Quirky Cameras - Kodak Retina 1a 35mm film camera

 It's Quirky Camera time again. This time I talk about the Kodak Retina 1a 35mm film camera. This is a camera I purchased recently as a part of a job lot from ebay. I went hunting on the bay for a ground glass viewfinder for the Maximar I spoke about in February, you can go back and read that blog via the link below. I found what I was looking for in a bundle of vintage cameras from an ebay store I hadn't used before.

I did a little due diligence, liked what I saw and put in a bid. A few days later I had the highest bid and I became the owner of not just a ground glass viewfinder for my Maximar, it was a whole Maximar 207/3, a Ricohmatic 126 clockwork camera, an Ensign Midget 16mm camera and today's Quirky Camera, a Kodak Retina 1a.

When I got it I could see it had been looked after. It was in a leather ever ready case, looked reasonably clean and had a roll of colour film in it that I intend to develop in black and white chemicals. It looks like 1980's film by the design on the cartridge and I don't know if anyone has opened the back as the film hadn't been rewound. I carefully rewound the film before opening the camera and I wont be losing anything but my time developing it to find out if there's anything on it or it's a bust.

The Kodak Retina 1a was made between 1951 and 1954 in Germany by Kodak AG - Dr Nagel Werk. The manufacturing plant was founded by Dr August Nagel, one of the founders of Zeiss Ikon who made my Maximar. Dr Nagel left Zeiss Ikon in 1928 and formed his own company, the Nagel Camera Werk. Kodak liked what they saw coming from Dr Nagel's factory and bought it in 1931 to manufacture cameras for their European customers. You can read about August Nagel via the link below.

The Kodak Retina 1 was a basic 35mm viewfinder camera and the staple of the Nagel Camera Werk. It was in production up to WW2 when, for obvious reasons, production stopped. Their pre-war cameras had a reputation for being dependable and affordable for the photography enthusiast and sold well. Kodak AG returned the Retina to production in Germany as soon as possible after the cessation of the war. The Kodak Retina 1a, an upgrade to the Retina 1, was introduced in 1951 and remained in production until 1954 when the Retina 1b model was introduced.

The Kodak Retina 1a is the same basic 35mm viewfinder camera as its predecessor, but with added features and better materials that became available after the war. It is a small, pocket sized folding camera with a lens and shutter cover that springs open by pressing a button on the base of the camera. This reveals a Schneider-Kreuznach 50mm f/2.8 Retina-Xenar lens housed in a Compur Shutter attached to a short section of folding bellows. It is a very easy camera to operate. You find your composition using the view finder, but the viewfinder and lens are separate. What you see in the view finder is not coupled to the lens and shutter, you need to zone focus.

Zone focus is an easy concept once you get your head around the numbers and lines. On the lens/shutter housing is a focus ring with measurements shown in feet from 3.5 feet through to infinity. You estimate the distance to the subject you wish to photograph, lets say 10 feet and you set the distance scale to 10 on the focus ring so it lines up with the centre line on the apertures marked on the shutter housing.

At ten feet, if you select an aperture of f/16 using the setting arrow on the lower front of the lens/shutter, everything between 5 feet and infinity should be in focus. You can point and shoot all day long with this setting on bright sunny days. If you want to add some background blur, select an aperture of f/5.6 and everything from 8 to 15 feet will be in focus. Select the widest aperture of f/2.8 and everything between 9 and 12 feet will be in focus.  

Then you choose the shutter speed which is marked on the front of the lens/shutter. They range from 1 second to 1/500th of a second and B for hand timed long exposures. If you are a sunny 16 shooter like me, on bright sunny days 1/500th at f/16 is all you need. More experienced sunny 16 users can usually guess the right aperture and shutter speed based on the conditions of the day. Here in Wigan we tend to get 1/250th of a second at f/11 days when the sun decides to make an appearance. Overcast days are usually around 1/60th or 1/125th of a second at f/8. Wind the film on with the lever on top of the camera, recompose your shot and when you're happy with it press the shutter button.

