San Francisco Deco Noir

I could not get out of work at all last week, so I didn't get to use the F3 and Nikkor-Q 200mm yet. But I do have some backup photos! The other week when I took the F3 out with the 43-86mm Nikkor Zoom, I took an extra roll of photos on Kodak BW400CN. The F3's batteries were shot -- again, which is what I get for buying 100 LR44s for $3 -- so only a few shots turned out. Here they are:


I suspect this may turn out to be one of my best shots in 2012. I already dig this shot a lot.


St. Patrick's Church, San Francisco. Poorly framed and a bit underexposed.

Additionally, over the past couple weeks I've been taking an old Ansco Agfa Plenax Singlet out and taking shots. This Plenax is either a 6X9 or a 6X4.5 I had it set at 6X4.5 to maximize the shots on the roll. This camera has some quirks.

1- The shutter has only "T" and "Inst." settings. T -- time -- means the user depresses the shutter release lever to open the shutter and then depresses it again to close it. Inst. -- instant -- is about 1/50th of a second.

2- Also, this camera only stops down to f14, so the whole thing is superbly slow.

3- As an added layer of challenge, the lens is fixed-focus. There's no adjustment. Either things are in focus or not. But it yielded a few interesting results.


I'm not sure what this is or how it happened, but it makes a great abstract photo.


In-focus content is pretty darn sharp, but it seems to have a fixed focal point about 15 feet, maybe 20 feet, from the lens at f14.


At f32, the focal point seems to be considerably further away. And the depth of field is generally good stopped-down.

This lens does have a lot going for it. It captures decent contrast levels for a tiny piece of glass. Also, it's surprisingly sharp.