For the easily distracted…

19 November 2012

Not bad for 40p…

This camera is actually part of my 12 for 2012 series, but honestly, out of 12, I’ve used 8, so I think this project may be a bit of a fail.

Thomas’s Dad managed to find the body of this Olympus OM-40 camera on a market for 40p. 40p!! I kid you not. He’s my hero. Luckily I already had my Dad’s OM-10 camera, so I just borrowed the lens from that to try this beauty out. I was a little worried about the shutter on this camera as it does seem to stick sometimes, but out of a roll of 24, 21 photos came out, so I don’t think its a huge issue, though it is something I would want to try and fix before using it again.

Overall, I am really excited about these photos as playing with the aperture settings on a camera and getting close up detail shots is one of my favourite things (see my first experimentation with them here) even if I don’t do it that often.

Hurray for f/1.4 and depth of field in close up shots. I just love love love these.I’m also fairly impressed that the £1 Kodak ISO 200 film I used to try out this camera captured the hazy light so wonderfully too. A success overall I think!

Location: Rodley Nature Reserve, Leeds
Camera: Olympus OM-40
Film: Kodak ISO 200

14 September 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 7

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection. I am a little behind on these but I’m catching up and as long as I get 12 cameras done by the end of the year I’ll be happy.

I found this little plastic camera in a charity shop in Norfolk for 99p, I haven’t been able to find much out about it but it is kind of cute.

The photos are a little hit and miss from this camera I think, some are in focus and others aren’t at all, even though it has a fixed lens.

I don’t think I’ll be using this camera again in a hurry, which is a shame as I do like finding quirky plastic cameras but I do have many others that I prefer the results from. Still I guess they aren’t too bad for 99p.

Camera: PCI-1000
Film: Kodak 200
Location: Leeds

16 August 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 6

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection. I am a little behind on these but I’m catching up and as long as I get 12 cameras done by the end of the year I’ll be happy.

I’m quite excited about this camera, the Olympus XA2, I’d seen Angie’s photos and review of it and it immediately went on my list of cameras that I wanted to get.

I finally got my hands on one a couple of months ago (thanks Adam!) and I’ve enjoyed taking it out with me. Here are some my results.

I tried to be quite experimental with the photos I took with this camera, it has a flash so I tried that, I also used it inside without the flash, outside in the rain, outside in the sunshine… I wanted to get a feel for it and when I would want to use it and overall I’m quite excited about it, the flash is a great feature for if you want to capture family moments and I like the results on duller days too. Definitely a contender for regular use I think.

You can see the other cameras that I’ve used this year here.

Camera: Olympus XA2
Film: Random Chinese ISO 200 film
Location: Leeds

9 August 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 5

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection. I am a little behind on these but I’m catching up and as long as I get 12 cameras done by the end of the year I’ll be happy.

I’m really very excited to be sharing this camera with you, it is the Double Dip by James Butler , a custom toy camera with an added multiple exposure switch – you can read more about the Double Dip here. I’d seen some results around the internet before I took any photos and I was fairly excited about taking this little silver baby out and I was not disappointed!

How fun is this camera? I love double exposures, I usually try to take my holga or diana with me when I go somewhere new but I’ve never had a camera dedicated to just multiple exposures alone, I think this camera will be going with me to new places now too.

I decided to post this today as 5 more Double Dip cameras are going on sale tomorrow at 9.30am GMT and if you love these results as much as I do,
I don’t think you’ll want to miss out!

You can also follow James on Twitter for more immediate information tomorrow morning.

Camera: James Butler’s Double Dip
Film: Lomo CN 400
Location: Leeds.

29 May 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 4

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection.

Yes, I might have missed a camera in April… we’ll ignore that :) I can do two next month perhaps?
Also, it’s ok because this camera (and its results) are exciting!!!

I’ve actually had this camera – a polaroid automatic 340 land camera – for a while now (perhaps a year, maybe more) and I’m now feeling like I’ve wasted the time that I’ve had with it as I love it so much already!

