Finally, I have convinced myself to try out the famous Kodak Ektar film, so I loaded a roll into my beloved Olympus OM 4 Ti. Unfortunately, the camera had other plans and the electronic circuits gave up at the middle of the roll.

In the end, I ended up rewinding the film and I loaded into the good old mechanical workhorse Yashica TL super. This process, however, leads to 2 consequences. Unsurprisingly I have got some nice double exposures, but most importantly I bought a bit worn Leica M2. At least I won’t have problems with the electronic parts of that camera.

I still haven’t given up the hope that the Olympus can be repaired at some point, but I generally lost my trust in these old electronic cameras.

The Ektar, on the other hand, is truly a gorgeous film which delivers everything that is written on its box. It is smooth, high resolution with fine grain and with rich deep colors and high contrast. My scanner is absolutely unable to extract all the possibilities of this film. I am very impressed by this film indeed, however, I find it not the best suited for portraits as it is too vivid. But it is only my impression based on less than a complete 36 frames roll so I might change my mind.

I am definitely going to experiment with the Ektar, but from now most likely with my “new” M2 and with a ZM Sonnar.

Joanneumsviertel , Olympus OM 4 Ti, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Kodak Ektar 100. Canoscan 9900F

Olympus OM 4 Ti, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Kodak Ektar 100. Canoscan 9900F

Facsemete-2 Facsemete-2 Olympus OM 4 Ti, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Kodak Ektar 100. Canoscan 9900F

Yashica TL Super, Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 80mm f/ 1.8, Kodak Ektar 100. Canoscan 9900F

Yashica TL Super, Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/ 1.8, Kodak Ektar 100. Canoscan 9900F

Yashica TL Super, Yashinon 50mm f/1.7, Kodak Ektar 100. Canoscan 9900F

Sultan İkinci Beyazıd Veli Türbesi (Istanbul, Turkey) Pentacon Six TL, Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8, Fujicolor Pro 160NC, Canoscan 9900F

Sultan İkinci Beyazıd Veli Türbesi (Istanbul, Turkey) Pentacon Six TL, Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 50mm f/4, Fujicolor Pro 160NC, Canoscan 9900F

Finally, I am back with a post again! It has been a long time I could write anything. The reason for this long break is that I have got married plus I have changed job and country to live. From September I will live in Austria and I hope I will find new impulses for my photography.

Anyway, thanks to my old mentor and friend PepLluis that we could visit a really extraordinary place (Istanbul) as our honeymoon. This post is a kind of diary about this trip taken by my beloved Pentacon Six TL camera. Although we have carried a digital camera as well the medium format is one of my weak points and so I decided to share these images over the digital.

Pentacon Six as a travel camera

Of course, a big question has immediately emerged when we hit the warm and crowded streets of Istanbul with a heavy duty medium format camera and with three lenses and a tripod in the backpack. As you would suggest this gear is anything but light, so the question is how good travel camera is the Pentacon Six TL especially nowadays when you can choose among many excellent lightweight digital system cameras.

This gear is indeed heavy and cumbersome to use. You need to measure light in advance, focus carefully (the depth of field is really shallow on greater apertures) and you must hold the camera very still when firing the shutter. These tasks can be difficult in the crowd you can experience in the touristic places of Istanbul during Ramadan. I definitely gained some muscles after this trip.

On the other hand, the experience of operating such a beast is really unique as well as the results you can get at home. Personally, I am really pleased with the images and it was a great fun to use the P6. But next time I will think my camera choice over before packing. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that the Pentagon will come with me many more times. My Pentacon Six TL review can be seen here.