After the fun I had shooting with my Pentax film camera last month, I kinda went on a bit of a used camera equipment shopping spree. My favourite purchase was a Nikon F75 – one of the last consumer-level film cameras Nikon ever made, at a time when digital was eating up the film market.
This lovely camera has every feature Nikon had learned to put into cameras in 2003, in a nice compact and light package. I picked this up off Kijiji for the incredible price of $65! The fellow I bought it from took great care of this camera – not a ding or a scratch on it, and everything works perfectly.
The camera came with a 28-80mm kit lens, which is perfectly fine, but I had been wanting to get a basic 50mm prime lens, so I ordered one from a third-party seller on Amazon. This lens makes the camera even more compact and ultra-portable, and takes wonderful portraits.
Having a fully automatic camera sure makes it easier to get shots of my favourite subject!
For my first roll of film in this camera, I shot Kodak Ultramax 400. Comparing this new batch of photos to my last roll, I feel like the colours are not quite as rich. I’m not sure I controlled for enough factors to really judge the film itself though – this is a new camera, different ISO, some of these photos use a flash, not to mention the seasonal change – in my first roll, there was still some colour in the landscape – for this one, every background is pretty drab.
I’m still really enjoying my new hobby. On my recent shopping spree, I also picked up a 50mm lens for my Pentax I’ve yet to shoot with, and I bought some other varieties of film to try out.
I did try to mix up my subject matter a bit – Rio is really lovely and photogenic and all, but this is getting a bit ridiculous.
Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest time of year for getting out and shooting, but in February we’re heading to Hawaii for a vacation, and I definitely intend to bring a camera or two, and shoot lots of film.
One final note, I found another place to get film processed in Ottawa – Sooter’s has a location on Queen Street near Bank. This location is much closer to my work, so very convenient. The photos and scans turned out great, so I think I’ll probably go back there.