A geek and his camera: 12 months of film review

I said I would write a final piece regarding my twelve months of film project, and so here it is.

It's been a hugely enjoyably year, reacquainting myself with some old SLRs, and discovering many others. There have been a few surprises along the way, but I can genuinely say that I have enjoyed every single minute of the project, and have rediscovered a love for film photography, something I never expected would happen. Whilst I predominantly use digital cameras in my day to day photography work, I find that I tend to grab a film SLR from the shelf and pop it into my bag for fun days out. They've also started to creep into my work bag, and I can see that before long, I will be using one whilst shooting a wedding. Scary stuff!

I love the clean look of digital images, but there is something about the look of a photograph captured on film that keeps me wanting to use the format. Just as audiophiles will tell you, quite rightly, that vinyl sounds better than a CD, ( I still have my record players and a small selection of vinyl ) so film has a certain look and feel, that digital just can't replicate. Some people say film is better than digital or digital is better than film, but I reckon that both are great formats in their own right, and both deserve a place in your camera bag. So, if you've read all of my twelve months of film entries, you will know that I have tried twelve different film SLRs over the course of the past year, some familiar, some most definitely not. But now that the project is over, out of the twelve, which one is most likely to accompany me on wedding shoots, as well as fun days out?

Firstly, to be clear. There wasn't a bad camera amongst them. They all worked well, after human error was taken out of the equation. Some were slower to use, (the older cameras in particular) and a bit of a faff, but that was their design, and nothing more.

The first camera of the twelve was the Praktica BX20, the one I was most familiar with. I love this camera, it just gets on with it. I would be tempted to use this camera at weddings as it doesn't feel as though it would let me down, but although I'm not going to rate the cameras 1-12, this doesn't quite make the top spot, possibly because it wasn't quite tactile enough, being made of a hard plastic and of quite angular design. The Fujica STX-1 was a cracking find, lovely condition and beautifully made, but its 1/700th fastest shutter speed, whilst completely usable, would be reason enough to put me off using the camera every day. The Miranda Sensorex II was an absolute beast, vying for heaviest camera with the Russian built Zenit TTL, but both the Zenit and the Miranda were just a bit too slow in operation for me to consider using them on a daily basis. The Miranda is a camera I'm really glad I purchased, as I've heard they are very desirable amongst the Japanese collectors, especially when they have working light meters, which mine has. The Asahi Pentax SP500 was also a beast of a camera, with a very solid construction, but its maximum shutter speed of 1/500 sec, would again put me off using it on a daily basis. (although there is a work around, so I believe, for this camera, to increase the maximum shutter speed to 1/1000 sec). The Pentax P30n and Olympus OM10 were also very good cameras to use, and I would recommend either very highly. The OM10 in particular, is pretty common on sites like ebay, so it would be relatively easy to purchase one in good condition like mine. But although I would rate either of them highly, I felt others within the project would suit my needs better within a working environment. The Pentax ME Super was another solidly built camera, and it has a useful 1/2000 top shutter speed, and a lovely bright viewfinder. But it just didn't quite sway it for me, using it on a daily basis. Then we come to the Nikon EM and Miranda MS-3. The EM was a great success for Nikon, and I can see why. It's lovely and small, well made but light, and it just gets on with it. The Miranda MS-3 was a complete surprise. I didn't expect much from it, basically being a Curry's special, but boy, did it deliver. I really enjoyed using it and I feel it produced some of my favourite shots of the whole project. But I'm not sure it would stand up to the daily abuse it might get on a wedding shoot, nor do I think would the Nikon EM. That leaves two cameras. The Canon AV-1 and Olympus OM-2n. The Canon was a great surprise to me. Not because I expected it to be poor. I knew it would perform. (there's a reason why Canon are pretty much the largest SLR manufacturer in the World) It was more a case of just how much of a joy it was to shoot with. The more I used it, the more I wanted to keep taking images, and it never missed a trick. It's plastic, just like the Nikon EM, but feels good in the hand, and was a cinch to use. I very nearly decided that this would be the camera to accompany me on a wedding shoot, but then along came my final camera of the project. Camera twelve, the beautiful Olympus OM-2n. Where to start with this one. Firstly, what a beautiful object. Olympus had decided that when they were producing the original OM-1, it had to be small, about the body size of a Leica M series camera. It's by far the smallest of my twelve SLRs, and it's also exquisitely made. I love the exposure compensation dial on the top plate, the sound of the shutter upon release, and it's such a tactile piece of equipment. So the OM2-n just sneaks into top spot, and it's already loaded up with film for my next wedding shoot on the 25th October. Lets hope that I can show off a few of the images in a future blog post.

Some of my favourite images from the past 'Twelve Months of Film Project', in no particular order.