I shot a roll of Kodak Gold 35mm colour film in the summer of 2025 with the intention of shooting more of it and, well, best intentions are often forgotten. Yep, this roll of film sat in my fridge for months before I shot another in 120 medium format and sent them off for developing. I can't remember what camera I used to shoot my roll of 35mm film, but I do remember what I used to shoot my medium format roll, my Agfa Isolette I.
I have a mind like a sieve these days and if it wasn't for this blog I would forget to go out....
I don't often use colour film and it's not because it's expensive to get developed. To be fair the days of getting film developed for a few quid are gone and the number high street photo stores with an in house lab is nowhere near what it used to be. The film renaissance is still building momentum and it's a lot healthier than it was when I came back to film photography in 2017, but I digress.
I shot my roll of 35mm Kodak Gold in the summer of 2025 on a gloriously sunny afternoon as I wandered around Wigan town center. Bright sunshine and blue skies are perfect for Kodak Gold and I remember it didn't take me long to make my way around town to capture the colour of summer here in darkest Wigan. I must have used a manual camera as I got 37 shots on my roll.
More recently I shot a medium format roll of Kodak Gold at Crooke with my friend Keith who came to visit during September. The last time he visited Crooke was many years ago when he was a live-aboard on a narrowboat. Again, it was a bright sunny day with a few clouds to make life interesting. It did, however, have one down side. I managed to drop my camera.
Most of my cameras have a wrist strap, but not my Agfa Isolette. I was bending down to retrieve something that Keith had dropped and I had forgotten I had my camera sat on my bag. Off it slid and hit the floor! Of course it took the liberty of popping open and I thought my roll was done for. rather optimistically I carried on shooting the roll as I had only taken three frames. I hoped I would get at least something from it and we carried on with our walk along the canal.
When we got back home I inspected the damage more thoroughly. Thankfully there was just a mark on the winding wheel on top of my camera where it met the tarmac and it was a little bent out of shape. Having learned a few skills with hammers over the years, I soon had it massaged back into shape and my Agfa Isolette still works as it should. My medium format roll of Kodak Gold didn't sit in my fridge for long, I packaged it with my 35mm roll and sent them to Analogue Wonderland for developing.
About a week later I got my scans and eagerly inspected them. My 35mm roll of Kodak Gold hadn't suffered from the few months it spent in my fridge awaiting developing. It looked nicely exposed and a memory came back to me. My Olympus OM-2 with Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens appeared in my thoughts and now I reckon that's what I used. Remembering that took some doing....
My 120 medium format roll of Kodak Gold surprised the heck out of me. Yep, I lost the first three frames and had one frame double exposed, but the rest turned out better than I had hoped for. 8 out of 12 isn't a bad hit rate considering I thought I had lost the entire roll when I dropped my camera.
I love the look of Gold in medium format, particularly in view of my camera being from the 1950's. The Agfa Agnar 85mm lens on my Agfa Isolette really does render vivid colour and a sharpness I didn't get with my 35mm efforts. Not that my 35mm shots are terrible. They are decent too and I'm going to be using more colour film as autumn progresses.
Here's a few favourites from my two rolls of Kodak Gold shot at both ends of summer 2025. I have placed them and more in albums on Flickr you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.
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