As they predicted things have been windy and rainy so far this week, so after one of my biggest weeks of riding in some time and a day off the bike on Monday I was back inside spinning and going nowhere in the Stankment today. Since there is little to no interest (from me or you) in a post about riding the stationary trainer, I figured I would post something else of little to no interest– my ongoing dabbles back into shooting photos with film. In particular with the new to me Olympus [mju II], also known as the Stylus Epic.
I was pretty stoked to get my hands on this camera–that looks in near mint condition–via eBay, but my results have been hit or miss with it. Normally I am not one to blame a camera for a bad photo, because I am the same sort of person that doesn’t appreciated someone saying “your camera takes great photos.” But in this case, as far as I can tell, my issues are camera related in the form of a light leak that appears on almost every shot (at the bottom of the print especially) and is worse in bright sunshine.
Along with the light leak there appears to be a slight problem with proper (auto) advancement of each frame. I’m not too upset about this stuff, because that’s all part of shooting with old, (now) should-be bargain basement film cameras, but the Epic’s reputation and otherwise nice performance is one that I would rather not be having light leaks, something I fully expect and almost cherish when shooting with the Holga 135.
While I am more than enjoying the results of the Epic (other than the light leaks), I think the thing that is driving me crazy is tracking down where they are coming from! I even went so far as to tape the thing up like it was a mummy last week, but with no success. It’s quite maddening!
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Of course there is a big part of me (the one that grew up digging designs, photos and layouts of the likes of David Carson) that digs the random leaks and film breaks.
Hell, some digital designers go out of their way to get such results; I should know, because I’ve done it! In any event, I’m having fun experimenting with these 35mm point and shoots, and rolled the dice again, spending $19 on a Nikon One Touch with a 2.8 lens. Not sure why I am going through this film phase right now, I have a great DSLR and a really good P&S digital, which I used almost daily, yet I keep fooling around with this junk. I guess there are worse things to fool around with… crack, meth, caged gorillas, etc., etc., etc.,..
BTW, if anyone stumbles upon this page and knows where these light leaks might be coming from shoot me an email (address in contact page) thanks!
Later.