Context
For me, digital is soulless. It’s quick, easy and delivers the results, but apart from chimping there’s no community involvement. Film on the other hand is a complicated arrangement. You buy your film from somewhere, preferably a local business. You then head out to shoot. Because film often encourages thinking before shooting, and because film shooters are rare these days, you end up engaging in conversations more often that not. (eg. “You still shooting film?!….My Grandfather had one of those…” etc. Occasionally you end up with someone offering their old “useless” film camera too you and the cycle of GAS [Gear Acquisition Syndrome] begins.)
Then you’ve got to do something with the exposed film. Wandering into a local lab provides more opportunity for conversation, and perhaps even another camera or two. While waiting for development (colour is done in 17 minutes) you can chat, or just reminisce about all those great films that used to exist. Then your film is done. Scan at the lab? Or at home? Whatever the case, it’s likely that you forgot about some shots that you took, and seeing them appear in print or on the screen reopens the bucket of magic that is shooting film all over again….
With this in mind, I thought it important to create a journey for those who may not know the joy of film. I created a flickr set and started the journey with a teaser. Using twitter as a news feed, I tried to create an experience, engaging my viewers/readers. For the purpose of this review it would be helpful to start at the beginning of the set and work your way through, clicking on the links as they appear. Sure that’ll take time, but in this digital age sometimes we need to slow down and soak things in. If you do that I promise the review below will make so much more sense. But before I continue here is the camera I used, a Yashica Samurai X3.0 half frame:
Dr. Lomo explains….
Some of you may have noticed that the_wolf_brigade’s flickr stream has been sporadically uploaded and varying in quality. This is because he has not been updating it personally. the_wolf_brigade, or more accurately “Mr. Wolf” as he is now addressed as, has been a guest of our facility for the last few weeks having been committed after being charged with photography related crimes. While the exact details of these crimes cannot be revealed due to the deal Mr. Wolf negotiated with the State, we have received clearance to release a transcript of the evaluation he received when he first entered our care. Some of the technical details may not make sense so we have added an explanation in square brackets. Portions of this transcript had to be removed for public release while hyperlinks have been added to make things clearer. The transcript has been reproduced below.
Begin transcript
Dr. Lomo: So the_wolf_brigade (may I call you Mr. Wolf? how did you end up here?
the_wolf_brigade: Yes. And you know how I ended up here. There were no witnesses.
Dr. Lomo: Well that’s true Mr. Wolf, but we need something on the record to indicate that you understand why you’re here.
Mr. Wolf: Well, you know that part of the condition of me getting a lighter sentence was that I plead guilty by reason of insanity, and that I not reveal the details of my crime. But, seeing as you want something on record, well, I don’t see what the problem with having GAS is. I like it.
Dr. Lomo: Well that may be so, but you have to understand that it’s not healthy. We can’t really help you unless admit you have a problem.
Mr. Wolf: But I don’t have a problem! I’m not a “fondler”. I use all my cameras. Anyway, it came in handy recently, having so many cameras. (Perhaps the reap what you sow idea was going a little too far though…)
Dr. Lomo: Owning more than one camera? I can’t imagine that being handy. How was it helpful?
Mr. Wolf: Well a blog that started me getting serious about photography in the first place is running a competition with the idea that you run a roll of film through a camera that cost less that $50 then review the camera, showing people that film can be rewarding. Only problem is, I got locked up in here before I could finish the project.
Dr. Lomo: Hmmm. Well, perhaps we might be able to help. Maybe the way to get you to recognise your problem is to work through it with you. Is there a prize for this competition?
Mr Wolf: Yes! A Diana+ and 10 rolls of delicious Ilford film….oh how I’ve longed to shoot some Ilford film on a Diana pinhole!
Dr. Lomo: I’m not so sure that helping you win another camera and related materials is going to help us cure your GAS, but I’m open to new techniques. I guess.So what’s left to do?
