The year that was - 2008

[Tom A]

Well, it is a new year - and a good time to muse over things that was. There are some highlights in my book, the key one being that I survived another one. At my age, each new year is a bonus and not to be wasted on stupid things like politics and economic disasters (I think the two are closely related anyway). As I get older, I am less flexible about "our" elected officials, be they Canadian or Foreign. Government is supposed to work for us and in so doing leave us in peace for everything else. "nuff said" about that.

There were some really nice times, a three day trip around the west coast of Japan with Mr Kobayashi and his wife. They showed us an area of Japan that we had never seen. Dramatic landscapes and interesting historical sites.
The Photokina 2008. We go there to meet friends, more than looking for the latest gadgets. This year was particularly good as I had a chance to meet Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz "face to face" after years of communicating with e-mails and phone calls.
The LHSA meeting in Louisville. Kentucky. Always a treat, but in this case. particularly so as I a/ discovered Bourbon Barrel Stout and b/ had a chance to try out the new Leica 24f3.8 Asph for a day and a bit. There was also a great day in Chicago, seeing "The Bean" and, of course The Art Institute" - guided by Richard Wasserman.

This was also the year when Nikon Historical Society came to Vancouver. Lots of interesting subjects - and a "freak" snowstorm provided much comic relief!

New stuff: It was a good year for Rangefinder shooters - the new Ultron 28mm f2.0 from Voigtlander - great lens and it has become my favorite 28.
The new Zeiss C Biogon 35mm f2.8: another lens in the ZM arsenal. Small and very good. The slower speed has put it on the shelf for the moment as Vancouver is going through its winter phase. Grey and gloomy. Eagerly awaiting spring and summer and slow film and some more shooting with it.
The C Sonnar 50mm f1.5 in Nikon Rf mount. In M-mount it has become my preferred "fast" 50 mm and the SC version is getting to be the same on the Nikon's.
New "old" stuff: A clean Nikkor 25f4 Rf lens. Picked up at the NHS Convention here in April. Wonderful vintage look to the images. Corner fall off etc.
Through Stephen Gandy I also got a couple of more Nikon RF lenses. A replacement for my Nikkor 28f3.5 - this time in black. I foolishly sold my chrome one some years ago and quickly regretted it!
Also, a lens that always intriqued me: The rather elusive 105f4.0 in RF mount - light and small. Actually much better than its reputation.
The NHS convention also got me an old F-style 21f4 Nikkor and with the F-SC adapter it now resides on a Bd S2 with a weak rangefinder patch ( and that doesn't matter as the lens does not couple anyway).
All of these lenses are of no importance - if they are not being used. All in all I shot about 600 rolls this year. Some good shots, some indifferent and some bad - as per usual.
Film has been mostly Kodak Tri X/Double X and Arista Premium 400 (thinly disquised Tri X!). The other good thing about 2008 - there is a definite resurgence of film as a medium for photography. It will never attain the status it has in the past - but it is far from "dead" as some pundits have declared.
In spite of some of the doom and gloom forecasts - let's hope that 2009 will be a better year and all your pictures turn out as you envisaged them.
Happy New Year.

[Shac]

Thanks for the interesting summary Tom.
Best wishes for 2009
David

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Tom,

How on Earth do you find time to shoot 600 rolls of film....LOL I shot about 120 last year and I haven't had time to print anything from 75 of them. You must never sleep, eat, or work ^_^

[Erik van Straten]

Happy New Year, Tom.

I'm a big fan of your writings, I read the posts every day.

Erik.

[helenhill]

Such a Lovely Spin & View of 08, Tom
I/m sure you will be Blessed with many more

All the Best to You & Yours in 09- helen

[Tom A]

Originally Posted by Chriscrawfordphoto

Tom,

How on Earth do you find time to shoot 600 rolls of film....LOL I shot about 120 last year and I haven't had time to print anything from 75 of them. You must never sleep, eat, or work ^_^

I do sleep and eat - but at no time is a camera more than 4 ft from me! There are usually 4-5 bodies loaded up on my table and whenever I go outside I grab a couple. As for working - I try to avoid it as much as possible as it does interfer with photography - and I always have the excuse "Oh, I should test that winder on this body". Surprising how many rolls gets shot this way!

