Cosmorex Se Owners Manual

							
•S
hoot from higher or lower angles. 
Taking

pictures of small children? Get down to their

level 
- 
literally. Kneel down, so that your 
camera
is at eye-level with the child (instead 
of aiming
down). The result, again, will be 
a much more
interesting, natural-looking 
photograph. Taking
pictures of a group of 
people? See if there are
stairs nearby, so 
you can shoot from a higher
angle. Each 
person in the group will be more
visible 
than if you shot them at eye-level.



Try to get people in your pictures. A

photograph of a winding country road is 
good;
a photograph of a boy walking down a winding

country road may very well be 
great. In all
kinds of outdoor photography, 
people add life
and impact to your 
pictures. (If nobodys
around, use your 
cameras self-timer to trip
the shutter while 
you become the subject.)
*Every time you raise your camera to your 
eye,
you have the potential of creating a 
genuinely
great photograph. Subjects? The 
worlds full of
them.

The rest is up to you... 
						

							
CHOOSING AND USING

INTERCHANGEABLE LENSES

A major advantage of Cosmorex single-lens

reflex photography is your ability to use literally

hundreds of wide-angle, telephoto, and zoom

lenses. Any lens in the popular "Universal

Thread Mount" shared by 
Cosmorex and other
35mm SLR 
cameras with similar mounts may be
used. 
You can choose from lenses made both by

camera manufacturers, and by respected

independent lensmakers such as Tamron.

Which interchangeable lens should be your

first choice? It depends 
...

Wide-Angle Lenses, as their name implies, 
take
in a broader field of view than your 
standard
58mm lens. This makes them ex
cellent
choices for landscapes, interiors, 
architectural
photography 
- 
any situation 
where a greater-
than-normal area needs to 
be recorded with yo
ur camera.



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W
ide-angles are available in focal lengths 
from
16mm to 35mm. The shorter the 
"focal length",
the wider the area covered. Most photographers

find 28mm or 35mm 
wide-angle lenses the most
useful types; 
theyre relatively inexpensive, usually
faster, 
and less prone to distortion than 24mm or

shorter wide-angles.


I
f
 
you do a great deal of flash photography, 
a
35mm lens is probably your best choice. Most

electronic flash units are designed to 
light the
area covered by a 35mm lens. Thus, 
flash pictures
taken with 28mm or shorter 
focal-length lenses
may not show enough light at the edges of the

picture. 
						

							
•With wide-angle lenses, you benefit from an

expanded "depth-of-field" range. (This means

that more objects in front of, and in back of,

the subject will appear sharp in 
the final
photograph.) Since more objects

are 
in focus at a given distance, focusing may be 
more
difficult than with standard or telephoto lenses, and

the microprism "spot" in 
your Cosmorex viewfinder
may not disappear 
entirely. This does 
not 
indicate
any defect in 
your camera or lens! Focusing with
wide
angle lenses is often easier if you first set the

lens to the minimum focusing distance, then 
raise
the camera to your eye and turn the 
focusing ring as
quickly as possible until the

image appears sharpest. (if you start with the 
lens
at or close to the correct focusing dis
tance, or
hold the camera to your eye for a long period, it

will probably be more difficult 
to distinguish the
point of sharpest focus.)


W
hen using wide-angles, you may note an ap-

parent darkening of the edges of the view
finder.
This effect takes place due to the 
different light
path of such lenses and has 
no effect on your
final print or slide. 
						

							
Telephoto Lenses 
make distant objects appear

closer, just like a telescope. In addition, they 
"
compress" space and give more pleasing

perspective to pictures of people. A telephoto 
lens
is ideal for subjects which are impossible, 
or
inconvenient, to approach closely: sports, wildlife,

distant objects of all kinds 
... and 
people!

