70s – Foxes Den

Pancake/Cookie lens

It’s a colloquial term for a flat thin lens assembly that started to emerge from the 60s through to the 80’s, commonly seen in compact SLR cameras of the time. This then developed into a body cap lens, an extreme type of pancake lens that is designed to both protect the camera internals as a body cap normally would, yet still allow the user to take photos. These lenses are manual focus only and generally have no more than a couple of optical lens elements, no image correcting elements, a very-slow fixed aperture, an extremely thin focusing ring (if any at all), and a retractable lens element cover. Due to this compromise in design, body-cap lenses generally suffer from numerous image quality issues such as heavy vignetting and poor image sharpness.

Recently there has been a resurgence in this type of lens culminating in the one that seems extremely popular at this time, a cookie lens.

It’s not hard to see why it is named so, it looks like a big Oreo cookie, it even looks as if it has the cream between the two biscuit pieces. These current ones are sold as being recycled from old disposable cameras. Original pancake lenses can cost many hundreds of pounds, however these ones are classed as disposable, and are priced at around £30 to £40GBP, being sold by a company called Retropia. But hold it! Don’t waste your money on that one, as they can be purchased for at least half that price from Ali Express of Temu, just make sure you shop around. By looking at the reviews £30 can still be a bit of a hefty outlay for what is basically a cheapo lens out of a disposable camera set in a cookie shaped piece of plastic.

One guys in depth review of the “Cookie” lens

These lenses have risen in popularity, as the new mirror less cameras have become more accessible. This lens allows these cameras to be used as a straight forward point and shoot camera, no focussing or metering. achieving that retro disposable camera look, but in much more modern equipment. It’s a fun item and for an outlay of around £13GBP, which is what I paid for mine, it’s not too big an outlay to do some experimenting with, and if it turns out to be a load of old bilge, then it’s no real loss. Reviews are mixed, but in general it seems people are having fun, and that’s what photography should be.

I’m waiting for mine to arrive, and when it does I shall post some photos below to see how I’ve got on with it. Oh, and I now have a suitable camera to use with this lens and that can be found here Sony A7II Mirrorless camera.

It’s such a simple thing. It turns a complex camera into a quite basic point and shoot disposable, lomography type of camera. Perfect for street photography and just everyday randomness, yep kind of like you’d now find on your mobile phone. However this is more fun and you actually have a camera into your hand, Perfect.

The lens is 32mm, and the CCD in the camera is full 35mm so there is a kind of small vignette around the edges of each shot, but that just adds to the basic rawness of the lens. it’s a bit of fun.

Above are a small selection of some of the scenes around home, taken quite randomly and all I have done in the post process is added some vintage presets. The light has been so poor lately that to be honest this already added to the vintage effect. If we see any sun I suspect the results would be very similar to the hazy 70s effect that the disposables always managed to achieve. Don’t expect too much from these lenses, they are just fun to experiment with, and that’s just what photography should be. Fun.

Thanks for passing by. Always appreciated.

Olympus Trip 35

What the listing stated:

This lot is being sold for PARTS / REPAIRS, it is currently NOT in a working condition

Olympus Trip 35 w/ D. Zuiko 40mm F/2.8 Lens
& Original Lens Cap

EBay

I brought this item along with a Canon A1 as a job lot. The full detail of what was in the auction and how it progressed can be found here: Not the lottery, but for me – just as good

The page regarding the repair of the A1 can be found here: (Still in draft – coming soon)

Meanwhile here is a little history about the Olympus trip:

The Olympus Trip 35 is a 35mmcompact camera, manufactured by Olympus. It was introduced in 1967 and discontinued, after a lengthy production run, in 1984. The Trip name is a reference to its intended market—people who wanted a compact, functional camera for holidays. During the 1970s, it was the subject of an advertising campaign that featured popular British photographer David Bailey. Over ten million units were sold.

