One of my friends would soon be emigrating to New Zealand so I decided to drive to see her just before she left. Luckily for me, she was staying in Kilcreggan which is a lovely village in Scotland. As always, I struggled to decide which cameras to take with me. In the end, I let the film decide.
I recently received a few rolls of Ilford SFX 200 in 35mm and 120 formats, so I wanted to take one camera for each. For the 35mm, I wanted to take a camera that could work without batteries due to the issues on my last trip. I would also be going via Blackpool as I would be visiting some friends there. One of those friends gave me a Canon AE1, so I really wanted to use that…but it relied on batteries. For the 120, I didn’t want to take a big, heavy camera as I didn’t want to carry it around. I also wanted to try an infrared filter and the one I have is very small, so I needed a camera with a small lens. In the end, I chose the Canon AE1, the Pentax K1000 and the Zeiss Ikon Nettar 518/16.
I was introduced to the SFX 200 at the She Hearts Film walk in Liverpool and since then I really wanted to try it. AND I really wanted to try it on a day with blue skies and fluffy clouds, but that didn’t happen.
Canon AE1 and Ilford SFX 200
For the first few days I was there, the sky was covered by clouds and not the fluffy kind. So I took out my red filter and graduated orange filter for some moody shots, then put on a yellow filter for a walk over the hills.
Zeiss Ikon Nettar 518/16 and SFX 200
Then lo and behold the clouds parted and I took the Ikon out for a trip to Helensburgh. I think I used the infrared filter for some of these, can you guess which?
Pentax K1000 with Rollei RPX 400
I still had a couple of SFX rolls left, but I wanted to save them for another location. So for my final roll, I loaded this slightly faster film. It turned out to be quite contrasty too. The first photo is the only one I took in Glasgow for this trip. The next set was taken along Kilcraggen shore and village. Finally, I met an amazing potter, photographer, and gardener so there are a few shots of her creations.
And that’s it. I had a lovely time and met some wonderful people and an awesome dog. We also visited the Agarty Red Kites, but my digital camera broke 🙁
As for the film, I loved it and can’t wait to use the other rolls I have. I am not one to write too many technical details but I know some people who love that kind of thing. So if you want to know more about the film in terms of grain and development please take a look at these two posts.
The Zeiss Ikon Nettar just has something about it doesnt it, you got me into this camera Peggy and I love mine, you feel as if you’re holding fun and quality when you use it and of course as you can see by the lovely shots you took it’s every bit as good as it feels. Top blog 👏👏
Yes, and nice and compact to boot 😀
Great shots, I do love the dog ones … lots of personality!!!
That dog was moving around so much I was surprised anything was in frame/focus 😀
It’s clear from your photos that film and camera combinations really do make a difference to the look and feel of an image. Thank you for sharing.
Andrew
Fine photos indeed! Your Kilcraggen potter might have a look at our Appalachian Mountains traditional “face mugs”, thrown by several skilled potters in this region. Their mugs range from funny to downright creepy. Robert Eakin may be the best-known of these artists.
Funny thing was, we had a cup of tea and I asked if she made her own cups…no, she hasn’t made one cup. I would be making cups galore if I could.
Ahhhh….which digital died?
Love these, can’t make up my mind which film I prefer they’re all fab. Love the ugly mugs. I’d say photo 6/11 has the infra red filter.
Sony A37 😞