New Adventures in Lo-Fi

The last couple of weeks has seen a foray into film photography, resulting in seven films being despatched to Bangkok for processing. Excellent service from IQ Labs, such that they probably deserve a separate post, and soon seven batches of negatives arrived in Pattaya for my scanning enjoyment.

There are a few problems with the output. Firstly, the objective of shooting with the various film cameras was more about seeing how they performed, rather than picking good subjects to photograph. Secondly, my scanner is not a dedicated film scanner so the scanning results are sub-optimal. Finally, the sub-optimal scanning was not helped by my very amateur skills in that area.

But apart from that, the good news was that my 1950 Leica IIIC works fine. No light leaks, shutter speeds apparently pretty much accurate, and output as good as you might expect from a 64 year old lens.

Here are a few shots from that camera:

Also being tested was the loaned 1945 Luftwaffe Leica IIIC. With the same lens as my later model; the results were similar:

The second camera on loan was a Leica M6, a much modern machine than the IIIC with a bright viewfinder and an exposure metre (which worked fine except when someone left the camera switched on and flattened the batteries..). A more modern lens and lower ISO film gave a cleaner image:

Then there was a film from my Yashica TLR. Unfortunately it has a problem with the film advance mechanism which only gave me a few shots instead of the twelve you normally get with 120 film. But hey, Medium Format!:

Finally, a test film from a Contax T2 which I bought cheap and hope to sell for a large profit. Takes good photos but is really boring to shoot with because it is completely automatic. If I wanted easy, I would use digital.

And the most enjoyable camera to shoot with? The Leica IIIC shown above. The M6 was more competent, easier to use, and would produce better images; but the IIIC is tiny, charming and involving; and will still produce interesting, if not technically magnificent, photos. And there is something special about using a camera that is almost as old as me my father. More film has been loaded.

Thanks to S and R for trusting me with their precious Leica’s; very much appreciated.

Comments 🔗

2015-02-16 | Tic says

You will have a canon RF to test very soon ;p

2015-02-16 | rjmorgans says

A nice read. Interesting.

2015-02-17 | Grant says

Pleased to hear that the IIIC is proving so fulfilling. Next a new genre of retro photography entitled “Attic Trash Images”…

2015-02-17 | Spike says

Would love to come and photograph some of your “garage trash”.

2015-02-18 | Grant says

Photographing moribund obsolete garage trash with moribund obsolete attic trash? Sounds fine to me! Parry would be proud…