The Trip 35 was a point and shoot model with a 40 mm ƒ/2.8 lens, solar-powered selenium light meter, and just two shutter speeds. In ‘A’ mode, the camera operates as a Program automatic, choosing either 1/40 s or 1/200 s. The camera could also sync with flash, and has a range of aperture settings, from ƒ/2.8 to ƒ/22. In flash sync mode, the shutter is set at 1/40 s. Apart from a simple four-position zone focus system, and an ISO setting from 25 to 400,^[2]the camera has no other photographic controls. The camera has a Prontor-Compur sync connector and a hot shoe. Its lens was a coated Zuiko 40 mm ƒ/2.8, with four elements in three groups.

The camera has an ISO range of 25–400, as films faster than 400 were uncommon at the time and delivered reduced image quality. 25 speed allowed the use of Kodachrome, while 400 speed allowed use of Kodak Tri-X and similar fast materials under low light. Earlier models, from the first few years of production, have a maximum ISO speed of 200.

The use of a selenium photocell to select the shutter speeds and aperture let novices use the camera as a “point & shoot”. No batteries are needed to power the camera.

The lack of more than two shutter speeds was not a problem. At 1/200 s and ƒ/22 with 400-speed film, the camera could deliver correct exposure in full sunlight, while at 1/40 s and ƒ/2.8, correct exposure could be obtained under bright fluorescent light, without a flash.

Wikipedia

And who could ever forget the series of star studded television adverts, featuring the photographer David Bailey, put together to promote this camera.

David Bailey

I never really got to use one, I admired one from a distance instead. My brother in law, Jim had one around about the mid to late 70s and he took some fantastic snaps with it. I wasn’t into photography at that time as I was still more interested in LEGO and Tonka trucks. However he did let me try it a couple of times, it really was that easy to use.

I’m not really sure what the problem is with this one, as the listing was not really clear on its issues. I just really wish sellers would just take a few seconds to describe the problems, it really could be an instant decision for the buyer – is it repairable or not? I’ll just have to wait until it’s arrived, and then i can do an assessment of its condition.

Assessment:

Well, it’s arrived and cosmetically it looks fine. However, zoom in a tad and the issues become apparent. It’s been dropped at some time, the lens has a little bit of wobble and you can see the outer ring of the lens has an obvious dent in it.

It does wind so that’s a bonus. The exposure button works and it clicks as it should, and the old selenium exposure meter appears to be responding, the red flag appears in low light and thus the exposure button will not depress. This is good.

When you half press the exposure button you would expect to see the relevant shutter leaf aperture close down, to the corresponding f- stop reading, this occasionally happens. If you move the lens barrel slightly it does have an effect, but it looks as if there is also some contamination on one of the shutter leafs, all of this is probably as a result of that tumble that has occurred sometime in the past.

Obvious lens wobble

I will definitely have to remove the whole lens housing from the camera to see if I can do anything regarding that wobble. This is going to be quite some task, and I’m not confident I will succeed, but who knows.

Let’s attempt to get inside.

Repair:

To get into the lens there are three tiny screws on the inner turret bezel that have to be removed that sit around the edge of it. This then pulls out and the lens optics can then be unscrewed.

Here are then two more screws that allow you to remove the selenium light sensor. Below this are three brass screws that hold the body to the lens. One of these screws were loose, hence the wobbly lens, this must have occurred when it was dropped.

I’ve pretty much had a cleanup here, applied a tiny drop of camera grease to the ring mechanisms, and tightened all these screws, and now the turret is nice and tight. I’ve just given the shutter blades a wipe with a soft brush and that is all it really needs. I’ve reassessed the camera, and tested its operation and it’s all good, working just as expected.

Result:

The dent in the ring remains as it’s causing no issues and is a subtle reminder of its past. The lens issue and its movement has been repaired and this in turn has cured the issue with the sticky aperture blades.

I haven’t touched the inner workings in the top of the camera such as the light metering, as it’s working fine and what’s the point in fixing what’s not damaged?

I’ve still to run a film through it, and this will be done shortly as I have quite a backlog of film cameras to be tested. As soon as I have photos available I will link through this posting.

Really pleased with how this has gone, a nice easy fix but I can’t believe just how small those screws are around the lens bezel. I need my eyes testing that’s for sure.

Thanks for passing by, as always it’s very much appreciated.

Chewing gum wrapped heart

What was the most outrageous lie you believed as a child?

