Topic: One Camera One Month 2014 - Conclusion

[SLVR]

I guess we will go through and post up our favourite images from the month, reposts are ok, and how you learned, experienced, had fun, didnt have fun etc.

For me I chose to shoot with my Bronica SQ-A for the month. Mostly because out of the whole year I hadn't given it much attention. I did do one camera one month last year with the SQ-A and really enjoyed it. But as time changes so does your taste in cameras. I started out my month strong and carried often. Shooting was slow because of weather but I did get out.





Halfway through the month I woke up one day and decided that the mamiya 7 with 80mm must be mine and that afternoon I had one in the mail. My SQ-A was on the chopping block. SLRs aren't for me. I found it very hard to get the SQ-A to get the look I was after. So after 2 or 3 weeks into the month I learned that the SQ-A isn't for me and its time to move on to something new.

Sorry to start things off on a sad note.

(SQ-A still for sale)

[Ezzie]

I chose the Lomo'Instax. Pure coincindence really. It arrived on my doorstep the day the month commenced. I took the hint. I rather liked using it, but must confess I found it a bit too limiting to use it as my sole camera for a whole month.

The camera.

Lomo Instant Kickstarter edition unboxed by Eirik0304, on Flickr


Some results

Reflection by Eirik0304, on Flickr



Smena Symbol by Eirik0304, on Flickr


Police and Recovery by Eirik0304, on Flickr


Bikes galore by Eirik0304, on Flickr



Flower bike by Eirik0304, on Flickr



Tordenskjoldsgade by Eirik0304, on Flickr



Kiosk #1 by Eirik0304, on Flickr



Nyhavn by Eirik0304, on Flickr

[Late Developer]

Some amazing stuff on here already.  Mine are re-posts what I took with the XPan has been posted on the weekend threads and the Olympic Village FW get-together in November.  However, for the sake of completeness, here's some of the better ones:

[AJShepherd]

For the month, I chose to shoot with my Olympus Pen FT. I shot one roll of black and white throughout the month, well that was 72 shots, and for various reasons I didn't get around to going anywhere out of walking distance and didn't really get much inspiration.

One night in the pub a friend arrived and said he'd seen a headless elephant in the hedge on his way, and no, he'd not been drinking before he arrived at the pub. A few days later I was passing and it was still there, although some research showed it to be a headless triceratops instead. Hard to tell without the head.

Headless Triceratops by Antony J  Shepherd, on Flickr

Out for a lunchtime walk (I work from home, and if I didn't go for a walk at lunchtime I could go days without seeing anyone) I went out of my way and down streets I don't usually go down, where I found this...

The death of the public telephone by Antony J  Shepherd, on Flickr

The heavy dampness in the air led me to observe this beaded spider's web strung over a hedge.

Gossamer by Antony J  Shepherd, on Flickr

Last weekend of the month, and I passed the tree where toys go to die.

Where Toys Go To Die by Antony J  Shepherd, on Flickr

I finished off my film in a local small brewery who were having an open day.

Brewing by Antony J  Shepherd, on Flickr

All shot on Lucky SHD100 developed in Ilfotec LC29 (1:19 solution for seven and a half minutes)

Main thoughts from the month were that some times I wished I'd loaded colour instead, because I did miss some of the autumn colours, although most of the time it was a bit cold and grey so overall black and white seemed like a good idea.
I like using the Pen FT, but I also wished I'd got around to getting a few more lenses for it when I had the chance. It'd be nice to have a wide and either a short telephoto or zoom to give me a bit more choice.
Also getting a mounting bracket so I'd have an easy way of using flash (there's no shoe, but there is the socket for the cable) if I needed to.

I took very few shots in 'landscape' ratio, so was looking for shots that worked better in 'portrait' format as that's the default format holding the camera normally.

[KevinAllan]

I chose my Mamiya RZ67, which didn't really stretch me in terms of doing new things because it is already my most-used camera. I restricted things a little more and just shot Ektar whereas I'd used a lot of Portra in the last year.  I used three rolls which were developed in the Digibase C41 kit.

The only issue I had with the camera is that my 50mm lens developed a fault so that the shutter won't fire on cable release, so wasted a few frames until I realised what the problem was. The weather was mainly uninspiring but I managed a few outings to places not too far from home.

I will post a short selection here and there are more on my blog at http://kevinthephotographer.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/one-camera-one-month-one-film/


Boat 4 by Kevin J Allan, on Flickr


Pond by Kevin J Allan, on Flickr


Autumn at Wallington by Kevin J Allan, on Flickr


All that remains by Kevin J Allan, on Flickr

[mcduff]

These have been awesome! I really like the wide range of cameras that folks lugged around the month, from instant to half frame to MF. It is nice to read the comments about the experience, too.

About a year ago I bought into the Mamiya M645 system. In the fall I was at a camera show with Mike and Tintin that I first started playing with them and bought one shortly thereafter. While some might see the 645 format as the worst of both worlds, the compromise works for me. I like getting a few more shots per roll of 120, when the camera is set up to be light it is pretty easy to lug around, and the negative is almost 3 times the size of 135 format. While I have shot a lot on it since I have had it, focusing on it for a month was great. As I think I have already said, I think I could live with it being my one and only camera!

