Sunday January 28, 2018--New Camera testing

1/28/2018 09:35:00 PM

Sunday January 28, 2018--New Camera testing

January 28, 2018

Pentax Spotmatic SP Test Run

After receiving the Spotmatic from my sister in law's father, I had to get a battery in order to attempt to get the meter to work. Interestingly, after reading about the type batteries that could be used in place of the older Mercuries, I found a 1.55v battery that was supposed to work in my newly acquired gem.

What happened once I inserted the battery was what I can't explain. It appears the meter worked backward? I'd point the lens at a light source and the meter would move down toward the negative sign. I guess that is just an unexplainable thing right now and I'll use the good ole 'sunny 16' rule until I get it replaced with the correct one--I'm not even sure if that is the problem. Guess I'll hopefully get it checked out from a friend.

Wednesday after the new year, I was able to get a lunch date with a prior co-worker, (in town, relatively close to my favorite camera / color development store) with whom I'm still pretty close. I was able to drop off my superia 200 from the shooting I did the weekend before during our lunch break and scan it from home once my workday was over.

The Friday before, the cold front kicked in but not before I read about a barge that was delivering coal from Mobile Al, to a Gulf Power Plant upriver. In order to get there, it had to traverse what we call the 'pass'. The pass is an area that connects the Gulf of Mexico with the inter-coastal waterway (the area between our beautiful beaches and the peninsula where I live, and the mainland--and also to the rivers to get the coal to the power plants, which are approximately ten miles up the Escambia river.

Apparently the coal barge got stuck on a sandbar not far outside the pass, in the Gulf. Some local digital photographers were able to get some fantastic shots of surfers, who don't usually get the swells here in winter, jumping off the stuck hauler into breaking waves that were created by the newly formed 'sandbar'.

I saw the chance to hopefully get some cool pics of the barge that Friday, knowing they'd be moving it over the course of the weekend. Unfortunately a tug had already moved the barge from the gulf area where it was stuck, to the much calmer waters of the sound.

The temp had dropped about 30 degrees and the wind was kicking at about 25 knots--very cold for our area, but I had to get the shot, and luckily it was still there. I broke out the Spotmatic and shot as much as I could in the 15 minutes we were there. My wife was a fine sport and braved the cold for a couple of shots too, knowing she could return to the heat of the car, which was well warmed up by the time we got done.

I gotta say, the photos turned out well, especially using the sunny 16 rule. I'll have to figure out the battery issue later, but always have my trusty light meter on my phone, which I'll use until I can attempt to get this problem rectified.

I'm very happy with the way this camera shoots, and plan on taking many more pics in the near future.