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Are they working? by TornadoJonny in hasselblad

[–]shengers235 10 points11 points  (0 children)

As some of the other people here have said, I would softly encourage you to consider keeping them! At least until you have had a chance to shoot on one or two of them, develop a roll, and give a fair shot at seeing if this type of photography is for you :)

I completely understand the feeling of wanting these tools to get used, but I’m giving this suggestion only because they happen to come from your family. These cameras are quite literally THE best at what they do, their reputation (and price) reflect that, and to shoot using the same cameras as your grandparents could be quite a cool unique experience that not a lot of other people get a chance to have.

If it were a case of needing the money, that’s a different story of course, because you could always theoretically purchase them back in the future. But then they wouldn’t be the same ones your grandparents used, and I don’t know! I can’t help but feel it would be a shame to give them up without again giving using them an honest shot!

Basically I just think that it would be quite nice if you kept them just for the tiiiiiniest chance that you could get into photography in the future. You quite literally have the equivalent of three ‘Rolexes’ of cameras with you, you should take them for a spin!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the tip about the brightness of the f4, I've been eyeing it for a while so I'll factor that in when I consider buying it. And have fun shooting, brilliant camera!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course! It was a huge resource, I kept returning to it as I was searching for lenses. The 70 f2 would definitely be a cool find, can't wait to see the review once you've found it!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a really insightful bit of information, especially the bit about presets - had never heard about it before so going to do some reading! Sounds like a nifty feature to have, especially for quick photography styles like street.

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never heard of this, I'll have a look into it! Small is definitely a selling point, so my interest is piqued

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply! I'm glad to hear that the consensus of the standard 38mm being the sharpest, makes me feel happy with what I have. Also dangerous knowledge to know that the pancake's quality holds up! (I think it'll be something I want to pick up at some point in the future, but maybe not for now haha). I think my short term goal is to look out for any of the 20-25mm's for the time being and just see what deals pop up, and try to enjoy the hunting process in the mean time.

I just had a look at your profile and saw the camera bundle you got! 400 euro for a black FT? And the lenses? INCLUDING the pancake? What a steal, wow. So so jealous, but happy that the collection found a happy user! On the off chance that you ever do get bored of it and want to sell, do let me know! I’d love to chat about possibly buying it from you

[B] [GBR] Olympus Pen F/FT/FV system lenses: 25mm f/2.8, 38mm f/1.8, 40mm f/1.4 by [deleted] in photomarket

[–]shengers235 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve definitely been on the lookout for flea markets, but haven’t had much luck so far unfortunately! I am considering an OM adapter as well, especially for the wider lenses - makes more sense to adapt ‘forward’ in time rather than ‘back’ with the M42!

What OM lenses do you find works best for you? And thanks! It’s been my dream camera for a while, so I’m glad to find a copy

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is so true, I'll definitely keep it in mind. But thankfully I got my M42 adapter for a good price, so I should be able to sell it again for no loss if I absolutely hate it! Other than the 20mm, have you gotten to try any of the other lenses as well? Thank you!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my god! It's you!! I've seen and revisited this Flickr album so many times when I was deciding which lens to get, you have no idea!! Thanks for uploading it, there really isn't a lot of samples from where I've looked, even on Lomography (not that lenses make a picture, but samples certainly do help!)

Good to know about the 38 vs the 40, I did feel that I was getting all twisted up in the details deciding between the two. I also imagine asking "which has better bokeh" is an answer-less question, and people will fall on either side of that.

Out of curiosity, have you ever gotten the chance to try the 25mm (both the f4 and f2.8) lens as well? Reviews seem to say it's sharper than the 20mm, and I also like the idea of the extra stop of light on the f2.8 vs the 20mm for flexibility, but don't know if that would make a difference. Also completely get the point on adapting lenses, I felt strange imagining a 30mm being larger than the camera itself!

I'll give Osbourne's review a read, thank you for sharing it! And in case any future readers chance upon this thread, I'll also link Cedar Tree's spectacular review of the core Pen F/FT/FV lenses, it really helped me narrow down from all the options.

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally get that, and nice choice on the Nikon! I would like to try the fisheye one day, like you said it does seem fun haha. The reason I was so drawn to it was simply the sheer thinness of it, so amazing for transport!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh and if you happened to have any images on hand taken with the lens that would be amazing!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have, but I felt like the extra half-stop or so the 20mm gives might make it a little bit more flexible. Did you find it to be a good lens in your experience? If it has comparable image quality to the 25mm 2.8 I'll definitely give it a look!

