FilmNeverDie Sora 200 (but destroyed by heat and x-rays), dev and scan by Jack's Lab, Bristol, UK.
https://version3point1.co.uk/2023/03/07/test-rolls-filmneverdie-sora-200-135/
#Photography #35mm #35mmFilm #FilmNeverDie #FNDSora200 #Sora200 #FilmPhotography #London #LondonLife #Londoner #TestRoll #CanonA1
Distracting myself from news and sad things: https://version3point1.co.uk/2023/02/22/test-rolls-fujifilm-fujicolor-superia-x-tra-400-expired-135/
Expired Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400 (which I didn't completely mess up this time around), dev and scan by Take It Easy Lab, Leeds, UK.
#Photography #35mm #35mmFilm #Fujicolor #Fujifilm #FilmPhotography #ExpiredFilm #Travel #TestRoll #CanonA1
Did I need another camera? No, nobody needs another camera. Did I want another cheap, light camera with an M42 mount? You bet I do. Since my last M42 purchase was somewhat imperfect I thought that was enough reason to give this one a go. This test roll was taken with my Helios-44M 58mm f/2 and the Auto Exaktar 35mm f/2.8 that came with the EXA 1c.
The seller let me choose between a Pentacon 50mm or the Auto Exaktar; while the Pentacon has a somewhat cultish following not unlike the Helios, I wanted a 35mm lens. You can tell from some of these photographs that the lens is decentered and about a quarter of the frame is out of focus on the far right. It's not that obvious when you are using it in portrait which, fortunately for me, is something I am doing a lot these days. Interestingly the lens is marked as made in Korea, something which I've never come across.
The shutter for the EXA cameras is located on the left front of the body and it takes a bit of getting used to, especially if your copy comes with the prism viewfinder like mine. I'm guessing that if you didn't have to stick your eye to the viewfinder it would actually make for quite a natural photo-taking process, so I went on eBay and bought a waist-level viewfinder (which is taking its own sweet time to come from Poland). I'm really looking forward to using the camera that way.
Compared to the Zenit ET and Mamiya/Sekor 500TL, the plastic body EXA 1c is delightfully lightweight and definitely works as my go-to when I want to use M42 lenses. I even made a few comparison shots for the three focal lengths (55mm, 35mm and 28mm) - that will be another post for another time.
Kodak VISION2 200T 5217 (expired), Ihagee EXA 1c
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #expiredfilm #ihageeexa1c #kodakvision2200t5217 #taipei #taiwan #testroll
Lomography Simple Use Film Camera.
Simple use instead of single use. Hey, I think I just got that as I typed in the post title. To be honest I forgot that this camera sort of deserves a customary test roll post as all cameras that come into my possession one way or another. I purchased it last winter along with a huge order of Lomography film on sale but never really found the right opportunity to take it out for a spin, especially after the emergency purchase of the YAMA MEMO M20 just three months later. They have almost the same specs and as far as I can tell, the output quality bears no discernible differences. These are a few photographs I took at a near empty night market in the late afternoon before businesses opened.
A couple of downsides to this camera: first off, it's ugly. It's the ugliest of all the reloadables in the market. I think it's slimmer than most but that doesn't make up for its ugliness. Second, the flash button is an actual button you have to push inwards to charge up the flash, of which you have no way to switch off other than taking out the battery. The other reloadables have a slider which turns the flash on and off as you wish and more importantly, opens up the aperture when you switch the flash on. I say important because even if you do not actually have a battery installed to power the flash, the aperture opens up just a tiny bit more than usual to allow more light in and you do need as much light as you can with these plastic cameras. The bottom line is, the Lomography Simple Use cannot do that.
When I was shopping for it I was quite excited about the flash filters. In the end I did not use the flash much at all because it was slow to charge and also because I cannot switch it off easily if I changed my mind. Currently it's reloaded with some Fomapan 200. I cut out the yellow flash filter and fixed it over the lens. I'm not sure what kind of difference it would make but I always wanted to try a yellow filter over black and white film and this seems like a fun way to do that.
Lomography Lomochrome Metropolis, Lomography Simple Use Film Camera
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #lomography #lomographylomochromemetropolis #lomographysimpleuse #taipei #taiwan #testroll
There is an abundance of information online on the Pen series that would serve little purpose being rehashed here. I'll skip right over the basic introduction to say: I love it. I already knew I would love it but I need to say it again: I love it. The W stands for Wide and it comes with the ever so slightly wider 25mm f/2.8 lens, which is equivalent to a full frame 35mm focal length. The lens on my Pen D3 is a 32mm and immediately I was struck by the difference it made when looking into both viewfinders. (On a side note, although the half frame viewfinder is technically tiny, both my Pens have very clear finders with bright, clean frame lines. Composition is quick and easy.)
Like I mentioned in my last post, the Pen W is now fetching collector's prices on the market due to its scarcity. I've never been able to part with the kind of money it asks for, no matter what shape the camera is in. My copy is not immaculate - it has significant patina and some bruises on the paint (I'll be sure to take photographs of it some other time). It also came with a shutter speed problem that cost a small amount of money to fix. The price I paid for this camera reflects these flaws. I brought it to my usual repair shop and the elderly gentleman owner said, "Oh, we have to give this camera a good taking care of." Even he was in awe of how not often one comes across a Pen W. All in all, I managed to spend less than two-thirds of the lowest price I could find on eBay. Not bad for a copy that comes with beautiful lens, the original ever-ready case and UV filter.
