A reflection on my 2023 in film photography, and goals for 2024

At the bar. Fools and Horses in the Pearl District, 18 Dec 2023
Camera: MInolta XD5
Lens: MInolta MD 50mm f/1.7
Film: Cinestill 800T

I’m just finishing up the fourTH year that I’ve been back into film. It’s been a fun adventure, so far. Like last year, this year I bought a few more cameras, sold or got rid of a few, and learned some valuable skills.

Here is what my camera stable currently looks like. Cameras acquired this year are in bold, listed in order of when I got them (year in parenthesis). All of them are 35mm unless indicated otherwise.

• Olympus XA2 (2020). My compact favorite, used more than probably any other camera in the fleet.
• Minolta SR-T 101 (2020): My big beefy 60’s era SLR.
• Olympus Pen EES-2 (2020): My half-frame wonder.
• Minolta XD5 (2022): My compact automatic exposure SLR.
• Richoflex Dia (2022): My classy medium format TLR.
• Sawyers Nomad 620 (2022): My simple medium format box camera.
• Olympus XA (2023): Like the XA2, but also a rangefinder!
• Pentax IQZoom 170SL/Espio 170SL (2023): True, I did buy one in 2020 and got rid of it, but decided to get another one this year, as I wanted another bang-about compact. Released in 2002, it’s the most “advanced” film camera I own.
• Canon Canonet QL17 G-III (2023): My traditional looking fixed-lens rangefinder.
• Olympus OM-1n (2023): My compact mechanical SLR.

My stable is at a comfortable ten, though there is one more on the way. It’s a well-rounded collection featuring compacts, half-frames, rangefinders, TLRs, and SLRs. As it is, I don’t have much of a desire for anything at this point. What else would I get? I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of another brand’s SLR so I’d have to hunt down more lenses, two systems is enough for now. Nor do I have a desire for a Leica or rarified premium 90’s compact. I enjoy all of the cameras I listed above, and want to use them regularly. Getting more would either mean some would be used less and less, and then I’d go through the process of shedding cameras. As it is, I haven’t used my medium format cameras nor my half-frame much this year and I need to remedy that.

There were a couple cameras that left the stable this year, my Minolta Hi-Matic 7s and Olympus 35RD. Both were fixed-lens rangefinders I acquired in my first year back in film. I thought I would be a bit emotional about their departures, especially since the Hi-Matic was my reintroduction into the analog photography world. While they both will have a special place in my heart, I outgrew them both, and the Canonet is a worthy replacement that splits the difference between the two. And there were cameras that passed through my hands briefly this year, like the Pentax K1000 and ME Super and the Minolta XG7 and XG1. Turns out that I have enough SLRs!

Last year I started to develop my own film and also learned how to print in the darkroom. This year I’ve kept up on home development, at least for black-and-white. Getting a new Plustek 8200 has helped, as the scans I get from it are heaps better than my old Kodak Scanza. It does take longer, about an hour a roll, but I’ll deal with that. I did not get into the darkroom as much as planned this year, but I do have the desire to head back into the Portland Darkroom in 2024 and do more.

In other internet writings, I had two more posts up on venerable British film photography website 35mmc, one about shooting Fujicolor 100 on my XD5 at Osaka Castle, the other about a bike ride around New Haven. And I had my first post up on venerated American film photography website Casual Photophile, a review of my Olympus XA2. I hope to write more for both sites in 2024.

There are definitely some things I want to concentrate on in 2024, the biggest one is to focus more on photography projects. Much of my photos consist of things I captured while just riding or walking around. This is definitely not a bad way to go about it (I mean, “street photography” is basically this), but I want to add some methodology onto my serendipity. And I also would like to do more photo-zines, as there were none last year. A good way to make that happen is to go out and seek specific subjects. I also want to do more darkroom printing. And I did not shoot any slide film at all in 2023. I got seven rolls in the freezer…

But overall I’m happy with how things have been going. And overall, I’m still happy with film. I’ve shot about 170 rolls this year. Yes, that’s quite a bit! And in my heart of hearts (and my mind of minds) I know that film isn’t necessarily “better” than digital. Yet I like it more. There’s something about the experience: the haptic pleasures of a mechanical camera sometimes older than me, the anticipation of waiting to see the results, the ability to control those results in a way you cannot with digital, namely home developing and darkroom. I’ve learned a lot, and still have so much more to learn.

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