Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013
Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013
Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013
All pictures taken with: Olympus Pen E-PL3 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 ASPH.
Yesterday I spent quite some time taking pictures with the analog equivalent to “no card”. The day before yesterday I thought that the roll wasn’t full yet. Well, what actually happened was that the film ripped at the end of the roll and it seemed to be advancing in a fairly normal manner still. After a while it got clear though that the film just can’t have 50 frames. Lucky me that this roll was precisely the one I was supposed to develop myself – there would have been no way to rewind it to give it to a lab. The whole process of developing is quite crazy by the way, using scissors in complete darkness, messing about with highly toxic chemicals, precise timing required for shaking, stirring and what not. So much fun! The film is now hanging to dry in the lab and I only had a very quick glance at the frames. So far I can only tell you that I was doing alright with my light meter. Since this was my main problem area with the Zorki I’m actually pleased already, no matter what’s actually on the roll.
As you can hear, I got very excited about this mess! And I realised that it would be really easy to do at home as well. My bathroom has no window, so getting it completely dark is very easy indeed and it generally doesn’t need much equipment at all. A developing tank, a couple of reels, some film clips for the drying, some measuring cups and some chemicals, developer, fixer, antistatic. That’s really not much at all. So, last night I ordered a batch of all that. I already have 4 rolls lined up for developing, so I can’t wait to get started!
looking forward to the results 🙂
Me too, Karina 🙂 I’m not exactly holding my breath since I’m really not used to the Zorki yet, but maybe there are a couple of ok frames on the roll.
I was meaning to ask you: What camera do you use?
Nikon D90, usually with primes – 50 and 85, depending on what and whom I shoot.
Really, 85mm? Seems like an odd length on a crop sensor. Or are those primes made for the crop factor? I don’t know the Nikon system, but with my Canon on the 1.6x crop sensor I tend to use 35mm and 50mm. I guess those frame roughly like 50mm and 85mm lenses. Ah, confusing 😉
Like the others I can’t wait to see them. I haven’t developed film in years, but it sure was fun when I did!!!
Ah, so you also developed your own film in the past! Which was your favourite film type? I’m still torn between Ilford HP5+ and Kodak Tri-X. I think every photographer should learn analog stuff at some point. It’s great that there is digital technology, but sometimes I think it makes things a little too easy even.
Ya know…I tried Ilford a few times, but I seem to remember using mostly the Kodak films. It was a matter of availability mostly.
There are only two reasons I can’t wait to go back home – to play with my dog and to grab my dad’s old analog…:)
Ah nice! Well, the old analog cameras in my mum’s house were the fully automatic crap that I used as a kid. What camera does your dad have?
We have Nikon FE2 and Smena8. I guess I’ll try out both of them, altough Smena has one great advantage – it’s small so I could take it with me wherever, unlike my Nikon D90 which sometimes is not the most comfortable option… If it’s still working because I used to play with it as a kid
Even if it’s broken, I’m sure you can find a great little film camera used online. I bought my Zorki for a steal off ebay. The Smena doesn’t seem to have a very fast lens anyway with f/4. I’m sure there are better options out there 🙂 By the way, since I have my small Olympus Pen E-PL3 my big Canon has been sitting on the shelf. It’s great to have a small camera to always take with you.