Last weekend, to celebrate Gosia’s birthday, we had a flying visit to Vilamoura in Portugal. I took a selection of film cameras including the 1990 Zenit 12cd that I was given by Gosia’s uncle earlier in the year. The camera looks to have had a hard life. The black paint has worn off the prism, revealing the brass underneath and the anodising around the eyepiece has worn to bare metal.
Carrying a bag of metal bodied cameras with their cogs cams and switches through airport security usually leads to the inevitable ‘is this your bag sir?’, but it means that they can be thrown in a bag and exposed to salty sea spray and wind blown sand without worrying that they might get damaged.
With manual everything and my inexperience at guessing suitable exposure settings, using ISO100 film was probably a bit optimistic, but the results were OK. I love the ‘feel’ of the pictures and the fact that they aren’t perfect (I have the 50D for that). Some of them look like they could have been taken any time in the last 50 years.
I look forward to experimenting with it further but with a faster film…
I should also mention that the film was developed by Luke at the Plastic Magpie Camera Club. He developed 7 films for me in less than 24 hours and at a great price. I really like the idea of riding to drop them through his door and then to collect them again – it seems to suit the whole analogue idea. He seems a decent sort too…
There are a few more pictures from this roll on my LomoHome
Barnaby Nutt 