I love Fujifilm Superia film. Before you reach the end, try to guess the ASA of each shot!

Olympus OM-2000 with Soligor 70-220 F3.5 lens at 220m with its macro ring turned all the way. 6pm meant the sun was going down. 1/60th of a second (I never had such supernatural powers of stabilization before I swear!)

I think this was at 70mm. For some reason, exporting the scanned JPG directly from the file (without first copying and pasting into a new document) causes a color profile shift to occur. However, I like this color more.

I find that my OM-2000 exposes grays rather brightly.

Olympus 50mm F1.8, at F1.8. 1/60th of a second!

I can’t remember how long this exposure was. Looks like the Vivitar 24mm F2.0. Photoshopped.

Originally, long sky exposures looked like this. 4 minutes.

With film, you can expose for as long as you want! This is 45 minutes, with the Olympus 35-70mm F3.5-4.8 lens with Pro Tama 0.45x wide angle converter lens. Man, I gotta clean the wide angle. I was disappointed that the trails were straight lines. 🙁

Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 again! 220mm goodness.

Vivitar 24mm F2.0, at F5.6.

Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 at 1/30! (The image was originally slightly soft, but shrinking it made it look sharp.)

Baaa run away from the dangers of opening the film back too soon!

Sometimes it looks pretty. I swear I heard the click and felt the tension release while winding!

The Olympus OM-2000 with the Auto-Chinon 135mm F2.8 lens. Yes, the lens is for the Pentax K-mount! I held it in front of the camera, while focused at infinity, moving it closer and further from the camera until it was in focus.

The Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 monster has its own tripod mount. I added a Vivitar 2x teleconverter, and it gave me this after a 10 second-delayed shot!

(Yes, I made sure the moon was in the center of the frame before shooting.)

And now, for shots from the Sony A100.

Cowbell spotted at the last Crossborders gig!

If you don’t have a shutter release cable, you can always wrap your camera strap around your shutter and weigh it down with a camera bag.

Here’s the other interesting thing; all the shots before the bench in the park are shot with Fujifilm Superia ASA1600! It can be gotten at under RM20 at KL Sentral. All the shots after (except the last two) are shot with Fujifilm Superia ASA100.

Frankly, I felt that at ASA1600 the color saturation pulled through just as much as it did at ASA100. Which means, buying ASA100 film just for the color wasn’t worth the speed hit for me. Also, ASA100 wasn’t that grainless, either. ASA1600 was noticeably more speckly, but in the age of Photoshop, the Despeckle filter alone kills a whole load of it. All pictures from ASA1600 had a dark strip on the bottom (it might be because I got an expired roll from YS Camera, SS2?)

ASA1600 let me freeze gigs at 1/30s, but I’ll just go with underexposing slower film. So for now, I think I’ll stick to the easily found and cheap ASA400 film.

But first, my first ever Youtube video! Watch it to understand this entry.

This is the mysterious red box, next to a film canister for size comparison.

Okay, so there’s no more mystery. A, B and C are the pins on the Sony Alpha A100‘s remote shutter release. Shorting A and B activates auto-focus, and shorting A, B and C together activates the shutter.

There are two switches; the left-side one activates auto-focus while the right-side one, a single-pole-double-throw switch, closes B and C as well as the PC Sync connection to the Nikon Speedlight SB-28, thus causing the flash to fire!

Thus, I have made a remote shutter cable release and a wired flash trigger!

But first, a visit to the first-generation version. From left, a single-pole-double-throw toggle switch taken from a Turbo switch of a 486-class computer, cellotaped wires (I didn’t have a soldering iron then) and a rudimentary way to connect to the PC Sync Connector of the Nikon SB-28 using the back of a female RCA socket and a bent pin. But this is really too much effort, if you can find a PC Sync Connector cable!

Generation 1 remote shutter cable release/wired flash trigger. It did not have an auto-focus switch, so I had to half-press the camera before pressing the shutter/flash switch.

One major problem faced was that in normal flash operation, pressing the auto-focus switch, then pressing the shutter/flash switch would trigger the flash and camera at the same time. Problem was, the flash would fire before the shutter would open, thus causing dark shots like the one on the left (exposure F18 1.3 seconds ISO100 at 20mm.)

The one on the right has a difference; the flash is set to strobe mode, with 2 strobes at 7 Hertz, 1/8th power. I found that 7 Hertz was the fastest that the flash could strobe to be captured by the camera. Picking a faster strobe speed like 8, 9 or 10 Hertz meant dark shots as well.

