Tag: documentary photography

Why the Olympus Pen EE-S Is the Best Budget Film Camera for Beginners

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Why the Olympus Pen EE-S Is the Best Budget Film Camera for Beginners (Even in 2025)

Pentax 17 fever is sweeping the film photography world, and I’ll admit, I was tempted. Half-frame cameras, with their promise of double the shots per roll, sound pretty amazing. But with a price tag of 500€, the Pentax 17 isn’t exactly within my budget. That’s when I rediscovered a little gem tucked away in my camera collection: the Olympus Pen EE S.

This Japanese-made half-frame beauty hails from the 1960s, the same era as the beloved Olympus Trip 35. Like its sibling, the Pen EE S features zone focusing and a selenium cell meter for fuss-free shooting. The lens is an F2.8 22.5mm Zuiko lens. The ISO settings go up to 200 ASA, unlike the Olympus Trip which goes up to 400 ASA. So, despite everything else, it needs light. The half-frame format means you get a whopping 48 exposures on a standard 24-exposure roll. That’s double the shots for your buck, folks!

Now, the idea of twice as many photos for the same developing cost is pretty appealing. But does the Olympus Pen EE S deliver the goods in practice? Stay tuned as I put this vintage camera through its paces and share my findings. Could this be the perfect half-frame hero for those of us who can’t quite swing a Pentax 17? Let’s find out!

Well, for starters, it felt very much like using the Olympus Trip 35. It’s very slightly smaller and weighs next to nothing. The shutter button is almost identical as well. Instead of having four zones for focusing, you have three, but it’s fine, and when you turn the dial, you feel a click as you enter a new zone. You point, and then press. Simple!

Let’s talk about this half-frame shooting experience. When talking about the Pentax 17, “they” talk about how the images are great for sharing on social media. A little like using your phone… This is the mindset that I had when putting in my Kodak Gold 200 to capture those famous Kodak moments in Nantes.

I found it a challenge to get used to the half-frame. “They” say that you have to take your photos as diptychs and remember that the two photos in your full frames are related, not just simple images. The idea is that when the two half frames are put together, you create a story and a suite of ideas, instead of two separate photos. I tried, and the results will show you if I succeeded. I felt that “they” were pulling my leg!

I’ll be honest with you. The idea behind the outing was to test the camera, see how I felt using it, and have a look at the results. It took me out of my comfort zone, which is something rare in photography for me. I was thinking about taking it to the UK with me to record the trip. It takes up next to no space in a camera bag and would allow me to shoot some film while back home. The idea of getting twice as many shots by using just half the frame is attractive. I’m just getting used to the reduced coverage that you get with just using half the frame.

For this outing, I decided to head out towards the Cathedral, and takes some shots of the Voyage à Nantes.

I found myself thinking differently about framing my shots and using my phone as a mental template. As for the resolution of my images, they will be half as much as using my full frame, but were I to print my photos, then I would definitely see a difference. But if they’re just for sharing on social media, then the resolution will be perfectly satisfactory.

The million-dollar question is, will I take it on my trip, and will I use it? Yes, I will. Will it be my main camera? Possibly not. Will it be more like using a new toy? Possibly, even if the toy in question is a vintage 1966 toy…

Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll put some images taken on the X100F, my more modern toy, and let you see how they compare. You’ll see the diptychs and see how the different shooting styles change the outlook and how they change the framing.

These are the X100F photos with editing in Snapseed…

And these are the half frame images from the Pen EE S… with the editing done in Photoshop using the neural filters to get rid of the scratches on the film.

So what do you think? Worth taking?

The Opening of the Film Archives – Le Hangar à Bananes July 2016

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Continuing our journey through the film archives, we find ourselves on the Île de Nantes, home to the iconic Hangar à Bananes. Let’s rewind to July 2016, when I captured this vibrant scene with my then favourite Canon AE1. Once a shipbuilding powerhouse, Nantes had cleverly repurposed its abandoned infrastructure into a bustling hub. The area is now home to the fantastical Machines de l’Île, the historic Chantiers Navals, the towering Grue Jaune, and of course, the Hangar à Bananes itself. Back then, the Hangar was a hive of activity, buzzing with picnics, impromptu barbecues, and lazy afternoons under the summer sun.

My goal was to capture that unmistakable “Summer Vibe.” As always, I started with the architecture, drawn to its striking modern lines, a refreshing departure from the stark brutalism of the 1970s. The clever use of texture and the innovative design of the apartment buildings particularly caught my eye.

