Testing out my Pentax Spotmatic
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- čas přidán 17. 01. 2021
- If you'd like to purchase a print, go to jmbradford.darkroom.tech/
or hit me up on Instagram @jmbradfordphoto
This video I take out my new to me Pentax Spotmatic and run my first roll of film through it. I shot a roll of Fuji C200 in the Spotmatic on an evening after work in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. The camera ended up working perfectly, no light leaks, not a single shutter issue, it went swimmingly. I found myself quite surprised by the Sigma Mini-Wide 28mm f/2.8 lens as well. I didn't expect it to be so nice! Next time I'm going to have to use the Pentax Super-Takumar 55mm f/1.8 more.
If you'd like to purchase a print from me go to jmbradford.darkroom.tech or message me on Instagram @jmbradfordphoto
So happy to see Pentax Spotmatic come back to life. This model is the same as mine which I still keep as a memento of my late father who gave it to me after returning from Japan during his stint there. Mine is the 2 tone color version.
Thanks for the great videos and pictures included.
Thanks for the lovely comment! That's awesome to have those memories attached to your camera. What a cool keepsake!
Your night photos were simply amazing. Balanced lighting w just a slight touch of softness. Just wonderful night shots w the neon and street lighting. Well done. Love my Pentax Spotmatic SPII. Hope you post more.
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate that. I'm planning to get some more shooting done here soon. I can't resist getting out in the fall for some photo hikes!
Never get tired of seeing another Pentax Spotmatic shooter's work. Nicely done and color rendition of night shots pleasing. Own a Pentax Spot SP II and love the results. It is so much fun to head out during evening hours to make these shots.
Thanks! I agree, so much fun getting creative with the light you can find at night.
Amazing shots in low light. Love how the Pentax Spotmatic captures the color w Fuji C200 color film.
Awesome job. Motivates me to get moving.
Thanks a ton! Glad the video gave you some inspo to go shoot, that's awesome.
Incredibly sharp for 35
Thanks! I'm pretty impressed with that little Sigma 28mm I used for a lot of those. I think I also get better detail from scanning with a camera rather than my flatbed. Still pretty happy with that from a budget film!
Dude! I own 3 of them, but I’m reaching out to say Gnarly beard!!
Haha, thanks man!
Nice video, relaxed pace and great background tunes. And great photos from this classic camera!
Thank you! I really appreciate ya taking the time to leave some positivity for me.
Own the same Pentax and I love it! Great video and pictures. Thanks for sharing. 👍🏻
Thanks man! It's a cool little camera for sure. All those awesome m42 lenses out there don't hurt it either, haha. I really appreciate the nice comment!
Pentax Spotmatic is a super 35mm camera and a classic in its day. A good Clean, Lube & Adjust is recommended to get them to perform at their best. They are superb cameras with the sharp Takumar lenses. Try shooting ISO 100 color slide film when you travel with it to a park or garden, and you will be amazed. Bravo.
Thank you, and I agree! It's a great little film camera. Those m42 Takumars are sharp, and have so much character as well.
I will get a free of charge Spotmatic F. There are instructions on how to perform the maintenance??
That picture of the trees and lights was really cool!
Thanks a ton, man! Was lucky to get out there and shoot before Christmas when it was all lit up.
These old spots are really something else, nothing is made like that anymore.
Man, that's for sure. I was really excited for that Nikon ZFC to come out. I figured Nikon would really make it feel like an old fm10 or something. Boy was holding that camera disappointing. They really did better with the DF.
Hey man, love the chilled viibes of your channel. You should make more camera/lens reviews🙏🏻
Thanks a ton man! I do have some more vintage lens videos and such planned soon. We're finally getting out of it raining every other day here, so hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace a bit!
Bravooo❤❤❤ thankssss
Really like this photography. hard to get low light photos but you nailed it 👌
Thanks man! Sorry for the delayed response.
I also have a Spotmatic and a Minolta light meter that I use with it . my normal cameras are Pentax DSLR'S istDL, K100D , K70 and a K3-11 I have a number of M42 lenses
I use my Minolta light meter with my Spotamatic i recently replaced the light Seals in the camera as the seals were bad
Very cool! I also use my Minolta spot meter with mine, haha.
Amazed by these night shots. How did you meter the exposures? Internal meter?
Nicely done and inspiring 👏
Thanks a lot! I have a Minolta spotmeter. I used that and then kinda guessed at reciprocity. Luckily it all worked out! Thanks for watching and commenting ☺️
Love your available light shooting at night. Photos are amazing. How did you meter so accurately? When I use my internal meter on my Pentax SPII, the brighter spots of night lighting tends to fool the meter and overexpose. What meter do you use? Can you use an older Gossen meter or do you recommend a newer Sekonic? Any advice most appreciated.
