Spaghettification

Coming: typewriter seen from my singularity, apparently.

Going: Imperial Good Companion 5. Kingston-upon-Hull, 1958

Olympia SF

Vorsprung durch Technik

This 1969 Olympia SF came from Oxford at the same time as the Good Companion 4. So, I was walking along the riverbank yesterday and spotted a 52mm Nikon lenscap - just there on the path. Nobody was around so I picked it up and took it home. It is always useful to have a spare.

I was packing the cap away with my old 'analogue' camera kit: a couple of outdated Nikon FMs and assorted lenses, and there were my old macro extension tubes and 50mm f1.8 Nikkor AIS, just sitting there, doing nothing. I clicked them together and fitted them to the DSLR and had a play under the glare of a 60watt Anglepoise.

For image quality, the 25 year-old lens knocks spots off the new kit zoom lenses I generally use - even though it was designed for full-frame 35mm and you have to set aperture and focus manually. Besides, in macro, you set the focus on infinity and shift the camera to and fro to get focus - exposure's just a matter of trial and error. It doesn't take long. Old meets new - I kept looking for the red exposure guide in the viewfinder. You just have to check the LCD monitor though. I reckon using old analogue lenses with a digital body is a very appealing way to take photos.

Doing this reminded me of a conversation I had a month or so back with someone who was praising the merit of 'fixies'. A modern pushbike with neither gears nor freewheel. You either get it or you don't. If you like the idea of fixies - you'll probably like this way of taking pictures for the same indefinable reasons.

Meanwhile, back to the subject. For all-round typing ability, small dimensions and beautiful results - this Olympia SF is the best ultraportable I have used. By miles. I'm not sure what the differences are between this, the angular SF and the Splendides. Until I took the macros, I thought the typeslugs were spotless but even dirty, the type is sharp, clear and effortless. German engineering perfection. Typecast coming soon.

PS: Anyone know why Olympias sometimes use the four domino dots for the margin release? 

PPS: I feel I should add that all these photos are unedited apart from some overall sharpening to compensate for any softening during processing, and re-sizing from 4288 pixels to 640 pixels.

Black stuff

For the past couple of weeks, this blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) has been feasting on the block of seed-enriched fat hanging from our mock currant. It has been taking turns, albeit grudgingly, with a robin. Every time I look out of the window, there he is, stocking his fat reserves for another chilly night. These members of the warbler family only turn up in winter time, to escape the worst extremes of Scandanavian winters. Most years we see females but this year just this male. Though yesterday a female turned up and then went again. The females look pretty much the same, except their caps are chestnut brown.

I managed to get this blurry picture of the blackcap from the garage where I was also trying to breathe new life into a dried out ribbon. I was using an elaboration of Bill M's technique. Being lazy, and assuming ribbon to be absorbent stuff, I laid out the whole spool and misted it with WD-40.


Rewinding the ribbon, I dragged it through a piece of old towel - pinching the ribbon as it wound on to the spool - so there weren't any bits that were too saturated. You need three hands for this really. And did it work? Well, yes. I wound the refreshed ribbon onto my  green Remington Noiseless Portable, types a few lines and it promptly decided to practically seize-up. Don't worry, it isn't the ribbon doing this. It just needs a drop of oil and maybe the shift spring adjusting - but I haven't got round to doing either, so you'll have to take my for it that it seems to work OK. I misted it by spraying upwards, so the droplets fell like drizzle on the ribbon.

Imperial Good Companion 4

Erratum: line 16 should read model 4 in the first instance.