I've never really thought about the particular aspect of "saving" on film when it comes to half frame cameras. In my test roll post of the D3 I said that I was enamored with "the concept of diptych, the story-telling you can achieve placing two frames side by side, your vision created in two parts". It's still true but after having gone through the enormous price hikes of film over the past few years (another one coming from Kodak in 2022), I can appreciate simply having more film frames to make photos now. The quality of Zuiko lenses makes a half frame completely decent to look at after a good scan. I don't usually post individual half frames on this blog but I do on my Instagram account.
Kodak ColorPlus 200, Olympus Pen W
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #halfframe #kodakcolorplus200 #olympuspenw #shopfronts #taipei #taiwan #testroll
For a long time after my Zenit TTL stopped working, it was always at the back of my mind to pick up another Russian camera to use the beautifully quirky Helios-44M 58mm f/2 lens with. Meanwhile, I had the chance to buy a very cheap Mamiya/Sekor 500TL which is not Russian but could be paired with both the Helios and Mamiya/Sekor 28mm (which I had adapted to use on my Pentax K1000 but not really enjoying the combination).
While I shot through more than a handful of rolls on the 500TL using the Helios lens, I always found the results… too good. I was ridiculously pining for photographs that were flawed but dreamy - something distinctive that only a Russian combination made me feel. In my search for that, I picked the lightest and cheapest camera available to me on eBay which torturously took more than three months to arrive in the midst of pandemic shipping and did not work as perfectly as the seller had claimed.
Long story short, the mirror does not stay in position after one pulls on the advance lever. Almost all of my photographs on this test roll turned out out of focus. I tried to look for a fix online and found someone on Reddit with the same problem on the same camera. The simplest thing to do without trying to repair it myself or sending it to the shop is to always focus before advancing the lever, which apparently I did enough times on my test roll to have a few photographs turn out at all.
Fujicolor Reala 500D 8592 (expired), Zenit ET
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #asseeninanalleyway #expiredfilm #fujicolorreala500d8592 #taipei #taiwan #testroll #zenitet
The seller I bought the Revue 400 SE from had this camera in his shop and no one was bidding on it, so at 1.99 euros it went right into my shopping cart since shipping was flat rate. Mine was a cute gray and red combination which doesn't come up often on eBay. I say 'was' because it's now sold, I have too many similar cameras and there is a real need to cull. It's a neat little auto-focus, though, especially when flash is turned on. I don't do flash photography much at all and most of the time the distribution of the flash on these auto-everything cameras can be very uneven or too harsh but I did like the effect on this first and final roll.
Fujicolor C200 (expired), Vivitar PS:135
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #expiredfilm #fujicolorc200 #taipei #taiwan #testroll #vivitarps135
The seller I bought the Revue 400 SE from had this camera in his shop and no one was bidding on it, so at 1.99 euros it went right into my shopping cart since shipping was flat rate. Mine was a cute gray and red combination which doesn't come up often on eBay. I say 'was' because it's now sold, I have too many similar cameras and there is a real need to cull. It's a neat little auto-focus, though, especially when flash is turned on. I don't do flash photography much at all and most of the time the distribution of the flash on these auto-everything cameras can be very uneven or too harsh but I did like the effect on this first and final roll.
Fujicolor C200 (expired), Vivitar PS:135
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #expiredfilm #fujicolorc200 #taipei #taiwan #testroll #vivitarps135
The seller I bought the Revue 400 SE from had this camera in his shop and no one was bidding on it, so at 1.99 euros it went right into my shopping cart since shipping was flat rate. Mine was a cute gray and red combination which doesn't come up often on eBay. I say 'was' because it's now sold, I have too many similar cameras and there is a real need to cull. It's a neat little auto-focus, though, especially when flash is turned on. I don't do flash photography much at all and most of the time the distribution of the flash on these auto-everything cameras can be very uneven or too harsh but I did like the effect on this first and final roll.
Fujicolor C200 (expired), Vivitar PS:135
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #expiredfilm #fujicolorc200 #taipei #taiwan #testroll #vivitarps135
The electronic shutter on my Olympus XA4 got stuck at the end of the second night of our long weekend in Kaohsiung. I had contemplated bringing two cameras but ultimately decided against it; I really, really liked the convenience of the XA4 and wanted to concentrate on enjoying the camera. Fortunately a film camera shop had set up a stall at the handmade flea market that was part of the music festival we were attending. Unfortunately they were the kind of shop that sold old film cameras at, in my opinion, inflated prices so I opted for the second best thing: a reusable plastic camera at retail. It was better than having no camera.
The camera itself is super cute and the hand strap it comes with is such eye candy. At f/8, it also has a slightly wider aperture than most other toy cameras which makes the possibility of photographs turning out in low-light situations just that bit higher. The plastic lens is surprisingly sharp but only right in the middle, it gets very soft in the corners very quickly though I find that aesthetically appealing for what I'm using the camera for.
I never would have bought this camera under other circumstances so it'd be a lie to say I recommend it. In truth, the Superheadz Ultra Wide & Slim already does the same job, albeit a little less pretty and at a narrower aperture. However, I would not stop anyone from getting one. If you understand its limits and use it with reasonable expectations, one can certainly make good photographs with a plastic toy camera.
Lomography Lomochrome Purple, YAMA MEMO M20
#filmphotography #35mmfilm #analoguephotography #kaohsiung #livemusic #lomographylomochromepurple #taiwan #testroll #yamamemom20
Anne • アン
Katie shoots film (unofficial)
