I started writing this in the past tense before even deciding which film to use, in fact, I had not even put this lens on the camera before. The camera in question being the Canon EOS-1 — the first in its well known lineup — and this lens being the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 which I had only played with indoors a few times to try to understand the tilting/swinging of the focal plane.
Autofocus SLR bodies such as the Canon EOS-1 are potentially, arguably, maybe overlooked. When one thinks about a 35mm SLR, it is often something along the lines of the Pentax K1000 or the Nikon F3. Granted, I am also guilty of this, as manual focus SLRs are great, and also again, arguably one of the best ways to get into film photography in general, as they offer a hands-on approach to image making. Whilst these are great, there are other options when manual everything becomes tiresome and tedious… if that can ever happen.
My history with Canon EOS 1 Series 35mm cameras began with an EOS 1V, ages ago. I bought it, fell in love with it and then sold it. Later I bought an EOS 1N to augment an EOS 3 that I liked. I sold that quickly too, because the EOS 3 was fine on its own.
I always found myself drawn to the rather mystical photographs captured at night. Not only that these images are kinda cool, it’s also very practical during the winter season: sitting in the office nine to five, you won’t see much daylight from November till February. Being curious about the hyped motion picture film, I decided to give it a try. So I started a project of night photography with CineStill film in the autumn of 2018. I ended up shooting mainly architectural(-ish) subjects. Buildings have a great advantage for this type of photography: they usually stand still, even for hours. I specifically looked for dark places throughout the city, to obtain images that evoke an otherworldly mood.
A lot has already been written about the technical wotnots of the Zeiss Otus primes, and I have little to add – except to say that they’re big, heavy, and forged in the heart of a dying star by wizards out of magic glass that was stolen from a dragon.
