Now here’s a thing to plan for the New Year – a bit of walking. Here in the UK we have the most excellent Ordnance Survey maps, but they take some skill and planning to use. But they also produce books of pre-planned circular walks. These usually start at a car parking spot, take you round the scenery and bring you back. The walks are graded and grouped by length and difficulty, so you can get out for an hour or two’s mild stretch or tackle something longer or steeper.
Occupation Road, Dentdale
I like them because they give you some of the history of the area you are walking through, and also describe the walk well enough to not need serious navigation skills. “Walk along the hedge until you get to a gate, go through and turn left” is a lot easier than a set of grid references or hoping that you are on an actual right of way. I can also take the dog (being mindful of sheep, cows, etc) knowing that I’m not going to have to put him in the rucksack to get past scree or a scramble. Thankfully he is small enough to be lifted over the occasional ladder stile.
Derwentwater
Combine the walking route with an ephemeris and you will know where the sun rises, swings and falls.
North Wales.
So, a short post, but it may help you get on a few nice walks during 2024.
And another thing… if you fancy doing the North East coastal path, there’s a good bus service. I walked it in sections, spending the day walking along beaches and cliff-top paths, then catching the bus back to the car. Another recommended method.
I wasn’t going to buy another camera, but I was wandering around a local camera fair and there was a table with a pile of old Prakticas and Zenits. So of course I had to look. Looking turned into testing them to see if they worked. There were the expected woes of gummed-up battery chambers, lenses with stuck apertures, broken meters and stained focusing screens. And in the middle of the pile was a very clean Zenit 12xp with a recent-model lens. Ten whole pounds. It would be rude not to, especially as I had taken apart and fiddled with all the others.
I stuck a couple of batteries in when I got home and the meter LEDs lit up. The camera really is very clean – just few scratches on the top and no dust inside. There are also a few scratches on the base plate, so it has been used, but not much. So what have I got?
The 12xp was a later model of the venerable but basic Zenit SLR. It was made between 1983 and 1994. Mine has serial number starting 88, so it was probably made in 1988. The xp model was for export, so it comes with decadent extras like a hot shoe and a ‘normal’ shutter speed dial, unlike the older models that had a lift-turn-drop dial. Some were made in Brazil, but this is a Russian one.
Previous model – the Zenit E shutter speed dial. Around it is the flash sync control. To the right of it is the film rewind release button. The shutter button is in the middle of the film counter dial.
I also have a 1966 Zenit E, and it’s interesting to compare them to see how much the camera has changed. The tripod socket has moved – on the E it’s under the take-up spool and on the XP it’s under the lens mount. The lens mount block has become more square – on the E it has chamfered corners at the bottom. It may have had to change shape to allow them to fit an aperture-closing pusher-plate on the XP. The E has no pusher-plate so relies on the user to stop the lens down. The light meter dial is in the same place but has different functions. On the E it operates the match needle meter while on the XP it sets the ISO of the film (although it is marked as ASA/Gost). The XP gains a hot shoe for flash. The shutter release has also moved – on the E it is in the centre of the frame counter/ winder while on the XP it has shifted to take the place of the film-rewind release on the E. The rewind release on the XP is a collar around the release button, so the internal mechanism must be in the same place.
The Zenit 12xp shutter speed dial. To the right of it is the shutter release button. On thje left you can see the ISO dial for the meter.
The back of the camera now opens by the standard method of pulling-up the rewind crank rather than a separate release catch. It also has a crank – the E has a little spindle that you twist. The take-up spool has also changed to a plastic one with more slots. That’s good, as the one on the E is fiddly to get the film leader to catch.
The body of the camera also gained some strap lugs. The older E relies on its case to provide the strap.
The main improvement though is the shutter speed dial. The dial on the E rotates as you wind the camera, and again as you fire it. The dial on the XP is like most other cameras: it’s a rotating drum that does not spin when the shutter moves. The difference in use is the you have to be careful with the older shutter to always wind-on before changing the shutter speed. With the new type dial you can change the speed at any time. The newer speed dial has also done away with the older one’s choice of X or M synchronisation for flash. Who uses flashbulbs these days?