The only downside to strobe flash is that it would be at lower power and requires longer exposures.

Trial and error, really. No math for you folks. Heck the circuit is simple without resistors and capacitors and transistors and all that. (Adding capacitors and resistors could introduce a delay to the flash, which means I could flash at full power with one single flash!)

Generation 2, with a connector. No more cellotape! Also, featuring an auto-focus switch!

Left: A PC Sync Connector cable to mini audio jack (which was cannibalized in Generation 2.) Right: Generation 3, sealed up thanks to my friend in the engineering department of the office. Unfortunately he swapped one connection, so it doesn’t work as it should, and was too busy to redo it.

VGA Ultra gives me a stern warning.

You can get your own 3-pin motherboard connector from a electronics parts shop. This reads 2561H Series Crimp Terminal Housing (pitch: 2.54mm). Get the 3-pin one for the Sony A100, and a standard mini audio jack for a Canon dSLR.

Generation 4; I finally got a project box and two new switches. The previous ones malfunctioned after a while.

I had to tape it up because the project box was too small and would not seal completely. I could not fit the big switch in fully!

The same shot in the video.

This is dedicated to all the people who say things are impossible. More hacks to come!

Also, read the good reasons why Minolta changed their flash mount.

To avoid this! This is a living dead example.

Woe is the poor beheaded Canon Speedlite 580EX flash. Often with big flashes, your flash may tilt forwards and crash into things while you walk sideways in cramped spaces. (Or worse, your flash makes your camera do an obscene nosedive; the Nikon SB-28 did that a lot to my Olympus OM-2000.) Taking it off is hard with the old hotshoe mount, having to twirl the ring to release. Minolta/Sony made it damn easy; just press a button to release!

Okay, so these are delayed season’s greetings. Midvalley on my Minolta 50mm F1.4 at F1.4 with Pro Tama 0.45x wide angle converter for extra softness (oddly, softer around the center.)

50mm F2.0.

The Curve. 50mm F5.6. I prefer subtle out-of-focus where you can sort of see the background. (This is a note to those stuck on a 50mm F1.8 at Aperture Priority, F1.8 all the time. 😛 )

The Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens returns! I don’t bring this lens out often. This troupe was rather unacrobatic, so I’ll omit their performance at Berjaya Times Square.

Rewind to my office. The lion swallowed a man trying to grab an angpau as his only escape!

Lions watching National Geographic on Astro MAX in the office.

Fully electronic with noise and lights!

God of something. Uh, the knowledgeable and wise shall comment.

Now that’s what I call a good lion dance! Proper jumping acrobatics and stuff.

Amazing. They both jump and land on the poles, while keeping correct distance.

There is a risk of wardrobe malfunction should the front guy jump before the rear guy does.

Hooray confetti!

And then, come midnight 26th February 2007, fireworks were blasting all over my neighborhood. I ran all over with just my Sony A100 and 50mm F1.4 in bulb mode, holding down until the sound of fireworks stopped. I held it too long and ambitiously, so I’ll omit them fireworks shots. 🙁

Fire, flare and ghosts.

My neighborhood gave THX a run for their money. By the time I ran close to where I suspect fireworks were being launched, it had already ended. Fireworks were then heard on the other end! I must’ve went each corner twice. This is one of the few rare ones where I get to catch firecrackers.

The Chinese celebrate their famous invention – gunpowder.

Finally, I found a launch spot. Alas, it was too late.

What do you do when you see blistering hot skies?

You shoot infrared, of course! (This was with my Canon Powershot A520, circular polarizer, red filter, linear polarizer using this method.)

I turned it so that enough light would come in to expose the reds, to balance out infrared rays which appear purple. This was 0.5 seconds.

Slow-shutter stuff! 0.6 seconds.

0.5 seconds.

1/3rd of a second.

Anyway, the 52mm Hoya R72 infrared-pass filter had been adequate for my Canon Powershot A520. However, when fitted to the Sony A100, it was a different story – the exposure times were now in seconds, and it was predominantly red. What I did not realize then, was that the red is actually the little red that the R72 lets through!

The Hoya RM90 infrared-pass filter is a true infrared-pass filter; it blocks all natural light, letting only infrared through.

The Hoya R72 infrared-pass filter lets very little red in instead. However, on older point-and-shoot digicams the infrared-block filter was weaker, so in long exposures more of the infrared purple appears than the red.

The circular polarizer, combined with the linear polarizer, and turned so that it was darkest, was mostly black… but let in some violet!