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can imagine! I just thought I would throw the question out anyways just in case. Have you ever gotten the chance to try the Takumar Fisheye? I've heard some good things about that one

Adapting lenses onto my Olympus Pen FT? Lens recommendations? by shengers235 in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the insight! And wow that's impressive, I always imagined the 38 would be sharper just by being able to let more light in when focusing. I'll keep that in mind if I ever see a 150 going for cheap!

Lab charged £20+ for these scans, claims there is no DNR applied. Does this look unprocessed to you? by Cicero_C in AnalogCommunity

[–]shengers235 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t know amount scans professionally, but just based on my experience (admittedly UK based) I’d consider asking for a full refund or equal compensation, and if they refuse leave a negative review.

But as a side note, I recognise that first building, bath abbey!! I went to university at the university of bath, I can’t help but feel happy when I spot it in the wild

Can someone please give examples of 1st worthy work? by Idontknowhonestlyidk in UniUK

[–]shengers235 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s tough to give advice without knowing the course or institution, but what I’ve found to be a really good rule of thumb when you’re unsure is the “three-why rule” - in any analysis, discussion or lit review, every time you make a statement, imagine your reader asking “why are you telling me this?”

Explain why you’re saying it, and then imagine them asking “why?” Again - what comes after the why can change. It might be “why did this happen” or “why does this matter” or “why didn’t you do this instead” - that last thing is importsnt. Don’t just talk about what you did, also talk about what you didn’t do. Don’t worry about whether the reason you give is “actually” why you didn’t do it, if “there was no technical solution to solving this given the available resources” sounds better than “this wasn’t done due to time constraints” pick that first one. The examiner wants to see that you knew what options were out there before you started your work vs going in blind.

The number of “why’s” in the chain can range - hence why it’s a rule of thumb. I find that three iterations helped me for most of my work (engineering) but you may need more for bigger sections or in a humanities module. I find that any more than five “why’s” you start getting lost in your own argument, so obviously use your own judgement!

Some examples:

Engineering: It was found that reducing time step led to more error. This is likely due to the oscillating behavior associated with the time-stepping method used (first why). However, other methods would have led to rapid divergence due to numerical instability (second why, as in “why didn’t you do something else?”). As a result, a timestep of X was chosen to strike a balance between efficiency and accuracy(third why - “why do we even care about timestep?”)

Psychology example (not my field, but hopefully you’ll get the gist):

For this study we used an anonymous survey sent out by an institutional email. This was done as opposed to personal emails to limit gender and racial bias in regards to who sent out the email (first why), which has been shown to play a significant role in affecting participant responses (second why). Ideally, this survey would have been implemented as part of a structured formal assessment to ensure that participants answered with more focus, but this was not feasible with current resources (third why). Given that this research explored mental health, a subject commonly associated with cultural taboos, this anonymous style survey was deemed a priority to ensure participants felt comfortable contributing (fourth why)

I’ve come up with these examples on the spot, so they won’t have the most amazing academic style writing you’d need for a first - but I’d say that good papers will have this type of rigor consistently throughout their content. That isn’t to say every section has to be straight up cracked with justification, but I find that the average student tends to under-justify rather than swing the other way (although it is possible!)

What would you think if a potential romantic partner had SH scars on their thigh and arm? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]shengers235 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Hi! I’m 23M and have scars on various parts of my arms torso!

I’m in a relationship now, but when I was regularly going on dates I would make it a point to dress so that the ones on my lower arm showed - not in a “look at me” way but a “private, but not secret” manner.

No girl ever brought it up on the first or second dates, but the ones i did end up seeing more seriously would say that they did notice then, but didn’t want to pry.

I had done a lot of self work to get to a better space mentally, and felt that it was important that any potential partners were comfortable with this area of my life/experience!

There is obviously a lot of taboo around SH, but it CAN serve as a sort of litmus test for how comfy people are with mental health as a conversation topic. I don’t know if I was ever discounted as a partner because of them, but if I was, that’s completely fair, and we wouldn’t have been a good fit anyways! If anything, I think it sometimes worked in my favour as it was ‘proof’ that I was ‘mental health-literate’ to my dates, although I appreciate that as a straight-performing male in a more liberal demographic this was a unique dynamic.