It sounds complicated, but once you get used to it you can do it easily. Some people use a rangefinder accessory that slots into the shoe mount on top of the camera. I have a Watameter rangefinder that I used with my Agfa Isolette I. It makes life much easier when you have something to help with estimating distance. Folks with more modern tastes can get a digital rangefinder from your local hardware store for a reasonable price. Do whatever works for you, but I like the old way, no batteries required.

You can of course take the guesswork from finding your aperture and shutter speeds with a decent hand held light meter like my trusty Gossen Trisix or you can use a Light Meter app on your phone. I have Light Meter-Lite produced by WBPhoto that I got for free from the Google Play Store, but there's plenty to choose from, both free and paid for.

Once I got my head around the Zone Focus system used by the Kodak Retina 1a and I was happy I could operate the camera, I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 35mm black and white film into the camera and set off out for a wander to see what I could find. My photos are nothing special, just a test to see if the camera is light tight and the shutter and aperture works as it should. The camera was in very good condition for its age and I was hopeful I would get a few useable images. I used my Watameter rangefinder and my trusty Gossen Trisix as well as having a guess to get my settings and I got used to the quirkiness of Zone Focus pretty quickly.

We are spoiled with all manner of cameras these days that show you the view through the lens or through a viewfinder with a coupled rangefinder to help with getting your composition in focus. This camera really tested my skills and you can see how I did when you see my photos at the end. As is often the case when I'm having fun with my camera, my walk seemed to fly by. I had reached the end of my roll of film and headed home. 

I developed my roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 the following day in Kodak HC110 dilution E 1+47 for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my trusted Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 led light source. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

When I hung my film to dry I was immediately impressed with my exposures. Alex Luyckx is right when he says HC110 dilution E is an often overlooked magic potion. I couldn't wait to get my film digitised, but had to wait for it to dry. It was the longest evening of my life....  Once I started editing my RAW files I saw why this camera was a big seller in the 1950's and how well the Kodak AG - Nagel Camera Werk built it. I am beginning to question my choice of camera for the Frugal Film Project 2025 and it's only my second Quirky Camera. Light leaks? None. Missed focus? None. Sharpness? Dang that Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenar lens is sweet! I may just do double duty again with my Kodak Retina 1a as my 35mm camera.

I really enjoyed my first ever experience of using a Kodak Retina 1a, it's a sweet little camera, fits in my pocket and I will definitely be taking it out and about a lot more this year. If you would like to help me feed my addiction to film photography and continue writing about my adventures, you can make a donation to the cause using the Ko-Fi links on the page. Here's a few of my favourite photos from my first roll of film shot with my Kodak Retina 1a, as always I have placed them and more in a album on Flickr you can vist using the link below. I hope you enjoy them

Kodak Retina 1a
August Nagel - Camera designer 
Quirky Cameras - Zeiss Ikon Maximar 

Phoenix 200 - A Brand New Colour Film made by Harman Technology

 Harman Technology, the home of Ilford Photo and manufacturers of high quality, top notch, black and white photographic film for the great film photography community, have made a 35mm colour film. Yes, you read that right, 35mm colour film is being made in the Harman Technology manufacturing facility in Mobberley, Cheshire and it's called Harman Phoenix 200. I am a tad late to the party, but let's celebrate anyway.

 This news is not just a ground breaking entry into colour film, it is the very first colour film made entirely in house by Harman Technology. For years Harman have thought that making a colour film wasn't feasible for them, but that all changed when a few select individuals got together and discussed the pro's versus the con's of designing and manufacturing a colour film, from scratch, for the very first time. 

 The project was top secret, nobody in the film photography community knew they were even considering it, never mind actually making a 35mm colour film. As you can imagine when the first teaser appeared on social media in November 2023 the community was full of questions. What was this new product being teased? When would it be unleashed upon the world and what would it be called? We got that question answered pretty quickly as the new social media channels all proudly bore the name Harman Photo.

But, hang on, why call it Harman, why isn't it branded as Ilford Photo or Ilford Colour?

