As discovered on our Olympiadorf photowalk my second magazine had an issue.
I ordered 2 new trap seal kits made by Dirk Werner in USA.
First remove the top plate from the magazine.
Then carefully place the new trap seal and tug in the foam.
Easy fix if you don’t have 10 thumbs…
Old vs. new. It took me 5-10 minutes to change the trap seal. Now I have a spare for my other magazine, just in case…
I’m on my way to the Olympiadorf in Munich.
Together with a few colleagues, we are headed out for a small photowalk in the “Bungalow city” and afterwards a old abandoned S-bahn station.
The bungalows are for students and they are all decorated by the students themselves.
Close to the bungalows, there is an old abandoned S-bahn station. The station was officially closed in 1988 and has since then just slowly deteriorated.
Here are my partners in crime for the photowalk:
My colleagues, Walter on the left and Paul on the right.
After my first shot, I felt that something was wrong in my magazine, where the dark slide go in. It’s a “new” magazine which I bought on eBay about a month ago, but today was the first day where I took it out for a field test. So I knew there was a chance of defects…
After unloading the film, I could remove the dark slide and this is what I saw… The mechanism to insure that no light get’s in when the dark slide is removed, is broken. So this nice little foil has been in front of all my shots today…
I have already ordered a new “trap seal kit” for 13 USD. I takes 5 minutes to change it, so it’s not a big deal.
We needed a break, so Friday evening we decided to book a hotel somewhere in the alps.
We booked a night at Hotel Birgsauer Hof just outside of Oberstdorf, which is in the most southern city in Germany. We drove down Saturday morning, not to hike or do anything – just to relax and enjoy life…
This was the view from our balcony.
For dinner, we enjoyed a traditional schnitzel “Wiener Art”. It just tastes much better when sitting in the mountains.
After dinner we went for a little walk. Not all the way to the top though…
We spent the Sunday in Lindau by Bodensee.
I got my two rolls of film from the Munich photowalk developed now. I shot 13 frames (split over 2 rolls). Below is all the 13 images, more or less unedited – I have only adjusted the tone curve to enhance the contrast to my likings.
The next photos are shot on Kodak Tri-X 400:
The next ones are shot on Ilford FP4+ 125:
After selling all my Nikon gear some years ago, I bought a Leica M camera. The plan was to go old school, think before pressing the button and in general slow down.
I have really enjoyed the last couple of years with my Leica camera, with all it’s quirks and limits. For me, it was the right descision and direction.
I have always thought of shooting film again (I did it in public school about 25-30 years ago), however buying a film Leica is not cheap… So instead I thought, why not go a step further and get into medium format cameras… After a bit of research, I discovered that I could get a complete Hasselblad V system cheaper than a 35mm Leica film camera. The film (called a 120 film) gives 12 frames on a roll and the negatives are 6×6 cm! Which is actually more manageable than having 36 frames on a 35mm film.
I searched eBay for a 500 c/m system, but prices were high due to increased interest in film photography lately. I ended up finding a 503 cx in great condition and actually a bit cheaper than the 500 c/m’s currently on eBay. The camera is “only” 25 years old and in great condition. The 500 c/m systems available were 10-15 years older…
I also found a Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 lens at a good price on eBay and now the system is complete.
An 80mm lens on a medium format camera is roughly 44mm in the 35mm equivalent camera world.
The next 3 photos are from my first roll of film, a Kodak Portra ISO 400.
Together with a few colleagues I went to Munich for a small photowalk. This time I have a black & white film (a Kodak Tri-X ISO 400) loaded in the Hassy. Maybe not the best choice for our destination…
We went to Schlachthofviertel where there is a lot of colorful graffiti.
I’m exited to see the results in black & white… This was a deliberate choice as I need to test various films to find the best one to my liking.
On the way back from Munich, we made a stop at the u-bahn station Westfriedhof, which is famous for it’s special lightning.
All in all, I’m extremely happy with my new Hasselblad system and I’m completely in love with the process of shooting film. It has a certain “zen” to it…
This does not mean that my Leica will be put away, on the contrary, shooting film should hopefully improve my photography overall.