Film Images

I love shooting film and I got a roll back from the lab today. One of the best things about shooting film is getting to use film cameras. I love how film cameras work, you have to think and pay attention because there is no instant gratification screen on the back of the camera. These frames came from a 1950s Kodak Signet 35 camera. I currently have a roll of 120 Tri-X in a Yashica 124G twin lens reflex camera. I also love shooting with my Hasselblad Xpan. The Xpan and the Kodak Signet are both rangefinder cameras and they are really cool to shoot with because everything always looks in focus and viewfinder never blacks out on RF cameras or on tlrs either for that matter. While we are on the subject of equipment, I read the other day of the Online Photographer that Leica has made their last film camera. Kinda sad to think that there will be no more new Leica film cameras. The company still makes digital rangefinder cameras, but the nostalgic part of me hates to see the film world slowly passing away. There have been several stories lately about Steve McCurry shooting the last roll of Kodachrome. Today I saw a cool story from the St.Louis Post Dispatch about one of their photographers shooting his last roll of Kodachrome 200 at the Missouri State Fair. The photo above is of Jalen sitting on our front porch in our hammock that Jenna and I brought back from Honduras.
This is Jackson in the same hammock from Honduras.
Walked out to take trash out the other morning and this beautiful yellow leaf was laying on the back door mat. I loved the contrast of the light colored leaf against the black mat.
As a photographer it is hard to pass up clouds. B&W is not always the best solution for sunsets but I liked how this turned out anyway.

Blackbird, Fly 35mm TLR Camera

The Blackbird Fly 35mm TLR is a Toy camera. The most popular Toy Camera is the Holga. Toy cameras are low tech cameras that are made to be fun and to make images but they are more about creativity than technical mastery. The camera has one shutter speed (1/125th) and 2 apertures ( F 7 and F 11) and a focus scale that you guess the distance of the focus. The idea is to use it to see and explore your vision not worry about all the details of the exposure. The Blackbird uses 35mm film. Most TLRs use 120 Roll Film. The Blackbird can shoot in three formats: 24X24mm, 24x36mm which is the regular full frame 35mm film size, and it also shoots in 36X36mm which actually shoots the image over the sprocket holes.

I think Twin Lens Reflex cameras are cool. They are called twin lens because the top lens is used for composing the image while the bottom lens actually takes the photo. The advantage is that the image never blacks out when you take the photo so you could see the flash fire and see if the subject blinked. I love the idea of shooting in the square format with B&W film.I really wish I had had the chance to do real work with a TLR. I came along in the 35mm slr world. I own a couple of TLRs. I have a Yashica 124G that I bought one year for my birthday for $100. I also have a Mamiya C330 with a 65mm, 80mm, and a 135mm lens. I did use this camera for shooting weddings for a few years. I quit when I started shooting digital cameras for weddings. I don't consider the wedding work as real work since I used a prism finder. The real classic TLR is the Rolleiflex. I have blogged before about the Rollei MiniDigi 5AF. I have always held a romantic notion about the square format. You never have to turn the camera which is a great bonus when shooting weddings with a flash. There are several 120 square format cameras but the best known is the Hasselblad. That was the camera when I was growing up. I borrowed one from a professor at school and shot with it but I never could afford to buy it, the TLRs were way cheaper. I always thought that the Mamiya 6 rangefinder would be a fun camera to shoot, kinda like a Leica on steroids. One of the great things about shooting medium format is that the bigger negatives give way better results when enlarging. I really enjoy shooting B&W in my TLRs, Tri X and Ilford Delta 3200 were both great films.

Other Blackbird Links

B&H Photo

Doobybrain.com

BOREALNZ PHOTO BLOG

www.superheadz.com

New Rolleiflex MiniDigi

Today during lunch I was flipping through the latest edition of Rangefinder Magazine and I saw this cool little camera. This is the second version to come out, the first version was really low resolution and had fixed focus. This new version has AF from 10cm to infinity, an interpolated resolution of 5MP and the ability to set your color balance. I wish B&W was an option on this camera. One of the cool factors is that it really shoots in the square format like real Twin Lens Reflex cameras do. I have a couple of different TLRs. I bought a YashicaMat 124G many years ago and then I bought Mamiya 330 to shoot weddings with. The Mamiya was a huge camera that would change lenses and it had bellows focusing so it could focus very closely. I also had a prism finder so the image of the viewfinder was shown correctly. When shooting with the waist level finder ( the one you look down into with both eyes) the image is reversed left to right. That is something I never got comfortable with because I never got to use it enough. I hardly ever use my TLRs anymore. I do love shooting B&W in them. You get 12 shots on 120 film or 24 shots on 220 film. The best known square format cameras are the Rolleiflex TLRs and Hasselblads. I Googled for Sq Format Shooting Techniques and found a couple of discussion boards. One post was by a guy who hated square format and thought it was difficult to frame anything meaningful in a square. Well that broke open the flood gates of the square format lovers. The best quote was from a guy who said "if you think square format composition is hard you should mask your camera viewfinder in a triangle shape and try to compose with that." I also shoot square format sometimes with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye that uses 620 film which is the same as 120 film just on a different spool.

Here is a link to photos from the New Rolleiflex MiniDigi.

Here is a link to the the Rolleiflex DigiMini on The Online Photographer blog.

Here is Popular Photography post about the MiniDigi.

Here is the blog for the New Rolleiflex Digimini.