Bitten by the Film bug (again)

It seems to happen to me every year.

I'm going along quite happily, minding my own business. Then -WHAM. I get hit by the film bug. Nasty little critter!

I honestly don't know why? Not that I'm complaining mind you. I love shooting film. And I've written elsewhere that if I had to get rid of all of my cameras - and just keep one - the choice would be easy. I'd keep my Bronica ETRS medium format 645 film camera. Hands down.

So this time when the film bug hit me, I didn't even question it. I loaded my Bronica with a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 (my favourite colour print film) and headed out the door very early one Autumn morning. I threw my digital gear in the back of the car too (not literally, I'm not that kinda guy), just for fun - not expecting to actually use it. I'd been bitten by the film bug after all.

Turns out grabbing the Fuji X-E2 was a good move. I set up the Bronica at one of my favourite locations - the Lake Mahinapua Jetty in South Westland - just in time to catch the sunrise. I checked the exposure (8 seconds at f16), and pushed the shutter release cord. Nothing... Nada... Zip! Turns out my beloved Bronica was having 'issues'! I tried a few more times before giving up (the sun had well and truly risen by then), and decided to head inland to another lake location and shoot with the X-E2.

Hans Bay Jetty, Lake Kaniere, Westland. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm. f11 @1/125th, ISO 200

I took the Bronica home and had a fiddle with it, and eventually got it working again. Seemed to have been caused by an over zealous light seal replacement on my part. But anyway, I got it working again, and returned to Lake Mahinapua the next morning, with very similar conditions, the record the sunrise on film.

No harm, no foul. These things happen with older film cameras. But of course, that got me thinking... I don't really have a 35mm film system that I'm using at the moment, as a 'back-up' to the Bronica. So I thought I'd go about rectifying that...

My first stop was a very good photographer friend of mine - Stewart, who I knew would probably have a few film cameras lying around unused. Turns out he did, although the pickings were slim. But I did walk away with a very nice Minolta XD7 (unfortunately with a not so nice Sigma 28-80 zoom lens with the rubber perishing), and a Ricoh 50mm f2 lens I could put on a Pentax P30T body I had that needed a lens. 

The XD7, in particular, is a nice all-manual camera with a very famous (Leica) history attached to it, and probably warrants its own review soon. I may in fact look at it and the Pentax P30T together?

But as nice as both of them are, I was actually looking for something a bit more 'up to date' camera-wise. Something with (dare I say it) auto focus! So the hunt was on. Once again, with limited funds. So, once again, I turned to New Zealand's answer to ebay - TradeMe.

I'm not going to turn this post into a rant - honest I'm not. But... if you'll indulge me just a small 'rantlet' - OMG people are asking crazy, stupid, insulting, ridiculous, crazy (did I mention that one already?) amounts of money for film cameras! Seriously!!!

Film cameras that I could have purchased for just a few dollars three or four years ago are now selling for hundreds. Literally hundreds! How the hell did that happen?

I blame the hipsters. Now that film is 'cool' again, sellers of old film cameras get dollar signs in their eyes and see a profit to be made. Whereas those of us for whom film was never 'uncool' can no longer have their pick of cameras for a song. That's progress I guess? And it also means that film is kept alive for the foreseeable future. Which is also a good thing. But we are now at the point where a forty year old camera - often body only - costs more on the used market than a Nikon D300 digital with lens! How did that happen? And is anybody actually using these film cameras? I've never - and I mean never - seen another film shooter out shooting film when I'm out and about. So are they all buying them for 'show'?

I honestly don't know. But what I do know, from personal experience over the last week of searching online, is that it's getting harder and harder to buy any film camera, let alone a decent one, on a small budget. Here endith the 'rantlet'.

Having said all that, I love a good challenge. So I was determined to find an auto focus 35mm body that I could build a decent film system around. I considered many cameras, from all brands, but a great many of them fell short in one or two areas. I've got nothing against solid polycarbonate bodies, but I want a metal lens mount - so a lot of the mid level cameras from the late 80s and 90s were out. I also wanted something with DX film over ride - so again, a lot of those mid to low end systems were out. Which was, worryingly, leading me to look at the 'top' (expensive) end of the market again.

In the end, I got it down to two cameras - a Nikon F80 (brilliant camera and I've always wanted one), and, surprisingly, a Canon EOS 300V. Not a camera that I've ever had much interest in at all to be honest. My heart was saying 'go with the F80', but my head was opting for the 300V. In the end, it came down to lens selection. The Nikon was being sold with a 70-300 G lens which I really didn't want, whereas the Canon was selling 'body only' for a lot less, and I have a couple of lenses I can use with it already. So me head won over my heart! The Canon EOS 300V it is! Which is quite a surprise to me, to say the least.

The Canon EOS 300V in all its silver shining glory!

I've seen images of the 300V over the years, and to be honest, it's a camera that has never really appealed to me. I don't like the look of that weird banana-shaped hand grip - and all that Silver! Yuck!!! It reminds me a lot of the original Canon 300D digital camera that I tried when digital first became mainstream. And I hated that camera! I went on to buy the Nikon D70 instead, and it was a no-brainer. Hang on a minute - that's not sounding too good?

Many years have passed since I formed that original opinion on the all-silver 300D. And maybe I've mellowed? Or maybe my tastes have changed? But all I know is that, as I write this, I have a plastic Nikon F55 camera body, in all-silver, sitting on my desk in front of me - and I kinda like the look of it. It doesn't repulse me in the way the original D300 did when I first saw it. So maybe there's hope for the EOS 300V yet? I'm certainly hoping so. Because on paper, at least, it ticks all the right boxes. Metal lens mount - tick. DX code override - tick. Full metered manual control - tick. Decent auto focusing system - tick. Compatible with a huge range of Canon EF (not EF-S) lenses (including IS) - tick.

It will be turning up this week, together with the CR2 batteries required to power the camera. I'm actually very excited to try it out and see what I think about it when it's in my hands. I'm hoping I'll like it - and maybe even come to love it? Maybe the head will eventually convince the heart to love this little camera? And if not? Well, there's always TradeMe...