Analog photography adventures

It's often tempting to get 35mm camera, because they are cheap, easily accessible, film and processing is also relatively cheap. However, when I look back at my photos, it's clear that medium format delivers better look.   Of course, medium format is more expensive: cameras can be extremely expensive (or cheap, but with low quality optics). Film is about the same as 35mm, but you get less frames per roll, so it's more expensive. Processing is not expensive and it can be done at home, but then requires time and effort. Overall, there is no clear winner, but I came to a conclusion that instead of wasting time on 35mm, it's better to spend the money on medium format film. The end result will be much more pleasing to the eye. One other aspect of this is that many 35mm (and medium format) cameras are prohibitively expensive not because they are so great, but because they are either extremely rare or they got a cult status because of wide coverage on the web. The more

When looking for a decent, functional analog camera which delivers good results, I came across Yashica Electro 35. There are many versions of this camera, which have some minor differences, but the GT version was the easiest one for me to get. I did a lot of research on it, turned out that the battery for it is no longer available and replacements have to be used, but overall, there was nothing stopping me from using this camera. The first thing I noticed when I first laid my hands on it was the size of it - I expected it to be smaller! The camera is almost the size of a DSLR - it's on the big side, I wouldn't call it compact. The good thing is that the camera is very well built. All the dials, knobs... well, actually there aren't any, this is a simple camera where you can set focus and aperture, nothing more! Either way, the camera looks solid. Just got the camera and haven't shoot anything but will post something as soon as I get some pics. This is a rang

Before buying my scanner I did a lot of research and finally went for EPSON V550. I knew a lot about this model, read a lot of positive reviews, but there were still couple of things that surprised me. 1. Standard frame holders don't allow to scan negative with border This was slightly disappointing, as I wanted to do couple of those fancy images where entire area of negative is visible, including all the film markings outside of picture. It turned out that this is not possible when using frame holders that came with the scanner, even though scanning area is big enough to include them. Workaround for this is to make your own frame holder, which is not very convenient to use. This applies to both, medium format 120 film as well as 135 film. This might not be a big issue, however, some cameras, like Fuji GA645 imprint exposure information on the area outside of picture, so you can later see at what aperture, shutter speed, date and time particular picture was taken - such in