# 19 Back to film Photography

It has been more than 15 years that I haven't used my Film SLR Camera. It's a Canon Elan 7 (Eos 30) that replaced my first SLR when Digital Camera were in the lead and nobody wanted the old Film Camera. The last time, I lived in Paris and I had used it around Christmas to «capture» the atmosphere around the big department stores. I used a black and white film (Fuji or Kodak) and I had the film developed by a professional lab in my neighborhood. Now I use a digital bridge camera (one of the last from Fuji) or a compact camera from Panasonic/Lumix. I don't want to use a DSLR because of the problems of dust with the change of lenses, etc... I know everything changed with dust removal systems or hybrid cameras. I don't have much time to practice photography. Sometimes for a travel but I travel less now. 

But I had suddenly a desire to do film photography when I have followed the hashtag #filmphotography on Mastodon. It's only a leisure for me, perhaps a little passion but I know what I have to practice and what I'm not good at in that activity. I don't want to buy another camera because all my cameras are still working (A fantastic bridge from Kodak with only 5Mpixels and an excellent lens). The first step was to find batteries, that old CR123...Easy but expensive (€ 6 to € 12 for the 2 batteries). But the most difficult to find is...Film ! The younger reader has probably no idea of what it can be. Just a roll of a brown plastic in a small colored cylinder that you put in the back of the camera, where there is no screen !… Some like to call that «argentique» photography in french because it uses silver halide (silver is «argent» in french). I had to find an old photography shop in a town next to my home. An old photographer lives here and will maybe die there like «The Last of the Mohicans». I co
uld have bought it online but for just one film, it's more expensive. It's now from 7 to 15 euros for a film of 36 pictures. Film photography is an expensive hobby. 

I had lost my habits and reflexes with my camera. I had to read the manual a little to check all the functions. But it's so much easier than my Fuji Bridge for examples. No format choice or White balance, or histogram on the screen. You just have aperture and speed and the autofocus points. This camera is 23 years old and it starts to have little bugs with electronics. The manual/AF switch of my 50 mm f1,8 lens has troubles. The AF is sometimes difficult to wake up and I miss some pictures with that. Maybe a revision could solve that but I will be expensive and difficult to find someone for that. I love the magical of film photography because you don't know what the result will be. So you have to think more, to check your speed or aperture, what is in your viewfinder, etc… Sometimes it's a good surprise, sometimes it's a deception. That's life and when you see it, it's to late to make another picture because it's a few days or weeks after.

So, now, let's talk about the result of that first film. It last less than 30 picture because I had some issues with that old SLR. I have understood why and that's about oxidation of contacts between the lens and the camera. You can understand why I love bridge camera. You can see some examples in the link at the end of the post (1). I Had some Focus problems as I expect. Light was right for most of the pictures. I did some pictures with a strong backlight and It was nos fine for two of them. Pictures of my cats were great with a great light at this moment. The grain and the contrast of the TMax400 are as I expect. What I wanted with this «try» film, was to describe an atmosphere of fall in a small town in the far suburbs of Paris. That's OK for me but there is a lot of work to make it better. I made a mistake by chosing Aperture Priority and a too small value for what I did. It's not a matter of Autofocus or Manual Focus but a matter of Depth of field. To practice and practice again with a camera is the o
nly secret.

My ideal film camera is not that one. I'm a great fan of black and white picture and street photography. I love rangefinder cameras but not the expensive Leica M. I thought that I couldl use the old Agfa Optima (2) that my mother used for years. No battery, no priority, just a good f 2,8 / 45mm lens. So many souvenirs with that camera...but it's past because she threw it away.  And perhaps will I sell my old SLR and keep only my digital cameras like that. The Lumix had problems on the lens with a sand grain. Not a reason to throw it away because everything is working. The DSLR are now changing to mirrorless technology. The magical of photography is no more with that type of camera for me. I'm perhaps nostalgic and a big lover of classic black and white photography...I have made many pictures in Digital Black and White, now. So, I'm waiting to have time to make it fine.

=> https://www.cheziceman.fr/2022/pfbanlieue/ (1) : Portfolio
=> http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Optima (2) : The Agfa Optima

=> mailto:icemanfr@sdf.org Comments by mail
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