On Substack, one person that constantly bring news from the film and film cameras industry is Molly Kate. A few weeks ago she mentioned that the Canadian company Flic Film has a new camera out, a half frame called “Double Shot”. So I jumped ahead and bought one from one of their distributors in London.
There is a picture directly below "Back to School" that I think is very cool. Looks like there's a "p" in it. If you used the camera for subjects like that one you'd have something.
I’m no camera expert so I’ll leave that to others … but I love the idea of pairs of images and yours are great. Love the wide view then narrowed in pairings.
Interesting to see that what was once old, is new again. I grew up with such cameras. Kodak, made a fortune selling 10's of millions of cameras that were just as cheap, and featureless as this one. I had to look up, NC500 film, but it looks to be similar to what Kodak might have put out in the day. Before you set the camera down for good, I might suggest that you try some B&W film stock through it. I always remembered the B&W working better with cheap cameras like this one. Interesting project though!
Interesting and encouraging to see that film cameras are being produced again. I love them all but based on my last post, you'll know why I need to stop buying more (for a while, at least!) Thanks for sharing this and I'll always love gear posts!
meant to say this on your post but got distracted with work: compared to you i started with aps film, than move to digital and back to film (35mm and 120 as aps doesn't exist anymore). at the moment i'm using both mediums but yes, i get you, i do have "enough" cameras. on the other hand, each one of them is a different experience
I remember APS ... wow, great times. I think I still have some negatives around. I'll try to find them! Yes, each camera serves a different purpose and experience. Thank you for "getting" my plight! :)
It looks like the scenes with the excessive grain were perhaps the darkest situations? So maybe the camera well underexposed those and the grain is in fact noise from the scans being normalized. If it’s got a small aperture that would make sense as to why there’d be so much grain on some shots and not others. It can’t handle low light. Edit to add: Since the noise is present in even the brighter environments, maybe the camera’s aperture is just way too small and we’re seeing uniformly higher noise from scanning thin negatives? Maybe it’s not really f/8. ISO 400 film should look fine at 1/120, f/8 and a cloudy day. Bummer either way. Thanks for showing us!
i hope that i won't forget to tag you on the next post where i used the same film (different camera) so you can compare the results. the excesiv grain/noise is present only when the flash was turned on, doesn't matter how much light was available
Please do! It's so fascinating! I can't figure out what would do it other than underexposure and turning up the gain in the scan.
Do you, by chance, have the negatives? If they're super thin in those grainiest exposures, I think that's the ticket.
Regardless, I didn't mean to get hung up on a technical mystery. Glad you tested the camera and shared your results. I used to love using an Olympus Pen half frame camera and a new cheap one would be fun to have.
i will have a closer look at the negatives. i scanned them at 1200 dpi, which i think gives me enough pixels to make a decent image for a post on substack. the camera cost me about €35, so if you think it's worth it -go for it.
i love the grain, it is one of the reasons i use film but the last few images are a bad joke. i will tag you in the next post just to see the difference when using the same film but a different camera: beautiful tones and beautiful grain
"Focus is not the strongest point of this camera as it lacks lots of it most of the time." Well, it does say "focus free" right on the front of the camera! Not only that, but the film is described as having "enhanced grain," and I'd say that is definitely a lot of grain!
There is a picture directly below "Back to School" that I think is very cool. Looks like there's a "p" in it. If you used the camera for subjects like that one you'd have something.
I love the grainy photographs!
Yeah, too much grain but I love the diptychs and the film has interesting colours too. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, that's some nasty grain!
I’m no camera expert so I’ll leave that to others … but I love the idea of pairs of images and yours are great. Love the wide view then narrowed in pairings.
that's the idea of this type of cameras to create pairs (dyptichs)
I got that from the description … I was just saying I liked the way you used it and the pairs you created.
thank you, appreciated!
Love the diptychs. The grain is heavy with that particular film but does create an interesting look.
Interesting to see that what was once old, is new again. I grew up with such cameras. Kodak, made a fortune selling 10's of millions of cameras that were just as cheap, and featureless as this one. I had to look up, NC500 film, but it looks to be similar to what Kodak might have put out in the day. Before you set the camera down for good, I might suggest that you try some B&W film stock through it. I always remembered the B&W working better with cheap cameras like this one. Interesting project though!
i will take that on, the b&w film but i don't think i will ever use flash 😁
Interesting and encouraging to see that film cameras are being produced again. I love them all but based on my last post, you'll know why I need to stop buying more (for a while, at least!) Thanks for sharing this and I'll always love gear posts!
meant to say this on your post but got distracted with work: compared to you i started with aps film, than move to digital and back to film (35mm and 120 as aps doesn't exist anymore). at the moment i'm using both mediums but yes, i get you, i do have "enough" cameras. on the other hand, each one of them is a different experience
I remember APS ... wow, great times. I think I still have some negatives around. I'll try to find them! Yes, each camera serves a different purpose and experience. Thank you for "getting" my plight! :)
It looks like the scenes with the excessive grain were perhaps the darkest situations? So maybe the camera well underexposed those and the grain is in fact noise from the scans being normalized. If it’s got a small aperture that would make sense as to why there’d be so much grain on some shots and not others. It can’t handle low light. Edit to add: Since the noise is present in even the brighter environments, maybe the camera’s aperture is just way too small and we’re seeing uniformly higher noise from scanning thin negatives? Maybe it’s not really f/8. ISO 400 film should look fine at 1/120, f/8 and a cloudy day. Bummer either way. Thanks for showing us!
i hope that i won't forget to tag you on the next post where i used the same film (different camera) so you can compare the results. the excesiv grain/noise is present only when the flash was turned on, doesn't matter how much light was available
Please do! It's so fascinating! I can't figure out what would do it other than underexposure and turning up the gain in the scan.
Do you, by chance, have the negatives? If they're super thin in those grainiest exposures, I think that's the ticket.
Regardless, I didn't mean to get hung up on a technical mystery. Glad you tested the camera and shared your results. I used to love using an Olympus Pen half frame camera and a new cheap one would be fun to have.
i will have a closer look at the negatives. i scanned them at 1200 dpi, which i think gives me enough pixels to make a decent image for a post on substack. the camera cost me about €35, so if you think it's worth it -go for it.
I like the photos, perfectlight. I would give the camera another try and tinker a little with them in post-processing.
thank you! i might follow darin’s suggestion and load a b&w film, will see
I do like the tones in the images, and I love grain. :)
i like the tones too 😊
Haha. I know you are not a grain fan. I admit, it is a bit too much for me even on the last few images. But only a little bit too much. :)
i love the grain, it is one of the reasons i use film but the last few images are a bad joke. i will tag you in the next post just to see the difference when using the same film but a different camera: beautiful tones and beautiful grain
I love these. Especially 5,6,7, and 8.
thank you!
"Focus is not the strongest point of this camera as it lacks lots of it most of the time." Well, it does say "focus free" right on the front of the camera! Not only that, but the film is described as having "enhanced grain," and I'd say that is definitely a lot of grain!
well, my understanding of "focus free" is different but i like your explanation 😂😂😂
as for the film, stay tuned for the next post