Camera Blog Post - Lots of words.
In February of this year I pulled a 35mm film camera out of my storage unit and bought a few rolls of film. My mom gave me this camera in high school when I took two years of photography class. I really loved those classes, the teacher seemed to respect me and watched me change from sophomore year when I entered the first class, to senior year when he asked me to be a class aid. This meant that I knew my stuff. I would have the freedom to take photos wherever I wanted during the class period and I was in charge of processing and drying students film negatives as well as final paper prints in the darkroom. It was fun and Mr. Herndon taught everyone basics from how cameras work, history of photography, to how to burn light into photos and compose intriguing shots. There was something about using the Pentax Spotmatic manual film camera that was simple and fun and could make someone with a little know-how feel like the next Ansel Adams. With only a few controls such as f-stop, ISO, and shutter speed to balance the correct amount of light and focus, it was great to learn the fundamentals with that camera. Plus having the access to the photo class darkroom and chemicals for development was great because it meant free and unlimited pictures. At the end of each semester the teacher and aids would select a few of each student's best photos to mount on a rigid poster board for them to display in front of the whole class and let the students keep. I used to hang these in my apartments later during college because of how great I thought some of my pictures were. At the time in 2004, almost every pharmacy, grocery store and of course Costco would develop film for people and it was cheap and seemed quick (1 hour photo? ok!). We all know now that the digital age changed that format and made 4x6 prints useless and rolls upon rolls of negatives are just taking up space in drawers or shoe-boxes in closets. Pictures are no longer on display on a mantle for a few visitors to see, they're shared on social media where anyone can see them. So in February of this year when I started taking photos with this old camera again, it was a bit of a pain to get them developed. I would wait for the film I ordered on amazon to arrive, be super selective of the pictures I took (afterall I only have 24 or 36 exposures at a time) and then pay about $18 to mail the rolls to a processor who did the rest. Eventually I would get an email allowing me to download the photos from their website onto my phone. I really liked the look of the result of real film, but no matter what it had to be formatted digitally and pixelated in order to download the photos. This doesn't really matter because my photos are going on my website or instagram and that's just about it. So that "film look" can be achieved with tweaking the colors or selecting an automatic filter on so many apps nowadays. For about 4 months I liked this process. There is something nostalgic about using the heavy metal, loud shutter camera and then rolling and loading film for each set, as well as that weeks-long wait to see how it developed, it felt old-school but brought me some happiness. I even liked the little attention I got from strangers who applauded the fact that I was using a working film camera in modern times. It wasn't until a month and a half ago that things took a wrong turn when two things happened in the same week which reminded me why film cameras are going extinct. I mentioned this in an earlier post when we were in Pine Mountain Club and I had the heavy camera on a tripod, on a wooden deck, and my foot strides caused some shake which shook the camera over and it appeared to be broken. I took some of it apart as guided by online forums, and finally got the light-meter to start working again (as long as the leather case was screwed in tight to the base of the camera) Something had rattled loose in a 1ft fall. A couple days later the light-meter stopped again. I even ordered a replacement identical camera on ebay but it's in even rougher shape. So now if I want to use the camera I won't truly know if the pictures will come out - there's a photo app I can use that tells me the f-stop and shutter speed appropriate by reading the light, but that's a major pain to stand there with a camera up to my eye and a cell phone out with one arm, fidgeting to adjust little dials to match whatever an app is telling me to do...bleh. It takes away the fun of it. There was always something kind of sniper feeling about focusing an image, taking a deep breath and pushing down the shutter button. So I was stuck with two old, semi-functioning film cameras. Now the second thing happened that following week: I mailed in two rolls of film - Basically April and May of anything I photographed. I really was excited to see those pictures because it was after getting a 28mm wide angle lens and I took some fun trips. I was even feeling like I was getting into a groove with a good eye for my photos. Well, usually within 2-3 business days of mailing the rolls, I get an email stating that they were received by 'thedarkroom.com'. I waited for that confirmation email and anxious to see my developed film ready to download. Two weeks went by and there was no email. I check with them through a contact form online and the envelope was apparently lost in the mail. I was immediately deflated. How stupid that in this day of age, that in two months I could only take 72 photos and had to wait at least another week to see how they turn out, yet it was all lost because of the mail carrier. Clearly these are some of the reasons why digital is the best thing yet to come to photography and cameras. Without my own chemicals, negative scanner or darkroom, $17-$20 a roll was going to get expensive and I would now nervously drop my envelopes off at post office boxes. 35mm film is not sustainable for me.
