Analogue photography

Ever since I got two old cameras for my birthday last year, I’ve been drawn more and more towards analogue photography. You know, the kind that involves negatives and chemical processing, and where you don’t have to worry about getting dust on your sensor. There is a certain mistery in not knowing how the photo will turn out to be. There really is a thrill in cycling to the photo store and looking at the negatives on their light table. Also I seem to stay more “in the flow” while shooting, rather than breaking it by inspecting the LCD display. This worked very well for the shoot with Selina. And finally I just love the look of real black & white photos made with old optics!

There are downsides, of course. The major one is that it seems to be impossible to scan an entire negative without having one or two cat hairs on them…

My photo gear page hasn’t been moved to my new site yet. For those who are interested, this is the analogue gear that I actively use:

Meopta Flexaret IV

A twin-lens reflex camera from the 1960's; it was built somewhere in 1961-67. It eats 120 film and makes square photos. It has two 80mm lenses; one to look through and one to make the photo with.

Chinon CS

A 35mm SLR built in 1979. I mostly use it with an Auto Revuenon 50mm f/1.7 lens and a Chinon 28mm f/2.8.

Film-wise my favourite is Kodak Tri-X 400. It has a nice contrast and grain; I just love the look! If that isn’t available, I shoot with Ilford HP5+ 400. Still have to make up my mind about those two; I haven’t shot enough of either to really have a strong opinion one way or the other.