Vintage Lenses | Film Cameras | Street Photography
Agfa Vista Plus 200, perennial favourite of many a budget-conscious film shooter, is no more. Production has ended and stocks are dwindling.
So if you find some, should you hoard it while you still can? With its famous low cost, you may think the answer to that is a no-brainer. Not so fast, though.
As supplies run low, prices rise, and the question of whether it’s still worth buying is not so clear cut. I can’t tell you what to do, but I can give some thoughts in this review. Come read.
Longhua Martyrs’ Memorial Park offers a few things the rest of Shanghai doesn’t. Soviet-style communist sculptures and peace and quiet being the main ones.
It makes for a decent trip out of the city centre – especially when you consider Longhua temple is right next door too. Take your camera and perhaps even a picnic.
These are some shots I got from Longhua on Agfa Vista Plus 200 in the Yashica Electro 35. Come take a look and come learn more about the place before you visit.
After about a decade away, I returned to one of my very favourite cities in the UK. So of course I had to take the Yashica Electro 35 GSN and a roll of film with me.
That film was Silberra Pan 400 – a Russian stock that ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2017. This roll was one of the rewards I got for backing that.
The last time I went to Scotland’s capital, I wasn’t really into photography that much. So it was nice to go there and come back with some shots of some landmarks and, of course, some Edinburgh street photography.
Kodak ColorPlus 200 is one of the cheapest colour films you can buy today. That alone should make it an interesting proposition to a lot of shooters – but only if it’s any good, of course.
I can tell you that it is. In relation to its cost, anyway. I can also tell you what results you can expect, why I like it for street photography, and its history and past incarnations.
But that’s all too long for this intro so you’ll have to come read the review to get that. Come on. Come learn.
Not the clearest article title there, is it? But it does describe what you’re about to read pretty well if you give it a chance. And that is a 3-step process for shooting the kind of images I like to shoot.
It’s not a hard thing to get your head around and you don’t need to do street photography for it to help you. It can be useful whatever you shoot.
Want to know what the process is? Then come take a read as we go through it from its logical beginning to end, and all illustrated with a bunch of street photographs shot on film using it.
Rangefinder film cameras aren’t always the easiest to get to grips with when you’ve never used one before. As you can see from the title, I’d never used one before I shot this roll in my Yashica Electro.
If you’re wondering how it went, you’re not too far away from what I was thinking while shooting. I had no idea how it was going either.
The short version is it finished better than it began, which is understandable as you get used to a camera. The long version is inside. Come read it.
Fujicolor Industrial 100 isn’t the easiest film to track down outside of Asia, and even in its native Japan you might find yourself having to buy in bulk.
The question is, is it worth doing either? You can find out in this review, which features the backstory, overview of image qualities, some technical specifications, and a fair few real world example shots.
Come have a read and learn all about this oft-unheralded film with the curious name and a distinctly minimalist white and green box.
I was asked a question on an Instagram post that went a little something like this – “… how do you manually focus for street; what method do you use to guarantee pin sharp focus?”
It was a good question and one I appreciated receiving. While I did answer at the time, I thought it also deserved a more detailed guide on here. Because maybe you want to know too.
Shooting street photography with vintage lenses really isn’t hard once you get going. Come read and learn how, and get yourself inspired to give it a go.
No doubt there are plenty of ISO 400 monochrome films to choose from. Have you shot Rollei Retro 400S though?
If not, I think you should. I filled a roll with a few sessions of street photography and cannot complain with how it came out.
The film promises high contrast, fine grain, and good sharpness. How high, fine and good did I get, though? Come learn more in this review.
