Film, Lets Give it Another Go.
So for a while now i’ve wanted to invest in a nice film camera and get back into what brought me into this hobby to start with years ago.
What made me finally take that step was when i saw my niece Monique, she had a film SLR around her neck. I was a little surprised when i first noticed it, but thinking about it the idea of film would be new and exciting to someone young who never grew up shooting on it.
So she had the Olympus OM-10 that she found at her great grand mothers house in a box with a bunch of other old film cameras that her great grand father used to own. That was it the spark was lit, being a Fuji guy now i thought id look at what options Fuji had in the form of 35mm SLR’s. So began my eBay search, what i thought would be a good first step is the Fujica AX-1 which is the entry level of the series with the AX-5 being the big brother of the lot. What made me buy the Fujica AX-1 in the end was the fact i came across a mint example with a 50mm f1.6.
2 weeks later and i had this awesome little AX-1 in my hands.
I bought a bunch of Fujifilm film from Walkens. Some Fujifilm Acros, Provia, Fujicolor Industrial to test it with. The first roll was a bit rough as i got used to the camera and understanding how the focus prism worked, so yes a number of shots were out of focus. This camera doesn’t have a full manual mode but to be honest i don’t think i would use it in full manual just yet, there would have been many more unusable images if i had. So i just used it in aperture priority and let the camera handle the shutter speed, good thing is that it has a light meter so you can get a good idea of exposure and whether your going to get blurry shot from slow shutter.
After my 3rd roll through the camera I’m now feeling more comfortable with it, and understanding it much better.
Its extremely refreshing going from digital where you can spray and pray that you’ve got a shot, to really slowing it down and thinking whether the shot is worth taking or not because you only have 24-36 shots in your roll. If it is then thinking about your aperture and what/how much you want in focus to confirming whether your shutter speed is high enough to get a sharp image. By then you’ve thought about your composition and maybe adjusted already. Mirrorless cameras with the EVF systems they have make photographers even lazier (but hard to go back when you have used one with EVF :-P).
Film can really be a format that can bring you out of a time when your really struggling to want to pick up your camera, more so after you’ve picked up the prints. Definitely need to have prints done, it wouldn’t complete the process otherwise. I used Digital Camera Warehouse in the Sydney CDB for all of my film development, scans and prints and really happy with the results.
So if your struggling for inspiration, checkout eBay, your local 2nd hand store or your grand parents house for a film camera that might bring that mojo back.
Check out the rest of the images in my Film Collection.
Note: Im not affiliated with any of the companies or brands mentioned, just like using them and pay for their products and services out of my own money.
Thanks for visiting.
