September started brightly and I have been going through my cameras to see which one I wanted to use next. I kept coming back to 2 cameras, my Goodman Zone Z1 and my Olympus 35RC. I have neglected both recently and it was time to change that. I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5 into my 35RC, a roll of Delta 400 into my Goodman Zone and toddled off to the corn fields. I will talk about my Goodman Zone next week, this week is all about my Olympus 35RC.
I love my little pocket powerhouse Olympus 35RC. It is without doubt a fantastic little rangefinder camera with a superb quality lens that you would expect to find on a far higher priced camera. I have yet to find a camera that can produce quality photos like the 35RC can in the same price range.
I paid £30 for my 35RC a few years ago and it has a fully functioning light meter. Well, mine was working until the battery ran out and I never replaced the battery. Yes folks, the Olympus 35RC works beautifully in full manual operation. Don't worry if you find one with a non functioning light meter, there's plenty of choices for light meters both new and used. I took my Gossen Trisix with me and, despite its age, the selenium cells are still giving me accurate light readings.
I have been visiting the Corn fields a lot recently as I am hoping to catch the farmer harvesting his crop. I keep missing it each year and I really want to break that duck. For a few years the crop was wheat, but this year and last year the crop has been corn. I think it is grown for cattle feed.
It is good to wander along the footpaths that go through the corn fields, I get to see the way the crop is maximising the land and also the Thistles that have been growing amongst the corn and attracting insects who love to feed on their flowers. It's a smorgasboard for the bugs as they have been feeding on the corn, thistle, blackberry and hawthorne flowers all year.
My walk was a long one and It was as I got back to the Farm where the horses are stabled that I finished my film. I was hoping to see more horses on this day, but they were either out with their humans or keeping their distance. I took a shot of the muck spreading tank and headed home.
I couldn't develop my film that day as the walk in the late summer sunshine wiped out my energy and I waited for cooler temperatures. The weather had other ideas and stayed warm for a few days, which I wasn't complaining about, but it does make getting my developing chemicals down to 20 celcius a bit of a challenge. Thank the Photography Gods for ice packs.
I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 the next evening when it had cooled down a bit in HC110 dilution B for 5 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the images with Affinity Photo 2.
I enjoyed my day out wth my cameras and walked a bit further than normal as I went hunting for other compositions on the spoil heap with my Goodman Zone. Having 2 agendas on the same walk made it a bit challenging, but it was a good work out for my brain as well as my legs. Here's a few of my favourite photos I took with my Olympus 35RC and you can see them and more in an album on Flickr by using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Ilford HP5 - Olympus 35RC
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