The smarter of you might realize what I figured. 🙂

That’s right, combine the Hoya R72 filter with the two polarizers to kill off all natural light! The R72 took care of everything except red, while the two polarizers removed everything but violet (which is on the other end of the color spectrum from red.)

Note that the filters are screwed in reverse, because I did not have a 55-52mm step-down ring to fit the 52mm filters on my Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. 🙁 I used two UV filters, 55mm and 52mm, superglued to each other, instead.

The orange tape is there to show alignment; when the two tape markers are aligned, the polarizers do not let any light through (except a bit of violet.)

I then made my maiden voyage to Digicolor, Jalan Ipoh, where I discovered they had the same thing – a China-made, brandless infrared-pass filter! The price? RM55 for a 77mm true infrared-pass filter!

The 77mm Hoya RM90 infrared-pass filter would’ve been RM600 from some sources.

They also have 77mm warming circular polarizers for RM55 too! If I got any lens with anything larger than 55mm I’d get a set of 77mm filters. 😀

And so, I got Grace one, plus a 58-77mm step up ring for her Canon 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. I got to take it for a test run. 🙂

Oh, and they have loads of step up and step down rings, all on a huge rack! Mount reverser rings (to put a lens front first on a SLR body) and reverser rings (to make two lenses face each other, to do super macro, albeit without superglue) all for under RM30! China-made madness!

From left to right, top to bottom: Sony A100 at 50mm F3.5 1/2s ISO1600 using Hoya RM90 equivalent; Sony A100 at 50mm F3.5 1/10s ISO1600 using Hoya R72; Sony A100 at 50mm F1.4 1/4000s ISO1600 using Hoya RM90 equivalent; Sony A100 at 50mm F11 1/320s ISO100 no filter; Sony A100 at 18mm F3.5 30s ISO400 using Hoya RM90 equivalent; Sony A100 at 18mm F9 1/80s ISO100 no filter; Canon Powershot A520 at 35mm equivalent F2.6 1s ISO200 using Hoya RM90 equivalent; Canon Powershot A520 at 35mm equivalent F2.6 1s ISO200 using Hoya R72.

Canon Powershot A520 at F2.6 1/10s ISO200 using Hoya R72.

The Hoya R72 is still very usable, especially on the Canon Powershot A520, where it can separate areas by the infrared intensity; purple for infrared and red for others.

Sony A100 at 50mm F4 1s ISO1600 using Hoya R72 and two polarizers.

I can get a similiar effect using the R72 and two polarizers on the Sony A100, if I dial in the right amount on the polarizers. Note the slight red tint in the skies!

So what about my infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1?

35mm equivalent (this was taken with the webcam manual focus lens, before I put SLR lenses on the Q1) F3.5 1/2000s ISO100 using Hoya R72.

Same exposure, without filters this time. The blue gets to leak into the picture! In most cases the Q1 captures mostly infrared unless it is in a flourescent-lit room.

The 50’s are in! From left, Olympus Zuiko 50mm F1.8; Canon 50mm F1.8 Mk II; Minolta 50mm F1.4 (pre RS), Fujinon 50mm F1.4 (without body).

I recently bought the Olympus from Mustaffa, a friendly guy who teaches black-and-white film processing! (Which is what every self-respecting B&W shooter does, pushing and pulling, dodging and burning, and having your own darkroom with funky chemicals.) Learning that would save a lot on film processing fees, so if you’re interested, email him at mustaffaaziz8@yahoo.com.

Sure, you could shoot black-and-white on digital but you don’t get the same contrast range.

From left: My Olympus OM-2000, Mustaffa’s Leica M6 TTL, his Olympus OM-2.

I finally got to touch a Leica rangefinder! Yes, it was way brighter than Kingsley’s Yashica Electro GSN 35, and the yellow secondary image was very obvious. Its film winder was a lot more refined and discreet, and he installed a soft shutter button.

The cloth shutter, of course, was very quiet.

The OM-2 was also an amazingly engineered camera, with fabric shutter, air cushion dampeners, and various springs to make its mirror so much softer than any other SLR. I couldn’t find the air tunnel they claim softens the sound.

My Olympus family. From left: Vivitar 2x teleconverter, Vivitar 24mm F2.0, Olympus Zuiko 50mm F1.8, Olympus Zuiko 35-70mm F3.5-4.8, Olympus Zuiko 70-210mm F4.5-5.6.

The Olympus Zuiko 50mm F1.8 is amazingly sharp! I think this was either F5.6 or F8. Click on the picture for a bigger view.