The other improvement, and it’s even more exciting (true for small values of thrill), is the focusing screen. Not only is the mirror bigger, but the screen has a microprism dot in the middle. I may actually be able to focus this beast in something less than blazing sunlight.
So in 22 years the white heat of technological change brought you a slightly improved old camera. Just to compare, Pentax had stopped making the MX four years before this Zenit 12xp was built.
So what is it like to use? I was very rude about the handling of the Zenit E but perhaps the brighter and better viewfinder, the meter and the better speed dial will make a silk purse out of that sow’s ear?
Well, the first thing is that there is no lock on the shutter. So either be careful or only wind-on just before you shoot. It also looks as though the meter is over-reading by about two stops. The older Zenits that had a meter window on the top plate sometimes had an adjuster, just behind a screw on the front of the camera. This 12xp has a screw in the same position, so it’s worth a try. (pause) And yes, it works – you can adjust the meter.
Zenit 12xp meter adjustment is under the screw on the right, between the ISO dial and the strap lug.
The meter contacts are a bit iffy though, as the meter sometimes doesn’t switch on when the shutter is half-pressed. It may be lack of use, as a slap on the side of the camera gets it working again. You could call that character.
The other sign of character is that you definitely know when the picture is taken. There are noises of metal slapping when you press the button, as all the moving parts that come with an SLR do their thing.
I mentioned the lack of a shutter lock. The other thing I found is that if you carry the Zenit around in a bag, it’s possible for something to press on the shutter button and drain the meter battery. So perhaps treat yours better than I do, if you have one. Oh, and the same mishandling can change the frame counter, so get one that comes with a case or carry it on a strap.
The good news is that the first film through it has a set of evenly-spaced and evenly-exposed frames. So it passes the basic does it worktest.
The larger mirror and better focusing screen compared to the E are a big improvement. It’s not a Pentax, but it’s not a Konstruktor either. So, on the whole, it’s ok. It will shoot any M42 lens and the meter is nice to have. Would I spend more than a tenner on one? No. Anyway, don’t the kool kids buy them just to get the lens? In which case it was a bargain.
What we should be doing is recording the make, model and serial number of all our photographic equipment. If something is ever lost or stolen, we will need that record. But it’s a pain in the arse. I really don’t want to sit and type the serial numbers and descriptions of every widget and doohicky. Besides, it may not be me who uses the information. I may know that my 16-45 lens is actually a super-go-faster turbo f4 Asph, but I don’t want anyone to quibble that what I recorded is not what it says on the lens. The serial number itself should be unique and unequivocal.
Then I was struck by a flash of the blindingly obvious: take pictures.
I can rattle through a load of old kit quite quickly if I photograph each item and then its serial number. It also provides an immediate and easily used visual description and shows where the serial number is, which may not be obvious. I could tell you that I’ve got a Fed but you may think it’s a hat until you see the picture. Besides, I’m lazy and this is a quick and simple method.
The serial number is inside the camera
So there you are. I may have discovered something that you have all been doing for years, or I may have started a trend. And it’s something to do over Christmas.
If you want to see things differently, you have to look differently. Looking differently is hard though, so any help is good. May I recommend to you the best inspiration and guide I know? Alan Fletcher, who was a creative and prolific graphic designer, spent 18 years compiling a collection of curios, prompts and resources about creativity and design. His book, The Art of Looking Sideways, is a delight.
It’s not my brother*
Photography doesn’t stand alone – it has links to every visual art. If, as a photographer, you only look at photographs, you will be missing a world of links and influences. So it makes sense to look at other visual art. Painting and drawing are good and very relevant to the concerns we have for AI-generated pictures. Artists have always created pictures of things that don’t exist. It’s only photographers who got caught on the hook of “the camera never lies”. So here’s a treat – a whole great big book full of ideas of how things could look and how to look at things.
This is what you get – 533 pages on these themes:
The book is chunky – more than 2kg in weight – so you may not slip it into a pocket to browse in spare moments. I find though that I start reading at a random page and fall off the world for a while. Recommended. And there’s time to get one for Christmas.
Fup Duck Photography 