Today I received my Braun Super Paxette in the mail. I was excited to test it out right away, so I went to the Houston Camera Exchange and bought a couple of B/W ISO400 films (Ilford HP5 and a Kodac Tri-X). What to shoot? Well, I wanted to practice my street photography and so I decided to drive downtown to do some shoots around Houston’s main street with the camera’s 45mm glass. I have to say, there is still a hesitation to take pictures of strangers, but I slowly get the hang of it and start to also engage a little with them. The weather wasn’t great at all – overcast and cloudy – but I was excited to give it a try nonetheless. I decided to use the HP5 film at first and I used a couple of light meter apps on my phone to determine the right exposure. Since I am new to rangefinder cameras I decided to shoot at f8, so that focusing would be more forgiving.
Looking at the light meter, it appeared that shooting at ISO800 would be okay, suggesting around 1/100 sec shutter speed. The Super Paxette’s fastest shutter speed is 1/300 sec, so I felt that I shouldn’t push another stop. In hindsight this feels wrong.
I have to say that I enjoyed the “slow” and deliberate experience of shooting film, although I wonder if they actually turned out well. The film will be sent to The Darkroom for development and scanning.
(Note: The feature image of this post was taken with my Minolta X-300 earlier this year at the same general location in Houston)
Be First to Comment