Pentax Super A and 4 lenses for sale

Remembering the Adelaide Formula One Grand Prix

Friday Flashback. Wedding Photography outfit.

I did wedding photography for many years. I started with film and then transitioned to Digital. I am now no longer doing weddings but occasionally get asked. Before auto focus and digital my cameras were mainly Pentax. Pentax 35mm and Pentax 645.The Pentax Super A was my favourite from those days and coupled with a Metz Flash and Quantum battery pack I was ready for anything.

Going back to shooting film

I have been taking photographs now since 1970.
I started using a Kodak Retina 35mm film camera in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory.
That was my Dad's camera and he gave me a quick lesson or 2 or f stops and shutter speeds before I was going on a trip for 2 weeks in my employment.
I was shooting Kodachrome Transparency film rated at ASA 25.

I went back to Darwin for a period of 12 months after that initial 2 weeks and still used the same camera and film stock.
The Northern Territory screamed out to me to photograph it so I did.
I still have all the mounted slides from that time.
It was the beginning of a wonderful journey in photography for me.
I was very much a beginner but starting to grasp the fundamentals.
On returning to Adelaide in 1971 I graduated to a Yashica Minister D rangefinder 35mm which was a great camera to learn photography on.
I sold it to a friend when I upgraded to a Pentax Spotmatic.
I later bought it back from him when he no longer wanted it.
Then came a series of Pentax SLr's.
My favourite for many years was the Pentax Super A.
I shot many weddings on this camera and used to operate 2 of them during weddings.
Then auto focus cameras came in which were great and then digital was upon us.
My favourite and last and best Pentax 35mm slr was the Pentax MZS.
The flagship of the Pentax 35mm range.
I read that Pentax was to introduce it's first digital slr based on this model.
I couldn't wait to get hold of one but pentax were really slow getting it on the production line.
This was the Pentax *istD.
With that camera I entered the digital world.
All this time I was having a similar journey with movie cameras.
That's another story or post.
I now have a couple of Canon digital slr's and Pentax models.

As much as I like the convenience of digital and everything that goes with it, I think I want to go back to shooting film and using the cameras I still have from the past.

I recently took part in the SALA exhibition(see post before this) and had some enlargements framed and on display.

In getting some of my shots printed at a larger size it made me realize that film photography might be slower but there are many reasons why I think it's better.

I wished I had shot a lot of my digital images on film.

Quality is one.

Sure I could get a new Pentax 645z  Medium Format digital camera that is an exceptional camera from what I have read, but is over $10000 for the body only.

I already have a Pentax 645 medium format film camera and an Pentax 6x7 medium format film camera.
The quality from those cameras is superb and I have an array of lenses to go with them.

 So also because of the qualities of film and different looks and wide exposure latitude(negative
 film anyway)

Film photography will make me much more selective in what I capture and also give me back a life that is not so all consuming in downloading,uploading,editing, light rooming ,photoshoppingand staring at a computer screen.
Also the problem of  backing up files will be eliminated.
Film lasts for a long time and you can actually hold it in your hand.

Will I give up digital? Probably not!

But I am looking forward to going back to my photography roots.

If I had been brought up on glass plate negatives I would probably be into that too.

scanned slide

scanned slide

scanned slide

scanned slide

scanned slide

Scanned slide

With a 35mm film camera at the Devil's Marbles, Northern Territory

Cameras I have owned or would like to.

The Pentax MZs.

The MZs is really  the last flagship of professional 35mm film cameras by Pentax before all went digital.
Before the MZs the Pentax Z1 and also the LX were classed as professional 35mm film slr.
I used the the Pentax Super A(Pentax Super Program in USA) for some years in wedding photography and in my opinion it could have been classed as a pro camera also.
It was a 35mm version on the Medium Format Pentax 645 which was a professional camera.
In the last couple of years as a wedding photographer, before I went digital, I was using the MZs on weddings.
A very capable and still sought after film camera.
Below is how Australian Camera reported on it at first testing in July 2001.
I was looking at a second hand Nikon F5 recently and the shop salesman said he preferred the MZs to the Nikon.
He also owned an MZs.
If you can find one on the second hand market a great camera to use and own.
A feature is that it does imprint settings  info about each frame on the negatives.

Remembering Skate Boarding

When our boys were growing up they were very much into skateboarding.
"Olly", "backside air" "knarly" were some of the terms we became familiar with.
"ramp", "drop ins",half pipes".
At one stage we had a fairly substantial ramp at the end of our back yard.
It was all consuming for a while.
We survived it and so did they.
On a trip once to visit friends in Victoria at Gisborne they and their friends very quickly built a ramp in the paddock alongside the Gisborne Church of Christ Manse.
Our friend Ray Smith was then the pastor there.
A couple of these images below, taken in the 1980's on slides, are quite iconic I think.
When I get time I'll do a series on here on 1980's skateboarding.

The view from the top of the hill.Skate ramp is middle left.

Christian Hosoi at Prahran ramp Victoria