I started researching and hunting for the best interchangeable-lens digital camera with all the features that I would need while keeping a classic look I wanted and for a price that wasn't unwarranted. Reading as many reviews and critiques regarding the cameras I was narrowing down on, I made sure to type in '__(product name)___ problems' or 'breaking' and negative things to try to fish out the bad blog and forum posts about the cameras as well. I really wanted to be unbiased in my selection. If you research anything online you know that you start being fed all these banner ads directed toward that product, it gets hard to find reasons not to click the buy button. I was trying to be patient, watched as many youtube videos about the cameras I really wanted as I did for cameras I didn't want, just to be fair and get all the pros and cons separated in my thoughts. Eventually, I think I got to the right answer for me, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark ii. It's a mirrorless micro 4/3 digital camera. The package I bought came with two lenses, a 14-42mm and 40-150mm. It is metal, looks like my Pentax only smaller, and packed a whole bunch of more expensive features into an entry-level price. Because of the computer sensor size (the "4/3" part of the name) being half that of a 35mm camera, those lens sizes are actually equal to double their mm sizes in a normal 35mm film camera. This meant that the two combined lenses would equally replace the lens capabilities of the three lenses I had been using on the Pentax. So my new 14mm-42mm is supposedly as wide angle at 14mm as the old 28mm (that's because 14 x 2 = 28) that I just got for the Pentax. There are other factors, but generally speaking I think that is the math for what they call a crop-sensor. In practice, the 14mm on the smaller sensor new camera is more wide angle or "up-close" than I could get with the old camera. The camera has a view finder, just like my film camera, only it's completely electronic as there are no mirrors or prisms. Putting it up to my eye turns on the view finder and turns off the large LCD screen automatically, and it looks like something a fighter pilot would be looking through with all the information displayed. Because it is mirrorless, the view finder is actually considered an extra non-standard feature on mirrorless cameras and mirrorless cameras all boast a large rear touch screen for primary usage. With the view finder and large spinning dials, this camera feels exactly like my Pentax, except smaller and lighter, it gives me exactly the same shooting feeling that felt as good to me during photography as seeing the final result. The technology is fascinating. While reducing the number of parts that common in the popular digital SLR cameras, these mirrorless cameras can be lighter, smaller, more durable, and use the benefits of tech to automatic some of the most difficult parts of photography to achieve the picture that you want. To me, this camera seems to have the best of both worlds - the look, feel, and operation of my film camera plus the modern features and capabilities as DSLR's. So now I can take as many photos as I want because all they cost is delete-able space on a memory card. Then I can review them instantaneously and edit them via the camera display, then switch on wifi to send anything I want to my iphone in a matter of seconds. I'm not a professional so the smaller sensor and number of megapixels more than meets my needs. I paid $600, whereas a cheap full-frame DLSR would run about $3,000-5,0000. I would feel so guilty as a complete rookie to spend that much money. It's not me. The next step up from this model would be basically the same software only in a weatherproof body but even that was another $400 One thing I found interesting in my research is how so many professional photographers would use their $5,000+ full-frame, 50 megapixel camera for the important shots meanwhile may be carrying the camera I got (or similar mirrorless camera) because of the comparable results and easier, smaller size. They would use whichever one is necessary for the photo they're trying to achieve and unless it was getting blown up to poster or wall size, the micro 4/3 setup could do the trick.
Well it's been just two weeks since my Olympus arrived in the mail and I am very impressed with the photo quality of using the standard features available. I can't wait to keep learning what this digital camera can do and producing images to share. I feel silly for sticking with the film camera, although it was fun to be old-fashioned and I plan to keep that Pentax around. Unfortunately something inside is rattling and the light meter works sporadically. But this new camera offers a vast amount of shooting and editing modes that will allow me to get some real pictures I have always thought of taking. I can bring it with me and takes seconds to start taking photos. I can take one, five, ten frames of a single picture to get the best one. The camera can follow a subject moving across the frame and adjust the sensor to maintain proper focus and shutter speed, etc etc, I think that's how the outrigger shots above came out so well without a tripod or anything but my steady arm. I look forward to trying a different mode every time I pick up the camera and hope that it improves the look of my website. As of now, my site is represented as a blog, but sometimes I have to keep blog posts drafts in limbo for a couple weeks because I cannot find time to write insightful things. Eventually I just type something quickly on my phone and post it surrounding by photos (as readers can tell - sorry for the typos and lack of storyline). I want to avoid the "This week I did this, then this, then I did that, then that and that happened and that's all" For every entry and I would like to try a more photo journal direction with the website. So we'll see how that takes shape.
