Gadgets, Gizmos, and Great Service

I've mentioned the Cactus V5 triggers, so, I won't go into any more detail there, except to say that they're going to make lighting my shots much easier, and much safer (for the flashes).

I also picked up two Yashica Electro35 GSN cameras. I bought two because, one, they're cheap, and two, they were made in 1973, so, it'll be nice to have a parts camera if needed. One of the came in the mail the other day, and I've already burned a roll of Tri-X playing with it. The negs look good, I don't see any evidence of light leaks, and it seems to be metering perfectly.

The Yashicas are coupled rangefinders, with a parallax adjustment, and have one of the finest-rated lenses on cameras in their class. They sport a fixed 45mm f/1.7 lens. They aperture-priority only, with a weird metering system that gives you a yellow or red arrow in the viewfinder indicating which way you should turn the aperture dial on the lens for a proper exposure. A left arrow means that you won't be able hand-hold at your current aperture, and a right arrow means you're exceeding the max shutter speed, so stop it down a bit.

Max shutter speed is 1/1000, which is a bit of a bummer, but, they also have a hot shoe AND a PC Sync Cable for flash triggering. How cool is that?

Unfortunately, since I don't have any way of setting the shutter speed, I don't see much studio use for the little buggers, but, they're pretty small and extraordinarily quiet. No mirror slap, no motor drive for the film, and, no auto-focus.

Readers of a my blog get a sneak peek at one of my Pics of the Day. The "real" shot is still rolled up in the 620, but this is the digital cheater shot I took to play with the lighting.



Cool, eh?

Oh - and about that "Great Service" in the title...

Do you live within spittin' distance of Wilkes-Barre?
Do you own a camera?
Do you make prints?
Do you shoot and/or develop film?

If you answered "yes" to at least three of those questions, go throw some business at Professional Photographic Services, on Scott Street, in Wilkes-Barre. Here's their website: www.wbpps.com.

Great folks, reasonable prices, and a local business that supports people in our field. I stopped down on Friday to take a look around (don't expect much looking - it's a counter) and left with some cool film, and some developing chemicals.

They do prints, scans, all sorts of film developing - you name it.

Go there. Do it now!