Fitzand’s didn’t have to attend class today and so I took a day off to babysit him. After breakfast I took him for a fun time at Gardens By The Bay … and lugging along my Mamiya 645 Pro TL for a test drive. I picked up this (darn heavy) beast some time back but just couldn’t find the time (and mood) to test drive it. The camera looks a little seasoned and I was a little worried it might give me problem since it is way past the few days personal warranty period that the seller gave me.
So I loaded it with a roll of ISO100 film (if I am not wrong … an expired roll of Superia) and randomly gave it a test run.
The first shot I scanned. I went ‘wow!’ at the colors and it reminded me of why I love shooting film. 😀
As I was with Fitzand all the time … it wasn’t easy trying to manual focus and concentrate on shooting. Fortunately some of these turned out okay and I am now confident that the camera is good health.
We had a big surprise too! We bumped into all his teachers there as they were having their staff day outing at the gardens too. While we were there … I had a ‘WTH moment’. An old lady came up to me with her spanking new Samsung S3 … and asked if I could take a photo of her (with her phone). She mumbled something about not able to take any proper self-portrait due to the lighting. I went ‘huh?’ and proceed the help her take a couple of shots. What made me went ‘What???!!’ was that after that first couple of shots … she pointed to another spot and said she wanted me to take some photos of her there too. Being a nice guy (am I not??!!) … I dragged Fitzand to that other spot and took more photos of her. Then … she wanted another!!! Yeah!!! More photos at another spot!!! OMG! Am I some photographer for hire? After rolling my eyes … I took more photos for her. This time … after taking the photos … I returned her camera … she thanked me and before she could open her mouth again … I held Fitzand’s hand and quickly walk away. I could have ended being asked to go all over the garden for this ‘model’ shoot!
Oh … she asked if I could help her take photos because she said she saw me with the ‘big camera’ and assumed I know how to take proper photos. What?!! I shall being my Holga for outings from now on!
Thank God the gardens were pretty cooling and we had a fun day there.
Well … I guess manual focus cameras ain’t suitable to shoot this little Power Ranger of mine. He moves too much!
There is another roll that I’ve yet to finish scanning but that other roll turned out pretty bad. No … not the camera … not me (I hope) … but the film. I found that roll of Optima 160 in my camera bag … and I think it is way long expired and left in the bag for many years. There are some greenish ermm … spots … dots … like sprinkled all over the photos. Anyway … I’ll scan and upload them later.
I love this big camera! I’m even considering to lug it along during my vacation in November but the weight might kill this old man. 🙁 I’ve quite some 120 film to burn because last week … I picked up 20 rolls of Provia 400X from ThirtySix. 😀