I had a very good photographic experience recently whilst working in Europe. A colleague loaned me an old Yashica 6x6 medium format film camera to use around the city. I had deep reservations about doing so but once I started to use it, I found it to be an extremely valuable refresher in photographic practice in general.
The process of taking a good picture now has become so diluted by electronic trickery and the inherent disposable nature of the digital format, that as a technical (and to some extent, creative) skill, it’ s almost valueless. I found that by using this old medium format camera, it commanded a lot more concentration for a variety of reasons.
First off, using a camera like this is about as far removed from point and shoot as you could hope to be – there are no scene modes, no auto exposure, no image stabilisation and definitely no auto-focus. Composing a good image in focus in the viewfinder is almost an art form in itself before you even start worrying about fiddling with all the various arcane dials and switches.
Secondly, you only get around a dozen shots to a roll of film which means you have to take a lot of time considering the shots you want to take and how you take them as the ability to fire off endless volumes of images only to be deleted at will later on simply doesn’t exist. The film isn’t exactly expensive or hide to find but processing it can be another matter.
So, you might ask yourself why would I be recommending doing this to you? The answers are simple. The results from this format can be quite beautiful and capture far more detail and clarity than a prosumer digital SLR ever could. The regimen of taking photography like this can be a huge help to you when you step back into the digital world as you will have learned far more about lighting, exposure, composition, depth of field etc without relying on the camera to do what IT thinks is best for you.
Old cameras can be picked up very cheaply these days and even a brand new high end model with lens will only be as much as a regular DSLR if you shop around for one. So give it a go if you feel like it but don’t look at it as taking a step backwards but rather, taking a step in the right direction.
The process of taking a good picture now has become so diluted by electronic trickery and the inherent disposable nature of the digital format, that as a technical (and to some extent, creative) skill, it’ s almost valueless. I found that by using this old medium format camera, it commanded a lot more concentration for a variety of reasons.
First off, using a camera like this is about as far removed from point and shoot as you could hope to be – there are no scene modes, no auto exposure, no image stabilisation and definitely no auto-focus. Composing a good image in focus in the viewfinder is almost an art form in itself before you even start worrying about fiddling with all the various arcane dials and switches.
Secondly, you only get around a dozen shots to a roll of film which means you have to take a lot of time considering the shots you want to take and how you take them as the ability to fire off endless volumes of images only to be deleted at will later on simply doesn’t exist. The film isn’t exactly expensive or hide to find but processing it can be another matter.
So, you might ask yourself why would I be recommending doing this to you? The answers are simple. The results from this format can be quite beautiful and capture far more detail and clarity than a prosumer digital SLR ever could. The regimen of taking photography like this can be a huge help to you when you step back into the digital world as you will have learned far more about lighting, exposure, composition, depth of field etc without relying on the camera to do what IT thinks is best for you.
Old cameras can be picked up very cheaply these days and even a brand new high end model with lens will only be as much as a regular DSLR if you shop around for one. So give it a go if you feel like it but don’t look at it as taking a step backwards but rather, taking a step in the right direction.