Back to Basics
I've been thinking about buying a manual Nikon SLR film camera for some time. No other brand comes close as Nikon in the film region. They're the best. Nevertheless, I realise that the good classic models are all very expensive, even the latest model from Nikon doesn't come cheap at all. I'll see how things go from here. I was thinking, in a third world country without battery power - all digital cameras are useless. Even film cameras that require batteries will fall dead after some period of time. The only cameras that will survive are film ones that run mechanically and are exposed manually.
Nevertheless, I had my own hands on try with one of Nico's ancient mechanical manual film cameras. Nico's not just a really good jazz double-bassit, not just a computer genius, not just an avid amateur stunt cyclist. He too is an excellent photographer with a great visual insight into the formation of great photographs. The above picture of him was snapped at Dhoby Ghaut MRT. All the pictures in this post are taken by by his film camera. The film was later developed and digitised in a film scanner. Besides resizing, no edits have been done. The pictures look exactly the same way they are in print. All the errors in photography are uncropped and the color tinge ranging from green to orange is the natural induced hue of the film we used.
I affixed my autofocus lens on Nico's quarter a century old mechanical Nikon F2 camera. In this case, the lens is actually bigger than the camera. And the great thing about Nikon is that there is that tremendous compatibility between the lenses and the body whether they be brand new else 40 years old. In this case, it looked rather funny manually turning the focusing dial of a lighting-fast autofocus lens to take photographs. I too had to get used to the fact that mechanical cameras of old used a different focusing system where the center portion of the image is split into two parts and a good focus is achieved when the two halves meet exactly.
It was indeed a challenge to manually focus, set the aperture manually, zoom manually, meter manually, set shutter speed manually and to even rewind the film manually. Many a times, I almost wasted a few frames of film just because I forgot about one camera setting or other. Nico and I took a short photographic trip that stretched from City Hall MRT station to the Esplanade. All this while, attempting low light shots with outdoor film without the use of a tripod. The camera and lens combination weighs about 1.1 kg, a weight that most consumer level tripods will not be able to sufficiently support sturdily.
Our objective of exploration was the ultra wide angle shots. Most of these photographs were taken at 17mm. This is wider than the widest lens that can be fitted onto a Nikon digital SLR body with an equivalent focal length of 18mm. Due to the fact that we shot indoors most of the time, the exposures were very long, ranging from 1 second all the way to 20 seconds in length. And with a mechanical camera, I have to manually depress the shutter, count the exposure time and release my finger off the shutter button. It was challenging indeed. At the end of the day, it too wasn't cheap to develop and have the negatives scanned it. It cost me about 2 bucks a photograph on average. So I guess I'll stick to digital for the time being - savings being in the developing cost of film. So just enjoy the few photographs that I managed to get under the direction of a very good friend and kindly do leave your comments for me to read. Interpret them in your own free will.
This photograph was taken at City Hall MRT interchange just before Nico and I set off on our short photographic trip. I gave the film a solid 15 seconds long exposure. Somehow, very nicely, the station was almost empty and void of people at that time. Quite interesting since everyone knows that City Hall is one of the busiest MRT stations around on the weekdays.
Next was the Water Fountain in Raffles City Shopping Center. There was a beer and wine exhibition at the same time. Lots of people walking around with their Canon 10D cameras. At first I was wondering why they were all shooting wish flash when there is so much ambient outdoor light making its way into the place. When I tested the light using a hand held meter. I realised why and then and held this shot at 1/8 second. Even though the place seemed very bright to the eyes, it was in actual fact, rather dim when outdoor film is being used indoors.
Taken at the ground level of the Esplanade's Underpass. 20 seconds exposure. Very nicely too, there was no one around at that time and we could set the camera on the floor and take this photo. It does not look as good as I felt it did when I looked through the camera's viewfinder. All the lights on the ceiling as well as the corresponding reflections on the floor resembled a mass of shining stars to me.
