I've a fairly short history with film, only started on it in September 2006 and it's pretty much taken over for me from much of my digital camera work.
Since September 2006 I bought quite a few bits of film camera equipment, lenses aside this is what I have:
So after loving the medium format as a medium I decided to get a proper medium format camera, I decided on a SLR rather than a TLR so got the Bronica SQA, it's a square format medium format camera with interchangeable lenses, backs and finders. You can even buy Polaroid or digital backs for it to.
We took it out yesterday during lunch for a quick test and I love the shots we got, it's lovely to use though it has no light meter so I use one of my hand held light meters, the shot below and ones it links too were all done with a 1 degree spot meter and metered using the Zone Systems.
I love working with the medium format negatives, they are roughtly 6 cm x 6cm each with big generous borders between negatives. This makes working with them so easy, easy to cut, easy to handle safely without touching the photos etc.
I found my developing results with them were much better than with 35mm, maybe I have just been more careful, will need to see when I do my next 35mm and compare.
Since using film my general photography has improved a lot, I now find that I am forced to spend a lot more time thinking about a shot, putting up tripod, metering it by hand, looking at every bit of detail of the photo to do the metering correctly etc, my % of shots taken to shots that I love is much higher than before and as a result even my digital photography has improved. I take fewer shots and get many more keepers. I think I'll be doing film work till they stop making it.
Since September 2006 I bought quite a few bits of film camera equipment, lenses aside this is what I have:
- Kodak Retina Reflex S
- Kodak Retina Reflex IV
- Nikon FM
- Nikon FE
- Nikon FM3a
- Nikon F3
- Seagull 4B-1 TLR
- Bronica SQA
So after loving the medium format as a medium I decided to get a proper medium format camera, I decided on a SLR rather than a TLR so got the Bronica SQA, it's a square format medium format camera with interchangeable lenses, backs and finders. You can even buy Polaroid or digital backs for it to.
We took it out yesterday during lunch for a quick test and I love the shots we got, it's lovely to use though it has no light meter so I use one of my hand held light meters, the shot below and ones it links too were all done with a 1 degree spot meter and metered using the Zone Systems.
I love working with the medium format negatives, they are roughtly 6 cm x 6cm each with big generous borders between negatives. This makes working with them so easy, easy to cut, easy to handle safely without touching the photos etc.
I found my developing results with them were much better than with 35mm, maybe I have just been more careful, will need to see when I do my next 35mm and compare.
Since using film my general photography has improved a lot, I now find that I am forced to spend a lot more time thinking about a shot, putting up tripod, metering it by hand, looking at every bit of detail of the photo to do the metering correctly etc, my % of shots taken to shots that I love is much higher than before and as a result even my digital photography has improved. I take fewer shots and get many more keepers. I think I'll be doing film work till they stop making it.
Hi -
I have just got hold of a Bronica SQ-A and am looking for a user manual. My www search has led me here but I don't see the manual anywhere - have you got on that you have published? are you prepared to share it with me? I can handle most formats but I guess .pdf is the most likely. Or maybe you know where I might get one....
Thx for reading this....after looking at your images I am encouraged to have a go at returning to wet film again.
Cheers,
- Andrew