[rpsawin]

Tom,

Thanks for the post and all your sage comments throughout the year. Happy New Year and Best regards,

Bob

[HSI]

Originally Posted by Tom A

Film has been mostly Kodak Tri X/Double X and Arista Premium 400 (thinly disquised Tri X!).
Happy New Year.

Is it a fact that Arista Premium is Tri-X?

[thomasw_]

Great post, Tom. But you failed to discuss 2008 as the year of the M2!? A rather terrible oversight, but I will get past it more easily if you'd care to tell us what bodes for 2009? Is 2009 the year of the local shoot or the trip or the 24mm lens or something else?

[david b]

Film is not going anywhere except up. I shot 193 rolls of medium format. All hand processed.

[dll927]

For many people, I'm sure 2008 is a year they would just as soon forget about. I can't especially say that, but then I've never invested in stocks, either. True, my condo would probably sell for less than a couple of years ago, but it's not for sale at this point.

The beginning post pretty much throws politicians and business people together as the ones to blame. Anything new about that? Congress is so beholden to all the lobbyists that it's questionable if any of them ever think on their own. Then they pretend to think they are going to bail us out. Fat chance!!

[Tom A]

Originally Posted by thomasw_

Great post, Tom. But you failed to discuss 2008 as the year of the M2!? A rather terrible oversight, but I will get past it more easily if you'd care to tell us what bodes for 2009? Is 2009 the year of the local shoot or the trip or the 24mm lens or something else?

My feel is that every year is a M2 year! As for what will happen in 2009 - new lenses etc. Time will tell. OK, so the 24f3.8 is on my wishlist - but with the C$ at a low - I think I will wait. Trips - oh yes, probably Japan and Europe in the spring and then of course the LHSA meet in Seattle in the fall.
I will venture to some more pictures and better ones!

[James (DC)]

Tom, what do you like best about the CV 28/2? I have been using it on the M8 and find that it blows highlights much more than the Zeiss 28/2.8 or the (no longer owned) Leica 28/2.8 ASPH. (Maybe that's just me?) I have yet to use it on a film camera, although I certainly will soon. I love its design and handling, so I am reluctant to part with it.

And I agree that every year is an M2 year. That's my favorite camera, period. I just got another one and had it painted black. One silver, one black. The black one will look great with your BP Rapidwinder on it...

[lkgroup]

Wow, Tom 600 rolls of film. I got up to about 300+ rolls, the problem being not the shooting of film but filing, sorting and printing of the pictures taken. I often wonder if I will leave a collection of pictures that will go unedited, not that any of them are any good.

Any one have suggestions on working through the massive number of negs shot and processed.

Oh well, we need to keep shooting the same in 2009, capturing the world as we see it.

Leo

[Tom A]

Leo, I have one golden rule - film that is processed is cut and filed in neg-files and tagged with film,camera,lens and developer as soon as it is dry. I then look at the negs, mark the ones that look interesting and scan them in to Lightroom and also onto Flickr if I deem them interesting enough.
Printing is a different story - I am much more selective these days with Lightroom. It gives me a chance to see a neg as a "print" and decide what would be interesting to make a "real" print from.
At the moment, the weather is abysmal here and the shooting is down to 1/2 roll/day. How many shots of snow do you need anyway!
Need to load up some more XX for better times too.

[Tom A]

Originally Posted by James (DC)

Tom, what do you like best about the CV 28/2? I have been using it on the M8 and find that it blows highlights much more than the Zeiss 28/2.8 or the (no longer owned) Leica 28/2.8 ASPH. (Maybe that's just me?) I have yet to use it on a film camera, although I certainly will soon. I love its design and handling, so I am reluctant to part with it.

