Film For A Change

The first "proper" camera I owned was a Pentax ME Super. It was 2nd-hand when I got it and that was around 21 years ago now (and yes, that makes me feel old) so it's been around for a while. Other bodies have come and gone but I've always held on to the ME Super and at's probably worth more in sentimental value than any thing else these days. But then again I'm not likely to sell it anytime soon.

It has however been sitting neglected for a while. This became apparent recently as the light seals finally gave up crumbled into the back of the camera when I opened it up to see why the mirror was sticking. Sentimental value mode kicked in. Rather than consign it to the "this is my old camera, it doesn't work anymore" shelf, I took it to the good people at Sendean Cameras for a service.


It's good as new now. And having it back in working order has made me shoot some film again for the first time in a long time. I dropped a roll of Ilford Delta 400 in there and carried it around for a few days on my commute and over the weekends instead of my G9.


I remember this: There's no instant preview for a start (much to many people's confusion.) Working with the metering is more involved and costly if you get it wrong. And exposure compensation is more about pre-empting the results from experience rather than using it to correct what you've seen on the preview screen and having another go. This is all good though.


I had the film processed and scanned to tiff files (no plug or link for Snappy Snaps, Soho though as the negs appear to have been processed by a 3yr old while they were eating a picnic!) so that I could get them into Lightroom for a look.

I've posted some of the results here, there's not much processing done on them apart from minor crops and contrast. I'm quite happy with a few of them and some of them are genuinely rubbish. But I know why they're rubbish and I remember what I was trying to do with them. This is what I remember most about film; when you mess up you only find out about it later. That makes mistakes more lasting, does that make them more pertinent lessons for the future? I dunno.


But I do know that my little ME Super is still alive and kicking. And it's not so little that it won't kick my arse when I don't pay attention.