The Wonder of film

Single photo: In Exmouth Harbour.

Don’t get excited this is one of those “single photo” posts that I (and others) do every now and again. I was flipping through the scans of my last roll of Devon images and the one above caught my eye. I rather like it.

We analogue fans, although I shouldn’t involve others in this, so I’ll say “I”, often bemoan the fact of film going up in price, postage going up to get “stuff”, and so on. Then I thought about the image above.

It was taken on bulk loaded Ilford FP4 Plus movie film that “expired” in 1998. So now 26 years out of date! I got a 400 foot roll on Ebay. It was bulk loaded into once used 35mm cassettes that cost nothing. I developed this film in home made D23R (replenished), and it was about the 10th roll that went through the stop and fix. The developing tank was the older style Paterson System 4, that I happen to prefer, that was introduced in 1968 and replaced in design in 1981, so 43 years old at least! It was exposed in a Canon EOS30, good examples of which can regularly be found on Ebay for £40. I guess what I’m saying is that despite my moaning, film photography needn’t cost a huge amount, one doesn’t need to rush out and buy new gear. All of the actions mentioned above I enjoyed, they are part of my hobby – my craft. In fact when I think about it, in many ways, film photography can be a very cheap hobby! I reckon by some crude guess work, this roll cost me about £1:50 maybe £2 including the developing. We’ll gloss over my 5 pack of Portra 400 🙂