 That's a great question and has a two part answer. The first part is to keep Ilford Photo for black and white film, paper and chemicals. A brand new film required a brand new name and Harman Photo was chosen to differentiate the black and white section of the company from this new colour section. Ilford Photo will always be synonymous with high quality black and white film, paper and chemicals. Harman Photo will hopefully do the same for colour film starting with Phoenix 200. The second part is that Ilford Imaging (the other Ilford) own the Ilfocolour brand and continue to sell colour film, probably made by Kodak, and rebranded as Ilfocolour 400.

 More teaser videos were published with a picture of a Phoenix on a business card. A few select businesses, vloggers and bloggers were sent a sample to test and give feedback for how best to shoot, develop and scan this brand new film.  Not me though, *sob*, I had to wait until 4pm on December 1st 2023 for the big reveal. A millisecond after Harman Photo Phoenix 200 colour film went live on the Analogue Wonderland website I was filling out my order form as I knew I had to get my hands on it.

 This first batch is a limited run, there's only so many to go around, which makes sense to me. There's no point in making one million rolls of film if you know the formula may change for the next production run. There was only a limited number of the first production run "in the wild" and I bought three of them. As far as I know it has been flying off the shelves at film retailers around the world who were lucky enough to get an advance supply to sell on the day of the big reveal.

But, hang on, you shoot black and white film. Why do you want this new colour film?

 Another great question and an even easier answer. It is the first all new colour film made by Harman Technology. It was formulated, coated and packaged totally in house in Mobberley. That facility is an hour drive from my home and I see it as supporting a local business. It is also an experimental film and I like to have a little fun experimenting with different cameras and film.

 Harman are confident they can do this and have invested a chunk of money into making a colour film. They also know it isn't perfect. It needs critical eyes on it to give feedback on how it can be improved and, more importantly, what film photographers like and don't like about it. It makes sense to ask us to invest our money into this project at this stage and be a part of the research and development process.

 My first impression of this brand new colour film is the attention to detail Harman have given to the presentation of this film. The packaging is a nice design with the Phoenix motif prominent on the box and on the film cartridge. It is DX coded too which makes life easier for your average film photographer who just wants to load a film into their camera and crack on. How a product looks is often as important as how it performs and Harman have applied the same high standards of presentation to Phoenix 200 as their Ilford Photo black and white film. 

 Film photographers are notoriously curious and many probably have a fear of missing out (guilty as charged, m'lud!) I have read many reviews of it and, as I live in dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy Wigan, I shot my first roll at 100 iso. Many people have said give it plenty of light, so I pulled it one stop. I also got a rare afternoon of bright sunshine in January and took full advantage of winter golden hour. I knew the shadows would be really dark, but the etra light would make the colours pop. That's why we shoot colour film, isn't it?

 I want a solid baseline to work from and having three rolls gives me a chance to rectify any mistakes I make and maybe even experiment with it. It is after all an experimental film, so why the heck not. I chose to shoot Phoenix 200 with my Olympus OM-10 and Zuiko lenses. The aperture priority mode and legendary metering Olympus built into their OM range of cameras would give me the best chance of having decent, well exposed shots to work from. I took a walk around my favourite classroom, Mesnes Park in Wigan and finished my roll in the town centre. Golden hour in January is magical. The sun stays low in the sky all day and allows us an extended period of beautiful light to play with on a sunny afternoon. I really hoped I had got this first roll right or I might not have got another sunny afternoon for a while. Two days later it snowed.

So, how does it look?

 I sent mine to Analogue Wonderlab to get it developed and scanned. When it was time to see how a commercial lab other than Harman Lab would develop and scan Phoenix 200, Analogue Wonderland was invited to become involved with it. I will be learning to scan and process my film at home, but for this first one it needs a lab to do it right and I trust Analogue Wonderland with my film. They were entrusted with helping Harman with the scanning so, to me, it made sense to send it back there for development. I figured they would take a little time to get their scanning settings for Phoenix 200 dialled in. When I got my scans I could see they had spent that time wisely and it looks great.

