Point and Shoot fun with a Praktica Sport Royale

One thing I really like about the film photography community is the ability to have fun at our own expense. I have been involved with the #ShittyCameraChallenge on Twitter for the last couple of years, I first joined in for the #CrappyCommieCameraParty hosted by Papa Shitty Cams. The idea of the CCCP was to buy a really awful Soviet era camera and see what photos we could get out of it. The whole premise was to have a bit of fun and give some cameras some love.

The latest iteration of the #ShittyCameraChallenge is upon us and is called the #1990sCameraChallenge. The challenge being to buy a camera that was introduced in the 1990's and have some fun. This has been seized upon by some of the people taking part to look back at probably the most intense decade of innovation and cringeworthy tech for the camera manufacturers by using early digital cameras.

I didn't want to go down the digital route, I wanted to stick with film. I have a couple of excellent 35mm film cameras introduced in the 1990's, but I wanted to buy a camera especially for the challenge, a 1990's point and shoot 35mm film camera. I didn't want to have to mess with things like autofocus, I have those already. I didn't want to be fiddling with automatic modes, or any automation at all if I could avoid it. I just wanted a camera that I could point at a scene and press the shutter button. I found one on the PPP Camera Repairs website that fitted the bill, a Praktica Sport Royale.

The Praktica Sport Royale has a couple of automated features to help make life easy for the casual photographer that are powered by 2 AA batteries. Loading film is made easier by an automated mechanism that takes the film onto the take up spool when the door is closed and the camera switched on. The camera reads the DX code on the film and sets the shutter based upon the film speed.

When the shutter button is pressed, the camera takes the shot and winds the film on ready for the next shot. Rewinding is easy too, you use the auto rewind button on the base of the camera. When it is done you can open the door take the film out. The other automated feature is the built in flash. You can either switch the flash on and have it fire for every shot or use the Auto Flash setting which uses a light sensor that only allows the flash to fire if the light is below a certain level.

That's it, simple to use, just point and shoot. I had to take it for a test drive before the #1990sCameraChallenge starts on December 1st 2022. I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 into it, put it into my pocket and took a few shots here and there whilst out and about.

Batteries last enough time to shoot a roll of film or two on a sunny day, but using the flash will eat into that longevity. It's not a problem as AA batteries are available just about anywhere these days. I fitted a couple of rechargeable AA batteries and used the camera in a variety of settings with changeable lighting conditions.

The flash works just fine, but doesn't have enough reach to make it worthwhile. The important thing is the motor wind mechanism works, so I will try to use it on sunny days in future. It didn't cost me a lot of cash and the photos, when taken on a sunny day look ok. The lens is a 35mm f/4.5 fixed focus and aperture and I think it is a plastic one. The photos aren't sharp, but for what I paid for it I wasn't expecting masterpieces.

Here's a few photos I took with the Praktica Sport Royale point and shoot 35mm film camera. It's good enough for the purpose I am using it for and I will enjoy seeing what everyone else taking part in the #1990sCameraChallenge comes up with. The challenge begins on December 1st and runs through to January 31st 2023. I will post these photos and the rest of my submissions in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. There's also a link to PPP cameras where you will find a selection of film cameras and lenses for sale that have been checked and are ready to use. 

Praktica Sport Royale #1990sCameraChallenge
PPP Cameras 

Getting back on track with Agent Shadow

 My blog has been rather sporadic lately. I'm still struggling with the loss of my Dad, but I have to carry on and keep doing the things I enjoy, photography and writing. It was my birthday weekend and, as it was a sunny Sunday morning, I decided to finally shoot the roll of Agent Shadow in my Olympus OM-2 at 800 iso. It has been sat in my bag for two months so I got my boots and jacket on, picked up my bag and headed out to my usual circuit of the local farms.

I also decided that an orange filter would be beneficial on this bright sunny morning. There was a few clouds in the sky and I reckoned a little separation of the clouds against the clear blue areas of sky would help my compositions. Agent Shadow is a film full of contrast so lightening the autumn colour with an orange filter and pushing it one stop seemed the way to go. I would find out later when I developed the film.

The bright autumn sunshine was low in the sky and it created pools of light through the trees that invited me to take a photo as I made my way along the farm roads. Getting close up with my OM-2 was made easier by using my Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 and aperture priority. There is always plenty of texture in autumn as the leaves change colour and the pools of light seemed to find it for me. Thanks Dad.

There was a particularly nice pool of light that lit up one of the antique ploughs on display. It's not one I usually photograph, but that's hardly a surprise as I rarely venture out in the morning. The brown leaves of the hedge behind and next to it was glowing in the morning sun and I lingered a while to grab a few shots and pick out some solitary leaves in the hedges.

When I arrived at the fields I switched lenses to my Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 to tighten up my compositions a little. I love this lens, wide open it has a creamy bokeh, but on this day with an orange filter I was going for the narrow apertures, f/11 and f/16. for good front to back focus. The Horses have been moved into their winter stables and I was happy to see the Sheep returned to the big field. This gave a new backdrop to my favourite tree and I spent a little time getting some photos from a couple of places along the trail.

I headed up to the old spoil heap to see if I had missed all the autumn colour and yep, I had. I wasn't too upset about it though as I was presented with some contrasting scenes of oak trees with brown leaves against the silver birch trees that have shed all their foliage ready for their winter slumber. I soon finished my roll of film and was still only half way through my walk.

