USAF Mildenhall [Pre-blog]

At the crack of dawn I got up today to go to an airshow with my brother and partner to the airshow at Mildenhall, Suffolk to visit the static exhibitions and view the various air displays.
I got through 9 rolls of slide film with my Olympus OM4 and OM10 bodies with assorted marque lenses and here's a picture of one the planes we saw both static and in the air.

It was a very enjoyable day out and we had an overnight stop on the Travelodge before returning home

Schoolwear shopping [Pre-blog]

Today we that's Mommy and I, travelled down to the city to do some shopping as we don't have the big chain stores in our town. One problem I have is that anything in men's wear is all the wrong proportions for me so I generally speaking buy from children's stores or schoolwear stockists or womens stores that probably does make more sense with me being a transsexual anyway even though Mommy has some issues around of that sadly.
But anyway we end up inside of British Home Stores, in the children's department supposedly looking at school trousers for those occasions when people expect me to look more formalish and some new socks but I'm really more interested in the girls school uniforms spending minutes transfixed looking at them. I'm picturing them on me in my head, thinking if only I could start all over again, as a girl back in school, the only place I felt I belonged. We pay for our purchases but I think today I learned something about my own thoughts on the past and it is intriguing me.

Filling the frame [Pre-blog]

It looks as if going to be out and about more this year with my cameras so I decided to treat myself to a new lens.

 200mm lens are not the sort of thing I use everyday that's for sure but they have their place in the photographic scheme of thing such as Landscapes - mountain images - where their stacked prospective is easily recognizable or with things such as airshows of which I do attend a few.
This is the Zuiko F4 which as such lenses go is quite light so you can use it handheld although support in the form of Monopods or Tripods really is best as the greater magnification increases the risk of camera shake.
This one was going cheap with a very tiny amount of dust in it but nowhere near enough to degrade performance but with everything else really smooth in Chester.
It takes a 55mm filter which are commonly found and  not very expensive.
No 250266

Flash, bang, wallop!

One thing I do like to do is take pictures of my pussycat and I was beginning to get frustrated with the hand-me-down flash unit I need to do this with and recently I bought a dedicated flash unit for my Olympus camera that screws on the top of it.
Called the T32, it has a highish output of 32GN it is designed so cameras that adjust flash exposure through the lens like the OM2/4 models and OM40  can use it while by just flipping over a panel it allows cameras like my OM10 to use three automatic settings a sensor in the flash controls the output from and gives a choice in additional of quarter or full power should you need it.
The head can be tilted upward to bounce the flash for softer illumination or down by 15 degrees if needed.
 

Going the distance

I've had my OM10 for just about a month now and love it so I wanted to get another lens to enable me to tackle most of the pictures I'd like.

This is a moderate telephoto lens ideal for taking detail shots of buildings, relatively close wildlife or say stacked views of mountains.
This is the F 3.5 version that offers same sharpness as its heavier F2.8 version and thanks to the bright viewfinder, the slight drop in lens speed isn't noticed and takes a 49mm filter thread that is the same as the 28 and 50mm lenses which helps when it comes to using polarizers and filters.
It is very sharp.

Toward a wide view

I'm enjoying this camera a lot but as good as the 50mm so-called standard lens is - and it is -  I started to find myself needing a wider view for such things as group shots or landscapes with more of a feel of depth.

Calling in the camera shop, I noticed they had Olympus's own 28mm wide angle lens in its F2.8 form for quite a good price as the aperture settings are toward the front on Olympus's own which is easier and are well marked. 
This will come in handy for when I'm away on vacation and optically the lens is very good indeed.

I get a proper camera

I like taking photographs of things and places that interest me and ever since my college days I'd had a compact camera that had recently having some issues  and I'd aqyired an ancient Russian Zenith E slr that while being better was also limited and very heavy.
I was looking for a light weight affordable system camera that would enable me to take better pictures and I was strolling in a camera store one day and I saw this.

This model was introduced in 1979 being discontinued in 1987 coming in Chrome and Black finishes.
Anyway money changed hands for it and the 50mm 'Standard' lens. I took it on vacation to evaluate being a believe in the 'give it a real job and see how it performs' school of thought.
The OM10 is by design amateur camera - that's to say it's for the everyday Joanne or John who just wants good pictures with simple controls - rather than loaded with lots of features and a build to take Power Winders together with day in and out professional use in all weathers.
So as standard it is automatic exposure only with a setting for Flash units that are not for Olympus and the Flash is exposure is set by hand rather than automatically in the camera.
What stuck me was the evenness of the exposures because as basic as it is, it tells you first what shutter speed it is likely to set based on the 'F' stop settings on your lens in connection with how bright it is but makes the final decision during the actual exposure so if the sun just went in after pressing the shutter (to take the picture) it adjusts to it. It is what Olympus called "AutoDynamic Metering".
This is a little unit you plug in on the front that when you set the exposure control to Manual Adapter enables you to set exposures by hand.
Let's say I don't believe in setting exposures by hand as a religion as if you use the settings the camera indicates you get pretty much the same result for more effort (plus the automatics on this camera are more accurate).
Where you might use it is if there is big difference between how much light the main subject requires and say a very bright background (or for using certain filters) pointing the camera toward what you wish to take the reading from and using the manual setting to lock it.
This meant I had as much control over how my pictures would come out as the main camera but in something much lighter to carry about.
The other thing was the lens was small of really fine quality and easy to adjust from the front.