Getting Acquainted With My Goodman Zone Z1

After my recent rushing about to get my Frugal Film Project roll of Ilford HP5 shot and developed before March ended, I decided I needed to slow down. I have been putting things off that really needed my attention and I took the opportunity of a sunny weekend at the beginning of April to get acquainted with my Goodman Zone Z1.

Back in February I wrote about my good fortune at winning the camera in a giveaway hosted by PetaPixel.com and Dora Goodman Cameras and then allowed myself to get distracted by other shiny things. I really must get that looked in to. Anyway, on the first Saturday of April I loaded a roll of Fomapan 400 into the RB67 Pro S film back on my Goodman Zone Z1, grabbed my tripod and headed off to the local countryside to see what I could do with it.

This was a whole new experience for me. I am used to shooting 35mm with my only foray into medium format being 6x6 with my Agfa Isolette 1 and I would soon find out just how out of my depth I had plunged. My first mistake was thinking that I could use my skills as a 35mm photographer to shoot reasonable photos from the start. I was wrong! The Schneider-Kreuznach 90mm f/8 Super Angulon lens is built for large format photography, specifically 5x7 and 8x10. I soon learned I needed to think like a large format photographer.

My first roll of film through it wasn't my finest attempt at learning a new skill. I was using the wrong apertures, wrong shutter speeds and I completely failed to nail the focus on more than one or two. The focus screen was a little tricky to get used to and I have acquired a dark cloth from a very nice man named Dan to help rectify that. I wasn't expecting miracles, but I really need to get the method dialled in to give me the best chance at producing reasonable images. Fortunately for me the weather was decent in the first half of April and I was able to shoot a few rolls in my Z1 to get it figured out.

I needed to use them too as I made just about every rookie mistake, including forgetting to take the dark slide out when it was time to release the shutter. D'oh! Also I am so used to using f/8 and f/11 to get a decent depth of field for my 35mm shots, I didn't think about it and made a right pigs ear of the depth of field on my first roll. I learned that f/11 on my 35mm cameras is equivalent to f/45 on the Schneider. All I can say is thank the deity of your choosing that Fomapan film is cheap.

I decided to re-shoot a couple of compositions to compare with my previous attempts and shot a couple of others that I hadn't bothered with previously. Nothing special, I just needed to get my head around the Schneider lens and shutter. I also took my Vivitar 45 light meter to get my exposure right. I was using the meter on my cell phone on that first roll and wanted to do something different, it was a good excuse to take as much electrickery out of my day as possible.

Complicated electronic 35mm cameras I can do without thinking, this "simple" camera is making me think a lot more about the art of photography. It sounds crazy, but unless I get each step right I won't produce anything worth showing. We take so many things for granted with the cameras we love to use that It requires a serious change in the way we go about our photography when we strip it back to basics. This is one hell of a learning curve!

Until I got my Z1 I never fully appreciated the joy that large format photographers get from using the most basic of techniques to create their images. My Goodman Zone Z1 is medium format, but it does have large format at it's heart with the superb Schneider-Kreuznach 90mm f/8 Super Angulon. You can also fit Mamiya press lenses to the Z1 too, there is a list of lenses that can be used on the Z1 on the Dora Goodman website.

The Goodman Zone Z1 is a pleasure to use. It's taking me a little time to figure it out and with more practice I know I will be able to produce better quality images. If this blog hits the spot and has you wondering about buying one, you can buy one ready made from Dora Goodman or buy the parts and build your own. You will find all the details on doragoodman.com

Here's a few images from my early attempts and I have put them in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. If you enjoy my content please consider supporting me through my Ko-Fi account via the link below. Every donation helps me continue my journey into photography and share the joy I get from taking photographs with the world. I hope you enjoy them.

Goodman Zone Z1 Flickr Album
Ko-fi.com - Jim Graves