I’ve been thinking about the cameras on older iPhones, and what makes people prefer certain models, rather than whatever model is the newest.

A quick answer would be that it’s just subjective, and we all like different things.

But if you think about it, it’s also affected by how people use cameras, what they class as photography, and also what they expect in a photo.

From a photography point of view, it’s easy to imagine that one model had a desired focal length or aperture. And then, if you go deeper into photography, you might be looking for certain colour reproductions, temperatures, tones, lighting, etc. For example, I’m a fan of natural grain in images, so I would prefer one that produces a certain type of grain.

So there’s already a few different metrics that divide opinion. But on top of that, there are a lot of people that use the iPhone’s camera that aren’t photographers.

Some may want the best tool to capture memories, others might just want to document their life, just like the cliché of people posting photos of their lunch to Instagram.

And in those cases, it may seem that the latest model would always be the best answer. But that might not always be true. Recent phones tend to come with a lof of built-in adjustments and corrections that are applied automatically to photos. Therefore, even if you’re aim is to take a photo that documents a certain scene as accurately as possible, the “better” camera might not actually be the best option.

It’s weird to think that a better camera doesn’t always produce better photos.

Written: Sat on my sofa, drinking a cold Coke, listening to Full Moon by The Black Ghosts.

After waiting quite a number of months, I finally finished three rolls of 35mm film, and I’ve just got the scans back.

This is my first time getting film developed, and overall I’m happy with the results. There are certainly a few photos that didn’t come out so well, a few fingers that I had to crop out, and also one shot that was cut in half. But at least that gives me a few things to focus on when I’m next out shooting film.

To give some background on the film, there were two rolls of Kodak UltraMax 400 that I used with my Dubblefilm SHOW camera, and another roll of super old Tesco film that was already partially used, that came with a Minolta Maxxum 3xi that someone gave me last year.

I don’t know if or how I’m going to store these long-term, but for now, you can view the full collection on my Flickr:

• June 2023 - Tescos 400
• June 2023 - Kodak UltraMax

These files have had some corrections done to them on Capture One. But they were mainly adjusting the exposure/contrast and also cropping/straightening.

My Favourites

I ended up with 79 photos from the three rolls of film (I haven’t shared the photos that I didn’t take), and while I enjoy quite a lot of them, I had to share some of my favourites here.

All of my favourites were actually from the Kodak UltraMax film with the Dubblefilm SHOW camera. I only got a handful on the Minolta, so that’s not too much of a surprise. But to be honest, I think a lot of the shots were a bit weird because the film was just so old. From memory, I think it was from the mid-2000s.

Takeaways

I have quite a few lessons that I’ve learned from this whole process. Some relating to actually taking the shots, the composition, the cameras, and film in general.

As for taking photos, I found that the resulting shot didn’t always turn out the same as I had seen it through the viewfinder. So sometimes the frame was larger than expected, and that seemed to mean my fingers were present more than I’d like. I also seem to have an issue keeping the camera level, which I don’t think I can blame on anything else but myself.

Waiting to get three films complete before I could get them developed is something I probably won’t do in the future. That restriction was just based on how I’d ordered the scans, as I paid for three in advance, and wanted to ship them all at the same time. But I think in the future, I might find a more regular way of getting them developed.

What’s Next

As of yesterday, I’ve actually ordered another film camera. So I guess that itself shows my current feelings towards film photography.

The camera I chose was a Canon AV1. Primarily because it offers me an aperture-priority mode, which I use on my mirrorless camera. But also because it means I can use different lenses, filters, and sort of get the “real” camera experience.

At the same time, I also ordered more Kodak UltraMax 400 film, because I’m happy with the results, and I think I can get even more out of it.

However, right now I do still have three cameras on the go. I’ve got the Dubblefilm SHOW with a roll of Kodak Portra, the Minolta has a black and white film with a weird name “Street Candy MTN”, and I still have an expired Fujifilm disposable camera that is nearly ready to be sent off.

I took a small trip to Edinburgh early last week, and I decided to play around with a new lens I bought recently. I’m pretty happy with a few of the photos, although I’ve definitely learned a lot more about my camera and the new lens.

To cut to the chase, the camera I used was a Fujifilm X-T100, and the lens is a fully manual Meike 25mm 1.8. Getting used to the manual focus took a while, although I do appreciate a softer focus, so it never needed to be perfect.

Here are the photos I liked most from the trip:

I’ve just come back from a few days in Devon (while occasionally popping across into Cornwall), and across the weekend I experimented with quite a few of my cameras. I had my iPhone with me, of course, so those photos were posted to my Instagram stories. I’ve got 2 film cameras that I used, including my recent addition, which I will send off to be developed soon. And I also took my Fujifilm X-T100, on which I used primarily my XC 35mm F2 lens.

I’ve gone over the bulk of the photos from the X-T100 and iPhone, and did a bit of editing in Capture One (which I’m definitely enjoying using), so I thought I’d share them here.

The first few are from around where we stayed, which was a shepherds hut in Hollacombe, Devon.

I only liked one of the photos I took of the actual hut, and for some reason, a wide crop really looked good to me.

I also used played around with Halide’s macro mode around here.

We visited a place called Speke’s Mill Mouth (weird name), which had a waterfall that I couldn’t quite fully capture on my X-T100 (I’m starting to think I need a wider lens option).

The rest of the photos are from a place called Clovelly, a private village in Devon. We actually had to pay £8.50 each just to enter. However, it’s full of nature and unique architecture, and it’s also on a pretty steep hill which leads into a small harbour. So there were plenty of photo opportunities.

If you want to follow my photography more directly, you can find me on Instagram, and Glass.

A few more photos again today from the archives. I’m still going through and making sure I’ve got all of my favourite shots published here on the blog.

This time it’s a few shots I took in London back in September.

This past autumn I’ve taken quite a few photos of animals, so I’ve taken a few of my favourites, and decided to share them here!

I’ve been to Durdle Door before, back in 2019. And only a few months ago, I visited the area again. And of course, I ended up taking a few photos. Which I think turned out a lot better than last time.

I visited Ashridge earlier today, which is a rather large forest that’s only a short car ride from where I live. I didn’t miss up the oppurtunity to take my camera, and there was some absolutely incredible light.

My camera is the Fujifilm X-T100, and I used two lenses, the XC 50-230mm zoom lens, and the XC 35mm prime. But I captured a few on my iPhone 12 too, as teh ultra-wide lens seemed perfect for a woodland scene.

After going through a few hundred photos, I came out with 24 that I really like. I’ve uploaded them all to Flickr, so you can view the entire album there. But for a quick preview, here are five of my favourites:

View all 24 photos.

One of the best things about Fujifilm cameras is the built-in film simulation modes, which give you various monochrome options, Astia, Velvia, Provia, and more. I find that they aren’t too harsh, and seems to mostly improve the look of my photos. They aren’t applied to the RAW file, so it doesn’t take anything away from the image.

However, there’s also an “Advanced Filter” mode, which gives you some more filters and effects. Although they are a lot more obtrusive. There’s quite a few, including partial colour filters, soft focus, and pop colour. But the one I have the most fun with is “Toy Camera”. The description it gives is “Create shaded borders as taken by toycameras. (nostalgic effect)”.

I can’t say it will produce the most professional photos, but as a person that enjoys retro camera apps on the iPhone, such as Dispo, Huji, and Hipstamatic, it’s fun to have it directly in my real camera too.

Here are a few quick examples:

I’ll have to give the other filters a try now, and I’ll see what I can get when I can actually leave my house and go somewhere interesting.