#automatic exposure

Chaos Group releases Beta 2 of V-Ray Next for Maya



V-Ray Next for Maya’s new IPR architecture promises faster feedback on complex scenes and support for animation. IPR stability has been further improved in Beta 2 of the software, released last week.

Chaos Group has released Beta 2 of V-Ray Next for Maya, the next major update to the Maya edition of the renderer, updating the new IPR architecture and further extending the new toon and hair…

  I have to begin with a confession; I have never been much of a TLR guy.  I bought a Yashica 12 TLR while I was still in college and only had half a dozen cameras to my name.  I enjoy the camera well enough but the reverse viewing nature of a twin lens just didn’t feel conducive to what I have been doing with photography.  What I enjoyed though was that big viewfinder, the advance crank and…

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Lens closed and camera off

Lens open and camera on

38mm to 115mm zoom lens detail

Back of camera

Diopter Adjustment

Top of camera showing zoom and shutter button

Viewfinder and autofocus sensors

My Camera

I have to say this is an unusual camera for me to buy. I don’t normally bother with the compact, point and shoot end of the 35mm market, but I saw this in a charity shop and had a vague recollection that the Olympus [mju:] series are quite highly regarded. Since it was only £2.50 and had the added bonus of a film loaded in the camera, I took a chance and bought it.

Although when I bought the camera it had no battery fitted, as soon as I popped a new battery into it everything sprang to life including the exposure counter which told me that 16 exposures had been taken, leaving 20 still on the film (I can see through the window in the back that it’s a 36 exposure film).

The previous owner was obviously very well organised because in the little plastic case with the camera were a couple of paper charts which list the exposures from 1 – 37 with a note of what each picture is. It’s interesting that the pictures which have been listed this way have dates in 2011, so the film is approx. 5 years old – although not ideal it’s hopefully new enough that I can get decent pictures from it. Therefore, I’m looking forward to developing the film and seeing if the description matches up with the pictures I get.

When I bought the camera it had a sticky label on it with the previous owner’s details, and I had to peel that off and remove the sticky deposit that was left which was quite tricky. With that removed however, the camera is in just about perfect condition, with just a few paintwork edges which have been worn.

Olympus µ [mju:] – II zoom 115 description

This is a point and shoot automatic camera designed to be used by people who want good quality snapshots and don’t want to spend time learning how to get the most from a conventional camera. Being point and shoot means that there is no control of any of the exposure modes offered, and in fact the camera has almost no controls other than self-timer, flash mode, zoom and shutter release.

I believe these models, of which Olympus produced a lot, are popular currently with Street photographers, because they are small, light and compact with the bonus of a good quality lens, a decent zoom range and in the case of this model, weather proofing.

The style of the camera is very much of its day. Personally, I find it pretty awful, but in the late 1990’s a lot of cameras were made in the same plasticky,  rounded style. This camera dates from about 1999.

On the back panel is an LCD which shows the number of exposures taken, the battery condition and some indicators showing the flash setting. This panel has the only settings controls which the camera has; there is a tiny button to turn on the self timer, and another tiny button which toggles the various flash modes.

For such a simple camera to operate there seem to be more flash modes than would seem healthy! On the support page for the camera there are listed:

Auto mode

Red eye reduction mode

Flash off

Fill-in flash

Night scene mode

Red eye reduction at night mode

To me that seems quite a lot.

The operating controls are on the top panel, and consist of a zoom lever and the shutter release. The on/off switch is integrated into the lens’ cover, so sliding the cover turns on the camera, extends the lens to it’s wide angle setting, pops up the flash and initialising the camera ready for use. Once the lens is out, it isn’t possible to fit the cover back over the lens, so there is a micro-switch integrated into the cover and as it’s pushed towards the lens to close it the lens retracts and the camera turns off.

The viewfinder, although not a through the lens arrangement, does zoom with the main lens which allows the picture to be correctly composed. There is a cross hair in the centre which marks the focus point and the focus is all automatic with the flash working as a pre-focus light in dark condition when it is switched on. Next to the viewfinder are a couple of led’s which show the condition of the flash and the auto focus. The top orange led is illuminated when the flash is charged, and the bottom green led glows when focus is achieved and flashes when the camera hasn’t focused the scene. These are quite helpful because they fall within the eye line when the camera is being used. I was surprised to see that the viewfinder has a diopter adjustment which I wouldn’t expect in a camera of this class.