I think some of these may have already been posted here and there, but what the heck:


Dying and Drying 3 by mcduff!, on Flickr


Early Fall 2 by mcduff!, on Flickr


Delta 3200 first time 2 by mcduff!, on Flickr


early fall 3 by mcduff!, on Flickr


mamiya_fall 3 by mcduff!, on Flickr

[jharr]

Really fantastic stuff so far!

I chose my Kodak Instamatic 500 for the month. I only shot one roll through it though because after the first roll, I decided that the hole punching aparatus I used to create the 126 film was not quite right. That notwithstanding, I did enjoy shooting with this camera and once the technical difficulties of creating 126 film from unperforated 35mm are worked out, I will definitely be using it more. The lens is quite sharp and the square-ish format is appealing to me. Here are a few shots on expired Konica Professional 160.

This is the sun setting on the hills out in back of my work.

instamatic-009 by James Harr's Photos, on Flickr

Tables and chairs in the autumn afternoon sun. The film has a purple cast that removes the 'warmth' of the golden hour. Interesting.

instamatic-006 by James Harr's Photos, on Flickr

Comfy chairs at Starbucks.

instamatic-015 by James Harr's Photos, on Flickr

[Gimenosaiz]

Hello!
I chose my Mamiya C220 for this november ... althought I've used another two.
I've developed three of the four rolls I've shot with the mamiya: two black and white and two color.

1-4 Fomapan 400
5-7 Konica-Minolta Pro 160 (expired) -->> Bad choice in autumn
8-10 Ilford HP5+

8 and 9 Sekor 180 f/4.5; Sekor 80 f/2.8 the rest

1. A old house in my hometown (Castielfabib)

castiel by Antonio GB, on Flickr

2. Another one

castiel by Antonio GB, on Flickr

3. A farmer's cart

remolque by Antonio GB, on Flickr

4. Violeta ;-)

violeta by Antonio GB, on Flickr


5. Riverside trees in my hometown

chopos by Antonio GB, on Flickr

6. Street of my hometown

03112014-Mamiya_Konica160_25_979 by AntonioTest, on Flickr

7. Just a tree trunk

03112014-Mamiya_Konica160_25_984 by AntonioTest, on Flickr

8.The road ...

carretera by Antonio GB, on Flickr

9.

violeta by Antonio GB, on Flickr

10.

violeta by Antonio GB, on Flickr

Thank you!!

[mcduff]

These are great. It is pretty neat that a lot of really different cameras were used for the month. The range of the images and the quality is awesome.

[FrankE]

again so many great shots, too many to comment on
but Antonio I just have to say how much I love that portrait of Violeta, it is so much more than simply a picture

[Late Developer]

A really beautiful thread with some great photography and diverse expressions of the output of which the various cameras / formats are capable. 

For me, this experiment proved to be the swan-song for the XPan as it hadn't really lived up to my expectations. The Xpan is unquestionably a very fine camera but it has a few flaws which proved a bit too limiting for me. 

Firstly, the lenses are sloooooow. Unless you're shooting in strong sunlight or at least bright, hazy sunlight, getting a shutter speed quick enough to hand hold is difficult. The 45mm and 90mm f4 lenses become f5.6 with the centre spot filter and the 30mm f5.6 lens is getting on f8.  Not ideal unless you want to shoot 800ISO+ or trail a tripod around with you.  If I'm taking a tripod, I would rather use MF.

Secondly, you can't see the shutter speed the camera is proposing to use in the viewfinder. I know it's not difficult to check exposure and set shutter speed and aperture manually but it's easy to forget that you need to repeat and repeat as often as lighting conditions change. 

Thirdly, because of the limited f-stops and lack of close focusing, forget throwing the background out of focus.  You can do it a bit but there's no comparison with the effect that can be achieved with an f1.2, f1.4 or even f2 lens on the front.

Lastly, it's not lightweight (especially if you are also carrying a tripod) and that's frustrating because, at the end of the day, it's a 35mm camera. 

I can't say I dislike the XPan but it's not the camera for me.  Anyway, I made enquiries of the place from whence I bought it and received a very pleasant surprise on the trade-in value.  I now have some other kit that augments the gear I had aside from the XPan and i will get more / more regular use from that.  I'm sure I'll miss things about the XPan but I can always crop from MF to the same quality. 

Using the XPan in this experiment actually did me a favour in the long run, so I'm really pleased I spent November with it.

[Gimenosaiz]

[...] but Antonio I just have to say how much I love that portrait of Violeta, it is so much more than simply a picture

Ups! Thanks a lot ;-) Violeta's merit !!!

Regards !

Antonio

[Urban Hafner]

I chose the Bronica ETRSi as my camera of choice. But with starting a new job in November and this being the season where the kids get sick constantly (they're kindergarden age) I didn't even manage to finish a single roll! But the few shots I took I at least liked taking and I will definitely use that camera a lot more in 2015!