Why people? Well, you can get close enough with

your standard or wide-angle lens to get a large-

enough image on the film 
- 
but youll 
find that
expressions are more natural, more 
relaxed, when
you and your camera are further away. (This is

particularly true when taking 
pictures of children.)
When youre shooting 
portraits with a telephoto lens,
youre further 
away 
- 
and your subject is either more
re
laxed, or totally unaware that youre taking

pictures of him or her. Youll get some beauti
fully-
natural expressions, as well as a more pleasing

perspective than standard or wide
angle lenses can
give.

*Telephoto lenses are available in focal lengths 
from
85mm (1.5x magnification compared to 
standard
lens) to about 1000mm. Most photo
graphers find
135mm lenses most useful, with 
perhaps a 200mm
or 300mm lens in addition 
for extra-long-range
work. Lenses of longer 
focal length than 300mm
normally require a tripod for sharp photographs;

they magnify 
even the smallest camera movement
so great
ly that most photographers cannot hand-
hold 
them.



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•
When shooting with a telephoto lens, 
use the 
fastest
possible shutter speed. 
Remember that 
telephotos
magnify the image 
- 
and magnify 
any movement of
the camera (or subject) 
proportionately. As a
general guide try to use 
a minimum shutter speed
roughly equivalent 
to the focal length of your lens 
-

for example, 
1/125th second for a 135mm lens.


W
hen using "long" telephotos (200mm or 
greater
focal length), you may notice that the top edge of

the viewfinder appears to darken. 
This phenomenon
is caused by the fact that, 
with ultra-telephoto
lenses, some of the light 
rays pass 
under 
your
cameras reflex mirror, and thus are not reflected

into the viewfinder.

However,your
film
imageisnotaffectedas
all
lightraysreachthefilmplanewhenthe
picture
is taken.

*For telephoto shots in general, try to find ways

of "bracing" yourself to hold your 
camera extra-
steady during exposure. If 
youre shooting over a
fence, you might rest 
both elbows on the top
post. Or, you could 
brace your body against a
wall during the exposure. Wherever you are, try

to find the 
position that gives your camera and
lens the 
best support. This slight additional
effort 
will pay off in sharper, clearer telephoto

pictures. 
						

							
Zoom and Variable 
Focal-Length Lenses 
let 
you
select the exact focal length required for 
each
picture. This is a tremendous benefit when

making color slides, where its incon
venient (or,
without special equipment, im
possible) to "crop"
or re-frame the finished 
photograph.

Zoom lenses can also be more economical: a single

85-210mm zoom lens will cost less than 
separate
85mm, 100mm, 135mm, and 200mm lenses, and

give you the added benefit of in
between focal
lengths as well. While a zoom 
is likely to be
somewhat heavier than any 
given "fixed" focal-
length lens within its 
range, it will be lighter 
-

much lighter 
- 
than three or four separate lenses.


M
ost zoom lenses for your Cosmorex range 
from
moderate telephoto (around 70mm 
- 
85mm) to
ultra-telephoto (210mm 
- 
250mm). 
Wide-angle to
telephoto zoom lenses (such as the Tamron 38-

100mm lens) are also available.

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W
hen using any zoom, if possible focus at the

longest focal length; 
then zoom to the desired 
image
size and shoot. At 210mm, focusing 
will be more
accurate than is optically possi
ble at 85mm: at the
longest focal length, magnification is greatest and

depth-of-field 
is narrowest 
- thus, critical focusing is

easiest. 
						

							
For greatest convenience and handling speed,

automatic lenses 
are recommended. These operate

like your cameras standard lens: the lens remains

at its widest opening (for bright
est viewing and
focusing) until the moment of exposure, when it

closes down automati
cally to the selected
opening. Immediately 
after the exposure, the lens
re-opens to maxi
mum aperture so you can
compose your next shot.

DETERMINING EXPOSURE

WITH ACCESSORY LENSES

For correct exposure with your wide-angle,

telephoto, or zoom lenses, just follow the 
same
simple procedure used with your standard lens:

take a reading of your subject and 
set your lens
to the aperture indicated by your cameras built-

in meter. 
						

