ADVENTURES IN FILM: VOL 1

CAMERA 1: The Gateway Drug

Holga-120Pan - 120 Panoramic Camera

Gateway Drug for sure. ‘Hey, ya’ll got any more of that Holga?’ Super cool pinhole type camera images on a 6 x 12 negative…what? I love panorama shots almost as much as I love morning coffee, two creamers two sugar please. Camera is 100% plastic, yes, even the lens. Check it out, you most likely will begin to feel the film-based junky itch.

My first outing with the Holga shot two rolls, 1 roll Portra 400 and 1 roll HP5. My overthinking took the printed specifications as ‘facts’ with a blind eye to the reality this thing is all plastic and engineered almost as fine as a dollar store flip-flop. The right flip-flop, not the left one, the right one always breaks first. Allegedly the camera has a f/8 or f/11 setting. So, knowing would be outdoors in the blazing relentless Arizona sunshine I used my Z7 to mock-up same specs. ISO 400 film, f/8 vs f/11 and Holga has a fixed shutter of 1/100. The Z7 on my patio during a blazing Arizona afternoon read 6 stops to balance exposure. So, my overclocked thought process I figured out how to strap couple ND filters onto Holga to balance exposure.

Well, that was stupid….roll of HP5 was barely exposed at all. And, brilliance in action over here….drove to a new location so put the lens cap back on the Holga—gahawd forbid get that high-end plastic lens scratched. Holgas use a plastic viewfinder to roughly frame up a shot, are not looking through the lens. So, for a full roll of 120 film I shot with the lens cap on. My friend Wendy would say, ‘Sugar, is a good thing you are pretty…’

CAMERA 2: The Old Man

Yashica Electro35 GSN

This camera belonged to a family friend. When he passed away the camera made its way along to me. This thing is kinda cool looking in that old-ass camera kind of way and has been sitting on shelf in my living room for 4 or 5 years. Yashica made about a zillion copies of this camera back in the 1960’s into the early 1970’s. It was among the first (almost) fully automatic or point and shoot cameras available to the masses. Is an Aperture priority Rangefinder camera.

‘A’ priority means the camera’s automation tells you if have too much or too little light for a given scene, you adjust the aperture ring, then it figures out the rest of the exposure. Rangefinders are a way of focusing prior to 'Through The Lens' SLR cameras, it uses a prism to align a point in the viewfinder to yield focus….and also a large amount of guesswork by the photographer.

This, ‘I dunno, looks about right I guess’ focusing system can be somewhat overridden by cranking the focus dial to 11 at the infinity mark and not getting very close at all to any particular subject. Is certainly an odd system for sure by today’s standards, kind of like the modern day use of a fax machine, but evidently it was the real deal back in the day. Finally decided to find a battery for the thing and loaded up a roll of 35mm HP5.

CAMERA 3: The 90’s Rock Star

Pentax 645N

After getting bit by the film bug and smelling that the sweet, sweet aroma of a freshly opened film canister I knew I had a problem on the horizon because once I commit to something, I’m Ride or Die for sure mos def to the max. Like an ex-smoker taking a first drag in years, what better way to feed an oncoming addiction than to overdose, right?

The hipster photographer peeps on YouTube can’t all be wrong, running around using up expired and hard to find old film stocks shooting abandoned places, neon signage, gas stations and basic random scenes from everyday life, could they? I wonder who was the first hipster vlogger to post an, ‘I shot this with film’ as the Genesis Seed first video? Kind of like that band Green River back in 90’s Seattle was one the first Grunge bands on SUB POP before the sound made it out of the PNW to rest of the world. Just waiting there under the surface ready to break on through.  

The cool thing about this camera is in the name, 645. Refers to the size of the negative which is 6 x 4.5 cm. What the eff is a centimeter? I dunno, about 0.39 inches but who is keeping track of the math. It's a Medium Format camera which means it is round about-ish almost 3x the size of a 35mm frame. So ya, that's cool as Fonzie waterski jumping sharks, Honey Bunny. It's an SLR from the late 90's so has all the bells and whistles would expect from a semi-pro camera of its day. Its days were numbered however, as the 'Digital Revolution' had already begun.

WELL...WHAT NOW?

The overall experience using these cameras over a couple of weekends was undoubtedly a fun time. Shooting photos without the instant reward of the digital image is both a bit frustrating as well as it makes you stop and think about what are doing because cannot take an infinite number of shots and pick through the pile for the best ones. Am I going to continue to shoot film? I dunno, am feeling partly cloudy on that question. Most likely, yes, however when it comes to film what became abundantly clear not only from the resulting images but the physical act of handling the cameras in creating these photos is the gear does in-fact matter.