In operation, the zoom is (by today’s standards) quite slow and noisy and extends a long way out of the camera.

I think the thing I find most impressive about the camera is the wide zoom range considering the fact that it’s a full frame 35mm camera. The 38mm to 115mm range goes from a restricted wide angle to a portrait length telephoto which is quite challenging in a camera this small but with an image circle that big. When you take into account the fact that it’s done at a price which made the camera competitive in the point and shoot, pocket camera market it’s even more impressive.

Although I can’t at the moment see inside the film chamber on my example because there is a film fitted, the olympus support site for the camera tells me that the film speed is set by DX coding which can’t be overridden, although that would be standard for a camera of this type.

Overall this is quite an impressive camera for its class. I didn’t expect a viewfinder diopter or weather proofing, and the zoom range is quite impressive. I will expose the rest of the film and develop it to see what the quality of the lens is like.

Olympus [mju:] spec

Olympus [mju:] II 115 zoom 35mm point & shoot automatic camera

Lens 38mm to 115mm zoom lens

Aperture f/4.6 to f/10.9 automatically selected

Shutter fully automatic and electronically set

Integral flash with selectable modes which is also used as focus pre-flash

Viewfinder has diopter adjustment and zooms with lens

Autofocus with 860 steps and automatic macro focusing

Automatic Exposure measurement with 3 zone metering

Splash proof and sealed against dust and dirt.

ISO 50 to 3200 range read from DX coding

3V lithium battery (DL123A or CR123A)

New Post has been published on http://tellbi.com/automatic-exposure-and-modern-photography/

Understanding the automatic exposure

Automatic Exposure

Automatic exposure systems are a very cool thing. You can you – as can be seen already in the text – help to find the best possible exposure for your object. “Shutter priority! Yes, I’ve heard that before! Or .. What was that again? “If you ask this question you, I invite you to read on at this point. I’ll try to be as easy as possible to tell you what it’s all about. We’ll see if I manage)

Since different camera manufacturers sometimes have different names for the automatic exposure, I hope that the photographers who take pictures with other manufacturers is not a problem (possibly manual again take). Basis To a little better understanding of the whole, as follows: Usually you have at your camera while taking pictures ISO, shutter speed and aperture to adjust itself to expose an object correctly (an external exposure meter is to necessary). Since this may be partly cumbersome, there are in digital DSLRs automatic exposure controls, which (as a kind of wizard) takes care of the correct setting of aperture and shutter speed. Here, the light meter in the camera.

You can now decide which you want to use and find the settings on a rotating wheel right or left of your hot shoe.

Here we go Since each camera manufacturer has its own programs, we focus on the most important ones that have the most cameras and which are commonly referred to with a capital letter (P, M, etc.). This I will now present you the example of a Canon EOS 350D. In parentheses, the name will be available on Nikon cameras.

M (M): Manual

This program provides a nothing. You have to adjust shutter speed and aperture. 

Av (A): Aperture Priority

  This automatic allows you to adjust the aperture fixed. The exposure meter of the camera sets the shutter speed.

TV (s): Aperture Priority

  Here You set the shutter speed and the camera firmly cares about the aperture, which impact on the depth of field will have. Tip: Do not use in ecological disaster, since you usually have full control over the depth of field because want.

P (P): Full Auto

The camera sets aperture and shutter speed. They will choose in low light conditions the maximum aperture that is possible.

My preferences I myself have set for myself certain areas in which I access the programs. With long exposures I always use “M” because all other programs at max. Stop 30 seconds illuminate. For outdoor portraits I like to use Av, in the studio again, I’ll stay with “M” because I want to control everything fully. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never used “Tv” and “P”. For P controls everything – and I can not work easily.

Your preferences The various automatic exposure controls designed to facilitate you taking pictures.In principle, it does not matter which fits the said function best for you. There is no “better” or “worse” automatic exposure controls. It is important that you feel comfortable you once. To find out, I recommend that you just time to play around with the different automatics and then for the time being to remain at a.

