The Rare World of the 127 Film

If you cast your eyes back to July last year, I wrote a post about the old Yashica 44 medium format camera that I picked up off eBay. I didn’t mean to buy a camera that only took 127 film; it was a novice’s mistake borne out of ignorance and possibly inattention to detail.

It turns out that very few places sell 127 format film these days. Analogue Wonderland do, as do Nik & Trick - and I have managed to acquire a few expired rolls of Ilford from eBay. It’s expensive too, at between £12 and £15 a roll of 12 exposures, and then the processing (more on that later). The negatives are 4cm by 4cm.

The biggest hurdle I have faced with the camera though is me. Inexplicably I developed a bit of a mental block around the camera. After exposing the film in July something was stopping me from removing the film from the camera. It wasn’t logical. Maybe I feared my ability to do so without creating terrible light leaks over the film. Maybe I just thought the results would be terrible. Certainly the search for a place to actually process the film was daunting in itself. But eventually last weekend, after six months of thinking about it, I got the film out of the camera and set about trying to find somewhere to process it.

After a very long hunt around, I found Forest Photographic in Walhamstow. They process at very reasonable prices (compared to everywhere else I found) 127 film, and the turnaround time was good in a couple of days.

So, the results. I think it’s fair to say that my dreams of becoming the next Vivian Maier have been cruelly dashed. BUT, there is something about these pictures that I really like.

I love the quality and timbre of the film itself (Rerapan 400) - its graininess is gorgeous. Medium format is also a lovely compositional frame.

I shot the film almost blind in the sense that the camera settings were quite alien to me. From the shots below the shutter speed must not have been quite on-point (or the camera is just old and not firing on all cylinders). But actually I really like this effect; digital photography has made sharpness a new art form and playing with lack of focus is pleasing.

Another aspect that I am excited to play with is double exposure. The double exposure of me in the mirror was an accident, of not cranking the film on enough - but this gives me so many creative possibilities that it’s quite inspiring.

There’s definitely work to be done on my side in using the camera better (framing, overall composition, understanding of how the bloody thing works), but gaining the momentum to get the film developed has inspired me to keep pushing and to explore new photographic boundaries.

Adventures in film (continued)

It’s been a fun few weeks as far as photography is concerned.

Old, grainy baby photos

The initial results of my film forays are in. Probably the greatest pleasure has been retrieving the old black and white film that was sitting in my camera for 9 years or more. As my son prepares to move to Big School, it’s lovely to find “new” images of him as a baby.

REDSCALE FILM
This 35mm film I bought from Nik & Trick (see previous post). It was the first film I’d loaded in to the camera in years, so part of the learning curve was getting used to the camera’s idiosyncrasies again.

I remember using a red lens filter years ago and having to over-expose the image to get any real sense of picture. The first couple of shots I took on an overcast day, and even with the overexposure the dark was shapeless and devoid of detail. Two stops would definitely have been better.

The shot could have benefited from more exposure

The next day I went out was bright and sunny with excellent cloud cover - perfect for redscale photography shots. Mostly one stop over-exposure was enough, but in darker areas such as in the shade of the Hyde Park Pavilion, it could definitely have benefited from more.

Now I have “cut my teeth” on redscale, I have a couple more options to play with. I have another roll of pre-rolled film to shoot - and I’ll choose my landscape more carefully, armed with my current knowledge. The other option I’m going to play with is playing around with coloured lens filters, to see if I can get the same effect on normal 35mm film or even on digital - without paying for the cost and hassle of film.

See the redscale photos here >

REVOLOG PHOTOS
Revolog is a brand of film that makes novelty effects (some might say gimmicky, but what have you got to lose other than a bit of money?). I bought a couple of rolls of different types here and here.

Obviously, taking the photos is as easy as taking any other type of film - you can’t see what you’re doing in the moment anyway. But in terms of the results, I much preferred the versatility of the Revolog film - though I still shot a little overexposed, the film was much easier to handle and the success rate of the shots was higher and especially in darker areas of the images. It is however more unpredictable in terms of the results you’re going to get - as you don’t know if a splotch of green is going to be to the left or to the right of the image.

This film is so much easier to shoot with, without so much decision making between light and shade

But of course, novelty film or no novelty film, it’s all a bit pointless if your composition is up to nothing. And this is one of the downsides of film: because the roll is in your camera, it blocks you doing anything else with it until that load is complete, so you end up taking slightly silly pictures just to finish up the roll. This said, I’ll definitely use this film again at some point in the near future: #filmisnotdead

See the Revolog photos here >

Next time I’ll talk about loading the Yashica 44, and other medium format fun things.