Although I’m heavily involved in designing and running No Art Speak – a film photography magazine- co-founding it with my good friends Pinga and Aimee. Before today, I could count on one hand the number of times I had shot on a film camera, my few interactions being through having a click on a friend’s camera. Today, at the time of writing, that number no longer fits on one hand… more like both hands and a foot. But nonetheless an improvement. For those interested, I’m shooting with Kentmere B&W ISO200 film.
Pinga lent me his, what I now understand to be a Leica 1F, a viewless 1950s camera designed to be attached to technical equipment for scientific photography and so on. Hence why no viewfinder was required. Instead, you look through the accessory rangefinder and guess the distance to the subject, adjusting this very mechanical camera in hopes of something good.
I understand now why people enjoy the medium, although I already did. I just now have the opportunity to experience it myself. Fellow enthusiasts noticing the camera and stopping to have a chat about photography and so on really makes it something special. This camera especially slows you down; the sequence of steps required (metering, adjusting aperture accordingly, adjusting distance & focus range, exposing and advancing) really slows you down. You can’t be a discreet photographer, but with a camera like this you don’t feel as strange; it’s a novelty in a way which maybe is a bit less intrusive to people.
I’ll keep you updated with this first roll’s results in a separate post.