Next I recommend that you (landscape photography, portrait photography, etc.) check through all of the programs in a variety of genres. You will then notice very quickly on its own, which automatic fits which genre best. Finally, you’ll learn the best way with the automatic exposure controls deal.

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Voigtlander Dynamatic II

Light cell installed round lens

Door lock

Back of camera

Film chamber – no messy seals here

Count down frame counter and tripod bush

Auto setting on lens and shutter speeds

Aperture scale on lens

Shutter release and sync socket

Cold shoe and some slight corrosion

Rewind knob poped up

Film spigot in place

Film spigot raised for film

View through the viewfinder – rangefinder just visible

Voigtlander Dynamatic II

My camera

I found this camera, as with most in my collection, on eBay. It was on with a starting bit of £4.99 and I added it to my watch list but missed the end of the auction. Fortunately, so did everyone else and the seller re-listed it, so I got it next time round for the same starting price.

When it arrived and I’d unpacked it I found that it is in very nice condition overall apart from the chrome work on the top which has started to bubble. I assume the metalwork under the chrome plating has started to corrode and this leads to the bubbling. It’s rather a shame, because as far as I can tell the rest of the camera is in very good shape and appears the be working properly. The best thing about buying the camera was the fact that there was still a film in it, so I’ve rewound that and sent it to Photo Express in Hull to see if there are any images still obtainable. I love looking at pictures found in old cameras and have a post where I publish them.

Voigtlander Dynamatic II description

As I said above this camera is similar in appearance to the Vito B, but in operation it is much more sophisticated. There is a light meter built in, and an automatic exposure option as well as full manual override. The focus control has markings for group, portrait and landscape settings, but also has a coupled rangefinder visible in the viewfinder.

One thing that is the same at the Vito B is the quality of the construction and engineering which went into making this unit. It’s a very well made camera with sleek lines and some great features. For example, one of the standard repairs you need to make to cameras this age before you put a film through them is to replace all the light seals because they go gooey and ineffective. On this camera there are no light seals to replace because the back is designed to sit in the channel at the back of the camera as it is closed and seal by itself. Also the rewind knob is the classic Voigtlander ‘pop up’ unit with the little lever at the back to pop it up.

The lens fitted is a Voigtlander Lanthar 50mm f2.8 which is a slightly lower quality lens than that fitted to the Vito B, which was the Color-Skopar, but appears to have a coating of blue/purple colour.

On the bottom of the camera is a tripod bush, centrally mounted and a count down frame counter which is manually set at the time of loading a film.

Exposure system

There is a selenium cell driven light meter built into the dynamatic II with the cell mounted around the lens and an aperture display built into the top plate. This aperture scale is also visible in the viewfinder so the photographer is kept informed of the aperture the camera is either using or suggesting for the correct exposure. The light meter is coupled directly to the selected shutter speed so if the camera is set to Auto mode the aperture suggested will be automatically selected, meaning the camera offers what we would today call shutter priority automatic exposure.

The film ISO is set with a dial mounted round the inside of the lens unit which is a fairly normal place on this sort of camera, but one oddity is that because of its design, the camera can’t use threaded filters. On the Vito B there were push on filters available and, although they wouldn’t fit this camera because is has a larger diameter, I would expect a similar set of filters existed. Because the camera uses a selenium cell, there are no batteries used by the camera.

All in all a nice example of West German engineering with the added bonus of the exposed film inside. I’m looking forward to seeing if any pictures are recoverable from that.

Voigtlander Dynamatic II 35mm rangefinder camera

Selenium cell light meter built in

Shutter priority automatic exposure

Manual exposure override if required

film speed ISO 10 to 400 range on light meter

Shutter range 1/500 to 1/30 + B

50mm f/2.8 voigtlander lanthar lens

f/2.8 to f/22 aperture range

5 blade aperture

Focus zones marked on focus ring and coupled rangefinder

Manually set count down frame counter

Ser No:5329661

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Olympus Pen EE-2

Shutter button, wind on thumb wheel and frame counter (up to 70(

Viewfinder and film advance

Film rewind and hot shoe

Back door release

Film chamber (note the missing screw)

Aperture setting

Film ASA setting

Olympus Pen-EE2

This weekend however, I was sorting through some of my boxes of camera bits and pieces and I rediscovered it in it’s very worn leather pouch and decided to see what was wrong with it.

