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A somber and moving visit to the Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice. #BlackLivesMatter, #BLM, https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial. (This roll was double exposed over photos I took with my son while urban exploring at the Annie Lytle Elementary School in Jacksonville, FL. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/annie-lytle-elementary-school)
When I recently started looking for cameras again I found a Minox 35 EL (that’s the first model of the series) for sale in a place nearby. I already have a copycat of the Minox, the Voigtländer Vito C, which I really like, but unfortunately there’s a white spot from some light reflection in the corner on every image, so I was really keen on finding a similar, possibly leakless camera. The Minox looked really nice. I got it from a retired man who had inherited from his aunt, who, apparently, had never used it. In 45 years! I was instantly in love with the build quality of this one, it really feels very solid. Much more than the Voigtländer version which I also like but it’s a lot more plasticky. So I was quite happy with the Minox, thinking this might be the last camera I’d buy for a while. However, shooting the first roll of film, after opening the front cover maybe 15 or 20 times, closing it became really hard and it suddenly wouldn’t shut tight anymore. After removing the roll there was a thin metal blade from the folding mechanism that was pushed back and folded in front of the lens. The blade was impossible to move to its original position and there was really no other way to fix this than to remove the blade entirely. After that I shot another roll with it, still hoping the camera might be alright after all. However, there now are massive light spots on the left side of all images, which are actually worse than the ones in the Voigtländer. I think the pictures still look interesting (maybe even more interesting than they would without the leaks), but the quest to find a small, working 35mm camera continues.
When I recently started looking for cameras again I found a Minox 35 EL (that’s the first model of the series) for sale in a place nearby. I already have a copycat of the Minox, the Voigtländer Vito C, which I really like, but unfortunately there’s a white spot from some light reflection in the corner on every image, so I was really keen on finding a similar, possibly leakless camera. The Minox looked really nice. I got it from a retired man who had inherited from his aunt, who, apparently, had never used it. In 45 years! I was instantly in love with the build quality of this one, it really feels very solid. Much more than the Voigtländer version which I also like but it’s a lot more plasticky. So I was quite happy with the Minox, thinking this might be the last camera I’d buy for a while. However, shooting the first roll of film, after opening the front cover maybe 15 or 20 times, closing it became really hard and it suddenly wouldn’t shut tight anymore. After removing the roll there was a thin metal blade from the folding mechanism that was pushed back and folded in front of the lens. The blade was impossible to move to its original position and there was really no other way to fix this than to remove the blade entirely. After that I shot another roll with it, still hoping the camera might be alright after all. However, there now are massive light spots on the left side of all images, which are actually worse than the ones in the Voigtländer. I think the pictures still look interesting (maybe even more interesting than they would without the leaks), but the quest to find a small, working 35mm camera continues.
I recently got a bulk film loader from a local photographer who sometimes gets old photographic equipment from house clearings. At first I wasn’t sure whether it was still intact or not but it seemed fine and there was even still a bulk roll inside, with no indication of what kind of film it might be. I was sure it must have been exposed to light at some point. It’s an old loader that someone inherited and the chances that no one ever opened it out of curiosity were probably really slim. I shot a test roll, not expecting anything. However, even though images were really dark, there were definitely images and no sign of any light leaks. So the thing hadn’t been opened! The images I shot at ISO 25 look quite alright, even though the first roll was probably pretty underdeveloped (I developed it in Caffenol for 14 minutes). I shot a second roll at ISO 25 and developed 50% longer and images look really nice. Does anyone have any idea what film stock this might be? It has a fine grain and it shoots well at ISO 25, so maybe some long expired ISO 50 film? Anyways, it was really interesting to see that this film still worked. And I have a bulk loader now, so I might try and get some other expired bulk rolls.
The rolls that started my journey, Centuria 200, theyve grown on me, my dad bought me three of them when i got my first film camera and every single one of them has given me very different results, i love them, cheap and easy to get, i did wish they were 400 iso but, soon ill push them to it, its a good roll, im glad my dad bought them
