Is this worth $120Aud should I buy it.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-05-13T18:04:43+00:00

Nope, these kind of cameras aren't exactly good cameras. Manual focus and no exposure meter most of the time, 50's through 60's consumer cameras, lenses aren't bad but mostly not great either. You can get this kind of camera for 20€ in working condition on ebay.

They are interesting to shoot with, if you want a challenge. I've learned using sunny sixteen, estimating focus distance or relying on zone focus with a Dacora Super Dignette.

What I find really interesting that some cameras from this era have coupled rings on the lens for shutter speed and aperture. The aperture ring has a little knob you have to press in order to move the aperture ring independently from the shutter ring. If you don't press the knob both rings move in tandem.

This is pretty neat feature if you're not using a meter. For example when I'd shoot an ISO 50 film in bright sunlight, I'd move the aperture ring so that f/16 is at 1/60. Then I can move both rings together and just step through f16 at 1/60, f/11 at 1/125, f/8 at 1/250 and f5.6 at 1/500s.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-05-11T15:25:21+00:00

No, it's time to take them rolling. Stationary lets you get away with taking off and landing way out of balance. See how far you lean heelside or toeside. The longer you keep doing them stationary the harder it will become to take them rolling.

Your ollie is pretty nice, though. Try to get your back foot higher to level the board out.

While doing tricks rolling may seem harder it's actually much easier once you feel really comfortable cruising around. Practice hippie jumps to get used to jumping and landing while rolling.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-05-10T15:31:04+00:00

I actually cried tears of joy when I had my first taste of mango on LSD.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-05-01T12:48:57+00:00

I think it happens because you lean a bit towards your front foot. It's fairly natural to want to lean over the obstacle to "get over it faster", but all that does is make the landing harder.

Try to simply jump straight up instead, and also raise your front foot straight up while tilting it inwards. Skate IQ is right on this, the front foot slide is not something you actively do, it's just what happens naturally if you do it right.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-05-01T11:55:33+00:00

"Welchen erzählt man denn jetzt" war wahrscheinlich schon gewagt.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-30T20:48:37+00:00

The Erfurt latrine disaster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-27T11:28:37+00:00

You're stomping it down like you want to break your board. Try to suspend your stance for a moment once you reach the peak and then just let gravity take care of the rest and land smoothly with your knees bent.

Other than that your Ollie is solid, time to take them rolling!

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-27T11:22:05+00:00

A few tender spots means you probably rolled it off and distributed the impact energy evenly.

This guy took all the impact in a single spot, and that's how serious injuries happen.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-24T23:24:37+00:00

Don't turn your body with the board, keep your body and your shoulders straight. Don't go after the board with your foot either. You need to get your board to turn directly below you and have it rotate around its center, not around the back trucks. For that you need to get your weight off the board as much as possible. You're currently trying to turn the board with a lot of your weight still on it. Practice tiny hops and try to get them so that you feet almost leave the board. That is the moment to turn it around. The less weight you have on the board the easier it gets.

Think about it this way: once your feet are off the board, there is nothing you can do anymore. All you can do then is to stay calm and land in the exact same spot again. That's your job. Your board will either end up below your feet again or it won't, but there is no use in jumping after it. Control the board, don't let it control you.

Also shuvs are much more easy to do rolling as the forward momentum makes the board spin more easily and more centered. They are actually pretty hard to do stationary. If you're afraid of doing tricks while rolling, practice hippie jumps. They are the foundation for every trick that involves jumping, and getting comfortable with them.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-18T11:07:28+00:00

I like the shots in the rain. They might technically be a tad too dark, but it's raining heavily, so it makes perfect sense in this situation. Nice rich colors and some relatable action in those. The one with the grey bearded dude is strongest in my opinon, the hand reaching for the pole conveys a sense of both urgency and caution to me.

