Pojo Kneeling

As I was walking around (at night) shooting the second roll with the R2A - looking for places to use the 40mm at f1.4 - this plastered guy who was standing nearby approached speaking a language I couldn't understand - though somehow he made it known that he wanted me to take his picture and that he had a specific pose in mind - this one.

He made various flourishes - such as you might make to a King - and then kneeled. Possibly this had something to do with being presented to the Queen of England.

Afterwards - he thanked me - again in an unknown tongue - bowing and scraping and sometimes sputtering "thank you."

[Most of my time is going into getting my development times right - and I'm still futzing with various developers. This was in TMAX. You know, the appearance / sharpness etc. of the film grain is different with different developers. ]


Untouched crop. F1.4, 1/30 sec. Light was from the storefront that was behind me.

It's a bit soft - though certainly printable. It is also not a fair test - or at least not a scientifc test - since it was a fairly slow shutter speed, was pretty dark, and who knows if my focus was 100% on target.

I went out this morning and shot another roll - all at f5.6 which should be pretty close to the meat of the lens - and all of shots that had very small lettering somewhere that I focused on. Things that I know from experience that with the Hexar or the M lenses should be readable with a 16x loupe.

And of course I've made one of the oldest scientific mistakes - using several different developers - which effect appearance of sharpness. For this last roll with the tiny lettering, I went back to my old HC110B formula. News at 5.

Bessa R2a

I just returned the Elan 7n and sold the 20D.

I looked at the Bessa R2A at B&H. Then I bought one. The model I got had some sort of stuck advance lever.

I returned it and got another one.

Shot one roll on the way home.

As soon as I looked through the viewfinder of the demo, I knew I wanted it. Got it with the 40 f1.4 multi-coated lens (I read the article on CameraQuest but was unimpressed with the big deal about single coated lenses).

YES! IT IS LOUDER than a Leica M6.

But it ain't terrible.

After a few minutes with it on the street - Herald Square - I felt very much at home with it, and I like having Ap. Priority. The camera opens on the back, like a semi-modern camera, with a crank you pull up to release the door. And there's even (gasp) aperture Lock.

Well - to put it in "emotional' terms - it does feel a bit like returning home after a long absence.