Photograph was snapped at the Espanade's Underpass. At the same time, the underpass featured fantastic photojournalistic pieces of work of Tibet. Photographs of quality that I certainly want to be able to capture someday. A 10 second long exposure. Made easy by putting the camera on the fire hosereel. I like the perspective very much on this photograph too. Simply amazed at how an ultra wide angle lens can give this deep sense of space in an obviously narrow underpass.
This photograph is of the Ambient Lighting inside the Esplanade. It was very difficult to focus manually for this shot, because there was just not enough lighting. The picture was taken hand held at 1/6 seconds. Surprisingly almost no signs of camera shake due to the heavy weight of the camera and lens combined - which tends to dampen hand vibrations. Just a personal attempt to be "artistic".
A one second exposure just outside the cascading glass fountain at the Libaray @ Esplanade. People at the library entrace were just staring at us wondering what we were trying to bringing a camera so close to water.
As the roof top terrace of the Esplanade was lamentably closed. We made our way out of the place and by a sheer moment of creativity, decided to shoot this classic angle of the CBD with one of the supporting tent poles of the performance venues superimposed onto it. As the lightning was bright. I quickly made the shot and started to retreat to a darker and cooler place there after.
Just before NIco and I ended our very short photographic trip. We chanced upon this ice cream seller just as we walked out under the esplanade bridge. Out of nowhere, hordes of primary schoolgirls started to run and queue up to buy ice cream from this seller. It was a very hot day I guess. Yet I missed the moment completely due to the fact that I could not focus, zoom, set aperture, set shutter speed in a quick succession of time. When I finally made the shot. Just nicely I heard "hey! I don't like my photo to be taken!" being squealed. At the same time, this clown of the men there just happily walked into my frame just as I hit the shutter. Nice I guess, since all the teachers in charge had their backs to the camera and probably never even knew that I got the shot.
That's about all the photographs I took of my short day out with Nico. I know its certainly not very good and I have a long way to improve my photography. I won't give up and will definitely keep practising to improve. In the meantime, I guess I won't shoot on film unless absolutely necessary. Yet I realise now that unlike digital which is more of a hit-or-miss affair when it comes to photos, it really does take some serious skill to shoot on film with a mechanical manual SLR camera.
I've been thinking about buying a manual Nikon SLR film camera for some time. No other brand comes close as Nikon in the film region. They're the best. Nevertheless, I realise that the good classic models are all very expensive, even the latest model from Nikon doesn't come cheap at all. I'll see how things go from here. I was thinking, in a third world country without battery power - all digital cameras are useless. Even film cameras that require batteries will fall dead after some period of time. The only cameras that will survive are film ones that run mechanically and are exposed manually.
Nevertheless, I had my own hands on try with one of Nico's ancient mechanical manual film cameras. Nico's not just a really good jazz double-bassit, not just a computer genius, not just an avid amateur stunt cyclist. He too is an excellent photographer with a great visual insight into the formation of great photographs. The above picture of him was snapped at Dhoby Ghaut MRT. All the pictures in this post are taken by by his film camera. The film was later developed and digitised in a film scanner. Besides resizing, no edits have been done. The pictures look exactly the same way they are in print. All the errors in photography are uncropped and the color tinge ranging from green to orange is the natural induced hue of the film we used.
I affixed my autofocus lens on Nico's quarter a century old mechanical Nikon F2 camera. In this case, the lens is actually bigger than the camera. And the great thing about Nikon is that there is that tremendous compatibility between the lenses and the body whether they be brand new else 40 years old. In this case, it looked rather funny manually turning the focusing dial of a lighting-fast autofocus lens to take photographs. I too had to get used to the fact that mechanical cameras of old used a different focusing system where the center portion of the image is split into two parts and a good focus is achieved when the two halves meet exactly.
It was indeed a challenge to manually focus, set the aperture manually, zoom manually, meter manually, set shutter speed manually and to even rewind the film manually. Many a times, I almost wasted a few frames of film just because I forgot about one camera setting or other. Nico and I took a short photographic trip that stretched from City Hall MRT station to the Esplanade. All this while, attempting low light shots with outdoor film without the use of a tripod. The camera and lens combination weighs about 1.1 kg, a weight that most consumer level tripods will not be able to sufficiently support sturdily.