Mr. Wolf: I still had to write a review on my camera of choice and finish my roll.
Dr. Lomo: Perhaps I can help. What camera did you use?
Mr. Wolf: A Yashica Samurai X3.0.
Dr. Lomo: Pardon? A Samurai? Japanese?
Mr. Wolf: Yep. A samurai, though not the sharp kind. In fact, the lens suffers a little from lack of sharpness, though it has the benefit of being a half frame SLR, so not only is what you see what’s in the frame, but you’ve also got twice the opportunity to get the shot. Hehe.
Dr Lomo: A half frame is just a camera that shoots two frames on one standard size frame right? So the idea is that you get double the amount of shots per roll 48 instead of 24, 72 instead of 36 and so on. If you’re using both shots for the same subject then it kind of defeats the purpose of having a half frame in the first place. Why’d you buy one if the lens is so bad?
Mr. Wolf: Oh don’t get me wrong, the lens isn’t that bad, it’s just that being an auto focus only camera sometimes the focus misses. I bought it mainly because I loved the idea of being able to create diptychs [two photos that work together as a sequence] in camera – I’m a big supporter of getting the shot finished in camera rather than needing “fixing” after. I bought it….
Dr Lomo: Hang on, “fixing”? What do you mean by that?
Mr Wolf: By “fixing” I mean trying to fix an image by cropping or changing exposure etc.
Dr. Lomo: But aren’t diptychs a way of enhancing a shot? Ah never mind, how did you come to buy it?
Mr Wolf: I really wanted one of the Olympus Pen F line but they were going for absurd amounts of money. Next in line was the Canon Dial 35, or even the Bell and Howell variation but even they were going for way more than I could afford. Then I discovered the Samurai. Being a half frame it fitted the bill, though there didn’t seem to be any in Australia. The ones in the US were selling on ebay for a decent amount too. Then I found one in Germany….Anyway, long story. The short version is that it cost me $7AUS with $23AUS shipping and took a month and a half to arrive. The wait nearly drove me crazy!
Dr. Lomo: Ah so you do recognise you have a problem!
Mr. Wolf: No, it was just a phrase…
Dr. Lomo: Back to the camera then, have you had a chance to use it much? Any issues you have with it?
Mr Wolf: To date I’ve only put 3 rolls through it, including the roll for the competition in the 4-5 months I’ve owned it. My initial roll was slightly disappointing in that the shots looked too much like “snapshots”. No that there’s anything wrong with snapshots, but I wanted something more. Something that could convince me it was worth moving back to 35mm from 120/medium format. Now that I’ve put another few rolls though I understand why. It’s an auto everything camera. Auto focus, auto exposure and even relies on DX coding [whereby a sensor in the camera reads the barcode like markings on the film canister to set the film speed], meaning that there’s no way to compensate in the event that I want to under or over expose such as in the case of Xpro film. It also means that expired negative film comes out extremely underexposed. Well it did when I used a 3 year old roll of Centuria 800 anyway.
Dr. Lomo: Are you sure the bad results from the expired film weren’t your fault?
Mr. Wolf: Trust me. By now I know what I’m doing. Although…I did use a a 49mm [the size of the filter thread] polarizer for most of the roll which resulted in severe vignetting of the longer focal lengths of the 25-75mm lens [35-105mm in full frame equivalent] and may have caused some of the underexposure, but with a f3.5-4.3 lens with shutter speeds from 2 seconds to 1/500 the camera should have been able to compensate for the 2 stop loss of light that a polarizer causes. However the zoom motor did struggle to zoom in and out when I pressed the buttons with the filter on. I don’t think it’s very strong, but the auto focus has a pretty big kick to it – it’s louder than the mirror slap! [The sound caused when the mirror moves out of the way to allow the film to record the image on an SLR]
Dr. Lomo: Well perhaps knowing that the camera doesn’t compensate so well for filters might be an advantage. You mentioned that the prize for the competition was a Diana+? The ones sold by Lomography Society International (LSI)?