I remember one lie that was told to me around the early to mid 70’s by my parents, of all people. And I don’t believe that they were the only ones, as it seems my gang of friends around that time had also been told the same. With no internet on the horizon for at least the next 15 years at the earliest, I can only assume that our parents had some kind of “Parents jungle network” that they used, to actively spread such untruths.

That lie was, “If you swallow chewing gum it gets wrapped around your heart and can kill you”. Blimey. As an easily influenced 6-10 year old this would have been shocking information to receive from our parents who always talk nothing but the truth! Honestly they do!

I guess they didn’t approve of chewing gum.

It worked though, I never swallowed it, and that’s probably why in the late 70s and early 80s there was so much of an issue with discarded chewing gum on British streets during that period.

It was our parents fault 😂

To be honest it probably was not until we started doing biology in our senior school years that we uncovered the fake information our parents had given us, and when questioned about it, there was always the denial, “I didn’t say that, stop your lying.” You’d never win that argument.

Apparently it passes through the digestive tract as per normal as the body can’t digest it. However swallowing large amounts could potentially cause blockages but that would have to be some serious amount of gum.

Could be worse though, this was what one curious five year old was told by his mum. Courtesy of the Guardian newspaper:

According to my mum, when I was younger, you blow a bubble out of your bum. Why that was supposed to deter a curious 5 year old is beyond me.

Gareth, Graham UK

Enough said. Parents of the 70s – you have been rumbled.

I still never swallow it though 😂

Have a super day.

Thoughts 27/5/24

Do you remember life before the internet?

Do I remember life before the Internet?

Oh yes I remember it very well. I came from a generation that was around just before computer technology started to appear. When I was at school I was probably in my fifth year as a senior at around the age of 16 and it was only just then, that computer technology was starting to appear on the school curriculum, as I was preparing to leave education.

When I left school and started my first job I remember my first months wages were spent purchasing a Sinclair ZX 81 microcomputer, wow this was amazing. I was a bit confused at first though because I opened the box and I plugged it in and I just expected it to work, it was a bit of a shock that you actually had to learn how to program the device before you got anything out of it, however I soon mastered the programming of the basic computer language and I was soon able to program some good little games. Next I moved onto the Commodore 20 a lovely little computer but all my friends were buying the better quality Commodore 64. From the Vic 20 I went down the route of trying the Amstrad Computers, i think it was called the 364 or 464 depending on whether you had Green screen or a colour VDU.

To be honest i still look today at buying an old Sinclair ZX 81 or spectrum, little collectors pieces now but I did enjoy it before the Internet kicked in.

I was just a standard youngster of the day who would go out with his friends and be playing football, cricket, marbles or conkers dependent on what season it was. We used to have great life climbing trees, making bows and arrows, catapults you name it. I feel sorry for the kids nowadays because they don’t have that freedom.

I went out for a meal with my wife a few weeks ago and there was a family of five, mum dad and three kids and I should imagine the kids were only About 12 years old ranging down to a youngster that was probably two years old sitting in a high chair. Every single one of them was on a computer device of some kind or a mobile phone or iPad and I just said to my wife at that point,”look at that, the art of conversation has totally disappeared”. There’s an entire family sitting there and not one of them was speaking to each other. They were all too engrossed in what was going on in other peoples worlds, rather than discussing their own families funny moments, concerns, or achievements.

Yes I do miss the time pre Internet. I think everyone was a better conversationalist back then, to say something to someone you had to walk around to their house, knock on the door, see if they were in and then tell them what you wanted to say face to face.

That dosen’t happen now, we have now produced a generation of people who just don’t do conflict unless they are hidden behind a screen and a keyboard, and that is where I believe most of the anger and hatred spouts from nowadays.

There’s no going back and I’m not saying we should, there was a lot of bad back in those days that is probably the reason children especially, don’t enjoy the freedoms today that we had back then.

So it’s horses for courses, we must move forward with the times, yes we probably had wonderful childhoods but we must not get stuck in the past and genuinely have to evolve, however much we dislike it.

I remember my parents fretting about the future back in the 70s, we are just clones of them and the never ending circle of life just trundles on.

Peace to you all.

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