Our objective of exploration was the ultra wide angle shots. Most of these photographs were taken at 17mm. This is wider than the widest lens that can be fitted onto a Nikon digital SLR body with an equivalent focal length of 18mm. Due to the fact that we shot indoors most of the time, the exposures were very long, ranging from 1 second all the way to 20 seconds in length. And with a mechanical camera, I have to manually depress the shutter, count the exposure time and release my finger off the shutter button. It was challenging indeed. At the end of the day, it too wasn't cheap to develop and have the negatives scanned it. It cost me about 2 bucks a photograph on average. So I guess I'll stick to digital for the time being - savings being in the developing cost of film. So just enjoy the few photographs that I managed to get under the direction of a very good friend and kindly do leave your comments for me to read. Interpret them in your own free will.
This photograph was taken at City Hall MRT interchange just before Nico and I set off on our short photographic trip. I gave the film a solid 15 seconds long exposure. Somehow, very nicely, the station was almost empty and void of people at that time. Quite interesting since everyone knows that City Hall is one of the busiest MRT stations around on the weekdays.
Next was the Water Fountain in Raffles City Shopping Center. There was a beer and wine exhibition at the same time. Lots of people walking around with their Canon 10D cameras. At first I was wondering why they were all shooting wish flash when there is so much ambient outdoor light making its way into the place. When I tested the light using a hand held meter. I realised why and then and held this shot at 1/8 second. Even though the place seemed very bright to the eyes, it was in actual fact, rather dim when outdoor film is being used indoors.
Taken at the ground level of the Esplanade's Underpass. 20 seconds exposure. Very nicely too, there was no one around at that time and we could set the camera on the floor and take this photo. It does not look as good as I felt it did when I looked through the camera's viewfinder. All the lights on the ceiling as well as the corresponding reflections on the floor resembled a mass of shining stars to me.
Photograph was snapped at the Espanade's Underpass. At the same time, the underpass featured fantastic photojournalistic pieces of work of Tibet. Photographs of quality that I certainly want to be able to capture someday. A 10 second long exposure. Made easy by putting the camera on the fire hosereel. I like the perspective very much on this photograph too. Simply amazed at how an ultra wide angle lens can give this deep sense of space in an obviously narrow underpass.
This photograph is of the Ambient Lighting inside the Esplanade. It was very difficult to focus manually for this shot, because there was just not enough lighting. The picture was taken hand held at 1/6 seconds. Surprisingly almost no signs of camera shake due to the heavy weight of the camera and lens combined - which tends to dampen hand vibrations. Just a personal attempt to be "artistic".
A one second exposure just outside the cascading glass fountain at the Libaray @ Esplanade. People at the library entrace were just staring at us wondering what we were trying to bringing a camera so close to water.
As the roof top terrace of the Esplanade was lamentably closed. We made our way out of the place and by a sheer moment of creativity, decided to shoot this classic angle of the CBD with one of the supporting tent poles of the performance venues superimposed onto it. As the lightning was bright. I quickly made the shot and started to retreat to a darker and cooler place there after.
Just before NIco and I ended our very short photographic trip. We chanced upon this ice cream seller just as we walked out under the esplanade bridge. Out of nowhere, hordes of primary schoolgirls started to run and queue up to buy ice cream from this seller. It was a very hot day I guess. Yet I missed the moment completely due to the fact that I could not focus, zoom, set aperture, set shutter speed in a quick succession of time. When I finally made the shot. Just nicely I heard "hey! I don't like my photo to be taken!" being squealed. At the same time, this clown of the men there just happily walked into my frame just as I hit the shutter. Nice I guess, since all the teachers in charge had their backs to the camera and probably never even knew that I got the shot.
That's about all the photographs I took of my short day out with Nico. I know its certainly not very good and I have a long way to improve my photography. I won't give up and will definitely keep practising to improve. In the meantime, I guess I won't shoot on film unless absolutely necessary. Yet I realise now that unlike digital which is more of a hit-or-miss affair when it comes to photos, it really does take some serious skill to shoot on film with a mechanical manual SLR camera.
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