One of the cameras recently given to me by a friend is a Konica FT-1,
in which I've never seen the viewfinder LEDs act as described in the
manual, so I figured I'd better shoot a test roll to see whether the
auto exposure (shutter priority) is actually doing anything halfway
sane despite the odd display. Since today in Baltimore is a bitterbright
morning (significantly below freezing, clear, sunny, bright) and I'm
up early enough to catch the smokestack from the recycling plant
partially backlit, I was shooting not quite into the sun but definitely
eastward.
If there's anything to make one really notice the difference between
different brands of lenses ...
I had flare that just looked flarey, I had flare that showed colour
banding, and when I tried to get a picture of Perrine in front of
the window, I got uniform flare across the entire frame that made
the *viewfinder* look like underexposed Fuji Super HQ 1600 -- the old
version.
(To be fair, these were third-party, not Konica, lenses. Not even
familiar brands.)
Makes me apreciate Pentax (and even other name-brand) lens coatings.
Now I'm trying to decide whether I have enough energy and enthusiasm
to go out in that freezing bright morning and stomp around the Inner
Harbor with the K1000 before breakfast. I dunno ... I got tired of
my fingers being cold in the recording studio yesterday.
-- Glenn