Mr. Wolf: Yep. One and the same. I know what you’re getting at, and I’m one step ahead. The roll I used for the project was some expired Ektachrome which I had cross-processed [the term used when transparency film designed to be processed in E6 chemicals to form a positive image is processed in normal colour negative chemicals, C41, resulting in higher saturation and varying colour shifts - almost a trademark of LSI. Also called Xpro]. I also used a polarizer on some of the shots to purposely underexpose and boost the Xpro results. Underexposure can often mean extra grain. Oh I love grain! So tasty! I also used a +10 close up lens from some of the shots as well.
Dr. Lomo: So you’re sucking up to the prize givers then?
Mr. Wolf: Not really. I mean perhaps to a certain degree, though I really love the unpredictable nature of Xpro. Playing up to the sponsors would have been using a Lomo style camera with some Ilford film.
Dr. Lomo: But with the characteristics you’re describing it could almost be a Lomo style camera.
Mr. Wolf: I suppose, but it doesn’t have any of those beautiful light leaks that are characteristic of Lomo cameras. It also has a built in flash with red eye reduction, night mode – though I haven’t been able to figure this out apart from it seems to offer the opportunity to use a longer shutter time rather than a flash – continuous shooting and a self timer. The continuous shooting mode can be used in conjunction with the self timer, though the self timer doesn’t have any indication of a countdown apart from a flashing light. It just seems to go off after a set period of time. Maybe 10 seconds? And the continuous shooting mode is a bit slow in it’s response. No good for machine gun like shooting digital style. Perhaps more a gimmick than a benefit.
Dr. Lomo: You seem reasonably unimpressed with it from that last bit about it.
Mr. Wolf: Well as half frames go it’s probably the most dodgy, but it is the cheapest option to enter the half frame field. It’s quite exciting seeing all those little shots lined up on the strip of processed film.
Dr. Lomo: Well it seems you know a fair bit after only 3 rolls! You must do your research. You’re rumoured to have a large collection of cameras already, why on earth would you want to win more?
Mr. Wolf: I’ve wanted a Diana+ for a long time, primarily because of the pinhole option. I love medium format pinhole shots – they make me weak at the knees! And Ilford! Man I love the Delta 100 and the 3200. Opposite ends of the spectrum to be sure, but when pared with Ilfords Mircorphen developer the results need to be seen to be believed! The grain structure is …
[At this point the analysis turned into Mr. Wolf raving about the benefits of Ilford films paired with Ilford developer and various other film geek related ravings.]
End transcript
Clearly Mr. Wolf has the worst case of GAS that I have personally encountered. To be sure there is worse, but I haven’t had the opportunity to study such an advanced case before. In the event that he wins that Diana+ and film combination I fear that there will be no end to the money he will sink on the LSI website. He was already talking about how great it would be to be able to shoot 35mm panoramas using the 35mm back for the Diana+ that he saw for sale on the LSI website. It’s possible that my first major case may be my most successful failure.
As per the competition requirements we have allowed him to create a slideshow of his results which I have posted below. With 75 frames (well, he did mention film had magical qualities) to show, it would be too much to post on his flickr account. Granted there is some camerapr0n and some missed focus, although his shots show a unique bland of dedication to experimentation as well as family orientated memory recording.
However, I must persevere. After all, the future of the GAS Research Institute is at stake here. Mr Wolf has kindly offered his services as an advisor should anyone have any film related questions. Please do not hesitate to contact the Institute via the email listed at the top of this post. It is my hope that he realises that GAS only leads to a road of ruin.
If you wish to learn more about the services we offer, or you have a donation of photographic equipment or film to aid us in our quest to cure the syndrome more commonly referred to as GAS then please do not hesitate to contact us at “gas at doctor.com“.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Lomo
GAS Research Institute, Australia.
(Any association of my name with the LSI is purely a happy coincidence.)
The roll of film….
