Film, Old Cameras & Lots of coffee

I am an absolute beginner in Film Photography and am only at this point thanks to the diligence and patience of House Bennett, for which I am eternally grateful.

This is all Brad's fault. Back in June of 2021 I received a message asking if I fancied trying a 1930s Leica! Well I was hardly going to say no, was I! The camera in question had quite interesting provenance. It originated in pre war Berlin and was brought to the UK in the late 40s by the father of the owner. The camera is in excellent condition and, despite being nearly ninety years old, it works beautifully. Chris Bennett was drafted in to the testing process, providing film and much needed expertise in the operation of Rangefinders and, somewhat surprisingly, knowledge of the art of processing film in coffee (more on that later).

Film, as i was soon to find out, slows you down and makes you much more aware of composition and exposure. You are limited to 12/24/36 shots, depending on the film, and as each shot has a cost, the last thing you want to do is waste images. Film can be an expensive hobby with rolls of mono starting at £4 and colour now £12. If you want the good stuff you are looking at least double. Then there is processing and scanning, another £15. Thankfully home developing isn’t the arcane and alchemical mystery i believed it to be. Home processing is actually a fascinating part of the process! But more on that in a bit.

The Cameras

Following hot on the heels of the Leica, I dived into my box and came out clutching my Spotmatic. The Pentax Spotmatic was responsible for establishing the brand as a major player despite being quite basic with a rudimentary lightmeter that works on the “near enough” principle. Frankly though, it does everything you need. Armed with a 1958 Zeiss Tessar, it was 35mm (full frame in digi terms) of joy. Old film cameras are truly engineered and using one feels like a privilege (see using a Sabatier knife or a really top quality sewing machine). It isn’t necessary to buy anything elaborate. If you want an interchangeable lens camera there are plenty out there, and if you just want to shoot the options are even cheaper. My next acquisition was my first, specifically for the shooting of film. My 1980 Pentax MX is a pro level ILC. It is completely manual, quite small for an SLR and designed to keep Pentax at the top table along with Canon, Nikon Olympus and Minolta (later bought by Sony).

As a frequent visitor to eBayLand, it was only a matter of time before I came across my next toy, a massively engineered (for a compact camera) Voigtlander Vitomatic ii from 1958 (a good year, eh Brad). The Voigtlander is a 35mm rangefinder which differs from single lens reflex in the focusing. Rangefinders have two view finders and you focus by superimposing one over the other. The Vitomatic worked, beautifully and is sufficiently different from the MX to be interesting to use alongside it.
My next distraction was a Twin Lens Reflex 1946 Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex. We have all seen the beautiful camera in Khdijah’s stunning mono image, that was a TLR. Iconic TLR cameras go for a fortune. Mine isn’t iconic! The TLR is one of those boxy cameras with two lenses on the front, one above the other. The top lens is a viewfinder and the two are calibrated to work in harmony. The view screen is on top, shaded by a flip up housing, in which you see a mirror image of the scene. The film used is 120 which is a 12 shot, square frame medium format. Being a square image, it presents new conundrums when it comes to composition.

Each format/character/quirk/stupid idea built into each camera makes you think about the image and how it will look. Once this reflection (pun intended) became second nature I began to see improvements in my digital work. I now believe an image to be more about character than sharpness (thanks Chris) and that is down to the qualities of the image as opposed to the image quality.

Developing in coffee

Photographic labs do a fabulous job but it isn’t cheap and I am a notorious cheapskate. So, home developing it is. For that I needed a tank, a thermometer, a jug, some scales and a dark bag. EBAY! A dark bag allows you to transfer the film to the tank ready for processing, thereby doing away with the need to lock yourself away in the traditional cupboard where the combination of chemicals and limited ventilation do god knows what to your cognitive abilities. So, film in the tank, it’s off to the kitchen with a jug and some scales. Developers come in all shapes, sizes and levels of toxicity but not all will leave you looking like the Joker, but the most kitchen sink friendly of all has to be Caffeinol. Coffee, particularly the cheap stuff contains caffeic acid which develops film. You can also get results from wine and even chutney, although picking bits of branston off my photos frankly sounds a bit weird! Unlike chemicals created by Ilford and Kodak, the development of Caffeinol has been driven by photographers. Each experiment created a new recipe, which in turn was developed by other photographers. Caffeinol is community led and it is fascinating to see the differing results. The ingredients are cheap coffee, vitamin c powder, salt or bromide and washing soda. Half an hour and it’s done. Whilst it is recommended to weigh everything, SFLAB on youtube got great results from bunging it in! Keep in mind when you look at the pictures that I am a beginner (so shooting film at night then pushing it two stops was a bit of an ask!). Developing film that you have shot, in stuff you have in your cupboards, and seeing the results is massively satisfying, cheap and safe. Ok, it’s a bit smelly but there is no such thing as a totally free ride.

Shoot film! You know it makes sense!