Well, I had a nice surprise last week. My lovely wife bought me this for my birthday:

A Graflex Crown Graphic medium format film camera that’s older than me. You probably recognise this as a “reporter’s camera”, the sort you’ll see in Film Noir movies and that Jimmy Olsen carried in the old Superman black and white TV series (though that was a Speed Graphic).

It uses medium format “120” film that (it may surprise you) is still made and you can buy in black and white and colour formats.

Anyway, learning how this camera works is fun! There is no inbuilt light meter, so I am currently using an iPhone app to set exposures. I suspect it’s not as good as they say, so I’m looking for a good analogue light meter to complete the “set”. Update: Got this from eBay:

The camera’s bit chunky, so I’m generally using a tripod, but I’ll practice hand-holding it in the coming weeks.

The process for taking a picture is a lot more involved than using a digital SLR:

• Unfold the camera
• Decide on an aperture
• Take a light meter reading
• Set the aperture
• Set the shutter speed
• Cock the shutter
• Frame the image
• Focus using the rangefinder on the side
• Pull the film slide out
• Take the picture (finally!)
• Push the slide back in
• Advance to the next frame

Actually, I’m getting faster at this, and there are some shortcuts I can use when I get more experience. After all, this type of camera was used for news coverage. But it really is a relaxed process, and it gives you time to think about the image before you actually take it.

The other interesting thing is that you can have multiple loaded film backs, and change film at any time, rather than just at the end of the roll.

So far, I’ve shot a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus black and white (10 shots per roll), and I like the results. Currently it’s loaded with a roll of Kodak Portra 160 colour film, so I’m keen to see how these turn out. Below is my first roll. You can click on them to get a bigger view.