Nikon EM - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 10 camera is my newly acquired Nikon EM. I bought this recently from KEH Camera as I wanted to have a small Nikon Film SLR to carry in my bag for upcoming Spring outings to festivals, nature walks, and day hiking. I have a nice Nikon E Series 50mm 1.8 prime lens to use with it, and aside from manual focusing, I should be able to concentrate on framing up my photos instead of fiddling with the settings. The Nikon EM is a battery powered compact film SLR that features aperture priority semi-automatic exposure control. It was designed for beginners wanting to purchase an inexpensive interchangeable lens camera. Though not highly successful in it's time, the Nikon EM and Series E lenses are a good price/performance value in the used market. I purchased this bargain rated camera for $14 from KEH Camera and had previously purchased the Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 pancake lens for $49 from Ebay. The lens of course, can be used on other Nikon cameras, of which I have two others.

When I pick out a camera for the week, I like to carry it with me and just get random photos of whatever Brenda and I might doing that week. This week was hard, my father passed away and we were having his visitation and memorial services over the weekend. But I needed to try to be doing the things that I enjoy to ease the emotional, exhausting time that our family was going through. Some of these photos will be a reminder of this time when I look at them in the future, as is the case with almost every photo that I take. Most of the photos on this roll were taken on a nature walk at La-Ho trail at Lake Marburg, in Hanover, PA the day after my father's memorial service. It was a beautifully sunny day which was comforting and gave me something to look forward to - the coming warm and sunny weather of Spring and Summer. 

I cross-processed the film in a Unicolor C-41 kit from Film Photography Project and scanned the negatives with an Epson V500 Photo flatbed scanner. I like the amber cast that came through on some of the nature shots and also the coloring on the photos of the abandoned buildings, giving them a sepia antique photo quality. Only minor adjustments were made to the negative scans, using the levels adjustment in Photoshop to pick out the lightest and darkest parts of each scan. I would like to try this camera and lens with the expired Portra 160 NC film that I have and also with black and white film.

Nikon Pronea S - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 9 camera is the Nikon Pronea S that I recently acquired from Ebay. It's an advanced photo system (APS) camera that uses APS film in cartridges that typically come in 25 exposures and sometimes 40 exposures. I used a cartridge of Kodak Advantix black and white 400 from a box of film that I've used previously and find to have a nice grain and contrast. I've tried this film in several different APS cameras and it's come out great in each of them. 

The Nikon Pronea S uses two 3 volt lithium ion batteries and automatically advances the film after each frame. It rewinds the film when reaching the end of the roll. The camera has an autofocus 30-60mm f1:4-5.6 lens and can use other nikon lenses.

It was a slightly rainy Sunday afternoon when I took the Nikon Pronea S out to shoot photos. I thought the 400 speed film would work on interior shots at the Civil War Museum in Gettysburg, but the shutter was too slow for hand-held shots in the low light of the museum. After visiting the museum, I drove over to the Evergreen Cemetery close by with the intention of getting photos of the monuments there. The Evergreen Cemetery is notable for being the burial place for Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed in the Battle of Gettysburg. I took a quick walk around the cemetery road as it was starting to drizzle, it was lightly raining by the time I got back to my car. I finished the roll with photos around the house using the flash of our pets and my son, Isaac.

Overall, the camera worked well, which was great as the Ebay listing said that it was untested. The Kodak Avantix film was developed and scanned by The Darkroom.

Evening Walk on the Hanover Trolley Trail

Earlier this week, Brenda and I took and evening walk on the Hanover Trolley Trail in Spring Grove, PA. This recreational biking/walking trail that goes from Hanover, PA to York, PA is in progress and two sections have been completed. The trail follows an abandoned trolley trail that originally connected Hanover and York. This section is approximately a mile and a half long and passes beneath a railroad bridge. Future plans call for the entire distance between Hanover and the Heritage Rail Trail in York to connect. I took the Nikon FG-20 SLR camera that I bought at the Rinely Yard sale last month with a newly acquired Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 lens. I shot with Kodak BW400CN black and white film, one of my favorites, which has been discontinued. I still have a few rolls tucked away in the fridge. The next morning I developed the roll in a Unicolor C-41 kit purchased from the Film Photography Project store and the photos above are the result. I liked this film because I could get it processed for a couple of dollars at the local CVS, which I would scan myself and get some nice quality black and white images. I was very disappointed when the local CVS stopped processing film in the store and I don't think I've been back since. I've resorted to processing my own film now, which can be done anytime I have a few minutes, including 3:30 in the morning when our beagle wakes me up for breakfast.