johnriley1uk's latest blog : where i started - monochrome film

Where I started - Monochrome Film

johnriley1uk

I hope you enjoy browsing the images in my Portfolio - all comments are welcome!

Profile

Where I started - Monochrome Film

27 Aug 2020 12:25AM Views : 314 Unique : 209

When I commandeered my first camera, my Granny's Junior 620 Box Brownie, there was little choice. I bought Kodak Verichrome Pan film and the chemist had it processed and printed to En-print size. As a 9-year-old I could afford one film a year on holiday, maybe two, with just 8 shots per film. Things moved along as I got older and I splashed out £6.50 for a 35mm format Halina 35, complete with its almost immovable controls, no meter and really everything pretty much stacked against me. My first darkroom livened things up a bit and I moved to a 35mm rangefinder - the Konica Auto S2. Getting better all the time.

But my photography clicked in when I moved to SLR cameras. First of all the Zenit B, but eventually my first Pentax, the SP1000 with a Super Takumar 55mm f2 lens. Never looked back after that, and a whole new world opened up, one with endless information to find and with endless skills to strive for. We never learn everything there is to learn about photography, but we do get better.

So today I'm going to look at some scans of early camera club prints, made after I joined ADAPS about a million years ago. All monochrome as few people could afford the time or cost of producing colour.

Alison

Donna

Elise

Elizabeth

Kelly

Sarah

Anglesey Cottages

Derelict Farmhouse

Evening at Arneside

Leuven Town Hall

The Meeting

Comments

altitude50 16 20.5k

27 Aug 2020 10:09AM

Like 1

My first 35mm camera was a Voigtlander Vito B. I used it without a rangefinder and with no exposure meter for several years. I developed my own black & white films at first, but then took them into the local camera shop to get them d & p. Because printing was always a problem. (1950's)
It was not very long before I started using Agfa transparency film, CT 18 still with no exposure meter, never really missed it I still have many of the slides, they seem to survive better than colour prints.
My first camera with built in exposure meter came in 1980 (Canon AE-1) when I was using Ektachrome & Kodachrome and the odd Iford b/w.
I still like B/W and if I had room would set up a wet darkroom again and use 120 film rather than 35mm.

johnriley1uk Plus

16 28 6

27 Aug 2020 10:38AM

Like 0

Thanks for sharing. I've always liked Voigtlander cameras and once had a beautiful Bessamatic SLR. What I really fancied was a Bessa II with the Apo-Lanthar lens, but that was way out of my price bracket.

altitude50 16 20.5k

27 Aug 2020 12:03PM

Like 1

John, I now have a Bessamatic with a 50mm f2.8 Color-Skopar lens. Cost me about £20. The exposure meter needle moves and seems to be roughly accurate. About 3 years ago I used it with a Poundland Agfa Vista 24 exposure film at a classic car show in a big field in good weather, I sort of guessed the exposures. Every frame came out well with excellent colours and focused. Quite delighted. One or two gents came up to me and were genuinely interested in the camera.