Return to medium format with Rolleicord
I’ve been pretty invested in 35mm film during the past years but I finally made a return to medium format as well. This is actually pretty exciting for me, because this is also the first time I’ve been developing color negative film at home. In fact, I’ve been mostly shooting black and white ever since I returned to film, especially during the recent years when the price of color films have been out of my reach.
I got a lucky break how ever, by trading some of my old gear for seven rolls of expired Kodak Ektar 100 in 120 format. I took this as a sign from the universe to get my act together and start shooting it. Only problem was that I didn’t have a medium format camera anymore. Luckily I happened to find a nice Rolleicord V for 60€. The seller gave me the impression that it had seen its better days, but after receiving it, I was happy to see that it had only some very minor issues. The slow shutter speeds were slightly jammed, but they came back to life after firing the camera few times. Also the focusing was off and it turned out that the focusing screen was upside down. After realizing that, it was an easy fix to flip it back and presto, the Rolleicord was back in business.
I’ve had one Rolleicord before and few other TLR’s as well. I didn’t remember just how compact and light weight the Rolleicord was. Even though it makes big nagetives, it is a surprisingly comfortable every day carry.
Color negative (C-41) chemistry seems to have a much better availability than I remembered. I bought a home develeping kit from Cinestill and to my yet another amazement, developing color negative film at home turned out to be much easier than I thought. It is very similar to black and with souping and just about as easy.
By the time of writing this, I’ve only shot few rolls and here are some of my favourite results.
Let me just start by pointing out that I don’t consider myself as one of those guys who only shoot old cars on film, but hey… this one has the infamous Misfits skull painted on it. Also the lighting was great, so can you really expect me to just walk by? 😁
A really early morning on a rural area. If you look closely, you can see that I was trying to focus on the tip of the pole. This was prior to noticing the focusing issue with the Rolleicord and the actual focusing point was way much more back. I tried to slightly sharpen the blurry pole in Photoshop, but it only looks a bit more weird. Other than that, I really like this shot.
Another frosty morning sunrise. This was also shot with the malfunctioning focusing, but I did focus to infinity and it didn’t render a blurry photo.
One of the weirdest morning lights ever, but it made an atmospheric shot.
Again, I’m not a vintage cars on film guy… at least not that I’m aware of, but I found an 80’s Lotus bathing in the sun in front of a dockside cafe. It would have been foolish not to take the advantage.
I shot the Lotus at f3.5 and was blown away just how nicely the Rolleicord renders even at wide open. Also the focusing issue had been fixed at this point, so everything intended is in focus.
Another shot at wide open.
I stumbled upon this… well, old car…
Misty morning.
Yet another misty morning. I’m sure there is an old car somewhere in there as well.
And I’m going to wrap up this blog post with this image, but I’m sure I’ll be featuring some more TLR and Rolleidord action in the upcoming posts as well. Such a lovely camera!