I’ve really struggled with polaroids in the past and I’ve never been able to find that micarulous balance with the Impossible Project film that others seem to find so beautifully. But finally I’ve found a polaroid that works for me and it works incredibly well!!

Apart from when I haven’t checked that the battery is properly plugged in… oops. I was a little upset with this first picture but luckily, it was just the battery that was the problem and…

Ta da! A photo is born!
{Please ignore our crazy long grass, annoyingly our landlord mowed it that afternoon after I’d taken this photo. I still love our garden though. And our washing line!}

I’m so impressed with the focus on this camera – it has a rangefinder focus, which I’ve never used before but I loved. I also love the contrast that comes with the Fuji FB-3000B film, I was a little wary of the 3000 ISO but this film is blowing my mind! I’ve ordered some colour film too (I’m weak, I have a film problem) and I can’t wait to see how those look when I use it now too.

I even attempted a double exposure with this camera but I seriously underestimated how sunny it actually was at the weekend and it came out very overexposed, I am thrilled that it worked though and now I know what to do for next time…

Camera: Polaroid Automatic 340 Land Camera
Film: Fujifilm FP-3000B
Location: Leeds

You can see the other cameras that I’ve used this year here.

2 April 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 3

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection.

I’ll admit that March’s camera nearly didn’t happen… I had an idea to use one of my unused 35mm cameras, but the month flew by and it got to last weekend and I realised… oops, it’s 31st of March.
Luckily for me, earlier in March the Impossible Project film and polaroid camera that I won from One Pearl Button arrived (Thank you so much again Alli!) and I decided that March was the month to try it!

Rather than using the camera that arrived with the film (I think I’ll pop the B&W film in there) I decided to try out the first polaroid camera that Thomas found for me in 2009, I remember being so excited about it at the time so it seems unbelievable to me that I still haven’t used it…

Overall, I’m undecided on these photos… I love polaroids but I think that I love other photographers polaroid results more than I ever like my own. How do they do it?! These results to me look really green (and I’m not a fan of green in photos) and I am still disappointed by the undeveloped patches (apparently a known problem to The Impossible Project but still…) especially in that last photo, there should have been a beautiful blossom tree there.

Perhaps I’ll get the hang of them eventually. Or perhaps I’ll leave it to the more patient experts…

Camera: Polaroid P 600

Film: Impossible Project PX680 Colour Shade

Location: Kirkstall Abbey

13 March 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 2

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection.

February’s camera (this post is a little late… oops) is an Exacta 135 that I got from my friend Adam. I probably could have used it in better lighting conditions but it was February and it snowed. Overall I’m happy with the results and honestly, just glad that more photos came out than the first 12 for 2012 camera.

These photos were taken in Manchester as part of the Lomo meet up.

I still haven’t started my camera for March – how bad is that? I took so many photos last month that I haven’t really felt the need to take any in the last two weeks – I still have half a roll in my Yashica and Diana Mini to finish too. I’ve found it is best if I don’t force myself to take photos if I don’t fancy it though – I just end up taking bad photos and that’s worse than taking none…

Camera: Exacta 135
Film: Kodak Elitechrome iso 100
Location: Manchester

17 January 2012

12 for 2012 – Camera 1

As part of my ‘take more photos’ goal for this year – I decided that I wanted to use more of the cameras that I haven’t actually used before in my collection.

So, first up is my little yellow plastic camera. One of my best friends bought me this in a box of cameras and I’ve only just got round to using it.. I didn’t expect much from it to be honest and unfortunately the roll of film did get stuck in it, so it only produced 6 photos in the end.

I think that the film just stopped rolling on and thats why the two halfs of that film are white as they have been exposed so many times… which is such a shame as overall I really like the results – for a little point and click 35mm, it was fun, effortless and the results look great with an even contrast and a nice grain.

Perhaps I’ll try another film in it before the month is out!

Camera: Yellow Focus Free 35mm Plastic Camera
Film: Kodak ISO 200
Location: Leeds.

p.s. Also, I think this project is going to be fun, don’t you?