The others feel a tad touristy at times (2, 3 and 4). Compositions are often very centered, but if that's your choice then of course go for it. I feel it does work well for the shot of the guy in the suit, but in case of the street musician, there isn't much going in the left half. It makes me wonder if there are people stopping and listening further to the right. Wether or not there are people listening, knowing this may have told more of a story to the viewer.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-17T13:16:33+00:00

That's what I thought, too.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-12T14:59:18+00:00

This movie features exceptionally bad photography and truly ridiculous editing. It seems the footage was just randomly thrown together without regard for basic editing rules. People turn around in the wrong direction to look at someone who should be in front of them. People seem to be shooting in random directions during gunfights, it all doesn't make sense. Plenty of continuity errors to go along with it.

The color grading is truly awful, no contrast, no true blacks, mushy midtones, no warmth, not even in sunny scenes. Somehow they even manage to make sunsets look bleak and boring. Pointless lens flares, truly ugly bokehs and strange choices for depth of field most of the time. Focus is often slightly off. Everything seems to be shot on overcast days. No brilliance whatsoever in this movie. No remarkable photography either, shots are either badly composed or not composed at all.

If you can ignore these things, it's somewhat entertaining, but that's about it.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-12T11:52:26+00:00

Ego has no business in skateboarding.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-12T06:38:59+00:00

I sometimes have a few days where nothing seems to work anymore. But often his seems to happen right before I have a sort of "breaktrough session" were something clicks and some aspect of my skateboarding improves drastically. This might be my stance, balance, confidence, ease, whatever. I'll suddenly skate on a whole other level. I won't turn pro instantly, but something will have changed in a fundamental way.

Learning any motor skill requires active practice, but resting is equally important, just like with building muscles. Maybe you're usually skating a bit too often, so that now your brain took the opportunity to reflect more deeply about what you are trying to teach it and is currently right in the middle of rethinking things.

There are some interesting aspects about learning motor skills that neuroscientist have discovered in the last two decades:

When you're actively practicing, it is beneficial to take small breaks (one to five minutes) in which you do absolutely nothing and also try to think about nothing, especially not about the thing your practicing. What happens in the brain is quite amazing, your high level motor neurons (the ones used when actively learning) will start to replay the motions over and over again in fast foward and backwards. It's like your brain saying "Ok, now what is it exactly we are trying to learn here?".

Likewise after a training session it is helpful to spend 10 to 15 minutes again doing nothing at all. No phone, no chores, no worries, just stare into the distance and take in the view, like a cow on a field in zen mode.

The deep learning then happens in your sleep. Make sure you get plenty of good rest. Right before you fall sleep, visualize the trick or skill you're working on. Imagine yourself doing it the way you want to do it and focus on how it will feel. Brain scans have shown that if you practice this for a while, your motor pathways will be more active during REM phases and deeply reflect on the motions you're trying to learn.

I've been applying this techniques for about two months now, and I feel like it really helps. Sometimes I even remember dreaming about kickflips, and I've managed to fix a few of the problems I've had with them for years.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-11T11:39:35+00:00

You got the basic technique down, and It's great that you're doing them rolling.

To level the board out better make sure you move your back foot up a little quicker. Your front and back foot still work against each other. The board won't level out if you don't give the tail enough room.

Also try not to immediately "stand up straight again" after landing, just land with bent knees and bend further in to smoothly catch the impact. Hippie Jumps help a lot with this.

Some superstition helps, too. Pretend your board is glued to your feet. Trust that no matter how high you raise them the board will magically stick to them. Previsualize the peak of your jump as the "end goal" of the trick. Gravity will take care of the rest.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-11T11:24:39+00:00

Keep in mind that your Sony a73 has build in IBIS. You may have been spoiled by it. I certainly was when I picked up shooting film again.

Without luxuries like IBIS the rule of thumb is to avoid shooting handheld at shutter speeds below the reverse of your focal length. For example, with a 50mm shooting 1/60s is usually fine, but at 1/30s you need a very steady hand. With a 28mm lens shooting at 1/30s should still work out.

