Shooting Film: My First Roll of 35mm film!

Welcome back Steemians!

Today I wanted to talk about my latest photographic adventure!

It started about a week ago when I was watching a documentary about film photography and it got me thinking, I had an older Leica point and shoot film camera sitting around that I never used. So I found it, checked the battery, saw it was dead, so I ordered a replacement battery and a 3 pack of Kodak Ultramax 400 film.

While waiting for my order to ship, I decided to dig up some other old film cameras I was gifted or scavenged for their lenses, and check them out.

I found the Canon Pellix, which is a unique camera that was released in 1965, we'll talk more about it later. I also found an old Nikon FM with a 50mm 1.4 lens in great condition.

So my main camera these days is my Sony A6000 that I shoot old Canon FD lenses on, and the Canon Pellix camera takes FD lenses. So I was debating which camera to test first, the Leica point and shoot, or the full manual Canon Pellix?

I decided on the Pellix. So I loaded it up, after watching a Youtube video on how to do so, and ran off to find one of my cats to test it on!

But let's step back for a second. The Canon Pellix was the first camera Canon released with TTL metering, and it was also a SLT camera, which means that instead of using a mirror that flips up, it uses a Pellicle mirror, which is a semi transparent mirror that stays in place. There are both pros and cons to this:

Pros: No mirror shake. Less moving parts. No viewfinder black out.

Cons: The mirror is very fragile. Since 1/3rd of the light is going to the viewfinder, you lose about a stop of light from your exposure. The viewfinder is pretty dim indoors with a slow lens. Large enough imperfections on the mirror will show up on the film.

So my main curiosity was to see if this camera even usable, mainly, that the mirror wasn't scratched up enough to show up on and ruin my film. Well, let's find out!

So I ran outside and found one of my cats to test on. I took a shot of one of them, then a shot of the other one. Then decided I should try to shoot this roll soon so I could develop it and see what the quality was like, as well as if this camera is working.

So I went down to my local pond and shot there for a bit, also did some exposure testing to see how well the film would handle over exposures, as well as if my phone light meter app was accurate or not.

I finished shooting and went to drop off the film at my local lab up the street. It's a family owned store, the older couple have been in business for 40 years! We chat a bit, and I pay, then realize they deliver on CD and I don't have a disc drive. I run home to grab a USB stick for them and then prepare to wait.

Two days later: Your photos are ready!

I head right over to pick up my negatives and my scans. Still wondering if anything came out, if they're all over exposed, or what other disaster they could be. I grab my bag and hurry home.

I load up the USB stick and......

Success! Wow! They all came out pretty great, minus subtle missed focus on a couple shots. So I'm going to share a couple more of my favorites from this roll and that'll be it for this post, but stay tuned, I have a lot more I want to talk my film experience so far! And in the meantime, don't forget to follow along with me on Instagram! or check out my Website! for more of my work and to purchase prints to support my work! Thanks!