Airshow on film

[nikkortorokkor]

I finally got the films from the air show processed today.
I'd been dragging my heels because I was worried about the quality of the (Kiron) Vivitar 85-205/f3.8 Tele-Zoom that I'd used. It is one that I've repaired, & the first shots I'd made with it were disappointing due to internal condensation. Also, both the XE1 body and its "wetware" (i.e, the user) had been acting a little hinky. Some exposures had sounded very long. As it turned out, the Kiron/Viv performed flawlessly at the long end (someone forgot he was using a zoom & just treated it as a 205mm tele, didn't he? That's called a wetware problem). Also performing fine was the Phenix DC701 manual body that served as backup to the XE1. The Phenix feels exactly like a Cosina-made plastic SLR from the late 90s & the familiar 3 LED, green for go metering is still the simplest way of making a good exposure.
Enough waffling, here are some planes & stuff taken with 40-year-old glass. All photos are Fuji 200 print


Vivitar/Phenix


Vivitar/Phenix


Vivitar/Phenix


Vivitar/Phenix


Vivitar/Phenix

lh6.ggpht.com/_Ff2p6ytTe5I/SxY6YMTHZ4I/AAAAAAAACBc/uJBsdIylb90/s640/F1020022.JPG
Vivitar/Phenix

lh3.ggpht.com/_Ff2p6ytTe5I/SxY6boeyxgI/AAAAAAAACBk/GnHY9IMTF8c/s640/F1020019.JPG
Vivitar/Phenix


Vivitar/Phenix


Seagull "MD" 24/f2.8 lens, Minolta XE-1 Body


Seagull/XE-1


Seagull/XE-1


Seagull/XE-1


Seagull/XE-1

lh4.ggpht.com/_Ff2p6ytTe5I/SxZFg91G6cI/AAAAAAAACCg/IwVyP-rFBEM/s640/F1030022.JPG
Vivitar/XE-1


Minolta MD Zoom 35-70/f3.5 macro @ 70mm (I think)/XE-1

lh6.ggpht.com/_Ff2p6ytTe5I/SxZFkHDrkaI/AAAAAAAACCs/kUAXrvP-DMc/s640/F1040015.JPG [/img]
Seagull/XE-1


Vivitar/XE-1


Seagull/XE-1

Bigger images here:
picasaweb.google.com/Tooheym1/10409C02#
and here:
picasaweb.google.com/Tooheym1/10209C02#

[mickeyobe]

Michael,

Very impressive pictures.
What more could one demand of a lens or the wetware supporting it?

Mickey

[Randy]

These are great pictures, I like the old trucks.

[PeterW]

Very nice set of pictures, Michael.

Nothing wrong with the glass or the cameras, and the results show that the user can now safely come in out of the wet .

I too like the vintage vehicles. Are they restored or replicas? The truck looks like a Leyland but it's dificult to be sure from a part-view. The double-decker bus looks very much like a London General Omnibus Company Type B. Airfix did a very nice plastic model kit of the Type B some years ago.

Here's a pic of a genuine one, B43, in an 'old soldiers' reunion parade in 1933, on the fifteenth anniversary of the ending of WW1. The boarding over the lower side windows has been taken off (not that it would have had much chance trying to stop a rifle bullet!). No, I didn't take the picture. I wasn't that good with a camera at the age of 5 .



PeterW

[nikkortorokkor]

Thanks for the kind comments.
I'm really chuffed with the Vivitar - it lives up to Kiron's high reputation. Its Achilles heel was the nylon peg which engaged the zoom cam. I found it floating around inside the lens, spreading grease over the internal elements! I replaced it with a brass peg (actually a 14 gauge bicycle spoke nipple, which was a perfect fit) and Hey Presto! It dwarfs the diminutive Chinese body, but balances beautifully, & I like the "2 touch" zoom, no auto zooming every time the lens points down!

Peter, I love the photo of the bus full of veterans, thanks for posting.

The vehicles are originals, though the bus bodies are obviously rebuilds. The nylocks on the dumb irons of one jarred my aesthetic sensibilities, but the attention to detail was still amazingly high. Even in the picture above, you can see the scarlet paint and "General" livery, which have been applied, then over painted with khaki. All this is being funded by Peter Jackson, who is a local hero around these parts. I can't help but think that a WWI epic will be an upcoming project for his Wingnut Films studio.

The hanger is open to the public on weekends, so I'll get down there to get more details soon.

[Deleted]

Hard to beat Kiron. I have a Kiron 80-200 f4 macro zoom in Nikon mount that is a super lens, sharper I think than the Nikkor zoom of the same focal length from that period.

[nikonbob]

Like everyone else has said, there is nothing wrong with your repair. The photos turned out very well. Thanks for posting them.

Bob

[PeterW]

Michael,
Thought you might like to see this WW1 pic of London General B Type buses in their natural London environment.

The picture was taken in 1916, probably early 1916 as there are too many young men of military age about for it to have been taken much later.

The buses are heading up Fleet Street from Ludgate Circus where Fleet Street meets Farringdon Street, New Bridge Street and St. Bride Street.

I used to walk along here almost every day when I worked in London in the 1960s and 1970s.



PeterW

[mickeyobe]

PeterW,

Thank you for your picture of London.

My father who was a Londoner would have been twelve years old when it was taken.
To be able to see what he, as a boy, saw is is of great interest to me.

This is a photo of him and his siblings taken in 1916. He is second from the left.
He and his younger brother always did their best to get into trouble.They switched suits, as is evident in this shot, before the picture was taken.


Mickey

[nikkortorokkor]

Peter, most interesting.

In my Thesis research, I did a quantitative survey of sports news in local newspapers, 1869-1915. The upper terminal date was selected because in 1916, there was no sports news - nada, none, zero, zip. There was a falloff from 1913 - 1915, but it was in 1916 that things had got so dire that sports news was obviously no longer considered appropriate. Plus, of course, most of the young men were gone (sadly, many were gone for good).

Here are some more bus photos, all digital:


Not its natural environment at all!


Driver's luxury on B41


Soldiers' Graffiti

And here are some Christchurch Trams - showing that the London Omnibus Vernacular made it to the far reaches of the Empire

[olroy2044]

Nice shots all! Hardware and "wetware" working well! Thanks for posting! Roy