That summer, the Voyage à Nantes festival had a brilliant idea: communal barbecues for everyone. Genius, right? You simply brought your food, and they provided the grills, charcoal, tables, and chairs. It might not be Texas, but the French know their way around a barbecue, and being the food lovers they are, they go beyond the usual sausages and burgers. It was a true testament to what a public space should be – a place for everyone to gather, share, and simply enjoy themselves.

Then there was the dancer. He was just filming himself with a GoPro, but the way the sunlight caught his movements and the glistening sweat on his skin was mesmerising. It was a fleeting moment, the first and only time I’ve ever photographed a dancer, but it left a lasting impression. There’s something undeniably captivating about the human body in motion.

My wanderings continued to the edge of the island, where the mighty Grue Jaune – now a “monument historique” and a symbol of Nantes – stands tall. Walking past and through this enormous yellow crane was an awe-inspiring experience.

Along the riverfront, the Anneaux de Buren, a series of massive rings, stretched out in a mesmerizing pattern. At night, they transform into a dazzling display of vibrant reds, blues, and greens – a photographer’s dream, offering endless possibilities for capturing leading lines, geometric shapes, and unique framings of the cityscape.

And of course, no photo series of mine would be complete without the obligatory bike shot. It’s a bit of a tradition for me.

Even now, in 2024, the Hangar à Bananes still exudes that same “Summer Vibe.” It remains a popular spot for after-work drinks with friends and colleagues, boasting a variety of restaurants, bars, the HAB Gallery, and the infamous “Warehouse.” While the area can get a bit dicey later at night, it’s perfectly safe and enjoyable for a daytime visit or an early evening soirée.

The Opening of the Film Archives – Nantes November 2016

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Following our last trip to Carnac, the film archive now has a look at Nantes in the autumn of 2016. These photos offer a glimpse into how I approached photographing a city back then, and if I’m being totally honest with you, still do. I treat the city much like a model on a photoshoot. The goal is to capture not just the physical landscape, but the essence and atmosphere of a place, allowing viewers to get a feel for the city simply by looking at the images. In this series of pictures, Nantes reveals herself and her architecture, resplendent in the autumnal sunshine.

Over time, I have come to know the city and appreciate her architecture. Buildings are not only a reflection of the architect but also of the people who live in them. They add character to the city, allowing her personality to shine through.  I enjoy looking at the lines, and the shapes of them.  They inspire me.  They tell the story of the people who, either work, or live in them.  They are not just mere edifices.  

You will notice as we go through the archives, I might not respect the timeline slavishly. My aim is to give you an aperçu of my world at the time through film. I know you will be able to take this affront in your stride and not hate me!

We’ll go from the bains douches municipales, through to the Sainte Croix church, to the Stalinian 1950’s architecture of the Social Security building, passing by the odd shop, Hausmanian architecture, and even a shot looking towards the Cathedral.

Film photography, the opening of the archives

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Good evening Dear Reader. You may have noticed, and then again, you may not have noticed, that I have created a couple of new pages. Instead of adding article categories to my site in the menus, I have created pages with a carousel showing collections of articles in one specific category. This started with Photography Tutorials, which is a collection of, surprise surprise, photography tutorials. Another one for Travel Photography, one for Camera information, and a final one for articles featuring Film Photography. The idea behind this rather brash move on my part, was to help you find what you wanted to read or discover more easily.

This Meisterwerk of a blog is a work in constant evolution, as I think you may have gathered, especially for those of you that have been with me since the beginning. But what does this have to do with Film photography I hear you ask. Well, when creating the film photography page I realised that there are fewer articles than I first thought. This struck me as a little odd, because at one stage I had a little bit of a reputation as a film photographer, and at one stage was purely a film photographer. This was, of course, before the start of this blog lark in 2019. Between 2009 and 2019 I did a huge amount of film photography that I realised I have not shared with you. Even more so since 2016, when I started developing and scanning my negatives at home.

The beginning of the blog also tied in with the X100F and the Canon 6D Mark II coming into my photography, and since lockdown, I have done only small amounts of film photography. Time to reveal more of myself to you. At least if that’s alright… But this isn’t just about me dusting off old memories. By sharing these photos, I hope to spark a conversation, ignite a passion for film, and maybe even inspire you to dig out your old camera and give it a whirl. Who knows what treasures you might find in your own archives?

Moped with a Jameson whiskey box as a baggage holder. Looks very cool
Taken on the Praktica MTL3 probably with the 50mm Pentacon F1.8 lens on HP5 Plus at box speed in the Quartier Bouffay in Nantes.

