johnvanr
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 p.1 #1 · Impressions after dealing with six rolls of film... | |
Take this with a grain of salt, please. There is no consistent testing behind this. It's just my impressions after developing a load of film I had sitting in different cameras. The only consistent elements are:
- all B&W film was developed using the Cinestill Monobath developer/fixer (something I had never used before);
- everything was shot and developed by me, which is a key element of this exercise.
I finally decided to shoot all the rolls still lingering in various cameras: one roll in an Olympus OM 4ti, one roll in a Minox 35 ML, one roll in some old Zeiss Ikon 6x6 camera, one in a Mamiya RB67, one in a Zenza Bronica SQ-A and one in a Yashica Mat 24G. All rolls were 400 ISO, though some were Tri-X and some were Ilford HP5+.
The most important element is me. I rediscovered why digital is much better for me, merely because I'm impatient and about as unscientific as they come. Unless I really felt I had to, I didn't really get the development temps 100% right, meaning that the grain showing on the different rolls is not consistent at all. In my defense, with some cameras it was clear something was wrong and I didn't care that much about the actual results anymore.
Anyway, I won't go into too much detail. Either I screwed up or something was wrong with the camera, but that age-old Zeiss Ikon only had two images exposed and those were both images with multiple exposures on one frame. So, probably weird stuff with the film advance, not helped by the fact that I left the film in there forever and didn't do any consistent testing.
The Minox 35 ML clearly had metering issues. The Olympus didn't. But why shoot 35mm film when I can get so much more out of digital in the same kind of package. The Minox goes back to being a shelf item in my limited camera collection museum, while the Olympus may feature once in a while, because I did like the tactile feeling of using that camera.
I screwed up one of the rolls out of the Mamiya, probably by developing at too high a temperature. The grain is not a nice pattern. Even then, not sure there's a point for me using that heavy a kit for the 'fun' of using old gear. That's more or less also true for the Bronica. The files came out fine, but the camera is less intuitive than the Mamiya and I'm not sure I enjoy it enough.
Now I did really enjoy the Yashica, because it's so small and light, yet delivers nice 6x6 goodness.
One overriding conclusion, though, was that my approach to dealing with film is wrong (for my purposes). Since my main gear is now all digital, the role for film is mostly to slow me down and deliver a tactile feeling that digital often doesn't deliver. For that, I shouldn't shoot film at 400ISO. I should shoot at 100ISO, so I really do need to slow down and at the same time, optimize the film files. 400ISO was fine in my actual film days and if I want that edgier look now, but it's not the right default film choice for me based on the role film plays for me now.
For now, all film cameras are empty. I still have some film sitting in the fridge, all 400ISO. I probably fill the Yashica soon, but the other cameras will be used more sparingly. I also need to be much more deliberate when I shoot film again and especially when I develop film. I probably will abandon the Monobath, because it allows me a flexibility that's not optimal for the highest quality files when combined with my impatience and unscientific mindset.
I'm sharing this just for fun and purely as my experience. I know results could be much different and that this is all purely based on MY attitude and (with few exceptions) not on any particular piece of gear or product.
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