							
TAKING CLOSE-UP PICTURES

One of the most exciting areas of single-lens 
reflex
photography is "close-up" picture
taking. With
your Cosmorex camera, its easy 
to take excellent
pictures of stamps, flowers, coins, and other

small objects. You can even 
"copy" paintings or
photographs, or make 
duplicate slides from your
original trans
parencies.

Manyclose-uppicturescanbetakenwithout
any
accessoriesatall.Turnyourfocusingring(13)to

theclosestdistance(1.8feet).Now,
without
turningthefocusingring,moveyour
camera
towardsyoursubjectuntiltheimage
inthe
viewfinder is sharp 
... 
and youll find

you can fill the entire frame with an object

about 6/2"x10" in area. At this range, you 
can
take excellent pictures of photographs, flowers,

illustrations in books and magazines, important

records or documents 
- 
all sorts 
of things.

To take pictures of subjects smaller than 
6/2x10
inches, several accessories are available. 
These
include close-up lenses, extension 
tubes, and
bellows units. Sound complicated? 
Its not ...



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Using Close-Up Lenses. 
This is the least ex-

pensive and easiest way to shoot ultra-close
ups.
The close-up lenses are simply magnify
ing
lenses of high quality, mounted in metal 
rims
that screw into your lens like a filter. 
You just
move close to your subject, and use the Lens

Focusing Ring (13) to fine
tune focus. Many
dealers carry these in sets 
of three lenses of
varying power, called No. 
1, 2, and 3; the higher
the number, the 
stronger the magnifying power
and the 
closer you can move in.

Close-uplenseshaveseveraladvantages.They
dont
requireanyincreaseinexposure-
you
canshoot
at the lens opening indicated by

yourmeter.More,youcanscrewonecloseup

lensintoanother,orevenuseallthreeatthe

sametimetocoveranareaofabout
2x3"
-
one-half life size!

Extension tubes 
are tubes that go between 
your
camera body and lens, and let you 
shoot at
even closer range than close-up 
lenses. They
are normally sold in sets of 
three tubes of
varying length; you can use 
any single tube or
combination of tubes to 
achieve the
magnification that you want, 
then fine-tune
focus by using the focusing 
mount of your
lens. While not as conven
ient to use as screw-in
close-up lenses, they 
allow greater magnificatio
n: standard sets.

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of three tubes allow shooting an object as

small as 1x11/2 inches (life size).

Bellows Units 
are devices that also go be
tween
your camera body and lens and 
allow

continuous 
focusing down to close range.

Focusing is done by a knob on the 
bellows unit.
These attachments are excel
lent for taking
pictures of very small objects, 
ranging from
about 1%" x 2
3
4" to 
/2"x%" 
or even smaller,
depending on the bellows 
in use.


B
oth extension tubes and bellows units are

somewhat more specialized than close-up 
lenses.
Because they move the lens further 
from the film,
the light rays must travel 
further to reach the film

... 
and an increase 
in exposure is necessary,
varying according 
to the length of extension and
the focal 
length of the lens. This exposure increase

can be computed precisely from the charts 
and
tables supplied with bellows units and 
extension
tube sets, or with the aid of a 
KODAK MASTER
DATAGUIDE, available

from your dealer. (For critical work with

extension tubes or bellows units, a special

Technical Data Sheet is available on re
quest
from the manufacturer.)

HINTS FOR BETTER CLOSE-UPS

Whenever possible, shoot at small lens
openings (f/8, f/11, and f/16). The pic
turewill be sharper, and youll gain an 
extramargin of depth-of-field to help in 
suremaximum sharpness.

*Hold your camera steady when shooting.

Even a slight camera movement during

exposure can cause blur. If possible,

mount your camera on a tripod and use a

cable release (available from your dealer) 
to
trip the shutter.


W
henever possible, use contrasting backgrounds

for close-ups. 
Taking a close shot of a light-

colored seashell? It will look 
sharper when
photographed on a piece of 
black cloth, than on
a white paper or