Camera Talk

Last weekend I went to develop and scan my test roll films took by some of camera from my collection.
Surprisingly, the most picture came out from the oldest and the most manual camera I ever used, the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16.
Here is the camera

Here are some photos took by the camera:


Here are more photo on Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vietnamfr ... 013075795/

One problem I got is the setting for low light isn't working for me. Maybe I did something wrong. Most picture I took at night turned out blank . If somebody has experience with this camera please help me with the setting for night shooting.

Any night photo is going to depend on how many, and what type light sources you have, and then the speed of the film. If you're shooting Tri-X (400 ISO) on a street with lots of overhead lights, and bright storefronts, you might get away with something like f8 at 1/100. But if you only have one point source, like a street corner light, whatever the light is shining on may require f4 at 1/50, but the rest of the scene will be dark. (Above settings are just numerical examples, I don't do much night shooting).

100 ISO is awfully slow for night shooting, and would require a tripod or other way to keep the camera still while the exposure is being made, as the shutter will be open longer than you can hold the camera steady. Your third shot with the Agfa on Auto shows the effect of this, with light trails all over the place.

I suggest you get a good light meter so that you can learn what exposures are needed for any situation. Also study up on the Sunny-16 method of exposure calculation http://www.davidrichert.com/sunny_16_rule.htm so that if you are using a metered camera, you should be able to tell if it's not reading correctly. Say you are outdoors under a slightly hazy sky, with some ISO 100 speed film in the camera. You would set the shutter to 1/100 (same as the ISO of the film), and the aperture to f11 or f16, depending on how hazy it is. In the shade, you would use an aperture setting of f4. If the ground was snow covered under a cloudless sky, f22 might be more appropriate. But your shutter speed would stay the same.

Now say you think 1/100 is too slow for what you are photographing, like moving vehicles, and you want to freeze the action. Under a sunny sky, you would have f16 @ 1/100 on ISO 100 speed film (or 1/125 if your camera speeds are the modern ones). But to stop the motion in the frame, you need to up your shutter speed to 1/500. This is two stops under your original setting, so you need to open up the aperture two stops to f8. Some cameras have this feature built in, and use an EV (Exposure Value) system for meter readouts, so if you change the shutter speed, the aperture automatically changes a like amount.

On a Kodak Retina IIIC, a setting of 1/125@f16 results in an EV number of 15. The crux of the EV system was that no matter what effect you wanted, freezing action, or increasing background focus, you would always have a perfect exposure. Keep in mind that the smaller the aperture, the more area you have in focus. So when I change the shutter speed setting on the Retina to a faster speed, I will have to be more careful on the focus setting, as there will be a shallower area to work with. But my EV is still 15, because the aperture opened up two stops as I upped the shutter two speeds.

Some folks, such as myself, could care less about using the EV system, since it interlocks the aperture to the shutter, and is just another thing to go wrong on the camera. And in our heads, we like to be able to choose aperture or shutter priority on the fly.

PF

Thank you very much, Farland . I used the sunny 16 rule from that link also and used it on those day light photos above but fail on the night shots.
I will try another setting on the second roll and use tripod to see any improve. I am sure the camera was nice and I was a horrible photographer

For ISO100 film, if you are shooting at night, you probably should use a tripod and very slow shutter speeds.

And it depends on how much surrounding light you have. For this photo, I was shooting a Retina IIIc, I think, with TMax 100. Shutter speed usually was 1/10 and wide open at f/2.0. There was a lot of surrounding light, and I did not use a tripod.



For this shot, I was shooting Fuji Reala (?) 100, and my shutter speeds were about 16 seconds (I counted in my head because it was too dark to see a watch). This is three shots from a Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/2 - each at f/8.0, and I used a tripod.

In night shots usually contrast is very high, and you do not want to capture the full range of tones in the scene.

The other key tip is that you usually underexpose, because you want the image to look like night. At least one or two stops below what the meter indicates.

If you have a light meter (or you can get apps for smartphones), just set ISO one or two stops above your film, and follow the indications. If you shoot ISO 100 film, set the meter at 200 or 400.

Typical exposures for ISO400 are from 1/15 to 1/60 at f/2.8, but it varies wildly depending on the actual light that you have, and the area of the subject that you want to render well. A tripod, or good technique for steadying the camera, is usually needed for best results.

A few street examples from trips - look at those ultra-overexposed lights and the deep dark shadows and dark areas. These are hand held, not really sharp because of hand movement, and taken witn ISO 400 films in 35mm cameras.

Woow, thank you gentlements for success good tips. I fell like loading a new roll and go to the street now.