I have a number of fully manual cameras;  a Pentax SP500 (purchased for $12 CAD @ Value Village), a beautiful 500 C/M ( acquired in trade for my Fuji x10 digicam) and a Braun Gloria I received as a gift this Christmas past.  All great cameras and all taking interesting pictures in their own right. All have helped me become quite comfortable with the technical aspects of film photography once again – not made me an expert – but once again I feel comfortable shooting film.  Like coming home.

I wanted a nice, compact, sharp and easy to use range-finder style film camera that would autofocus and provide some level of auto exposure.  I wanted to simply concentrate on the craft of shooting film, of making pictures and bringing a vision to life, not the technical side of photography.  I wanted a camera that looked and felt like my beloved Fuji x100s.  The camera I decided on was a Contax G1 and lens.  I bought the body via Henry’s Ebay site ($107 CAN) and the 28mm Biogon lens via Ebay from someone in Toronto ($375 CAN).  I had a Zeiss lens a while back on my Sony F707 and F717 and found the 3 dimensionality and colour rendition to be exceptionally appealing.  I am on the hunt for the 45mm lens but it will have to be an exceptional value, as I think I may have put enough money into this film system.

I was also hoping for point and shoot convenience in a high quality package and I haven’t been disappointed.  I’ll be primarily shooting black and white and developing and scanning at home. I’ve experimented with shooting colour film (Ektar, expired Fuji Superia and expired Kodak Gold)  and with the exception of a few overly red / pink skin tones with the Ektar, I have few complaints.  The images are as sharp and have the level of contrast that I had hoped for. The camera has an undeniable heft that belies its size, it fits well in my (admittedly large, not bragging) hand, is fast enough to focus (for me) and very intuitive to operate.  I shoot mostly in Aperture Priority for now, as I learn the camera, and I’ll branch further when I need.  I’ve also found, over the course of a few rolls of film, that the G1 / 28mm combo has a certain working range or sweet-spot wherein the images sing.  The G1 has become my daily driver.  I hope you enjoy these recent images and I look forward to posting many more on my website.