Tuesday 28 April 2009

New Old Cameras (Part 2)

This camera thing may be turning into a slight addiction. It all started with my buying the Agfa Optima-Parat (from the post below). Then I saw a lovely old Kodak Retinette IB which I bought (ostensibly) for my girlfriend as a gift. Meanwhile I was pootling around on a few camera sites and I heard people raving about the Olympus Trip 35. I found one on eBay and made my first ever successful bid, for a grand total of £1.06. This is all starting to get a bit out of hand now, to date the total is as follows:

2 x Digital Compacts
2 x Automatic 35mm SLRs (about 10 years old)
1 x Agfa Optima-Parat 35mm (Half-Frame)
1 x Kodak Retinette IB 35mm
1 x Olympus Trip 35
1 x Fed 4 35mm ('borrowed' from my Mum many moons ago)
1 x tiny one-bed flat, rapidly filling up with the above
1 x angry girlfriend, weirdly ungrateful for her gift of the Kodak Retinette
About £40 in films, processing and CDs


I've just got my first test film back from the Olympus Trip and it's not too shabby. The shots haven't quite got the same charm as the Agfa, but it's good fun to use and feels great in your hand.






The aforementioned angry girlfriend, loving all the attention.

There's a few more shots up on my Flickr site. I'm still waiting to process two newer Agfa films after a bit of a mix-up at Boots (not sure their system is geared up for old half-frame cameras). It's still really good fun though, maybe just need to curb my spending a bit...

Wednesday 1 April 2009

New/Old Camera

Last week I treated myself to a secondhand Agfa Optima-Parat camera from Oxfam and just got my first roll of film back.


In many respects the camera should have been a complete nightmare: I had no idea whether the automatic light meter still worked and focusing is based entirely on distance which is a novelty to me. As it turned out these were precisely the reason it was so much fun to use. Not knowing if it worked meant I wasn't precious about the photos at all, and not having a tape measure (or any clue!) meant I had no idea if a shot would be in focus or not.


I've never been a great photographer, and this camera hasn't changed that by any means, but it has given me more enjoyment than I've had from using a digital camera for a while. The shots have that 60s/70s feel to them, with a certain warmth that is sometimes lacking from more polished digital shots. The only real downside was that it cost me twice as much to have them all processed as it did to buy the camera in the first place!


There's a rough selection of other shots on my Flickr page as well. If you're getting a bit jaded with your sexy, slimline 12 megapixel camera you could do a lot worse than popping down your local charity shop and taking a chance on some old kit instead....