I shot a roll of colour film on the second half of my walk, I will talk about that in the not too distant future, and headed home. When I got home I was rather tired, it has been a couple of months since I walked this route and it showed. I was knackered! I decided to develop my film the next day and spent the rest of the day in recovery.

I checked the Massive Dev Chart and found a couple of bits of information for developing this film when shot at 800 iso. I have mentioned in a previous blog about Agent Shadow that I would gve dilution E a try. I figured an extra couple of minutes would help bring out the best from this film, particularly as I had used an orange filter.

With that in mind I developed my roll of Agent Shadow in HC-110 dilution E (1+47) for 13 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it using my trusty Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and gave it a polish with Affinity Photo 2.

800 iso was definitely the right speed for the woodland section of this walk. I was able to get some decent shots and the orange filter brightened up the dying foliage and made it stand out in my single leaf shots. It wasn't the best choice for the more open areas of my walk, but it did tame the contrast and gave me more dynamic range to play with in post production.

Here's a few of my photos from this roll of Agent Shadow and as always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I needed this roll of film to get me back on track and get out and about taking photos to exercise my old grey matter. My Dad was an avid reader of my blog and he would definitely have wanted me to get back out again. It might take me a little longer to settle back into it, but I will be posting my blog every week and sharing my photos with you again. I hope you enjoy them.

Agent Shadow @ 800 iso - OM-2

A look back to the summer of 2020

 I haven't been enthusiastic about taking photos lately, grief + depression = Jim is not a happy bunny. Rather than miss another week I decided to have a look back at some macro photography I did in July 2020 with my Nikon D700, my Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 and a few shots with my Nikkor AF 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 D. I have probably spoken about these photos previously, but I found a foIder I had not touched from July 29th 2020. I also have the new Affinity Photo 2 photo editing software and I set about getting used to it by going through the folder.

The summer of 2020 will go down in history as the year Covid-19 shut the world down. It didn't stop my photography habit as I took the opportunity to get stuck into B&W film and I also took my Nikon D700 out too. It was during a walk on this particular day that I found a patch of thistles which were awash with insects. I stowed my film camera away, took my D700 out of my bag, fitted my Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 that has 1:2 macro on the long end, found a nice spot and waited for the butterfly's to come to me.

I spent quite a while in that spot as I watched the insects go about their foraging. I only know the names of one or two butterflies and had to research the ones I photographed. There was a Peacock butterfly, a Hedge Brown and a few more besides. I tried to catch some Bees feeding from the thistles too.

I really had to be patient as the Bees were quicker than me, but I soon figured it out. On my way home I also got a few photos of the horses including the Mare who has been slowly getting used to the strange human with the clicking box thing. She didn't know what to make of me at first, but we are friends now.   

When I went home I downloaded the images to my computer and promptly forgot about them. D'oh! I found the file recently whilst looking for something else and the memories of the day started to return. It also coincided with the good folks at Seriff releasing the 2nd generation of their splendid photo editing suite which they have named Affinity Photo 2. 

It didn't take me long to sort through the photos and edit the Raw files, Affinity Photo 2 is much faster than its predecessor and I was able to have a selection of images ready to upload to this blog for you all to enjoy. 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.

Nikon D700 - Tamron AF 70-300mm and Nikkor 24-120mm D 29th July 2020

Minolta Dynax 500si and a roll of Agent Shadow 400

 It was tough to get motivated over the last couple of months, but I did manage to get out and about a time or two just to shoot some film and try to take my mind off the turmoil for a day or two. I shot four rolls of colour film for future blogs and also a B&W film for this weeks blog, Agent Shadow 400. My camera of choice was my Minolta 500si with it's 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 auto focus zoom lens that I hadn't used for a while.

I had a roll of Kodak ColorPlus in this camera and brought a roll of Agent Shadow with me just in case I used it all before my day was done. I hadn't got half way around the park before my roll of ColorPlus started to rewind. The Minolta Dynax 500si really does take all the strain out of photography with lots of automation including rewinding the film automatically. Once that was done I switched to Agent Shadow to see what it would make of a bright sunny day in early autumn.

I captured a couple of my usual compositions in the park for comparison and revisited a couple as I wandered back into the town center. I have said before that I use my photography as a means of helping my mental health and brain function after my stroke. On this day it wasn't long before my head was done after shooting half a roll of Agent Shadow and I headed home.

The good weather continued the next day and I headed out around the local farms for some more therapy. Grief is a bugger and to be honest I was probably just going through the motions with this roll of film. My compositions were my usual offerings, but that familiarity brought me back into the real world. It really did help me out as I made my way around the local trails. As ever, it seemed like I had only been out for a few minutes when my camera started to rewind my film and I headed home.

I developed my film a few days later in HC-110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and removed dust spots and scratches with Affinity Photo. As I went through them I found I had 6 keepers from the park and town centre and 6 keepers from the farms. Is this the way forward for me as a photographer to get more keepers or am I clutching at straws?

Whatever the reason I ended with a dozen shots I was happy with this week. This was a photo walk I needed after the turmoil my family has endured. Nature has a way of helping us understand the cycle of life carries on and I hope to show you more photos as soon as I develop my colour film. As always I have posted all of this weeks photos in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them. 

Minolta Dynax 500si - Agent Shadow 400