Bill Smith's Photography

Just out for another walk....... Kosmo Mono 100 is a great film for sunny days, Kosmo Foto still has a pile available for sale in 120 . Sadly they are out of 35mm at the moment, and I don't know when they are going to take delivery of fresh stock. I'm lucky I have a local source for this film. Anything shipping internationally is going to take its time and the long way around to where you are. Canon P Rangefinder Camera: Caon 50 f1.8 LTM lens. Film: Kosmo Mono 100, Rodinal 1+50.

One camera, one lens, well that describes most of my TLR's save for the Mamiya C220f, the Canon P was one of those purchases I was glad I did. I tried to like Barnack Leicas but the bottom loading was too much a test of my sanity. The Canon rangefinders of the later 1950s and '60s were everyone's dream Leica Threadmount camera. You can load it like an SLR, believe me, that's a great thing. Using the P is pretty straightforward if you are used to shooting a Leica M, Zeiss M or a Voightlander Bessa R. Compact and quiet, you can almost use this as a travel camera if you want to travel really light with just a 50mm lens. Well I'm not traveling very far, just my walks around Southeast Oakville during The Great Shutdown. Camera: Canon P Rangefinder, 50 f1.8 Canon Leica Thread Mount lens. Film: Kosmo Mono 100, Rodinal 1+50.

By the mid 1970s, the Nikkormat was showing its age. Built like tank, you could use it as a defensive weapon if you ran out of film but other companies like Canon were embracing plastics with their AE-1, and Olympus with their OM-1 embraced a compact design. With the introduction with the automatic indexing F mount in 1977 eliminating the need for the "indexing shuffle" Nikon was making a leap forward in camera design, only, the FM and FE weren't quite ready. The Nikkormat FT3 model which was the same as the FT2 but with the improved lens mount. I was given this camera at a Toronto Film Shooters photowalk a year and a half ago, I think, time is losing meaning at this point by my friend and Classic Camera Revival co-host Alex Luyckx. It had a jumpy meter, fast forward to late winter/early spring,  I managed to fix the meter with some electrical contact lubricant called DeOxit on the ring resistor. It's not a permanent fix but I have a lifetime supply of this lubric...

Fun times when your universe shrinks I have no idea what happens next week, sometimes the day of the week becomes irrelevant, the only day is today. Oakville by early April was winding down with a lot less activity on the streets save for road reconstruction on Lakeshore in the eastern half of Downtown Oakville. Road construction is considereed essential and chances are this part of the "big dig" will be finished ahead of schedule.  Everything else, gone quiet. I grabbed this chrome Pentax KM for a decent price at Burlington Camera, the meter was broken but that's not a problem because I have a couple of handheld meters I can choose from. KM's for those not familier with Pentax's mid 1970s was the entry level full featureed body, the K1000 below it was introduced a year later as a stripped down student camera. The grand irony is the KM only made for three years is cheaper than the K1000 which for now retails around $200 CAD used. I'll get the meter fixed so...