
The black one has a rounded top, a front plate that has horizontal lines and a lined covering. It has the Prestor RVS shutter and hence has a top shutter speed of 1/250th. Although both are 1s, the black seems much newer than the Olive.

My olive is 1954-55 and my black 1965-68.

(OO thank to this website... the symbols mean V XM (I was asked the question): this is not the name of the model, but setting the flash sync X (e), M (magnesium) and V-timer (Vorlaufwerk in German).

sooooo anyway.. I developed the roll from the black werra.















Well its a great camera ESPECIALLY if you want to learn Hyperfocal distance and shooting with sunny 16. Asyou can see I got the focus right most of the time.
I have a blog post on learning hyperfocal distance in the archives. Its a cute little street camera that no one will come and harrass you about. Highly recomended for lovers of the basic, no fancy tricks cameras.

Revolog films what are they?

Yes yes treated films to get funky lomo effects. But what are they originallly.. Lets find out...

Texture. Designed to add a bubble effect on the film. Its  €7 per 12 exposure roll. Code on the film 013981 - Ferrania Colour film.

Lazer - Designed to create blue/ green lines through the picture. Randomly. €7 for 36 exposure.. better value depending of course on what you are after Code 014034 Another Ferrania film.

Volvox - Green sprinkles and dots. you get a choice of 12 exposures €7 or 36 exposures €8.50 same code as Lazer so same film.

Teslar 1 - Blue flash effects. €7 for 12 exposures Same code as Texture.
Teslar 2 - Redish flashes €7 for 12 exposures. Same code as Texture.

Rasp - coloured lines through the film €7 for 36 exposures
Kolor - Multi colours appearing randomly in the photos. €8.50 per 36
600NM - Pictures with a slightly blueish, greenish to reddish effect  €8.50 for 36 exposures
450NM - Colour changes from blue/violet to yellow/green €8.50 for 36 exposures all these have the code same as for Lazer.




Mind you these are boutique films. They have treated these films to give you the special effects and I have yet to run them through a camera. I am in no way judging the product just interested in what the base film was.

I will have some fun with these if I can find the time to play. The 12 exposures will be first as I like short films hence my long for medium format.  BUT of course it costs the same to develop whether you do it at home or in the lab, there is no cost difference and hence, 12 is actually more expensive.

In other news A green werra turned up. It has a stiff shutter and this annoys me as it was advertised as working.

cataloguing?

Its occurred to me that cataloguing my cameras may be a good idea. DER you all say. You have so many, you need a way to keep track of them all.
True but what?

Well Kevin of @egaeus fame on IG suggested Bento and I found TMI and MyStuff2 as alternatives. ATM I chose to use TMI as, although Bento is good, TMI is set up for 90% of what I would catalogue. The jury is out atm... NONE of these apps are cheap. SO I drew the line as downloading all three.

TMI has a slick interface BUT the date seletion is annoying. It doesnt pop up correctly. aside from that, (I dont rememeber purchase dates anyway) its a nice app.



I tried to store my used cameras in a pelican case but my husband thinks my digital stuff should go in it. Trouble is, my digital stuff travels with me in the overhead locker and this new case is far too big for such a job. SO it would be a domestic bag only. I dunno what to do. I really want my pretties in a nice case. All protected and cared for but still used and easily accessable. This presented another problem.. How to store my other pretties the not every day ones. ATM in a box but I need to buy those anti humidity bags. ALSO need to source the perfect size to sort lens in. Low humidity sachets in that too.



I have now three lens with mould. All three are sitting in the sun now. GRR and one was bought from a shop here in sydney. If I could find the receipt I would return it. Then again its been 3 months? and YES I should have done a proper look at the glass. Lesson learned. Well all are isolated from the collection.



I did have a few photo expeditions, but mostly not whole rolls of film. A werra turned up late december and I have been having fun with that, but still a roll shy of developing. Grunt.

Have two rolls in my bag awaiting developing.. I just need time and motivation at the same time.

This werra is a work of Eastern European art. Its just a stunning camera to behold.



NEW YEARS came and went. I did a heap of digital photos of the fire works as I felt that film would be a waste as the settings change each year and I didnt want a roll of blank film (again) Prior to midnight, I used a roll of film with the AE1-Program Tim gave me and a beautiful F1.4 lens. Its lovely just to look at.





Used the roll up before 2350hrs and headed for the fire works.



From the 1st I did no film. Not by choice, but no time. Back to it soon!! I miss using the Canons and my werra.