One Photographer and Two Cameras for Spares & Repairs

My last article, Two Photographers, One Camera, and the Crushing Disappointment of Film, attracted a fair amount of comments—encouraging and not-so-encouraging. The results from the film associated with that post were disappointing but not one to be beaten easily; I shot some more film. The film wasn’t expired this time, but the cameras were, or so eBay said they were.

I bought two cameras from the online auction giant, which were sold as spares & repairs. A Nikon F90X for its battery chamber cover for my existing F90X and a Canon AV-1 to dissect and see what’s inside. The Nikon was in good order but a bit dusty, and the Canon had some fungus on it, but both cleaned up well and, much to my surprise, came to life. I don’t know what was wrong with either, but after some cleaning, button pushing, lens and battery swapping, they both appeared to function.

However, there was only one way to prove they worked: to put some film through them, which is precisely what I did. A roll of black and white Kentmere 400 went in the Nikon, and some colour Kodak Gold 200 in the Canon. The results are peppered throughout this post.

I’ve shot on a Nikon F90X before because I own one, but I’d never shot on a Canon AV-1 or any Canon film camera, for that matter. The Canon is an aperture-priority camera, which is excellent news for me, given that I shoot almost exclusively in aperture priority in my day job. I didn’t know this when I bought it, but the name is a bit of a giveaway. AV means Aperture Value, but you hardcore Canon fans already know that. It was straightforward to use, and the metering did a great job.

The Canon produced what I consider good results. My last set of results from the Nikon FM2 and expired film were so disappointing that these couldn’t possibly be any worse, could they? Interestingly, when I received the scans, I felt over the moon. Maybe that’s because the camera was sold as broken, and therefore, any results were better than no results, but I’m not entirely sure whether it was that alone because I wasn’t as satisfied with the results from the Nikon.

The Kodak film looks really nice and is very much my style. I like warmer tones and wider apertures, and given the low ISO, the Kodak Gold lent itself well to both of my demands. The quality of the Kodak film appears much nicer than the Kentmere in terms of basic visual quality, too. This isn’t a comparison of the two films because I know very little about the chemistry of film, how it’s made or what makes a good or bad film. Nor do I know enough about these two cameras and the lenses I used or the developing process to understand if any of these factors play a significant part in how the pictures look.

But I do know I prefer the results from Canon and Kodak to Nikon and Kentmere. For those interested, the Canon lens was the FD 50mm f1.8, and the Nikon was the 50mm f1.8 D, and I found a great little shop just off Brick Lane in London to get them developed at a third of the price of the place I’ve been to previously in Fitzrovia.

I’ve spent little time on social media this year. I’d lost hope in Instagram but decided to log on and see the latest crazes. The first picture I saw reminded me why it has been a while since I’ve been on. It was a picture of Tower Bridge with either AI generative fill or some terrible Photoshop.

Now, I’m not usually one to criticise someone else’s work because we are all mediocre photographers compared to great photographers (or those who think they are great photographers), and I am by no means a great photographer. But this work could have been better, even by my standards. The shot without the ‘shop would have been better, and I feel like this AI craze is damaging photography in some ways, but that’s a discussion for another time.

And this got me thinking about why I’ve been shooting more film recently. I should add – it’s not just dodgy eBay specials I’ve been shooting on. I’ve been using a Nikon F-301, Nikon F50, and my latest addition (which I’ll tell you about at the end of this post). I’m starting to see the benefits of shooting on film. Shoot it, take it to someone else to develop and scan it, and voilà —done. There is no editing for me in this process, just shooting, where I get most of my pleasure from with photography. By my low and inexperienced standards, this is reasonably purist. You get what you get at the point of the shutter firing, and that’s it. I don’t have to worry about much other than framing up a shot and pressing the button.

I’ve never enjoyed editing imagery or playing in Photoshop, so shooting film has a stronger appeal than ever. That said, I would like to experience the darkroom one day and develop some film. I have no doubt it’s very different from sitting behind a computer editing digital imagery.

Having said all this about film and the pleasure I currently get from it, since moving to London 15 months ago, I can’t get over two things: the price of a pint and the price of film. And the latter is set to get worse, given I’ve just bought a medium format Bronica ETRSi. Thanks to my colleague Jimmy for the picture below. It was shot on his Bronica. Talking of Bronica – I was saying I don’t have much to worry about other than framing up a shot and pressing the button. These things are a whole new ball game. Manual focus, manual exposure, and then there’s the process of getting the camera ready to take a picture, including remembering to remove the darkslide.

You can find me online at thebumpercrew.com or on Instagram @joelrouse

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