New stories from an Old Camera

I hadn't put a film through my Voigtlander for some time.  Pretty remiss of me but, I had a couple of new 35mm cameras that I was trying out and the time just slipped by.

I'd had a Fuji NEOPAN Acros 100 sitting in the fridge for a while and, I decided it was time to load it and start shooting.

The Voigtlander Bessa 1 folding camera is a medium format film camera.  From a roll of 120mm film, shot in 6x9 format, I get 8 exposures.  It's more expensive to develop and scan than 35mm, so I try to be circumspect about what I shoot with it.  It is really a landscape camera.  I would love to use it for portraits but, the top shutter speed is only 1/250 and so I can't really open up the shutter for a shallow DOF because I don't have a fast shutter speed to match.

I took the camera with me on a couple of photo safaris.  The first was to the sand dunes at Worimi National Park (north of Newcastle in NSW).  With this camera, I use a light meter app on my iPhone that I downloaded a few years ago!  A bit funny; using a digital app as a light meter for a totally manual film camera but, it is very accurate!

The sand dune photo shows the latitude of exposure that film has, as opposed to a modern digital sensor.  I had been using the 'sunny 16' method for exposure but, had inadvertently set the shutter speed at 1/250 (using the sunny 16 method the shutter speed should have been 1/100).  Surprisingly, the sand dune photos turned out ok and not way over exposed like I thought they would have.  I am thinking that the faster shutter speed may have saved those shots because it was very hot and the midday light shining off the sand was very, very bright.  Otherwise, they may have blown out and overexposed.

The 2nd safari was out to a small town called Stroud, about a 50 minute drive from home.  It is a lovely rural area with beautiful countryside.

I do have a Kodak Portra 160 in the fridge that I will be getting out at the end of the week.  I have only put 1 colour film into the camera since it has been resurrected (see the results of that here) and am really looking forward to that!

This Voigtlander came with the Prontor-S Color Skopar 35mm lens.  Focal length when unfolded is 105mm.

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© Life with Jordy Photography, All Rights Reserved and

are not to be used without permission.

The photographs on this blog post are for sale.

contact me if you are interested.

Sand Dune - Worimi National Park, NSW.

The Lean To - just out of town on The Bucketts Way,Stroud, NSW. 

Letter Boxes - Alderley Lane, Booral, NSW.

Canon - Silo Hill, Stroud, NSW.  There are 2 cannons on Silo Hill in Stroud.  These cannons were originally set up in Sydney to guard the harbour during the Crimean War (1855-56) and were situated at Bear Island, La Perouse.   They were later sent to Fort Scratchley and became part of the defences of Newcastle. In 1909 they were obsolete.  They were dismantled and sent to Booral via the Karauh River and from there by Bullock Dray to their current location in  Stroud.

More Letterboxes - Booral Rd, Booral, NSW.

War Memorial - Stroud, NSW.  It is always a pleasure to see the many
different War Memorials in small towns.

Dirt Road - Worimi National Park, NSW.