In with the old

A really lovely old camera - the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, built in the 1960s with an innovative through-the-lens light meter, and here also with the matching 50mm 1.4 lens. I love these old cameras just as beautifully designed things but they also make me want to get them working and have a try at film photography - I don't think my youthful snaps with disposable cameras really count.

To this end I bought a roll of b/w film (Ilford Delta 100 iso) battery for it today to get the light meter working - slightly tricky since the original battery for it contained mercury and wisely is no longer produced, and the new ones have a bewildering array of different code names and aren't quite the same size. It'll be some time before I use up the whole 36 shot roll and get it developed but having taken a few photos today it feels very different from the casual approach that digital photography tends to inspire - I felt very conscious of not wasting the film, and also that I couldn't straighten or crop the picture if needed as easily as usual. I anticipate a follow up blip when I get the negatives and/or prints back, although I have no idea whether they'll come out well or not..