 It's got bags of character and the colours really do pop in the sunshine. For a first attempt at manufacturing their own colour film, Harman have "almost" got it right. Yes this release was a gamble, it's a beta test and who is better to test it than the film community? I would like to see an anti halation layer on the film and the midrange tweaking to stop it being an all or nothing kind of film. It reminds me of film from the 1970's, yeah I am that old. It has a look similar to 126 film shot with an Instamatic with lots of grain, dark shadows and colours that pop in the sunlight, especially red. The grain isn't overpowering either, it adds to the nostalgic look of the photos and I quite like it.

 The halation is great for neon signs at night, but on a rare sunny day here in Wigan, I didn't need to see the branches of the trees fringed with red. Kodak and Fuji use an orange substrate for their colour film, I think Harman used what they have in stock, their black and white film substrate. I can't fault them for wanting to keep their costs down. Research and development costs to make an entirely new film, colour or black and white, are rather high and it can take several years to perfect.

 Harman have put a lot into this film and getting the film community involved has worked. We have helped with the costs, Harman have a heap of data to go through and the next iteration of Harman Phoenix 200 will take our thoughts and observations into account. There will never be another Harman Phoenix 200 like this first retail version and that makes it unique. For that reason alone I'm glad I got a few from the first batch. It was fun to use a brand new film and not knowing what to expect from it. Now I know what to expect I will really enjoy shooting my second and third rolls from this first batch.

 Here are a few of my favourite photos from my first roll of Harman Phoenix 200 35mm colour film. These are the scans I got back from Analogue Wonderland. I have straightened a few photos up because I got them wonky when I took them, but I haven't done anything else to them. It was a fun experiment and the Photography Gods smiled upon me with a sunny afternoon to get the best from it. As always I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Harman Phoenix

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 Medium Format - March

 For my March roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 120 medium format film, I took a stroll in the park on the Ides of March. I had a Doctors appointment that morning and, as the park isn't far from there, I used up my daily exercise for a leisurely stroll around Mesnes Park on a grey day that tried desperately to be better. My Gossen Trisix told me that it was a 1/125th of a second at f/8 kind of day and I set about hunting compositions.

I have photographed the park to death over the last few years and I tried to find some alternative compositions to my normal offerings. My first find was a line of bright red industrial sized rubbish bins stored next to the Bandstand. My normal shot is of the bandstand looking towards the old derelict Mill, so a change of direction was welcome. Just as I took my shot, a train passed along the embankment to the north of the park and I was hoping I captured it.

I also tried a shot of The Pavilion from the bandstand with two of the bandstand pillars framing it. I hadn't tried this composition before as there are usually some youths enjoying some time at the bandstand during their lunch break from College. This time it was empty so I took my chance, lined up my composition and got the shot.

The Park Keepers have been busy planting the flower beds with fresh spring flowers and I tried to capture the lengthened "Z" shape of one of the flower beds. I also captured a few of the trees that are ready to wake up from their winter slumber. Also, instead of capturing yet another photo of Sir Francis and his shiny foot, I photographed one of the ornate corner posts around the statue.

My remaining shots were of the clock tower at the Linacre Centre, a medical facility in town that was originally Wigan Grammar School, then became Mesnes High School and finally one of the college buildings before being repurposed for medical use. It has had quite a varied life and it's good to see an old building put to good use. Also put to good use is the old Rushton's warehouse that is now the Centre for Advanced Technical Studies at Wigan and Leigh College.

Not all old buildings are being put to good use. Wigan & Leigh College is now affiliated to Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. This has been accompanied with significant investment and new buildings are going up to replace ones built in the 1960's. Asbestos around the heating systems and old concrete that had started to crumble meant they had to be replaced. My final shots were in the town centre itself and more as a means to finish my roll of film before getting the bus home, thoroughly happy with my walk and in need of a nice refreshing cup of tea.

I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 later that day in HC110 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom where I left it overnight. I scanned it the next day using my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light source. The RAW files were processed with Affinity Photo 2.

