I may have found a film that works for me. Although it remains to be seen whether it worked out for the indoor shots I took the other day. I have not quite finished that roll. But I did take a complete roll of 36 during my photo school weekend (I am currently studying for a diploma at Prager Fotoschule in Linz), and I have to say, so far I like the result of this film quite a bit. It has much finer grain than the others I tried, which of course also has to do with the comparatively low ISO.
Again, I took the photos on Reinhard Prenn´s Yashica Electro 35, and this time I used a sun hood to avoid light coming in, something that had happened in a few shots on the previous roll. The hood worked well, although the experience of shooting with it was somewhat disconcerting. Remember, this is a rangefinder camera, the viewer is to the left of the lens, and so when you stick on the sun hood, it sticks right into the viewfinder, blocking the view of the right edge of the image you are trying to frame. Plus, it made me really worried that it might be causing some vignetting. The hood that comes with the camera folds, so I pushed it only halfway out of sheer nervousness. Well, the pictures did not have any vignetting, so I guess it is safe to use the hood, ha!
The colours were really well saturated in bright sunshine, especially the reds pop a lot. To me they look almost too saturated, but of course it depends on the medium. I am sure that in print it will be more muted than on my monitor. With aperture 11 and 8 there is a satisfying sharpness to the images. You can see that on the cover image, which I took at f.11.
In shade or soft light, on the other hand, the colours become almost pastel, the contours soft, but in a way that I like. They have a retro feel to them, there is not that much contrast, all things that could be fixed during processing if one wanted to, but I am showing here the images as they were scanned by the lab that processed the film in their automatic scanner, without any adjustments made.
What did not work out at all was to shoot free-hand at night. Because the camera operates in aperture mode and adjust exposure time automatically, I have no idea what it chose, but it was obviously too long to hold. I am so used to my digital camera, which has great image stabilisation that allows me to shoot free-hand at night. I have to accept that I just cannot do low light shots with this one without a tripod or setting the camera at least on a stable surface.
In any case, I will shoot with this film again, but I also want to try out others. My aim is really to try several types of film with the same camera. And then try the same films in other analog cameras. And, as Reinhard pointed out to me, that alone is not enough to see a true comparison I would also have to try different lenses on the same camera with the same film, because the glass you use is another aspect that can change the way the film reacts.
Ah, so much to try out! This is turning into a bit of a complicated hobby. But I love it.
P.S.: If you want to see more from this camera and have not seen my previous blog posts with the black and white car pictures, you can check it out.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS © 2022 KARIN SVADLENAK-GOMEZ
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