Friday, August 31, 2018

Vintage Cars Through a Vintage Lens

"I'm not dead yet!" this blog, probably.

I have been AWOL for longer than I had recalled. Dang, the last post was from late 2016. Much has happened since then. Spawn the Younger has since graduated from high school after much success in Cross Country and distance Track events. She and her team broke every one of the girl's distance records at their high school in her last season. We went through the long and drawn out recruiting process (which will be blogged to help other distance runner parents) and tomorrow she is running her first collegiate meet with the NCAA DI UMKC Kangaroos.
Not a car. This is 3/4 a a Kansas State championship 4x800 team. The bouncy one is now a Kangaroo.
Yes, the last few years have been a blur. The blog needs to be brought back among the living since Facebook is a dumpster fire, Twitter is a burning dumpster sharknado, Instagram is getting spammed by Facebook, and G+ appears to have little to no engagement on photos posted there. Seriously, I get tons of engagement by posting decent photos on Google maps location reviews, but not on one of the last non-trolly social media destinations.

That's the long way around to the topic of the day. Several years ago, I made the switch to mirrorless camera bodies and fell in love with Fujifilm products. Mirrorless bodies like the Fuji X-T2 can be fitted with most lenses made in the last 70-years with relatively cheap adapters. The photos in this entry are out-of-camera using a 1960s era Olympus PEN F 20mm f3.5 lens.


The subjects were in seen at the Kansas City Great American Car Show, hosted on the Liberty Memorial grounds. There were a few garage queens, but for the most part it featured enthusiast grade and daily driver vehicles. Just super chill and pleasant.


Why use a vintage lens? Well, I'm lazy when it comes to post-processing. I do some PP with Snapseed, but beyond that I am bored with spending all my time behind a screen. I enjoy the natural rendering of a lens that delivers a period look on demand.


The Olympus PEN F/FT system was built to shoot on a 1/2 standard 35mm film frame. Conveniently, that's about the same size as a cropped, digital sensor. In theory, the Fuji X-T2 is using the lens as it was intended.


The system has some truly amazing glass, including the 40mm f1.4 that I often take on light travel excursions. The 20mm is kind of a mess. But it's a good mess with vignetting and out-of-focus areas one expects from a certain era. It's really soft under heavy clouds with a different character in hard daylight.


This car show is the second coming of the now defunct Art of the Car Conquers. Nothing lasts forever and that show took many volunteer hours to maintain. I hope to see that caliber of a show again, but enjoyed hanging out with people that drove their cars to this show.

Also not a car. Shhh... please don't hurt its feelings.

Which begs the question: could I become one of those guys that takes an interesting car to shows and drive-in nights? Maybe. But not until our adorable spawn are on their own and we have more room on the driveway. I recently came really close to buying a beautiful BMW E36 M3 sedan. I decided it would be a not-so-great daily commute vehicle and opted for a 2016 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid in the end. Luxury car depreciation is a minor miracle for used car buyers.


Vintage lenses are small, portable and fun. They take up a lot less space than a car. I am a car guy and love playing under a hood, but that kind of toy will have to wait. My hope is when I have the space and time that I can find the Datsun 280z of my dreams. I love pretty much everything about the 240z and 280z. They even have enough leg room for a six-foot tall guy. I can't say the same for old Fiats or the Mazda Miata.


This post is something of a beta test. Google profoundly screwed up their old photo catalog system when they dissolved the first iteration of G+. My Google Photos uploads are now working great in Blogger on a pure Android Pixel Book. I'll watch metrics on this compared to G+ posts. Likes and comments are free and appreciated by anyone in any social media space. I have to pick where to scream into the Internet void and appreciate the time you have spent on this humble blog.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Journey of the IKEA Shark

Around Christmas time, my Younger Spawn became enamored and obsessed with stuffed sharks from IKEA. For the record, they are cuddly and adorable!


As time went on, I realized the the lack of IKEA sharks would haunt her. Worse yet, she would haunt me. Holding a grudge is a genetic predisposition. The depth of obsession went to the point where she stated that winning Powerball would mean being able to acquire the IKEA sharks. As in all of the IKEA sharks, anywhere in the world.
Wants ALL of the freaking IKEA sharks. This is the look of madness.
 
Obsession - coupled with eternal grudging - is not a good combination. Besides, all she has to do is make bunny eyes at me and I am utterly defenseless. I am a weak parental unit.

I remedied the situation last weekend and adopted a shark to surprise her. This is the journey of the IKEA shark.

Checkout time.
Once liberated, the shark took care of a seafood craving.
And found an exit. Did you know IKEA sharks can read? 36 in language on the ACT, but not so good with math.
Sharks love conveyors. Just sayin'.
And technology. IKEA sharks love technology!
Goodbye, IKEA store!
The poor Costco shoppers just had no idea ;-)
Um, pizza guy? Or perhaps 'Land Shark'.
The fifteen-year-olds' face lit up like Christmas morning when she found the shark patiently stalking waiting in the back of the Volt. She'll have to find another excuse to make me miserable ;-)

IBM Electromatic Sighting

I had to share this beast seen in the wilds of an antique mall. Other than a stuck "z", it appears to work fine and badly needs a new power cord. It wheezes and chugs and smells vaguely of ozone with its open armature motor design. Unfortunately, I could not find a serial number to accurately date it.





The typeface is a simplified sans in all caps. It didn't appear to be a Ham mill. Such an interesting machine, but I have no space for it.




I keep seeing silly descriptions for old machines. They are all steampunk. I would be interested in seeing this with all of the sheet metal removed. Below is the closest thing I could find to a serial number. The motor was serviced in the 1950s. Again, such an interesting critter. Must resist...


Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Oliver 2 Project Machine

After a long absence, I am trying to get this blog moving along while burning vacation time on various projects around the house and spending time with my family. Perfection has been the enemy of content as of late. Imperfect photos from my phone might streamline things a bit.

Here is a find from a recent journey to a First Friday weekend warehouse antique mall. I was shocked to spot an early Oliver in the wild. I was even more surprised when it was priced reasonably enough to carry it two blocks to the car and bring it home  :-)







This machine is really grubby, but probably cleaner than I would be after sitting around for over a hundred years. It appears to be complete. There is a serial number somewhere under all that dirt and grime. Either way, Ted Munk's database shows an 1897-1901 production run for this model.

Time is a precious commodity and one I have been short of in a flurry of work, business travel, Senior year college visits, and various band, orchestra, theater, and cross country events. I'll keep it covered in a safe place until one of those PowerBall tickets comes up a winner  ;-)

What do Remingtons and Harleys have in common?

 Try finding a modern 1/4" x 24 pitch screw if you would like to know 🔩


This weird beast is from a foot on the Remington Noiseless. I bought a parts machine to get various bits I wanted.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

On the bench...

A Remington Noiseless, on its way to functionality. Vacation time is a good thing.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015