It was during that processing where I discovered I was having a problem with my framing. I'm not sure how or why it happened, I can only assume it was user error and not a problem with Baldy the Baldax which has been behaving rather well for me. There are times when I don't concentrate for long enough and take my eye off the task in hand, it's a constant battle I have with myself and after 57 years I have got used to it.

As a precaution I took a good look at Baldy the Baldax to check and It would appear that Baldy has a screw loose! Somewhere along the line a screw has come loose and is nowhere to be found. At first I thought it might be on the floor where I was sitting and I searched for it carefully, but to no avail.

Although the Balda Baldax 4.5 x 6 medium format cameras were sold as other brands, they do have variations in viewfinders and brackets for the folding mechanism etc. Ones like mine are quite rare and hard to find on the bay and I really want to keep using Baldy the Baldax for as long as I can. This is the peril of using a vintage camera, parts are hard to come by and I'm gutted!

I searched and searched for another Balda Baldax 4.5x6 with the exact same folding mechanism as the one on Baldy The Baldax. It took me a while, but I managed to find one in France for £20. When it arrived I started to feel pangs of guilt about having to take it apart to mend Baldy, so Baldy has been bodged for now. I am going to give parts cam a clean and put a roll of Fomapan through it and see if it works as well as it appears to on first inspection. I will eventually get Baldy sorted properly and continue using it for as long as possible. If my bodge fails, "Super Sub" is waiting. 

Here's a few favourites from my walk in the park with Baldy the Baldax. You can see the framing issues I was having and perhaps understand why it puzzled me. I wasn't doing anything different, Baldy was ever so slightly out of kilter. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Fim Project 2024 - 120 medium format album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 Medium Format

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 35mm - March

February was almost a bust. I won't lie, I wasn't sure I was going to have anything to submit for the project when my OM101 failed and I had to get creative on the 29th February, which doesn't come around again for another four years. It was squeaky bum time and no mistake! Thankfully my dear chum Wellies had given me two OM101's and I managed to get a roll shot and developed in the nick of time.

March was a waiting game as we still had more dull and rainy days than sunny ones, but with the spring blooms appearing, there was hope of a sunny afternoon to go for a walk with my working OM101 loaded with Kentmere 400 35mm B&W film. I didn't quite get one. The moment I walked out the door the sun hid behind a cloud and stayed there.

I had a walk around the local nature trails and farm roads just to see if the substitute OM101 was good for more than one roll of film. I was also enjoying using my Goodman Zone with a roll of Ilford FP4 and, after grabbing a couple of shots of the camera literally in the field, I concentrated on other stuff with my OM101.

There's new growth appearing everywhere. There's a few Hawthorne's flowering whilst others are just starting to bud their new foliage. In the woodland the moss and the lichens are brighter too and the trees are starting to fill out the canopy. Spring is definitely here and I was beginning to wish I hadn't left my thermal liner in my jacket. I also wish it wasn't so blummen wet!

I crossed the fields via the public footpath and almost lost a boot. It's not easy pulling your good leg out of the mud whilst desperately trying not to fall over or drop cameras. However, I am stubborn and had committed to crossing the field, so I did. One thing I did not do was head up to the old spoil heaps as they are just too claggy for me.

One thing I did see for the first time in a very long time was the pond in the top field overflowing. The last couple of summers has seen it dry up completely and not quite manage to fill again over winter. It's so full there's a stream flowing over the top of the dam and down the hill. Winter 2023/24 was a very wet one here and I don't think we need to worry about the water table being too low this year.

As always when I am having fun, I soon ran out of film and battery power and had to head home, very tired but happy to have been able to get out and about and almost shoot a full roll in my OM101 before the batteries died. I swapped the rechargeable batteries for a fresh set and shot the last frame at home. One short of a full roll isn't so bad considering I have been doing a lot of fiddling about over the last couple of weeks making sure it would work after the other one died.

