Had a feeling it was with the 86/87 guess. Deep down I was hoping it was public reaction to Michael Fish dismissing the lady who called the Met that morning to tell him there was a hurricane on the way… 
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I remember every Friday in the darkroom developing and processing Black and White film. Before then I was into colour photography, but B&W changed that. I got into Infra Red photography too. Purchased a cheap TLR camera on break from college, shot some film amd was processing that afternoon. Lyraflex camera not brilliant but gave interesting results.
One of my last film cameras. 5x4, a bit of a change from my daily cameras. Before going Digital I used a Leica M6. Two cameras from opposite ends of the spectrum.
Not really ‘Run ‘n’ Gun’.
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A long time ago, predating my callsign I had the photography bug and was well into b and W photography with my parents bathroom converted to a temporary darkroom for printing. It did seem like magic. One of my most rewarding nights as a Scout Leader was the night we shot a roll of b and w film, developed it and made contact prints. Not bad in 2 hours. On of the youngsters involved ran a commercial studio for a while. At uni I even had a go at Cibachrome, getting the colour balance right was quite a challenge. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that now I usually use the camera on my phone. There is something quite nice about taking 100 pictures and choosing to keep the best rather than agonising over how many shots are left on the roll. Maybe in the future I’ll have another go.., 73. Paul
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I find the limit of 24/36 (or less for 120 etc.,) much less stressful than 100s of digital photos and picking the right one. With digital I feel like I have to get it perfect, with film I know it’s never going to be perfect and so I just roll with it. I also end up liking a great percentage of the film photos vs digital ones. Probably as I’m thinking “this frame is costing me 50p”.
However the price of film is ever higher these days, so it’s now only for very special occasions.
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Ahhh…analog photography and SOTA…two of my favorite pastimes.
I mainly shoot 35mm, but sometimes use a 620 format Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. In 35mm I have a Canon “New” F-1 with 50/1.4 and 35-105/3.5, a Canon FT with 50/1.4 and 28/3.5, and a Canon VL2 rangefinder with 50/1.4 and a Voigtlander 35/2.5 lens.
Here’s a pic I took of my tent (hammock with wood stove) on top of Flagpole Knob (W4V/HB-003) last year during a winter activation (you can see my vertical antenna right in front of the tent). This was shot using my F-1 and 50/1.4 lens. Film was probably Bergger Pancro developed by me in LegacyPro L110 (HC-110 clone) and scanned with my M43 camera:
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I tried large format once (for when 120 is too many exposures). A friend gave me his B&J press camera and I bought some random B&W ISO 400 sheets. After the faff of taking a photo I then had to develop it in trays. I thought the bathroom with no windows in the spare room would be suitably dark, however, after being in it in the dark for 30 minutes I could see no end of light coming through the door.
I was amazed I had anything. So many opportunities to mess it up.
Since sold it as I definitely don’t have time for that.
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You have reminded me of the father of my best friend when I was growing up.
He spent 40 years as a photographer in local newspapers here in N Wales. Eventually got the MBE for services to local journalism. He used a Rolleiflex similar to yours throughout his career. Of course it was almost all on black and white as newspapers were not printed in colour then. He was very talented at getting just the right shot, even on fast moving subjects which must have taken a lot of skill with one of these cameras. Enjoy your B&W photography!
Nice photos.
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Wow, thanks for all the comments and replies — seriously great to read all the stories and see so many people still active in film. Switching to film made me way more intentional with my shots. It forces me to slow down, and because of that I actually keep most of my photos now (compared to digital where I’d trash like 90% of everything I took…). I love going back to the old-school tech — it taught me so much about the basics of photography. And shooting with these cameras… man, nothing compares to that feeling vs using a digital especially with the Rolleiflex.
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Sharing a few photos made with the Rolleiflex on a few recent winter SOTA activations (to stay on topic 
)
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…great photos Romain. Thanks for sharing.
Geoff vk3sq
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If you’ve ever used a Rolleiflex or similar camera with a waist-level finder, you’ll know how it’s even harder than usual on account of the horizontally-reversed viewfinder image. It’s always the first trick I play on students when handing them a medium format camera for the first time - getting them to frame me up in the viewfinder, then taking a step off to one side, and watching them pan away in completely the opposite direction!
Yup, and with the price of film these days (especially colour), you have to be still more selective than even just a few years ago.
Unfortunately I can’t find any pictures of it, but I think I had the cheapest version of all, the Chinese Seagull camera many many years ago. Wasn’t too bad at f/8, but it definitely wasn’t a Zeiss/Schneider lens in that one!
I’m now getting all kinds of notions about blowing the dust off my Hasselblad and taking it for a wee hill outing sometime. I did actually go through a wee phase of bringing my Nikon F100 on hills days for a while, but I’ve only recently repaired it after breaking the door catches so it was out of action for a good few years.
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Hi Romain,
Photography with a Rolleiflex TLR is as addictive as SOTA. My old camera is a 3.5F Planar which I bought back in the days when they were more affordable. I’ve never taken it on an activation - it’s a heavy old beast.
There is no flapping mirror so you can shoot handheld in low light. The lenses (Schneider or Zeiss) are pin sharp and the out-of-focus (bokeh) is very appealing.
73 John EI3KA
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There are some fine photos in this thread. I do like the B&W one of the Discovery and the kiosk.
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Ooft, that’s a real beauty! I always fancied an F, but could never quite stretch to one, I only ever shot with Ts or Automats. The big advantage of the Tessar/Xenar models was usually that they were a bit lighter, but even the Fs felt positively svelte compared to most medium format SLRs (I used to “enjoy” shooting hand-held with an RB67 when I was a student).
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in the early noughties, when digital SLR’s took over, there were plenty of superb medium format film cameras looking for new homes at relatively reasonable prices. It was a great time for a luddite like me! I was torn between a 2.8F 80mm or the 3.5F 75mm. The slightly wider 75mm is more versatile and is arguably the better lens, not to mention a bit cheaper.
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Sounds a bit like how I ended up getting my hands on a Hasselblad! That and a tip-off on some good second hand camera shops to check out as I was travelling through Hong Kong…
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I will start carrying my Rollei 35T this summer again. Recent activations in Arizona have been on the extreme (water weight) end of things, so I have been going as light as possible. Back in Scotland I an handle the weight to take a compact film camera.
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Here’s another one showing the activation spot for one of my recent activations at The Priest (W4V/BR-002). Film was Kentmere 400, exposed at 320, but developed in Legacy Pro L110 at 72deg for 5min with agitation every 1.5mins. Camera was a Canon FT with FL 28/3.5 and a yellow contrast filter.
Chris
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medium format cameras are hundreds and hundreds of pounds now!
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