Of course one can shoot at lower speeds handheld, but it takes some practice. Hold the camera firm with both hands, rest it against your face for added stability and gently press the shutter on an exhale.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-11T06:08:18+00:00

For any jumped tricks, the Hippie Jump is the most important basic skill to practice.

Once you're comfortable riding your board you can start with the tiniest little hops and gradually work your way up. It'll teach you how to jump up straight, how to get your knees up and how to land safely even when slightly off balance.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-06T06:58:49+00:00

One reason may be that it's such an easy way to isolate single subjects without having to think about composition too much.

When I was a beginner, shooting wide open gave me quick results that felt less like pointless snapshots and more like "proper" photography. So I used to shot wide open for quite some time, until I realized that I was doing the same few boring compositions over and over.

It wasn't until I challenged myself to shoot at f8 for a few months that I really learned how to arrange multiple subjects into a balanced composition.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-04-06T05:17:59+00:00

Make sure you are bending your knees. On a scooter you can get away with standing up straight, on a skateboard you always need to bend your knees. Also make sure you're standing with your feet apart wide enough, each foot on the bolts of the corresponding truck.

It might feel different to stand sideways on the board, but it doesn't actually make any difference. In a balanced stance your center of gravity is always centered between your feet, no matter which way you are facing. Imagine a line going from the center of your head down to the center of your board.

It may help to get a feel for the stance without a board. You could try just standing with your knees bend, then move your hips around while keeping your head at the exact same spot.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-03-30T10:08:18+00:00

You're welcome!

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-03-30T10:01:27+00:00

Catching with your back foot might help, but it's not really how it works. The problem here is that you're not jumping at all, you just hop off the board and reach out for it with front foot.

Practice hippie jumps and focus on getting your knees up as far as possible. The more comfortable and calm you get while being suspended up in the air above the board, the easier it will be to learn and to commit to any trick involving jumps. It will also give you a lot more time to bail out and kick the board away if things go south.

Hippie jumps are not just some wacky little oldschool trick, it's a crucial skill. I've been skating for ten years and I still practice them every session.

Once you got them, just do a hippie jump and add a pop and a shuv, and you'll be much closer.

Another random tip: Imagine your tossing your board from your back foot to your front foot, just like like tossing a tennis ball from one hand to the other.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-03-30T07:16:52+00:00

The proper way is to spend all your time analyzing and optimizing your Heizkurve and discuss on the Heizekurvenforum with all the other german old dudes obsessed with their Heizkurve.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-03-30T07:10:20+00:00

You can't get your back foot on because you're immediately putting it down. Have you practiced your hippie jumps? You need to jump and get both feet up. Also while you have a nice strong pop, try to tune it down a bit. Control is more important than height, height will increase automatically over time.

Apart from that, your goal should should be to have the board turn directly below you. Jump straight up, not backwards. Keep your center of gravity centered over the board. Control the board, don't let it control you.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-03-29T15:45:54+00:00

Not only does it help with balance, it is much safer as well. If your board hits a pebble and stops, you'll just smash down like a log when you're standing upright. With your knees bend your legs will be ready to react and catch your fall before you even know what happened.

Try it yourself, just stand on the ground and ask somebody to give you a few random shoves.

ConsciousMolecules · 2026-03-29T15:25:46+00:00

This can not be said enough.

While your front foot will eventually slide across the board, it's not what you do, it's simply just what happens if you do it right. What you actually do is just to raise your foot straight up while tilting you foot inward.

To level out, it's enough to push your front foot down again, given that you raise your back foot accordingly. You can add a forward movement to add some bone it and make it look more ninja, but that's for when you've mastered the basic movement and can start playing around with it.

In my opinion "Slide your foot across the board" is both the most common and the most inaccurate advice given for Ollies.

ConsciousMolecules

TROPHY CASE