Old Time Charm

There's something charming about those old-timey photos taken in film or instant film that just can't be replicated by Photoshop or digital lense filters.... Upon stumbling across several film photography blogs (here and here are two favs), I've fallen in love with analog photos, and I was eager to try it out myself. After  hours of late night googling, I finally decided to go with a Pentax k1000 that I picked up off of Amazon for $120. Now that I look back, I know I could have gotten a better deal, but I really wanted a camera that was guaranteed to work. 

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when I first saw the camera... all those knobs and numbers were not a familiar sight, having only touched a digital point and shoot all my life. This camera is completely manual, meaning that I had a lot of research to do. But don't worry, after going through several Youtube videos, I found the Pentax to be very simple to handle - even easier to handle than most digital cameras. There really is only three things to pay attention to - aperture, shutter speed, and ISO - and once you have those down, it's all about adjusting those knobs to make the light meter needle hit the middle. Super simple! It was so satisfying firing my first shot and turning the lever to reload the film. Being able to hear the ticks of the mechanisms and the crank of the lever is oddly gratifying. Now what I didn't realize was how expensive it can be to shoot in film. At minimum it costs about $10 to develop 24 exposures, and even buying film can rack up a big sum. The unexpected benefit of all this is the amount of thought that has to be put in taking one photo because an exposure = $$$.

The expensiveness of shooting in film is especially felt when shooting with the discontinued Polaroids that take only discontinued films. Although I found a Polaroid Onestep 600 at Goodwill for $5, the film itself cost me $30 for 8 exposures. I used Impossible Project's PX 680 film. If you want the original Polaroid film, it can run up to $100 for 10 exposures, since it's been discontinued. I can only hope that the price of this film drops soon; in the mean time I'm hunting for a Polaroid SX-70 so that I can take better pics with what little film I can buy.

Nevertheless I am extremely pleased with this camera! Sitting down at SF's Ferry Building for a break, I took the chance to load the film all the while praying that the clunky thing might work. Right when I clicked the cartridge in, it whirred to life and spat out a darkslide. Feeling ecstatic and lucky, I rushed outside of the building and snapped a shot off of the pier, then quickly emptied out my small leather purse and stuck the photo in. I was careful not to jostle it around while heading off to the Bart station. After thirty minutes, I dared to peek into my makeshift darkroom, and was crestfallen to see that the image was streaked in blue. But really, Impossible Project should change their instructions, as it took a full hour for the image to come out properly instead of the purported 30-40 minute wait time.  Seeing the saturated colors and slight vignetting on the final picture made me stupidly happy, even if the shot is over-exposed.

I also visited the Lomography shop near Union Square. The cameras are really cute, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to shell out $250 for a Lomo LC-A. For now I will stick to hunting the aisles of Goodwill.