Olympus OM-1 - Ilford FP4

 I wasn't going to write about having a walk with my Olympus OM-1 and a roll of Ilford FP4. It was supposed to be something just for me. There comes a time when a guy just has to look after number 1 and this particular combo was it, just for me, nobody else. This was my mental health getting a massage and it was wonderful. Then I got Covid and I was grounded for a while. I couldn't get out of bed for a week never mind get out of the house with a camera. Egads! I haven't been that ill for quite some time.

I needed something for my blog and no time to wait to get well enough to go out. Then I remembered I did have something. I had been out and about with my OM-1 and wasn't going to write about it. It was time to dust off the roll and see what I could remember.

I have spoken previously about how I use photography to help me continue my recovery from a stroke I had back in 2013 and having park my beloved motorcycle. For me it's a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and my Doctor at the time thought it was a good idea. The repetitive process would do me good as it would help me exercise my brain. It also dug out a memory from my childhood, one that had been sat there, waiting patiently for it's day in the sunshine.

I have wanted an Olympus OM-1 since the "David Bailey, who's he?" adverts graced TV screens around the world in the 70's. The adverts were for the Olympus Trip, but in the ad David Bailey said Olympus made the OM-1, the best camera in the world. Back then the idea of me in my late fifties owning and talking about my OM-1 was half a century away, but I knew I wanted one and I would own one some day. My dream became a reality a couple of years back, I have really enjoyed using it and I haven't looked back.

My OM-1 had been sat on my shelf waiting its turn in my rotation, I have been a busy chap teaching my grandson the fine art of film photography and my reward for that was a day with my OM-1. I'm a man of simple taste and going out to take photos with my dream camera on a sunny afternoon in late summer is enough reward for what Ethan and I achieved in the summer of 2023.

It was a gloriously sunny day too with just a few clouds and contrails from the aircraft flying 5 miles up to break up the blue sky the day had brought me. Ilford FP4 was the right film for the day too. I haven't used the light meter on my OM-1 since the battery died a while ago and I trusted my instinct for sunny 16 as I couldn't go wrong on such a glorious day. For a fall back option I also took my Gossen Trisix light meter which came in really handy for some shots in the corn field. It was a "No Batteries Required" kind of day and I loved it.

I developed my film a day or so later and to be honest I couldn't tell you what developer I used or for how long my roll of FP4 was in the tank. This was supposed to be just for me and I didn't make a note of it. Scanning was done with my Ion Slides2PC scanner. Although this was my film, I couldn't resist sharing a few on social media with no blog post to back them up and they were well received. My mental health was well and truly massaged and it felt good.

Then I got Covid.

I couldn't get out so I revisited this roll whilst recovering from the Lurgi that has been through my household. Being in bed for a week and not being able to get out and photograph the Corn Harvest was a tough one to take as I really wanted to witness it this year. It seems like my roll of FP4 and my OM-1 wanted their chance to shine, so I decided to make them presentable.  

I got my Nikon D610 out and decided to give them the DSLR Scan treatment. I fitted my Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens with the correct Tamron 1X extension tube and attached it to my Nikon D610, put my L bracket on the camera and mounted it onto my tripod. Leveling was done with my trusty spirit level to get both camera and Pixl-Latr as close to level with each other as I could. It's not easy levelling two things along three axes of reference when covid has turned your brains to mush, but I did it. Yay me!

I had been getting plenty of practice whilst learning to use my Valoi mask for my medium format film and I used what I had learned to feel confident about reproducing decent images of my 35mm film. My film was held in my Pixl-Latr with my led light pad to illuminate it and I processed the images with Affinity Photo 2.

Here's a few of my favourites from my feel good film of the summer. You may have seen a few of these before, but that's ok. There's a few you haven't seen here too and as always there's a link below to my Flickr album which you can visit to see them in full resolution. I hope you enjoy them.

Ilford FP4 - Olympus OM-1 - DSLR Scans