I had a very rewarding and interesting experience today. I went to Balboa
Park to the Japanese Friendship Garden. I took the two zooms and my 35/2MC
along with the OM-1 loaded with 200asa color neg film from the local drug
store. The mission was to scout out a location for my entry in Tope 10 and
to try all three lenses on the same subject at 35mm (dictated by the prime
of course) at or near the same f-stop, etc. Not real scientific, but I
thought it would be fun.
The local 1-hour lab at Long's Drug has a new digital processor and I had
had them process some quikee shooting with a Retina IIa I was playing with.
The prints were very sharp, so I thought I would let them process the effort
of today shot with the OM gear.
I shot 24 shots, 18 were 3-set shots with the 35/2, 28/48 and 35/70 shooting
hand held at no less than 1/250 and at f-16 or f-11. The results are really
wonderful. In a 4x6 print, using a loupe, I can see that the 35/2 is just
very slightly sharper. As a practical matter at these f stops and shutter
speeds there is no practical difference for my money. The interesting thing
is that the 28-48 renders a slightly different color caste than do the other
two lenses. Nothing that you would notice unless you have the three prints
side by side. This is true in all 6 sets, so it is consistent.
The digital processor allows me to hope that I have found a way to have my
efforts printed to reflect the capabilities of the OM system and my limited
photographic abilities. In the past I have lamented loud and long that I
couldn't get it done.
If you shoot color negative, seek out a digital lab. I think you will be
impressed.
Finally, the shots today are gorgeous! I don't have a way to scan them to
put them up for review. I am going to shoot some Portra 160VC at the
gardern and have it scanned to CD as well as printed. I hope to get my Tope
10 entry from that effort.
I don't usually go on this long, but I thought the concept might inspire
some of you to revisit color negative films.
Dave Dougherty
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