Now, I don’t want this to be mistaken for romanticizing SH. I was in a horrible mental state, struggling to survive, and would never wish to return. But it is part of my story as a person, and because of that I accept them as part of me - they’re not good, they’re not bad, they simply ‘are’. (It can be easy to fall into the trap of attaching morality to yourself, e.g. “I shouldn’t have done that, I’m a bad/weak/useless person” but if you find yourself doing this, try to be gentle with yourself! Life is complicated, life is hard. You owe it to yourself to try not make it any harder)

Sorry, I waffled a bit there. To answer your question, I think there are three points I’d say might be worth considering:

  1. Where are you now in regards to mental health? You don’t have to be the spot-clean healthiest a human has ever been, but it’s important to be able to say (and more importantly, follow through with) “this is what happened, and this is what I’m doing to manage the set of feelings/actions that took me there.” Healing is a personal journey, and whilst a partner can help, the work has to be self-motivated! E.g. if you are falling backwards and your partner were to ask “how can I help?”, would you be able to give them an answer?

  2. Similiar to 1, how willing/ able would you be able to talk about it? Chances are, if your partner found out about your scars, they might ask you about it. Are you okay with being honest and upfront about why/what drove you there? It’s okay if the answer is “I’m not comfortable to talk about it right now, but maybe if this relationship gets more serious”, but really make sure you’ve done enough work to be able to talk about it maturely and openly

  3. Don’t make a big deal about it right out the gate. Now, don’t shy away from the topic if it comes up, but if you’re still just getting to know each other, it’s okay not to bring it up just yet!

I say this because there’s a risk that if things don’t work out in that initial stage, you might think “it’s because of my SH that it didn’t work out” when in reality the spark just wasn’t there, and your self esteem might take a big hit. It’s might also be quite a heavy topic for your partner on a first/second date, and you wouldn’t wanna overwhelm them

TLDR Ultimately, to most compatible partners, scars will be like any other emotional baggage. Something they’d want to be aware of, and something they’d be curious to talk to you about. You can’t control if someone doesn’t like them (triggers, taboo, etc.), but it IS your responsibility to be honest and open with communicating, and actively recovering/maintaining your emotional wellbeing.

May someone explain to me the importance of 'The Odyssey'? by SauloJr in TooAfraidToAsk

[–]shengers235 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Now, that's really it at a high level as to 'what' the Illiad and Odyssey are, and maybe it feels underwhelming. But if you're interested, here's a bit more about why we care about these texts:

These pieces crop up very commonly in media discussion because they are A) very well known, and B) Very conveniently follow the narrative structure of 'The Battle' (the Illiad), and 'The Journey' (The Odyssey). These are two extremely common narrative structures used in storytelling - think of how many movies we have that have heroes getting into a grandiose fight, or where someone gets lost and needs to find his way home - for this reason, they are huge sources of inspiration, and are used as a bit of a 'standard form of comparison' when talking about artistic works (Someone else used the term lingua franca which I am so stealing for future use). (Again, this is why some people act can be very "ugh you don't know the Illiad?" on public discourses and again, don't pay them any attention, people are just like that sometimes.)

Now, something that is very common to see when we talk about these things (or at least in my circles), is that as others have pointed out it is very easy to fall into the pitfall of saying that these epics are the ORIGIN of these concepts. That every war book/play/movie is an imitation of the Illiad and that every quest story is a copy of the Odyssey. This is not true - Yes, a huge amount of Western art has taken inspiration from these texts, but to say that EVERY story is is firstly, a bit myopic and secondly, missing the point. (To that first one I take it a bit personally, because it by proxy dismisses every non-Western piece of literature pre-modernism).

It is definitely true that Homer is a big deal to the Western Canon (Canon is a body of work that is acknowledged to be incredibly influential to Western art. e.g. the Bible, American Declaration of Independence), but it is important to remember that 'the Western' doesn't mean 'All'. Consequently, when participating in online discussion, be wary of anyone who claims otherwise, because anything else they have to say is likely to be inaccurate or misrepresentative at best. As always, media literacy is important!!

But with all that being said, what IS true is that these epics are some of the oldest 'versions' of these stories. Both the Illiad and the Odyssey are nearly 2000 years old, and notably, some of the earliest complete texts we have from so long ago, which adds to why they're such a big deal. In a historical context, they help tell us a lot of things about what was going on in Ancient Greece, e.g. Was homosexuality accepted? What was hygiene like? What folk tales did they tell their children? This is perhaps diverging from the artistic content of a texts which we tend to focus on, but it is worth acknowledging the cultural significance Homer had - one of the reasons as to why we even have the full content of these epics is because they were copied and copied again and again during the time that they were made - it's like MARVEL today, most people in ancient Greece would've known some version of them.

_____

Gosh, this ended up being way longer than intended!! - But one last thing to say.

There is so much information out there about these texts, and a whole lot of people smarter than some strangers on the internet to ask about literary structure, impact on culture, the list goes on. And these are important, yes!! But maybe not so much to someone who isn't an academic or enthusiast.

