Hello there!
It's been a while
I just got these...
two little things in the mail today
well like 5 minutes ago
that's a big box
scanner! for film
this is the exciting part
well this is nice
it came with a note
and this is it
this is very, very exciting
and this, my friends, is my new camera!
very very excited about it
I just got it in the mail, got it from ebay
for like around $400
I think it was a good deal
seems to be in pretty good condition
the brand is bronica, they've been out of business for a long time I believe
it's the model SQ-Ai
yeah you can tell, it's a medium format camera, a film camera
and I intend to make it my main camera from now on
don't worry, I'm still not ditching my digital cameras
I'm keeping that camera, the A7II for sure, because I love that camera
I might get rid of the a6000... probably
but yeah... why did I get this camera?
well for many reasons
one of them is, you can see here, I can remove the back
you can tell this is medium format, if you compare the size
to... this is like 35mm film
I don't know if you can see it... maybe against the wall?
that's the size of the frame in 35mm
and that's the size of a frame, medium format
well not medium format but 6xt
so that should result in much better photos, like resolution and quality
but that's not the reason why, because I believe my digital camera can take photos as good as this one
but the reason is the.... shape
you can tell the shape is a square. and I happen to like this format
I've been shooting all my photos... for months now, in square format
and none of my digital cameras, unfortunately, support 1:1 aspect ratio
that means that every time I take a photo on the A7II
I have to... when I look through the viewfinder, I have to mentally compose the shot
I have to think about this on the left, this on the right, these things are not going to be in the frame
really, really really annoyting
so I wanted to shoot square format from the very beginning, and this was one of the few cameras that allowed me to do that
there are another cameras that shoot square, like the Hasselblad, but much more expensive
there are another cameras like, I have one here
this is medium format too, this is a Rolleiflex
it's the same size
this is a 6x6, square
but the problem with this camera is that this lens is totally scratched and full of dust
so photos are just terrible from this camera
it just doesn't work, it's old... I believe this camera is at least 30, 40 years old
it's done its job, but right now
it just doesn't work
that's one of the reasons why I got this camera, to shoot in square format from the very beginning
being able to look through here and see the frame, what is going to be my final frame
I can tell what is in the frame and what is not
and that's gonna be awesome
well another reason is because it's a film camera, and I really wanted to give film a try
for serious work, and by serious work I mean my main camera
for landscapes, even for portraits, and leave digital for video and for trips where I cannot carry this camera
because it's slightly heavier than digital cameras
that's why I got the scanner too, I'm gonna do everything by myself
gonna develop my own film, gonna scan it here, going to edit it in the computer
this is going to be very exciting I believe, at least in the beginning, everything is going to be new for me
I'm sure I'm gonna mess up some rolls at the beginning, but that's alright
I really hope that I can come up with a process where I can engage with all my photos
because my main problem is, this A7II is as I said an amazing camera but
we went on a road trip 2 weeks ago, and I came back after 5-6 days with... I don't know... a thousand photos?
I've had this camera for a little bit more than a year
and I've taken already almost 25,000 photos with it
and it's not my only camera, I mean I've been taking photos with my a6000 too
at the same time, with my phone, I have another smaller camera
I might have taken... I don't know, 40,000 photos last year?
that is awesome and pretty bad at the same time
pretty awesome because I know I won't miss anything
but it's pretty bad because I take so many photos
that for me... I lose contact with them if that makes sense
I'm hoping this camera can slow me down, well I know it will for sure
because every photos is going to cost me money
only for that reason, it's going to slow me down
another reason why this is going to slow me down, this does not have 36 exposures like a 35mm camera
but this is 12 shots, 12 shot per roll
so I really hope that next time I go on a road trip and I bring this camera with me
instead of coming back with a 1,000 photos I come back with I don't know, say a hundred
100 good photos, instead of 1,000 photos of everything I saw
or 20 shot of the same scene over and over
yeah that's why I'm going to try film
if it doesn't work, if the process is too much for me
or too annoying, or whatever, I'll go back to digital, I'll sell this camera
and nothing to see here
but I'm willing to give it a try, a serious try
I invite you to come with me, I'm going to have Rachel recording videos of me taking photos
with this camera here in Portland
outdoors, in nature
I'll be telling you how everything goes about this process of shooting film, developing film, scanning film
what I'm going to do now, is I'm going to load some film here
I'm going to do it in front of the camera
this is my first time loading film in this camera
so please don't laugh at me
this is the film I'm going to use, it's Fuji Pro 400, it doesn't really matter
it's just to try the camera, so first things first
we take the back off
and now, I think we should be able to open this
I think I got it now, I don't know if that's...
the arrow there... should go to... there
now we are ready to put it back
so this is not film, it's just paper, so it should be alright
I'm still not sure if I've loaded this correctly
but we'll find out
there we go
until we hear a click
this shouldn't matter, it should be disengaged
actually it stays in one, so...
we are ready to put it back
and it says one, and we should be good to go
well I just wanted to say thanks for watching, I know this was a very long video to come back
it's just me talking, nothing interesting but
I can't wait to get this camera out there and start shooting
and show the results
come here, come here, good girl... and she agrees!
say bye, bye bye!