So bearing all this in mind, I have a proposal for you. Let’s open the vaults and let’s have a look at the “film archive”. This could be in the form of a series of articles complementing the weekly outpouring of anecdotes or advice, as an addition, or it could be the content for the upcoming weeks. I haven’t decided yet. Let me know in the comments which option you prefer, or if you have any other ideas for how you’d like to see the film archive content. There’ll be shots of Nantes, the UK, England, and Scotland and maybe even Spain, and Portugal. There will be colour and black and white photography too. I don’t know yet. I might not have yet taken into account the magnitude of the task ahead. Everything is open.

On the way to Otterburn in Northumberland with the Pentax ME Super using Portra 160. It was another good day out.

But whatever you decide, I hope you come along for the ride. It’ll be worth it!

Zooming In on Flexibility Part I

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We’ve talked about prime lenses and the difference between primes and zooms.  But we haven’t touched on zooms.  Yet.  But we’re about to enter the dark side.  They have cookies.  So now that we’ve had a cookie, let’s talk about having our cake and eating it.  Metaphorically speaking of course.  

The ability to zoom in on a subject, be it in photography or in conversation has become such an ubiquitous saying.  Zooming in on the details in a conversation.  The image evoked is fair though.  A zoom lens allows us to zoom in visually. 

I might even go as far as to describe them as a guilty pleasure.  That kind of thing that gets results but leaves you feeling a little dirty afterwards, and you feel like you have to justify why you couldn’t just use a purer prime.  Well sometimes you need the versatility of a zoom.  It means you have to take less kit to weigh you down.

This article started as a single piece of writing, and then going more in depth, it has morphed into a series of two articles.  I have a lot of information for you, and it might be easier to digest as a two part story.

The Zoom lens work flow

A zoom lens is more than an investment, it is akin to having four lenses in one support.  One going from 16mm, 24mm, 28mm to 35mm, another from 24mm, to 35mm, to 35mm, to 50mm, and onwards and upwards to 70mm.  Roughly translated you’re getting more glass for your buck, which sounds very enticing.

Advantages and disadvantages

 As in all photography, everything is a matter of balance though.  Ok, you may have more glass, but instead of creamy f1.8, f2.0 creamy bokeh, the trade off will be f4 bokeh, while still nice isn’t as creamy.  You might find f2. Bokeh but you’ll be paying many more bucks.  The difference in price between the Canon EF 16-35mm f/4 L IS USM and the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM is around 1000€ which doubles the price of your lens.  This basic economics speaks volumes to me.  

The different focal lengths in just one place allows you to adapt more quickly to a changing situation rather than “faffing” about changing multiple lenses multiple times.  Just one turn of the focal ring, and you’re good to go.  So you’re more available to contemplate a scene and not miss a thing.

They are generally larger than the more subtle nifty fifty, and the general public will take you for a “pro” and wonder why you are pointing a massive obtrusion towards their face.  Some zooms are of course less imposing than others, but you might have to explain more about what you are doing.  

The types of Zooms  

I have talked about the concept of a zoom lens as being a collection of different lenses in just one lens.  In the next article I will describe the example of each zoom I  use, but here I will do the introductions.  We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

For me, there are three types of zooms, the wide angle, the general, and the telephoto.  So three types of zoom tend towards three types of application.

The wide angle zoom offers you a wide angle of view, and its downfall of image distortion can be made the most important feature allowing you a means of getting creative in your images.   You can go from those beautiful vistas so beloved of landscape photographers, to those of us who seem to have an obsession with taking close-up photos of bicycles and helping the audience see the world in a more non-conventional or even exciting way.  

The general zoom, is as its name suggests a zoom that has you covered for general scenarii.  The focal lengths are the ones most commonly used.  It’s great in a street photography or documentary environment allowing you to easily glide between wider and narrower views.  Even though the aperture may not be as important as in primes, the image stabilisation helps the photographer when the light becomes more challenging. 

The telephoto zoom allows us to be closer to our subject whilst at the same time being a greater distance.  Useful not only for wildlife photography, but also for sports photography where the players are on the pitch and not the photographer!

Conclusion

Now we are on the same page and have a greater idea of what the whole situation is and how these solutions can help you as a photographer, be that a beginner, an intermediate, or a more advanced photog.  I talk about guilty pleasure, but when push comes to shove, the viewer of your photography doesn’t care.  They care about the image and how it makes them feel.  The fact that we used such and such a  lens is just speaking to them in a foreign language.  We’ve talked about the trade offs but also the benefits of zooms and in my next article I will talk about my set-ups and the experiences I have when shooting with these lenses..

