Tuesday, 27th September, 2022

After yesterday’s whirlwind mental activity on new cameras I’ve settled down and tried to only think about the actual problems I have, not the imaginary ones I might have.

I have a very good, compact camera, with a wide selection of good lenses. Things I “don’t like” are in my control to change. I always want fast and exotic lenses which will be “great for portraits, or great for sports”, but I don’t really take any of those, and if I did, any of my lenses would take lovely photos with the right composition and lighting.

I am thinking of selling the 50mm f/2 as I never really like any of the photos I take with it. This is entirely me, but I think it doesn’t suit what I want to do. I think swapping it for the 35mm f/1.4 might be a better choice - not that I need to get that lens as the 27mm 2.8 is pretty close in length to it. However, selling one lens and buying another is part of the fun. I’m actually thinking about the 14mm f/2.8 just for something really different. There’s the 16 2.8 but that’s too close to the 18, and on the roadmap there’s an 8mm f3.5 coming next year. That might be too wide for me. I also need to remember I have the 60mm macro, which I could use instead of the 50mm for whenever I take portraits, it’s a little slower (aperture and auto focus) but it’s also longer. AND there’s the adapted M mount. There’s no shortage even within the tiny selection I have.

The Ricoh GR is still an interest, mostly for the size. It’s quite an expensive toy though, and maybe I’d be better off spending £900 on a new phone which will always be with me and most likely good enough. Not that I want to spend £900 on a new phone.

M10 🙄 Oh now I’ve just gone and reminded myself of all the things and thinking about it again 😅

Developing the film was both stressful and fun. I need to scan the images. Sometimes I wish I’d kept that Plustek 35mm scanner with Silverfast. Yes it was slow, yes the software is weird and confusing, but it was a whole package that did the job. Now I feel like I need 100 things to do digital camera scanning: tripod, light source, mask arrangement, holder/feeder, camera, macro lens, remote trigger, conversion software…😮‍💨 I have most of that now as I’ve bought it all - still debating on software - but the setup feels like a chore, vs. Just get the scanner out, plug it in and start going. It was super slow scanning the slide film of my grandad but I could do it whilst just on the computer. Maybe once I do it a couple of times I’ll be slick at it and it’ll take no time at all.

So now that development has been successful…what am I doing? Just shooting B&W film every weekend?