Yashica Mat 124G: 3 Rolls

Besides the digital photos I normally post, I also like to slow things down and shoot film. I purchased my first medium format camera, a Yashica Mat 124G, from Awesome Cameras. Joey has such a great collection of cameras up for sale, so go check out his site! The next step of course was finding someone I trusted to develop my negatives. I took my first test roll to Milford Photo and was not happy with the results of the scans, so I asked some film people who they used. These three rolls of film were developed and scanned by Old School Photolab. You order your developing/scanning online, print out a free shipping label, slap your film in an envelop and away they go. They have a free online gallery where you can download high res scans or you can have them burned onto a disc. They mail you back the negs in protective sleeves. They were a pleasure to work with and I plan to send all my film to them in the future. I shot three different types of film, some of them going back to February of this year, and Old School Photolab did a great job on all types.

Lomography Earl Grey Black and White, ISO 100

I really love the contrast and dark blacks this film produces.

Fuij Pro 400H Color Film

Double exposure fun time!

Ilford Delta 3200 Black & White

These came out a little light, but I remember I used to have this film pushed when I shot its 35mm counterpart, so I might try that next round.

A few of the photos have a sepia tone. This was a glitch when I uploaded them online with my watermark. I don't know why because they don't have this tint on the screen. Let's blame Blogger on that one.

As with any film camera I carry, people get really excited when they see me taking pictures with it. I'm still struggling with the image in the camera being reversed, but my manual focusing has improved a ton. My particular camera's light meter is broken, so I usually have a digital with me as a back up to meter. While it costs more than digital, film expenses and developing/scanning, it's always useful to slow myself down and really think about composition. Besides, you can't beat producing double exposures in camera.

Yashica Mat 124-G Test Roll

I've always wanted a medium format camera, so I finally bought one from Joey, the amazing man behind Awesome Cameras. I put a test roll of Fuji Pro 400 in the camera, just to make sure the camera was in working condition, and attacked my friends. The battery for light meter in the camera was long dead and they aren't made anymore, but that didn't stop me from shooting. As I'm relearning the Sunny 16 rule, I brought along my EOS M as a back up meter. For the most part, my exposures were spot on, erring on the side of over exposed which is completely salvageable once the negs were scanned. Since I wanted the roll scanned quickly, I brought it to Milford Photo; development and scanning ran me about $20. I'll be looking for a better price online.

What I learned from the test roll was that I need to work a bit more on my focusing. I've definitely gotten spoiled by my SLR's auto focus. I learned that I'm not as steady as I once was with slow shutter speeds; the picture of Steve indoors has a bit of camera shake blur in it at 1/60th of a second. Some of my compositions are a bit off because I wasn't sure if what I was seeing in the view finder was what the camera would really take. There was a slight hiccup in the film winding after the first picture of Addy, which caused me to lose a frame at the end of the roll. Other than that, I really like the bokeh of the lens and was pretty happy with the results, especially in the picture of my mom.

 Donna (Hey, her sweater is sharply in focus)

 Mario (Way too much dead space)

 Steve (Slow shutter speed)

 River of Ice

 Addy 1 (With a slight light leak on the bottom of the frame during winding issues)

 Addy 2 (Poorly focused)

 Flowers

 Mom

Hurricane Lamp (how did I not notice the bottle of Alkalol in this shot?!?!)