Tag: medium format

Frugal Film Project

I wanted to do this back in January but it was cold out there and I forgot.

The Frugal Film Project is an internet challenge to buy a cheap camera and shoot a roll of cheap(ish) film through it every month for a year. The rule used to be that you had to grab the camera for under $50 but that was before prices ballooned during the pandemic so now it’s $75.

I bought my little Soviet TLR camera, a Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal, for about $40 so it qualifies. You’re supposed to use budget film but I don’t think such a thing actually exists anymore. Even cheap film is grossly expensive. I am going to play this game with the Lubitel and Kodak Gold 200 film. I started it on Memorial Day at Riverside Park in Methuen, a couple of weeks ago, so month number one is May 2025. I’ve already shot a roll in June too, in Harvard Square, but I won’t get that developed for a couple of weeks.

The camera only shoots 12 pics to a roll and (magically, for me) all 12 on the May roll came out okay. Here they are……..

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Medium Format

I just got the scans from the four rolls of film I sent out for developing! My new/old ebay purchased medium format camera works! Well… it produced an image. Moron over here didn’t figure out how to actually use it correctly until he’d basically ruined two rolls of film, but those two rolls of film both produced images that look mostly okay!

My Lomo Lubitell 166 Universal works!

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That image is from the second roll. Note how there are two images over lapping. That is because I am an idiot who is bad at geometry.

The second roll came out much better than the first, but the first one was exposed when the back of the camera popped open on me. Everything was messed up to various degrees.

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The next roll I shoot will be better… I think. We’ll have to find out. Focusing this thing is a bitch, so who knows.

New Camera Day

Pretty sure I just snapped my first picture using a medium format film camera. Also sure that I screwed up and wasted one shot before I did it. Also also sure that the one photo I took is going to be a blurry mess.

Happy New Camera Day!

Less Than Two Hours

I am less than two hours away from winning an ebay auction for a cheap, Soviet medium format TLR camera from the 80’s. I am the only bidder so far. Think I am going to win? Neither do I, but let’s see how it goes.

I’m exhausted. I have a massive headache. I have body aches all over. This is the post-covid booster shot blues. I was planning no working in the office tomorrow but now I think I am going to push that off until Tuesday. Just on the off chance that I’m not quite over this by tomorrow morning. Here’s hoping a good nights sleep will fix me right up.

Toy Cameras

I really want to try medium format film, but I don’t have a medium format camera and I really don’t want to spend any noteworthy amount of money on one.

Should I get a Holga (a cheap plastic toy camera that just happens to shoot medium format film) just to dip my toes into the water, so to speak? Will that turn me off of the whole thing, or will it send me spiraling down a rabbit hole that my bank account and I will never recover from?

Why can’t I just make a decision?

On an unrelated note, our drive to Vermont to see the kids tomorrow has been postponed for one day. That should not make me sad (we’ll see them Sunday instead of Saturday) but it really makes me sad. I think I might be overtired. Everything is getting to me right now. Go take a nap, Robert.

Antiques

We went to an antique store in Lawrence, MA today. I was looking for camera gear and not expecting to find anything.

I was right that there wasn’t much to see, but I did see one that has me super intrigued.

$79 seems way too much for this, but I am going to spend some time on the YouTube doing some research and maybe I might go back again. Folding cameras from pre-war are sort of what I was thinking of for my first step into the medium format world.

We’ll see.