And I agree that every year is an M2 year. That's my favorite camera, period. I just got another one and had it painted black. One silver, one black. The black one will look great with your BP Rapidwinder on it...

I find the 28f2 Ultron extremely good for shooting film. Great close-up too.

[NIKON KIU]

Tom, you're among the best RFF has to offer.

2 conventions, 4 new lenses, 600 rolls and a trip to Japan? fruitfull year indeed.
If everyone does what Tom did in 2008, there will be no bad economic times. Our own stimiulus package

Kiu

[jonmanjiro]

Originally Posted by thomasw_

Great post, Tom. But you failed to discuss 2008 as the year of the M2!?

After reading Tom A's great post, it sounds to me like 2008 was the year of adding a good assortment of Nikon S-mount lenses to the lens arsenal!

I'm looking forward to hear what becomes of that SP 2005 focus helical, Tom

Cheers,
Jon

[Tom A]

Originally Posted by jonmanjiro

After reading Tom A's great post, it sounds to me like 2008 was the year of adding a good assortment of Nikon S-mount lenses to the lens arsenal!

I'm looking forward to hear what becomes of that SP 2005 focus helical, Tom

Cheers,
Jon

Jon, any year is a good year to add glass to the collection! As for the SP helicoil - I am now looking for a M1 to send to my friend in Germany so he can mount it on that and install a rangefinder. That would give me a SC mount M with 35/50 frame lines permanently showing. He is currently working on a 24x27 filmgated M1 with finder frames corrected for the size of negative (and a rangefinder installed). I have no idea why I am doing this, but after multiple beers it sounded like a good idea - and I had the M1 and another friend gave me the Leica Post camera with the filmgate. counter and advance mechanism!

[ZivcoPhoto]

Tom

I am looking for a job that won't interfere with my photography!

I tried your recipe for Neopan 400 and Rodinal at 75:1....pretty nice but may as well go to 100:1 at 20 minutes and get max shadow detail.

Please wring out the Nikon RF 28 F3.5 and show us more images and of course your thoughts, say vs 28mm CVS (both).

[belgiangator]

Hi Tom,

Great to see you here--I just joined RFF. I also recently returned to the True Path and bought an M8 with assorted Leica lenses.

Cheers,
Nathan

[Tom A]

Nathan, welcome back into the fold. OK, semifold as you went M8. I am still stuck to film and intend to stay that way for the foreseable future. My idea of digital is that when I put a 35mm lens on the camera, that's the view the camera gives me!
Did I hear a rumor that you got the 24f3.8? I tried it on film in Louisville, at the LHSA. Much impressed by it.

[bobwith2bees]

Originally Posted by Tom A

I am still stuck to film and intend to stay that way for the foreseable future. My idea of digital is that when I put a 35mm lens on the camera, that's the view the camera gives me!

TOM:

thank goodness I have finally found you. I've been so busy shooting digital for the past few years then I recently discovered this forum and made me want to dig out all my SML's and shoot a roll or two, but my divided D-76 is probably toast. I still have some mixed up from prob 5+ years ago. I missed you at the last camera swap meet on Commercial and was thinking of coming to a meeting or two this year.
Oh, BTW those pix of you taken at the Soap Box Derby are on my Youtube Video. I am still out and about taking pix around town but you are so allusive that I have yet to bump into you

bob leong

[Tom A]

Bob, you should come to the German Club (Deutsche Hause) on Victoria/33rd on the first Tuesday of the month. Same old gang gets together for schnitzel and old, dusty cameras.
Nice seeing you at the Soap Box Derby.
Tom

[bobwith2bees]

tom:

now you tell me. Now I'm too late for this month. I thought it was the 2nd Tuesday. How about the Zen on Saturday for Breakfast ? "cause I can't make the Friday meetings, since I am not yet retired - like you . . .

bob