So about a year and a half ago, I was at a thrift store and happened upon a pretty little camera. I had never heard of it, but it turned out to be a real treasure. What did I find? A Pentax Espio Mini, aka Pentax UC-1 in the US. Everything about this little camera was so sleek and clean. When I learned of its razor-sharp lens, I was in awe. I had found something so special, I was actually afraid to use it for fear of somehow damaging it. They don’t show up regularly and aren’t easy to buy on a whim.
Well, I finally got up the nerve to put a test roll through it. I wanted to use it in a variety of lighting situations without flash, so I used Fuji Superia 400 film. Being a test roll, there’s not a lot of story in many of the pictures as I was trying to test the lens a bit. Here are some of the highlights. I hope you enjoy them.
Pirate!! I was especially stricken with this photo. The tones are beautiful, and she is such an easy model to work with. I’m still trying to figure out how to get rid of the noise in the right side of the photo. I did have to color correct these photos because my scanner made the colors very flat and grey. Once I had the photos consistent with the prints made from the negatives, I was left with this strange pixellated anomaly on the wall. Perhaps a book on Photoshop is in order, no?
An army of Santas.
Remember that Spotmatic? I decided it deserved a better portrait than my dusty iPhone lens could provide. Ahh.. much better!
This is a funky building I pass on the way home from work. The light at this intersection catches me every time, so I figured I’d make the most of my time.
If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about this little camera all over again. I hope you enjoyed them, and I’ll be posting a few more in the next day or two. Also, if there are some film photography bloggers you like here on WordPress, I’d sure love to know about them. If you have any feedback, comments, or blog suggestions, feel free to drop me a line. Thanks!
Fotografia 
Congrats on your new/old cameras! Nice pics! Not sure how you’d get rid of that strange noise. How did you colour correct?
I would like to find some film bloggers too – but I have a hard time finding any…
Steve, it turns out the noise is from jpeg compression. I’ll have to save them in a different format next time. In fact, I’ll probably just re-scan these at a higher DPI and save as a TIFF if possible and see how that works. Also, I used the standard “auto color correct” in photoshop. I didn’t use the “auto smart fix” or whatever it’s called, because that made the images look pretty different.
I’ll have to do some research and try to find some dedicated film photographers on here. If I do find some, I’ll let you know if you like. Then you can sort through the ones you may find interesting.
Oh, and thanks regarding the camera. I do realize how ridiculous it is to not use a camera because it’s nice or rare. That should be half the fun. I’ve gottta work on that, apparently.
Glad you sorted the noise problem out…
I found one film blog you maybe want to check…
filmislove.org
I can understand you being a bit reluctant to use a camera. Finding spares and someone to repair these older cameras can very tricky. That said, just go use it!
Steve
Wow, Steve. Thanks for the blog suggestion! Amazing photos there! This and the news that Kodak is ditching its digital focus and turning its attention back to film and paper products MADE MY DAY! LOL! Sorry, a little too much coffee this morning.
Hope you have a great day!