Over the last weekend, J and I were in Whitby for the goth weekend. A band we both love, and have been waiting to see for many years, were playing the Friday night, and so, we elected to make a long weekend of it, and stay Thursday to Monday.
I’ve had an Agfa Isolette for a while, passed down to me from my grandparents, and it comes in a lovely brown leather ever ready case. The shallow reason for my wanting to take it is a simple as it matched my outfit perfectly. So, to make it viable for the evening, it needed a flash.
The only flash I have small enough to not look ridiculous was a little Olympus T20, which doesn’t have a sync port. However, a few weeks ago, J picked up an old hotshoe to sync adapter from a secondhand camera store nearby, which is tiny and unobtrusive enough to not add bulk to the flash. A test roll gave acceptable results, so I ordered a pile of film, and away we went.
I used Fomapan 100 film, and before I go any further, I have to include a massive recommendation for AG Photographic. I ordered the film quite late, and was worried about it arriving in time, so I sent an email to them. They called me back about my order, to let me know that one item wasn’t in stock, let me take that item off, and dispatched the order that day. The guy I spoke to was incredibly friendly and helpful, and I know J has had a similarly helpful experience with them recently with an enquiry about film. Extremely impressed with the quality of service, and the range of film, paper and chemicals they stock is excellent.
Here’s the setup of the camera (withough the adapter, as J has taken it home), with the addition of a home made diffuser taped to the flash.
The wonderful thing about shooting at an event like this with such an unusual looking camera is that not only is is a great talking point/icebreaker, but I also feel much less intrusive than if I were carrying a huge SLR and flash. Obviously you wouldn’t want to use a vintage camera if you were shooting the event for professional purposes, but for snapshots, it’s far more fun than a digital compact.
The first roll came out with a lot of slightly out of focus shots, because I am a pillock and forgot to set the focus ring. The second roll came out clearer, and I still have half a roll to process, once I’m done shooting it.
All the photos are on Flickr, in this set, but these are a couple of my favourites.
A Negative Influence 