Film and my Olympus Pen

For something different, after almost a decade of shooting digital, I thought I'd try using film again. Inspired by the re-release of the Olympus Pen, I bought one of the original film versions, the EES-2.



The Pen series gets twice the value from a roll of film, as it takes two photos per 35mm frame. This gives a default portrait orientation of the camera and is a different aspect ratio to look at.



My first roll of film covered a work trip through Vietnam, a trip to Sydney, the Blue Mountains and time spent wandering through Melbourne. It was agonising not knowing if the camera worked or not. I was very excited to finally receive the prints.



I learnt a few lessons with using this camera. Firstly, pay attention to focus. There is no visual indication of focus, but rather a manual dial around the lens. I need to remember to change this more often, as the lens has a shallow depth of field in most conditions and I took lots of blurry photos.



Secondly, I learnt to take more time with each exposure. This is the big win for my photography. The requirement is of pre-visualising the photo; the final you may not see for weeks yet. This led me to think quite carefully before taking a shot. Hopefully it leads to better photos.



Finally, to have fun. Shooting within the constraints of an automatic, manually focusing film camera was liberating. The technology is fixed (in the 60's), so a good photo is the result of good photography. Now back to practising!