20110831

my everlasting tirade against Facebook

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having being spoiled by Google+'s awesomely sized photo uploads, i find it hard to return to Facebook for photo sharing. a couple of days ago i attempted to share my first two rolls of photos from the Canon EOS 500 N on Facebook and to my surprise, Facebook's new photo viewer disappointed me immensely. i didn't like how my photos looked on the new and "revamped" viewer and my photos are still in a paltry 500-something pixel width size. uploading that set of photos seemed to do no justice to my eyes, hence i decided i was better off deleting the entire album off Facebook. i don't "glorify" my photos as being the greatest bunch of photos ever taken, but i feel like i'm not doing them justice by shrinking them to SD-sized proportions. i like 'em large and hogging your bandwidth.

for now, it's Google+ and my blog where my photos shall be found.

20110822

Canon EOS 500 N

after months of procrastinating, i finally decided to send the Canon EOS 500 N for a rear shutter replacement. having read about Cheah's camera repair shop in Hariry's blog and getting loads of recommendations from the good ol' interwebs (and also conveniently timed with my epiphany to fully go film for an experimental period of time), i made the pilgrimage to Kompleks Mutiara, Jalan Ipoh, KL.

the rear shutter replacement and camera servicing (CLAd included) merely cost me RM250 (though i am actually unaware of how much CLAds actually cost, i am, however, aware that plenty of Malaysian forumers have recommended the Cheah brother's shop, so i am going on a tangent and concluding that the rates are acceptable, if not, reasonable), and it took Andy (the guy who does the repairs and CLAds for film cameras) only four days to get my camera repaired.

Mr. Andy explained to me how he's received a lot of camera repair requests as of late. he even showed me his Nikon FM which had an original 50mm f/1.4 lens attached to it. i'd have to say his camera is a real work of art, and his humble job of repairing old film cameras is such a noble art that words cannot describe how i felt when he tells me that he has been in this camera servicing business for more than 25 years. it truly is sad that old film cameras like these are slowly phasing out, thanks to the over-bloated digital scene. but one cannot deny the re-emergence of film photography - evidenced by Mr. Andy's increasing camera repair requests. Mr. Andy then proceeds to show me a filing cabinet full of unsalvageable film cameras. seeing that graveyard of old vintage film cameras breaks my heart.

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for the time being i am arming the EOS 500 N with my trusty EF 35mm f/2. the good thing about these EF lenses is that they're backwards compatible with these film cameras. i'm currently waiting for my Helios 44-2 2/58 to arrive in my mailbox. if it fits well in the EOS 500 N, i might make it a permanent fixture on the EOS 500 N.