The first thing to do was fit the screws holding the lens unit to the camera body. These are located in the film chamber and as can be seen from the pictures above, I couldn’t find enough of the right size to fit. They should ideally be matt black in colour but I could only find 3 chrome screws of the right size so I fitted them for the moment to get the lens in place. Once they were in the shutter button started to work as well so that was two fixes in one go.

Next I looked at the aperture and why it wouldn’t stop down. At first I though it might be because the selenium cell was too old to supply any current, but after I took the top lid off the camera I could see that the meter needle was responding to light and when the shutter button was pressed the mechanism which rises and ‘traps’ the meter needle also worked.

For a while I couldn’t see why the aperture blades wouldn’t work and assumed they must just be stuck with dirt and old grease. Sure enough, when I got a pair of tweezers and pulled on the lever which I guessed must operate the aperture, I found the blades opened, and from then on the aperture has responded properly to light.

The two remaining problems are that the light seals need replacing (which is true of almost all vintage cameras), and the red low light warning flag and shutter lock doesn’t seem to be working. That could also be to do with dirt and grease, so I will probably need to do some more cleaning work later.

I think I paid about £8 for this camera about 18 months ago. For a while they seemed to go up in price and were fetching quite high prices, but that seems to have subsided a bit now and they are back down to around £10 – £15 for a working unit.

Olympus Pen-EE2 Description.

As I said in the opening sentence of this post this camera is a half frame camera, meaning that the negative produced is 24mm x 18mm rather than the usual 24mm x 36mm. That is to say in the space of a normal full frame 35mm negative this camera will fit two negatives. The negatives produces are portrait orientation rather than the usual landscape orientation, so to take a landscape picture the camera needs to be held upright. This was done to enable more pictures to be taken on a roll of film, so for a 24 exposure roll you will get up to 48 pictures and a 36 exposure roll will give 72 pictures.

The camera is incredibly small and easy to operate. There are no batteries and to use the camera in automatic mode is simply a question of setting the film speed on the dial which surrounds the lens. Once that is done the camera is all set up to go – there is no focus adjustment because the camera is designed to keep everything from about 1.5 meters to infinity in focus. The exposure setting will be automatic, and there is a red flag and shutter lock which stops you taking pictures if there isn’t enough light (not working on my copy).

There is a manual setting available for the lens aperture, which is on the same dial as the film speed, but on the opposite side. I read the handbook for the camera and it suggested that the exposure was still fully automatic when the aperture is selected in this way, but I don’t think that is true. There are only two shutter speeds available, 1/40sec and 1/200 sec so I can’t see there is enough range to cover f/3.5 to f/22 and any light range. I think in fact, the aperture settings are for use with a flash gun.

All in all this is quite nice now it had been mostly repaired.

Olympus Pen EE-2 half frame 35mm viewfinder camera

1/40 & 1/200 shutter speed automatically selected

Automatic exposure

Light cell fitted round the lens

Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens

Hot shoe with x sync + x sync socket

Tripod mount on base

ISO range 25-400

Bright viewfinder with framing lines

Portrait orientation pictures

Ser No: 3136144

I primarily bought it because I remember my Brother using one on family holidays in the 1960’s. I remember him using the Instamatic as my Dad used his Boots Beirette and how we used to view the resulting colour slides when they returned from processing a week or so later.

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Instamatic 300

Flash open

Back of camera – needs a clean

Rear door release and film advance

Light cell and flash pop-up lever. Note the aperture shape

Film cartridge chamber

Handbook front cover

Handbook page 1-2

Handbook page 3-4

Handbook page 5-6

Handbook page 7-8

Handbook page 9-10

Handbook page 11-12

Handbook page 13-14

Handbook back cover

My brothers Instamatic was a different model from this one however, it was quite slim and pocketable (at least that’s how I remember it – possibly time is playing tricks on me). This unit is quite large, probably because of the in-built bulb flash holder and the battery compartment in the bottom.

The example I bought seems if pretty good condition although like all vintage cameras which have been used it needs a good clean. It came complete with handbook and leather case although unfortunately there was no film inside.

Kodak Instamatic 300 description.