I developed my film the next day in HC110 1+47 dilution E for 9 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom where I left it to dry overnight. I scanned it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized LED light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

Here's a few favourites from my wander in the countryside with my OM101 and Kentmere 400 for the Frugal Film Project.  All I was looking for was consistency this month after having to change cameras and I will try and head somewhere different in April. Both February and March have been very challenging and I need inspiration so a change of scenery is in order. As always I have placed them and more in my 35mm Frugal Film Project album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 35mm 

Minolta Hi-matic 7 - A 1960's Masterpiece

Minolta are a long gone, but much loved camera manufacturer that made excellent 35mm SLR cameras. That heritage lived on with the Sony Alpha DSLR's, but a Minolta camera from 1963 caught my attention recently and I had to give it a try. Minolta were also a player in the rangefinder camera market. I recently came into posession of a Minolta Hi-Matic 7 rangefinder made in the 1960's and rather than it being a small compact camera, it's a beast!

Given the state of the technology back in the 1960's, electronics were big and most definitely not the small digital circuits of today. We are talking light sensors and metering circuits that all had to fit in a box small enough to hold in your hand, but not so big you couldn't carry the weight. It was a time when the space race was in full flow and Minolta, courtesy of the badge engineered Ansco Autoset version of the Minolta Hi-Matic, had been to orbit with John Glenn in 1962. The follow up to the Hi-Matic was the Minolta Hi-Matic 7 released in 1963 and it is a masterpiece of its day.

The camera market in the late 50's - early 60's was still divided between Rangefinder, Twin Lens Reflex, Graflex Press and the new kid on the block, the Single Lens Reflex camera that came to dominate the market. Minolta was a player with cameras in all sections of the market and this camera was their big play for the affordable rangefinder that you or I could produce professional standard photos with. It had a couple of things going for it that made that kind of quality available to us.

The original Hi-Matic had a selenium cell light meter that took advantage of the ability of selenium to create an electric voltage based on the amount of light it is exposed to. It was a big meter and covered a fair amount of real estate on the camera. For the Hi-Matic 7 Minolta switched to a smaller Cadmium Sulphide (Cds) based meter that needs a battery for it to work.

At the time the most widely available battery was a Mercury Oxide based battery and was before Joe Public knew just how toxic mercury is. Thankfully the electrical circuits inside the Hi-Matic 7 can work using a standard LR/SR 44 when placed in an adapter that you can pick up for pennies from the bay. The other alternative is the Wein Cell 625 that is the right size for the battery holder.

The Cds cell light meter doesn't suffer the degradation over time that selenium suffers from and allows the camera to have a fully automatic exposure system that is as good today as when the camera was new 60 years ago. You can also use the camera in full manual without a battery if you wish. The lens on the Minolta Hi-Matic 7 is a Rokkor 45mm f/1.8 and is a real gem. Combined with state of the art metering of the time, boy does it shine when you get your exposures right.

I can see why my mate Steve regretted selling his all those years ago. I really enjoyed using the camera, the shutter is so quiet I had to keep checking I had actually taken a photo. It wont fire again until you wind the film on. The Cds light meter is always on, but putting the lens cap on stops it drawing power from the battery, something to remember for future reference. The rangefinder patch is nice and bright, but don't worry if you get a dull one, they can be cleaned and brought back to spec by your favourite camera technician.

I shot a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 at its box speed of 400 iso during a visit to Kirkby Lonsdale with my friend Keith and was really keen to see how it fared. We had a lot of fun in Kirkby Lonsdale and both shot three films with a part roll left in a camera to finish on another day. As I mentioned in a previous blog about our visit, it's not a big town, you can easily get round it in half an hour, but with several rolls of film to get through, we spent a few hours there and we will return at some point.

