Old-School Photography

My black-and-white photo project continues, with only a dozen photos to go, and I've finally been able to incorporate the second element to the project: print film.

When I started this project, last January, I focused (no pun intended) on my old digital point-and-shoot camera and a 35mm film camera. I also supplemented photos with my smartphone and, on rare occasions, my D-SLR (I really didn't want to use my Nikon at all, but sometimes I took a photo with it that begged to be black and white, and there you go...).

For the 35mm shots, I used a friend's Ricoh 500 G rangefinder camera. It's completely manual: I have to set the aperture and shutter speed, and I have to focus according to two barely visible diamonds that line up. Depending on the light and the orientation of the camera, I couldn't see the diamonds so I'd use the distance markers on the lens.

I also had to set the film ASA, but forgot to. I was shooting Ilford C-41 400 ASA film, but the camera was set to 125 ASA, so all of my shots were underexposed by about a stop and a half. Luckily, I overexposed most of the photos I took by at least a stop because I wasn't sure if I should trust the meter, and it's always better to overexpose than to underexpose.

When I finished the roll of film and presented it for processing, I added a note to my order that some of the images might be slightly underexposed, and asked the technician to compensate.

I didn't expect much from the photos. When I first inspected and cleaned up the camera, I had to remove some corrosion from the battery compartment. I also noticed that the gasket for the film door, which was made out of spongy foam, seemed to have degraded over the years, and might let light in.

But when I picked up the printed photos, I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the images were well-exposed. Most (though not all) of the images were in focus, even crisp. Though many of the images were similar or identical to those I shot, at the same time, with my digital point-and-shoot camera, they seemed to display a character of their own.

I've already digitized the negatives and re-processed them with my digital photo-editing software. Last week, I shared the first image from my work. (Not the first image I shot.) For the rest of my photo project, I'll share those images.

I'm encouraged by this project. A couple of years, I ran some film through the first SLR I ever used, a Minolta SRT 101, but wasn't satisfied with the results. Perhaps I really will try one more time, but instead use my old Minolta X-700.

Who knows? Maybe 35mm film will make a comeback?