The instamatic brand was created by Kodak as a simple camera for family snap shots. The whole concept was of a camera which needed no adjustment or control – you simply put a film in the back and fired away. They even developed a new film type for the camera, the 126 cartridge. With this cartridge there was no messing about feeding take up spools or rewinding at the the end of the film. You just dropped the film into the film cartridge and once it had been fully exposed you took the cartridge out and sent it for development. The film inside the cartridge was the same size as 35mm film, although the picture taken was square at 24mm x 24mm rather that the 35mm 36mm x 24mm.

The 300 model is slightly more sophisticated than most Instamatics because it had a light cell to measure the light level and used that information to drive the camera’s exposure system. There is also a meter needle which, if it becomes visible in the viewfinder, is used to warn the photographer that there isn’t enough light to take the picture and therefore to raise the built in pop-up flash gun.

Other than the light cell the rest of the camera is fairly simple. There is an automatic aperture which has a very odd shape of a fat H, (which must have given some interesting bokeh effects!) and a couple of shutter speeds. There is a pop-up flash holder which took AG-1 or AG-1b bulbs driven by a couple of AAA batteries fitted in the camera. Interestingly, the handbook which came with the camera recommends fitting the supplied flash guard – a curved piece of transparent plastic – into the flash gun if you were taking pictures of a person or group of people. Presumably to protect them if the flash bulb exploded! I remember seeing flash bulbs which my Dad had used and they certainly had expanded with the heat of the bulb going off.

So an interesting piece of camera history, although I doubt I’ll be able to try it out since 126 film cartridges are becoming increasingly difficult to find unless you want to pay ridiculous sums of money.

Kodak Instamatic 300 camera

Instamatic 126 film cartridge

Automatic exposure driven by Light cell

Built in pop-up flash gun

Exposure warning flag in viewfinder

Ser No: 154362

Made in England

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Chinon CE-4

Front view

Top view

Sync socket and exposure lock

Focus and aperture scales

Film advance, shutter speed and multiple exposure lever

Film chamber

Lens removed

Fungus on the back of the front element

Fungus

Chinon CE-4

When I got the camera home and had a proper look there were two pieces of bad news and one piece of good news. The good news was that when I changed the batteries the shutter worked properly with all the speeds sounding about right, the aperture stopping down and the mirror flipping solidly.

The first bit of bad news was that the lens seems to have a patch of fungus growing on the inside of the front element which I’ve tried to take a picture of in the images above. Although it is a small patch, I obviously don’t want it spreading to any of my good lenses, so at the moment the camera is in quarantine.

The other piece of bad news was that the film in the camera was unexposed and still on frame 1, so there is no hope of any interesting finds there! Mind you, it’s a 36 exposure Kodak Professional Pro Image 200 so it’s probably worth the £7 by itself.

Chinon CE-4 description

This is a manual focus, automatic exposure 35mm SLR which was made by Chinon in Japan around about 1980 and was the first model in Chinon’s range which used the Pentax bayonet K mount for the lens rather than the M42 screw mount. When I first picked the camera up I assumed it was made by Cosina for Chinon because it seems remarkably similar to the various CT-1 models that Cosina badged for companies, but I can find no evidence that is the case.

In terms of features this camera is quite well appointed. There is a wide shutter speed range of 4sec to 1/1000 and a fully automatic (aperture priority) setting with a viewfinder which indicates the shutter speed chosen for the aperture selected. There is also a depth of field preview, x sync socket and hotshoe, a multiple exposure lever on the top plate and an exposure lock button on the lens mount. The viewfinder has a split level rangefinder in the centre of the screen to assist with focusing.

All in all this was probably a fairly good buy when the original owner purchased the camera in the early 1980’s and was certainly worth the £7 I paid for it!

Chinon CE-4 35mm SLR

4sec to 1/1000 sec shutter speed + B

Fully automatic (aperture priority) exposure

ISO25 to 3200 film speed range with dial lock

Vertical metal focal plane shutter

Multiple exposure lever on top plate

Exposure memory button

+/- 1 stop exposure compensation

Motor wind attachment

3 SR44 batteries

5 & 10 sec self timer

Depth of field preview lever

50mm f/1.7 Auto Chinon multicoated lens

x sync hot shoe and socket

Body Ser No: 221654

Lens Ser No: c673354