Thanks a ton! I have an old Minolta spot meter I got off of eBay. That night I was looking for a spot somewhere in the middle of brightest and darkest, metering that, and then leaning towards adding a few seconds. I wasn't sure how the C200 would handle reciprocity failure, so I figured it'd be safer to overexpose some than underexpose. Sometimes I've just gotten away with shooting nights in the city by setting f/5.6 or f/8 and going 30 seconds, haha.
That's one thing with film and long exposures, if you don't have a good chart for reciprocity it can take a bit of experimentation to learn a particular film and what works with it.
What’s the app you were using to take the photos when you were using your phone to control the shutter speed?
I was just using the stopwatch on my phone to time the shutter. I had a regular old cable release screwed into the camera.
It's weird how digital the images look. How did you scan the images?
I scan with a DSLR and a macro lens now. I think I was still using Negative Lab Pro to invert the negatives when I did this roll. Lately I've been doing them manually. When viewing them outside of CZcams, I think the grain structure and other qualities look more clean and natural than they do on my Epson v550. I also seem to get sharper scans that way as well.
@@jbradfordphotoAny DSLR scanning tips? I’ve been trying with my D600 / Tamron 90mm macro, but with a minimum focus distance of 11 inches, I end up cropping the majority of the D600’s 24mp away. I was hoping for more than 2 megapixel scans. Maybe I need extension tubes or a macro lens that goes 2x, I don’t have my D800 anymore, lol. Anyway, it’s been super frustrating getting set up properly. Great images, cool video. Thanks.
@@marike1100 thanks for the comment! I'm surprised you're having to crop that much at MFD with that being a 1:1 macro lens. I originally started dlsr scanning with a 50mm macro and had to crop about half my image away, but when I switched to the Pentax 100mm f/2.8 lens I was filling the frame with a 35mm negative. I eventually got tired of all the set up and post work involved and bought a Plustek scanner, lol. Wish I could be more helpful, but I'm kind of stumped on why that's the case for you as well. The extension tube idea may be the way to go.
@@marike1100 whoops, that was weird. Got the CZcams notification but it didn't switch me back to this account, lol. Anyway, best of luck to ya! If you think of it, let me know what you get worked out!
A year late but just broke out my spottie and running some rolls through it. I would love to know your scan setup.
Nice! Glad you're getting out and enjoying it. Back then, I was using a Kaiser light table, a manfrotto dual tripod, a Pentax K1, and a 100mm macro lens for scans with NLP. Now I've switched to using a Plustek. When DSLR scans worked, they were amazing, but the set-up and little problems I had just got really annoying.
I have the exact camera and I recently just got into photography and just want to know why your timer on your phone went to 33 secs before you took the picture @2:26
I tripped the shutter and hit start on my timer at the same time. After 33 seconds, I was just letting go of the shutter. That gave me a 33 second long shutter speed, basically.
What app did you use for reciprocity?
I really just kind of took a guess. Figured longer was better, lol.
What battery should i use for mine?
Another person in the comments said they used a Renata 934 from Amazon. I've yet to ever put a new battery in mine! Haha
the Walmart museum !!!!!??
Yeah?
Really really reeeeally didn't like beginning background music and had to mute. So ironic given your ACL cap.
Yeah, my aunt got it for me, lol. I do have the SRV box set from his performances on ACL, though. I'm a huge Texas blues fan. Finding royalty free CZcams music on that level is pretty unlikely, lol. I usually spend way too long looking and then settled on some tracks I don't hate 🤷♂️
Hopefully you didn't mind the rest of the video, though! I'm glad you stopped in to check it out, at any rate.
Hey John lovely video mate with some cracker images along the way. I was giver a Asahi Pentax spotmatic two body various lens kit a while back finally getting around to looking through the kit with a plan to shoot and record the experience for my wee channel. The batteries for the meters are both shot so I'll use my handheld seconic. Awesome print mate congrats on a great video. Liked and subbed. Regards Paul
Wow, thanks for such an awesome comment! That's exactly how I have been shooting mine. Those original batteries are so tiny, I haven't even bothered looking for one yet, haha. Kind of assumed they'd be difficult to find and not quite worth the effort. Hope you enjoy shooting yours and I'll keep an eye out for your video!
@@jbradfordphoto yeah I
Thought why bother with batteries when I enjoy using a handheld meter anyways. I love the simplicity of fully manual mechanical cameras it’s such a nice change from having a million options in today’s menu 📷📷📷
That's for sure! Kind of a nice reprieve from the digital world sometimes.
@@jbradfordphoto absolutely mate right I gotta head to work good I’ll checkout more of your work later cheers 📷📷