I developed my roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 a couple of days later in HC110 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry. Digitising was done with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder on my Pixl-latr and A5 size led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

Here's a few favourites from my first experience of using the Minolta Hi-Matic 7. This may be a big camera, weighing in at 1.5 pounds, but it was well worth the effort carrying it around for a couple of hours. I am very impressed with the photos I was able to produce with it and can definitely recommend it to anyone who has a penchant for big cameras with big performance to match. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Minolta Hi-Matic 7 - Ilford HP5+ 400

Frugal Film Project 2024 - February 35mm

 I was a very busy chap in January and February. I shot a few rolls of film on our one day of snow and it was gone in 3 days. I took my time to develop and edit my film and get them right because using aperture priority with my Minolta X-700 and Olympus OM-10 rendered snow as middle grey. It was easy to do with Affinity Photo 2, I wanted them to be right as one roll was for a project I am involved with and I will talk about that nearer the time.

It was almost the end of February when I finally got out for a wander with my February roll of Kentmere 400 loaded into my Olympus OM101 and 35-70mm power focus lens. Our dear chum, Keith came to stay for a few days and he took me to Kirkby Lonsdale where I would shoot my 35mm and 120 medium format Frugal Films for February.

"Use a more reliable camera" he said. "It won't fail like my folder last year" he said.....

Guess what camera worked perfectly this month?

Baldy The Baldax.

I was supposed to be shooting my 35mm roll of Kentmere 400 but sadly my camera had other ideas. It decided at the start of our walk that it was going to fail on me. I was puzzled as it had been fine and I thought the batteries had died so I bought some from a shop in Kirkby Lonsdale, fitted them into my camera and.... nothing, nada, nil points! I put it back in my bag feeling gutted, but on the bright side I would be keeping my two formats on separate subjects. A couple of days later, the 29th February 2024 to be precise, I took another look at my Olympus OM101 to see what I could do to remedy it.

After a bit of faffing about and swearing at it in three languages, I got it to work. However, there was a strange crackling sound and the Power Focus was only working intermittently. A little reading up on the fault revealed it's terminal and, due to the lack of parts for these things, it is now a brick. However, my dear chum "Wellies" had told me of this problem when he gave me not one, but two OM101's and I fetched the other from the shelf where it had been sat waiting pateintly for it's moment to shine.

The last time I touched this camera was on the day that Wellies delivered the kit to me. It worked back then and it had been sat on my camera shelf with no batteries in and a body cap fitted instead of a lens. I took my freshly charged rechargeable batteries, fitted them into the camera, mounted my 35-70 power focus lens and crossed all my fingers and toes. I switched the power on.

The camera roared into life and tried to load a film, a normal event for this camera as it powers up without a film already loaded and being used. I had managed to retrieve my roll of Kentmere 400 from the broken one, the auto film rewind worked long enough to allow me to use it again having taken precisely three shots. I retrieved the leader with my trusty film retriever, the best film gadget ever! I loaded it into my second OM101 and closed the back.

The camera quite happily loaded my film, automatically advancing it to number one on the frame counter. I set it to full manual and took four shots with the lens cap on, the extra one just to be sure and I set about documenting what I was up to that day. I was scanning a film that I shot with a camera I am reviewing in a future blog.

I took a few shots of that process and gave myself a chance of decent exposures by using my brightest light to illuminate the scene, a £10 led I got from Amazon a while back. It's not the best light in the world, but it is handy to have for what I was doing and I fitted it to the cheapest ass ho tripod I have that also cost £10 from Amazon. I got my toys out and took some photos of various cameras in my collection positioned on a coffee table and soon had my roll of film finished. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I developed my roll of Kentmere 400 later that evening in HC-110 1+47 dilution E for 9 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. From the look of the film I could see I had some decent exposures and I breathed another sigh of relief. My year of 35mm wasn't a bust. I digitised my film the next day with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro, Valoi 35mm film holder on my Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light pad. I processed my RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

Here's some favourites from my February roll of Kentmere 400 shot with my spare OM101 Power Focus and 35-70mm lens. It was an absolute 'mare this month and I was almost ready to chuck it in and just concentrate on medium format for the rest of the year. I'm glad I persevered and I got a few decent photos out of it without leaving the comfort of my living room. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2024 35mm album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them. 

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 35mm February