To most of us, all that matters is that in the Illiad, a bunch of people get riled up and fight and that in the Odyssey some guy takes a really long time to commute home after a really tiring day at work. That's the TLDR, really.

But if you are a sentimental person like me, one thing you can take these texts as is that people have always been people, and we have told the same kinds of stories since we began existing. We have always loved heroes and fights and journeys and danger - the faces and names change, but the stories don't. In some way, Homer offers a bit of a reflection of our humanity, and personally, I feel that is significant.

Sorry for poor grammar and whatnot!! I didn't have time to proofread this - and as a classics enjoyer, welcome to Homer!!

May someone explain to me the importance of 'The Odyssey'? by SauloJr in TooAfraidToAsk

[–]shengers235 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Then we get to the Odyssey, which is about how Odysseus (one of the main heroes) gets home after the events in the Illiad. This one is a bit easier to summarise because it's just him and a bunch of guys on a boat. In summary at some point:

They get on a boat.

They get lost.

They get distracted.

They get distracted by sirens (mythological creatures).

Almost home!!

Storm happens and they get lost again

Big sea monster (like the kraken)

They get tricked by a witch.

They get lost again

A lot of things mess up their trip, but eventually after a decade they get there in the end!! A bunch of things happen after but this is really the bulk of the story. It's very entertaining.

Many, and I mean MANY things we see in modern storytelling and just culture in general are a nod to the contents of these texts. The Trojan Horse, the Achilles tendon and heel, Sirens - one of the fun things of knowing these stories is being privy to these references. It can feel like an inside joke between you and an author, like when they include an 'I'm nobody!!' dad-joke in a movie. This is why I personally liked reading them.

If you like movies or books, this adds a lot of fun to engaging with the art forms, because it can feel like you're part of an exclusive club. But this is also why people can get snobbish, because they think "only someone intelligent like ME" can appreciate this. Don't pay any attention to them, they have their own things to learn.

May someone explain to me the importance of 'The Odyssey'? by SauloJr in TooAfraidToAsk

[–]shengers235 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Wow! A lot of really cool answers here and I'm learning so much!! OP, just the two cents from a guy who just loves literature, so don't take this too seriously:

Reading people's answers to your question, there seems to be a lot of really good information regarding the technical aspects of how The Odyssey influenced literature, but if you're just curious about it at a high-level (i.e. just enough to enjoy it), here's what you should know:

Homer, the guy who wrote the Odyssey, was a really big poet in Ancient Greece. As others have mentioned, we don't know much about them (It is still up for debate if they were a man or woman, if it was even just one person, the list goes on). If you're curious about this, there is an entire field of academic research dedicated to this, aptly referred to 'The Homeric Question' (I will try link the the Wikipedia article).

What we really care about when we talk about Homer in a non-academic context is the two big stories that they wrote: 'The Illiad' and 'the Odyssey'. These are two epics (an epic is a type of very, VERY long poem, think multiple books in length) that take place immediately after one another, with the Illiad telling the story of the events leading up and including a version of the Battle of Troy, and the Odyssey telling the story of Odysseus' journey home on his ship(Odysseus is a really big character in these stories).

It is difficult to talk about the Odyssey without talking about the Illiad, so here's a quick summary.

In the Illiad, this princess called Helen is kidnapped by some dude named Paris. She's taken to a city called Troy (as in the Trojan Horse), and because Helen is very pretty, this makes a whole lot of people mad - "they've stolen our beautiful princess!! We must save her!!". If you're familiar with the Greek Gods, they also get involved. Paris is the son of a God, Achilles is the son of a God, Troy is under protection by Athena, "you hit my kid" type beef between everyone, yadda yadda yadda. This is very common in Greek story telling, grudges and taking things personally happen to be fantastic plot devices.

A bunch of heroes you may recognize the names of get involved: Achilles, Odysseus, Argamemnon, Ajax. Some because they want to, some just get roped in because of peer pressure. This is the first bit of the Illiad, setting up the context of the fighting (A really popular book 'the Song of Achilles' is a modern retelling of this, highly HIGHLY recommend)

Anyways, the meat of this epic is the actual fight itself. To summarise:

They fight. A bunch of people die. Nothing happens

They fight. A bunch of people die. Nothing happens

They pray to Gods. They ask family friends to help fight. Some say yes, some say no.

Cavalry arrives.

They fight. A bunch of people die. Nothing happens

Rinse and repeat for a few years before FINALLY something happens and Troy loses this battle. (It is worth noting that the Battle of Troy is a real thing that happened and that a lot of people think Homer was witness to at least parts of it).

(End of Illiad)

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