Why Film?

Why would you want to shoot film? Why when you can shoot thousands of photos would you want to limit yourself to a roll of film? Do they still make and develop film? Why would you want to wait to see your photos? Isn't it expensive to shoot film?

These and more are questions I and I am sure every other film shooter get asked on a regular basis. As far as why we shoot film, you will get many of the same answers....It slows me down! I like the look of film! I love the analog process! These and many more answers. 

But why do I shoot film? I could give any of these answers, and they would be part of the reason. But the main reason why I continue to shoot film is.....it has, in my mind, made me a better photographer! 

The fact that film makes you slow down has a big part in this but there are other factors of film photography that I feel have made me overall a better photographer. Shooting film has made me think about my photography in terms that digital photography did not. 

I had to learn more about exposure, how ISO affects your photography, how certain condition required certain ISO speed films. I had to learn about the "Exposure Triangle" (aperture, shutter and ISO) and how it affects the photograph in a way that I didn't have to worry about with digital cameras. I also had to learn about the "Sunny 16" rule and how it affects photography. I had to learn how to shoot in manual mode which is something I didn't do when using my digital cameras. I relied too much on the camera handling all the settings, but with my analog cameras I have had to do all the work myself. 

Shooting manual lenses has forced me to learn manual focus. I had tried using manual focus with my digital cameras but it was too easy easy to use auto focus, but shooting my film cameras, most of them have auto focus (but some do use zone focus) 

I also had to learn how to use a rangefinder with my Yashica Minister D, use zone focus with my Olympus Trip 35 and had to learn how to focus with a TLR with my Yashica A. All of these have added to make me think more about composition in a way I hadn't before. With the TLR and my Holga I had to start thinking of composition in terms of a 6X6 format which was new to me. Of of these have made me stop, slow down and consider my compositions in ways that digital never did. And thus I think has made me a better photographer.

But the main reason that continue to shoot film is that it inspires me to get out and shoot. New (to me) cameras, different film stocks, different formats ( is 35mm or medium format) all make me want to shoot more. 

And it is just FUN!

Kodak Gold 200 shot on an Olympus Trip 35

Ilford HP 5+ shot on a Yashica Minister D rangefinder.

Photography during a pandemic!

As the world struggles to cope with the "new normal" that is life during the Covid-19 pandemic that has the world in a headlock, my photography has changed. I am still shooting film, but since most labs were closed for months and are only now starting to reopen, I haven't been able to get anything developed. I could have mailed my film to one of the few labs still operating, but our postal system has been "swamped" with online purchases that I don't trust sending my film through the mail. So I also been shooting some digital, something I haven't done a lot of lately.

I would have been out to shoot some street photography, but that has mostly been on film. I shot the local Black Lives Matter rally/protest in Barrie, but I shot it on film using my Minolta X-700 (on Kodak Gold 200) and on my Yashica Minister D (on Ilford's HP+) and haven't gotten those rolls developed yet. I have a lot of things that I shot of film and those rolls need to be developed. I also shot a roll on a Bencini Korrel S medium format camera that I have had for a while but haven't shot with yet. I am hoping to get it developed soon.

One thing we have done lately has been go out for long drives in the countryside looking for things to photograph. We have looked for abandoned places and such to capture. I have also continued my project photographing the barn quilts that have become so popular with farmers of late.

                                                    Photographing Covid 19 isolations

                                            Photographing abandoned farms and houses

Photographing barn quilts

As it looks like the effects of Covid-19 are not going to ending anytime soon, the things we photograph and how we photograph will remain altered for the foreseeable future. I am hoping to be able to shoot some portraits soon. I have a roll of Kodak Portra 160 that I am die to shoot some portraits with. 

On a more interesting side (at least for me) is that I managed to buy a box of film camera gear at a really good price. In it was a Minolta X-700 (my second one), a Minolta SRT100 and five or six Minolta lenses. I am looking forward to putting them through their paces. I have already shot a roll of  Kodak Gold 200 film through my Minolta X-700 and the Minolta Rokkor-X 135mm f3.5 lens. But again that roll is in a bag with all the other rolls that are awaiting to be developed. I am really enjoying my Minolta gear. 

                                                         My Minolta gear collection

A year of film!

It has been approximately a little more than a year since I started shooting film again. I started with a Ricoh point and shoot, then my Minolta X-700 slr, then my Yashica A tlr and then my Yashica Minister D rangefinder. Since then I have added an Olympus Trip 35 compact camera, an Olympus Trip 50 AF point and shoot and a Holga toy camera to my shooters. I have picked up more film cameras but these are the ones that I actually ran film through.

To say that I was nervous to begin shooting film would be an understatement. The only film cameras I had shot up that point were the little 110mm cameras that took the 110 film cartridges. These were simple point and shoot that were not very good cameras. I jumped on the digital bandwagon early and went trough a series of little point and shoot cameras before moving up to more advanced bridge and DSLR cameras. It was very intimidating to start using a film SLR camera and even more so to try a TLR and a rangefinder. I was expecting to get nothing but crap from these cameras. I have been very surprised by the results that I have gotten.

Obviously as I got more comfortable with the cameras and film the better I feel the photos I have taken have gotten. All of these cameras have been either manual focus or zone focus (except the Trip 50 which is an automatic point and shoot) which took me a while to get used to, especially on the TLR. I find that working with manual focus for most of the year (I rarely shoot digital these days and automatic focus seems like a pain now) has made me a better photographer. And almost all of these cameras are manual settings or have the option of shooting of shooting in full manual mode. Shooting in manual has given me a more complete understanding of how photography works. Learning about the Sunny 16 Rule has helped a lot with understanding using manual settings. I also find I more "picky" and shoot a lot slower now, even when shooting digital. I have never been a spray and pray shooter, I am even more methodical and slower now.