Prime Lenses: Elevating Your Photography Beyond the Basics – Part I

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Introduction

This article is a follow on from my last article discussing the various merits of zoom and prime lenses.  Today I’m going to try and give a more indepth look into this world of primes.  The lenses that I will be discussing are my own and I have experience with them.  I will be talking more about how “I” use them and how they affect “my” photography, be that the actual photos or the photographic experience.  All the really techy stuff is available on Google;  I’m trying to give you an idea of the sentiments that I have when using the various lenses.  That said, let’s get into the nitty gritty.  I will go through each lens giving you details on how I use it, how “they” say I should use it, and start from the widest to the longest focal length.  This was turning into a longer article than usual, but since there’s a lot to cover, it will become a two part article.  Again mother, I will be talking shop, so consider yourself warned again… Sounds fair?  Let’s go!

Fisheye lens (TT Artisans 7mm f2.0 manual focus lens)

My fisheye lens (7mm so a 11mm full frame equivalent) is the one I use with my Fujifilm XT2.  It is a super wide lens made by TT Artisans, and its main claim to be included in my collection is that it was affordable.  Or at least affordable compared to some of the lenses out there.  However it doesn’t feel cheap on the camera.  It’s manual focus, but I can focus very closely (minimum focus distance is 0.125 metres) and the whole shot will be sharp.  It’s ultra wide so it gives a great level of distortion, which I love, but others might not.  If you can manage to get your horizon level, then you might not get as much distortion as you could by just raising the view 10° higher than the horizon. I love the effect that I can get from it.  It’s definitely a niche lens, and the price I would have to pay for something similar for my DSLR would be silly money.

16mm f2.0 (Fujifilm brand lens with autofocus 24mm equivalent for full frame lenses)

This was the first lens I bought for my Fujifilm XT2.  This 16mm lens’ full frame equivalent would be 24mm.  Why did I buy it?  Well, I already had a 35mm equivalent lens on my X100F, and thought that the difference between 24mm and 35mm would allow me to go wider and get more into my scene whilst avoiding the distortion of the fisheye lens. A particular outing sticks in my mind and was when I used the lens to take photos of the modern architecture on the Île de Nantes.  The wide angle of view (hence the name wide angle lens) was perfect for this kind of street landscape photography.  Would I use it for close-up portraits?  Only if I want to elongate people when taking a shot from low down on the ground looking up.  Would it be good for classic street photography?  Possibly as a compliment lens to my 35mm equivalent lens on my X100F.  Do I regret acquiring it?  Not at all and I particularly like its wide angle of view.

28mm f2.0 M42 mount lens for the Praktica MTL 3 film camera

I started my photographic journey with this film camera and only bought this lens much later.  I had my 50mm f1.8 (nifty fifty) and this was my first venture into a wider lens.  Could I see a massive difference straight away?  No.  But I no longer felt the need to move further back to get the view I wanted into frame.  Moving back with  a camera on your eye and banging into a building and saying sorry to the building is not the way to go, however British you may be.  The Leica Q (a very sexy little thing) uses this 28mm lens and is aimed at street photographers who have enough money to buy a Leica.  The same goes for the Richo GR II but without the need to sell a kidney.  There is a great debate on the Internet talking about the difference between the 28mm and 35mm lens for street photography, which tries to polarise everyone.  I try to stay as neutral as possible in these kinds of controversies but I do use my 35mm lens more.  Do I still like the 28mm format?  Yes.  Is it very different from the 24mm format?  Not hugely, but I tend to worry less about distortion .  I should probably go out and run a roll of film and see how I feel afterwards.  I remember the need to go in close to avoid capturing too much in the frame with this lens, but that is not a factor that could deter me from using it.

23mm f2.0 (X100F lens equivalent to the 35mm for a full frame camera)

The 35mm lens is the classic for street and documentary photography.  It was the lens used by a majority of newspaper photojournalists in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s.  This might explain its influence on my own photography.  I remember when the Independent first came out and the high quality of photojournalism.  I think that if Fujifilm decided on the 35mm equivalent for their fixed lens cameras then there’s probably a very good reason for it.  Through my use of the X100F for street and documentary photography I have become very accustomed to the view it gives me of the world.  It’s not just for the street though.  Even as a sole travel lens it allows me to capture details of a trip, as well as wider views to tell my story in more detail. It’s brilliant as a lens for environmental portraits and is wide enough to always give contect in the frame to the main subject.  If you try to do close up photography with portraits you might notice some distortion but if that happens just move ever so slightly backwards, reframe, and the problem should no longer be one.

In my next article, we will go higher up the focal lengths and discuss the narrowing field of view that they offer and explore how they bring the background forwards. As for this article, all the information laid out is equally as valid for film or digital photgraphy.