The Common Pencil

In my hometown, people love vintage cars. As soon as the frost leaves the road you can hear the low rumble of a proper car passing by. And yet, to get a 35 mm film roll developed, you need to travel for 2 hours before you stumble upon a shop that can do that for you. Can I change that? Would a small town with a love for vintage cars and Rock N’ Roll appreciate pictures that were made with technology from a similar time period? 

I will put those thoughts aside for now because today we have something far more important to discuss: the results of my Chinon’s very first developed film roll! I really am sorry that it took me nearly 6 months to sit down and write about this. I have since learned that it definitely is possible to spread yourself out too thinly.

Results!
Some of the pictures show a very thin blue-ish line near the edge. It only shows up on the physical copies that were made, not on the digital copies (you’ll get to see both down below). I wonder if this line was caused by my camera or by something in the development process. Apart from that little line, I am extremely happy with some of these results!

I tried to capture the Moon with my Expert 300mm f5.6 Multi C lens. Of course I knew that the result wouldn’t be super detailed, but I was curious to see what would come out. And I must say, it looks very Moon! I also tried for some bokeh effects with a string of fairy lights, experimented both indoors and outdoors at several locations, and mostly kept to the 35mm 2.8 Auto Chinon lens. I am very fond of prime lenses so this was absolutely no limitation for me. I like moving myself for that great shot! To the extend where I can end up in some odd positions sometimes. My favourite picture is that portrait at the end of the video. It fills me with pride that I was able to get the sharpness and light settings right in one shot.

Analog photography offers an escape from perfectionism. I know that I cannot keep up with all the new camera tech that is being pumped out right now and I also don’t know if I want to. The first thing I did when having my Canon R in hand was figuring out how to make the thing stop thinking for me. Isn’t figuring out the best settings for your light circumstances part of the fun? Focusing on capturing your desired vibe? I think it is.

Alright then, after waiting for a long, long time, here are the results!

I wouldn’t choose this Fujifilm roll for snowy outdoor pictures again, the colors just don’t look very pleasing to my eyes. I do wonder how the blues and oranges would work in a summer setting, when drinking mango juice at a sunny beach for example.

Currently I’m working my way through a Kodak Gold 200 film. I have picked up an Ilford Delta 3200 too, but I would like to find a more light sensitive lens to use with that film. If you have any tips on lenses, I’d love to hear them!

By the way, I tried a new battery for the light meter and the meter turns out to be broken. Sometimes it shoots all the way up when pressing the shutter button, but it never gives an accurate reading. I have been using the light meter app on my phone so far, but I’ve learned something new as well! Have you heard of the Sunny 16 rule? I came across it on the internet and am now going outside to see if this works on the rest of my Kodak roll. It is very Sunny 16 weather today and I cannot wait to try it out.

Thank you for reading!