I have really enjoyed shooting film, and have shot a lot of rolls over the last year and as I look back I can really see the progress I have made in my photography by shooting film.

                                                        Minolta X-700 slr first roll of film     
                                                     

                                                       Minolta X-700 slr after a few months

Yashica A TLR first roll of film

Yashica A TLR after about 9 months of shooting.

Yashica Minister D rangefinder first roll of film

Yashica Minister D rangefinder after about six months of shooting.

I definitely think that shooting film has made me a better photographer. It has made me slow down, think and compose my shots better. It has also made me more knowledgeable about using manual settings and focusing. I look forward to seeing where this will take me with my art.

More from the Yashica A TLR

I have had more rolls of film developed that I shot on my Yashica A twin lens reflex camera. I continue to get better shots on this camera. Developing an understanding of the Sunny 16 Rule has helped dramatically. Here are some of my latest shots I got from this camera. It is fun to shoot with and really makes you slow down and compose your shots. I am still working on getting the camera level when I shoot it. The "light leaks" on the right edge of some of the pictures were the result of a mess up by the lab, one roll of film they did had some processing issues but I liked the effect on some of the shots.

                                          All photos below are with Ilford's Delta 100 film.

First impressions: Olympus Trip 35 point and shoot camera!

I picked up an Olympus Trip 35 point and shoot camera a few months ago and have ran and developed two rolls of film (and have a couple more to get developed). So far I love this little camera! This is a cool little camera. 

The camera operates in "program" mode and features a selenium photocell around the lens.The selenium photocell does not allow the camera to operate if it doesn't read enough light. If there isn't enough light, the camera shows a red flag shows up in the viewfinder and the shutter will not fire thus saving film. The photocell also means that no batteries are needed to operate the camera. 

The camera has a fixed 40mm f2.8 lens and with two possible shutter speeds, 1/40th and 1/200th second which the camera controls. The camera has a flash sync mode, the camera has a hot shoe and a flash sync. port, where you can manually set the apertures from f2.8 to f22 on a ring at the back of the lens.and the camera sets the shutter speed at 1/40th of a second. The camera has an ISO range is 25 on the fast end which is good, but only goes to 400 on the high end. 

Focusing the camera is on a zone focus set up. There are icons on the top of the lens for four different focal lengths.They are Headshot (1m/3ft) Two person shot (1.5m/5ft), Group shot (3m/10ft) and Infinity for landscapes. The bottom of the lens features a distance scale to aid in focusing. The camera features a non coupled optical viewfinder (non TTL) that is clear and easy to compose your shots with. You need account for the fact that the viewfinder is off to the left side of the camera and not aligned with the lens but once you get used to that the camera is a joy to shoot. 

So far I have only tried Kodak Gold 200 film with this camera and I love the shots I have gotten. I want to try it out with black and white film, maybe Ilford HP5+. Here are some of the shots I gotten with this camera. 

I love this combination of the Olympus Trip 35 and Kodak Gold 200 film. This camera has become one of my main go too cameras. It is small, easy to use and takes amazing photos. It is a camera that goes into any camera bag I take with me. I may do a more intensive review of this camera later on, but I don't know how much more praise I can put on this camera! I had heard a lot about this camera before I had an opportunity to buy one, that is the reason I bought it, and I have not been disappointed! I highly recommend everyone buy one if they get the chance, if you are as lucky as I was you won't regret it. 

Holga 120n: First roll of film

I found a Holga 120n in Owen Sound's Value Village (I love that store, best thrift store I have even been too, so much better than Barrie's). I got it for $4.99. For those who don't know about the Holga it is a company that made cheap, plastic camera in various formats. Like all my reviews this isn't so much a technical review as it is a first impressions. I am going to give a some details about the camera but mostly it is about the shooting of the camera.

Holga's are made from all plastic, including the lens. As such no two Holga's are the same, no two give you the same results.The camera has a 60mm f8/f11 plastic meniscus lens and results are unpredictable. Some cameras give you crystal clear results but others often have distorted results. The cameras use zone focus and have a non ttl viewfinder so you never know if you are in focus or not. Because of all that it is not uncommon for fans to multiple copies, because each camera will give a different result. 

The 120n takes 120 medium format film. The camera is supposed to come with two inserts(called masks), one that gives you a 6x6 negative and one that gives a 6x4.5. The 6x6 gives you 12 exposures and the 6x4.5 would give you 16 exposures. The camera I bought only had the 6x6 mask, I can get myself the 6x4.5 mask through B&H camera store's website.

I shot a roll of Ilford Delta 100 black and white film through the camera. The results were interesting. Some of the photos are pretty clear while others were blurry. Each shot had a bit of vignetting around the edges of the shot, like a frame. It gives the shots a unique look. 

I am looking forward to shooting more rolls through this camera, different types of film and maybe even some colour film. It is one of those cameras that the anticipation of what the shots will look like, that make the camera so fun to shoot with. It is so basic, set the zone focal length and shoot. There is no aperture or shutter speed to set, no exposure compensation to worry about. Just get out and shoot and see what you get. It is not a camera that I would use often, or use for projects. But if I am looking for a fun camera to just get out and shoot some cool shots, maybe something a little artistic than this may be the camera I grab.