Recently picked up the last Pentax 35mm film SLR ever produced, from 2003 to 2006, the Pentax *ist.
As stated in my recent review it is a great camera with a jacked up name. Must like this camera (a review addendum is already rolling around in my head) because this is the third roll I have gotten through even though I have not had it for that long. In my first post I used a favorite film of mine, Lomography 400. It is my usual go to. Largely because I often use camera with f/2.8 apertures so that added bit of light sensitivity allowed me more flexibility. 100 film is often reserved for daylight photos with f/2.8 as I usually do not shoot with flash. But having access to an f/1.4 lens…
…I decided to give it a whirl for general purpose shooting inside and out.
Proved to be a fantastic analog pairing. Like I said previously about the 35mm f/2 in my last post, performance wise I would put it in the same league as many more aspirational brands. With its faster aperture even more so here arguably. As an added bonus this combination not only also looked the business but was also quick to focus even if not quite as light as the 35mm but still made for a great walkabout image capturing solution.
This time out I decided to go with f/1.4 and Lomography 100.
Developed (Cinestill CS41) and scanned at home. 100 speed film combined with f/1.4 and a 1/4000s top shutter speed I was looking forward to thin depth of field in daylight conditions and it delivered. In fact it gave a performance so good that it reminded me of a much more expensive lens and film camera pairing.
And with the current Pentax pairing in question, I gain access to a similar aperture spec along with AE, AF, and a significantly lower price point. Better than? What does that even mean really? Not saying that, but each are perfectly fine solutions depending on your personal preference. What I will say is that given its lower price point I feel more comfortable carrying it about as a daily driver over the camera listed above or the one below. That last item above, price, more than features even is ultimately why I moved away from that camera and moved to another solution held in some regard…
…but as good as that camera and lens are spec-wise this even less expensive Pentax setup bests its aperture spec while putting in a not too shabby performance itself. While not having a name like Zeiss, Leica, or even Voigtlander attached Pentax lenses are special in their own right. The results speak for themselves.
…and psst. Keep it under your hat, but Leica, Contax, and Zeiss pixie dust aside, I really like having solid AF, AE, modes aplenty, built-in flash, and big screen on the back all in flash in a smaller and lighter package.
As an added bonus this roll was shot on my birthday. I am not one for a lot of fuss. My gift to myself was stopping by a location with some old cars that I have passed by numerous times.
Have thought I need to stop by there. And this day I did. It turns out that they had way more interesting looking vehicles than I had realized. Cool.
Here I will post the whole roll. Enough talk here are the images.
Eric L. Woods 