I love Fujifilm Superia film. This was the ASA200 version. Gotta love them emerald greens!

Using the 50mm F1.8.

24mm F2 (colors and lightness not adjusted. I love how the contrast is there, but doesn’t kill the shadows. Or maybe my OM-2000 overexposes just a bit.)

Near Burger King, Desa Sri Hartamas.

And now, guess what this is!

Below it, lies this. Yep, Jeff of Ampang Park had a broken Canon 50mm F1.8 Mark II lens lying around, and let me try my hand at fixing it. Note the 5-blade circular aperture.

The front element.

The front element, when reversed in front of another lens, gives awesome barrelling distortion and a closeup factor of about +20, I think. Shot at 35mm F36 ISO1600 with flash (to get enough focus to reach Jeff!) Yes, the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 lens was already at infinity.

Switching the lens to Manual Focus disengages the gears.

The front element, mounted on my infrared-modded Fujfilm Digital Q1.

20mm, F22, 1/60, ISO400 with flash.

18mm, F3.5, 1/10, ISO400. Focusing changes the strength of the effect.

45mm, F5.6, 1/15, ISO400.

50mm, F22, 1/80, ISO400 with flash.

This is goood sheeet.

Oh yeah after I was done playing with it, I just applied some force and popped it back on. It worked like magic and focused when I tried it on a Canon EOS 5 at Jeff’s the next day! I didn’t intend to disconnect it again though it had a cool effect. However, if you do permanently disconnect your Canon 50mm F1.8 Mark II, you know you could use the front element for some funky stuff. 😀

On the 28th of January 2007, I took a long walk from Titiwangsa Monorail station to the Eye On Malaysia!

Some photography enthusiasts did not want to go because they figured that everybody else had shot the EOM. Bollocks! If you are as enthusiastic, you’d inject your own style and make radically different pictures.

I went there with that mindset.

…and, for the first time, I brought my tripod out. 😀

2.5 second exposure, ISO100.

30 second exposure. Yeah, everybody has done this…

81 second exposure, on bulb mode. I held it down as long as I could; I’ve never held bulb mode this long before and don’t intend to find its limit. 😛

But first, smashpOp, Jenifur and Rames jump!

The bright spotlights inspired me to try this; Aperture Priority at F1.4 on my Minolta 50mm F1.4 gave me a bright 1/160 seconds. No flash was used! First time I’ve seen KLCC out-of-focus, even! Coincidentally, 1/160 is the Sony A100’s built-in flash sync speed.

Another, in front of the Eye On Malaysia. This was at 50mm, F1.4, 1/250th of a second.

And then, I zoomed. WHOA! Initially discovered this during an accidental pan shot.

I zoomed in and out on my Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens while snapping away to get different permutations.

I thought I struck gold when I discovered the neon lights of the Eye On Malaysia had a refresh rate of 100 Hertz (blinking 100 times a second). Yes, I counted the number of flickers and divided it by the shutter speed.

And then whoa! Fireworks.

Out-of-focus fireworks remind me of Quake 2. Yes, the game I made a few models for.

I always wanted to zoom in on fireworks.

I also tried unsuccessfully to pan with fireworks. This looks like yarn though.

Initially a plain long exposure, the fireworks came on and I unlocked it from the tripod.

30 second exposure…

Though it depends when you hit the shutter (this, also 30 seconds.) Furry.

And now, for shots from my Olympus OM-2000.

Olympus 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens with Vivitar 2x teleconverter, giving 420mm F11.

Another 420mm shot, with boosted saturation.

Vivitar 24mm F2.0. I love how the shadows are so well exposed! Color/luminosity not tweaked. Took wideness of lens for granted, making Jenifur out-of-focus.

I love Fujifilm’s emerald-ish color! This was Fujifilm Superia ASA200.

Having two cameras, especially one that didn’t need dark frame subtraction (which explains the Busy sign after long exposures), was great.

True undestructive bulb mode!

Since I finally had a tripod near my house, I could do bulb mode on the traffic lights near my house! (No color/lightness tweaks.)

The virginal Sony version; got the green-yellow-red succession in 11 seconds hence the darker exposure.

If you bothered, you could count the seconds the lights are green, shoot 2 seconds before it turns yellow, and hold for 6 seconds (2 seconds for each color).

My first successful attempt was here.

Just as I was writing this, feeling all accomplished, I found out that TV Smith beat me to it! He is the man on the front of alternative photographic technique.