My Film Cameras: A Rundown
An inventory of my current 35mm film cameras to date and what I love (and don’t love) about each one.
YASHICA T5
Here she is, my newest baby. My Dad bought two of these bad boys for £70 about a decade ago in Holland. The joke is most definitely on me now that they are worth £500 a piece but I really wanted to give that Carl Zeiss lens a try so I begrudgingly bought one off of him (I did get a bit of a mates rate don’t worry). The lens is incredible, crisp as anything and delivers the most beautiful tones and grain but I would say it’s probably not quite worth the hype-dictated-price-tag that it carries with it at the moment. These things fluctuate so if you can get one slightly cheaper then do go for it! My favourite feature is how quick of the mark this guy is. Just milliseconds to slide off the lens cover, press the button and shoot. There is absolutely no delay between button press and image being taken and this makes it the perfect handbag companion for those off-the-cusp street shots that I never quite capture on my hefty Canon DSLR. I have shot a few test rolls so far and almost every exposure has come back perfect.
HANIMEX 35ES
I have a few of these! I think I picked them up in a charity shop when I was younger. They don’t take any batteries (so no flash) and have the most gorgeous vignette on the lens. Quite a heavy vignette but the kind that looks absolutely sublime with a nice roll of black and white film. These are a no brainer, so cheap (I think £5 - £10 on eBay) and have a really romantic, old-school quality to the images they produce. Perfect for holidays or as a first film camera and ideally to be used whilst surrounded by lots of bright sunlight.
CANON SURESHOT 105
The Sure Shot was my go-to before getting the Yashica, a lot of the images on my feed or portfolio will have been taken with this baby. It’s truly a great little camera. Affordable but well made, reasonably sharp and has the most beautiful flash. I wasn’t so keen on the results from it during the day (images looking watery and a bit over exposed) but at night with the flash? Unbeatable. I really recommend this one for accompanying you on big nights-out and for messing about with flash photography indoors in Winter when the lighting sucks.
OLYMPUS OM2
My OG film camera! Given to me by my Dad. I adored this camera. It’s a classic that you really can’t go wrong with and the resale price isn’t so bad on these at the moment. They are more delicate than a point and shoot (I’ve got the OM1 and 2 and have had issues with shutters getting sticky with both) but of course they are fully manual so it does give you that bit of extra creative freedom. The Olympus OM2 is perfect for capturing soft, glowing portraits with beautiful bokeh and is also great in low light settings, take it out and golden hour and you will never look back.
