#olympusflex

I recently had a chance to visit some family around DC, and took the opportunity to visit the National Gallery. I took the Olympus Flex A, and a roll of Foma Retropan 320 Soft, a film new to me.

I can't say that this film is my favorite, it sort of reminds me of Bergger Pancro in terms of how thin and flat the images came out from development. One of the things I don't like about this film is that it isn't very sharp. Yes. I bought and shot a film with "soft" in the title and I'm complaining that it's soft. I know, I'm not very smart.

These pictures, though, I really like. The focal length along with the square crop really feels like it's working for me. Square crop, along with the methodical process of medium format is something that I'm enjoying more and more.

Having said that, I faced a lot of issues shooting in the museum. I rated the film at 160 (and still got thin negs?!). Even at f/2.8, I was having to hold at 1/25, sometimes even 1/10. While the heavier camera with a leaf shutter really did helped keep things steady, to say it was a struggle is an understatement.

Takeaway is that I would not shoot this film again, but digging this camera more and more every time I get shots from it. In other news, I ran out of the pre-made batch of D-76 that I've been running with, and I can't decide whether I want to make more or jump ship to Rodinal or HC-110.

Brought along the Olympus Flex A and a roll of Holga 400, which I'm liking more and more. I think the negative treatment it gets is largely unwarranted, but I also treat it closer to a 200 speed film, so maybe that's why I get different results than people who shoot it at box.

I will definitely be shooting more of this in the future, especially given it's price point. D-76 is also such a nice developer. This was developed in 1+1, which also mitigates my concerns about depletion, although it does create more waste than I think would be ideal. Caffenol was great in terms of getting me into home development, but as a lot of people have been saying online, film is expensive and developer is cheap. It doens't make a lot of sense to use alternative processes when I'm not necessarily after alternative results.

Hands down, one of the best parts of this place is the fact that the back of the property is right on the river front. My girlfriend loves to be out on the water, so we had a blast kayaking, paddle boarding, fly fishing, and just generally being out on the water.

I ended up shooting the roll of Bergger Pancro in the Olympus Flex TLR. I had replaced the focusing screen, and with this roll I especially wanted to see how the camera performs wide open. The result is that the camera often focused behind where I wanted it to. Regardless, some of the shots turned out decent.

All in all though, I like the images this camera gives. It'll definitly be one that sticks around for me. I do need to calibrate the focusing screen though. This image is a perfect example. The plants and bottles where I was trying to focus aren't sharp, but the curtain and the wicker basket behind it are pretty tack-sharp.

Bergger probably won't be a film that I really go for again. I was warned about how low contrast this film had, but wow the scans were flat. It's definitely a film that has a certain use, and It's really encouraging to see new films these days. However, I don't think this look is for me. The film is definitely cheaper than a lot of others, but Arista or HP5+ are probably going to be my go-to for black and white films.