Documenting A Gathering/Analog Therapy: Contax G1 + 45mm f/2 + 2 B&W Films

I will open by admitting that a miscalculation was made. Was on my way to a 100 Men In Black Male Chorus fellowship hosted by our Director, Marlon West. I knew the camera and lens I would bring. But I was tripped up by an assumption. That we would be outside. I should have known better since we have had peak NC summer temperatures recently. The issue? I loaded ISO 100 film into the camera before arriving. Might have gotten away with this using a very fast lens, but f/2 with interior lighting will be an issue. But as a co-worker of mine likes to put it, I chose to see this as an opportunity rather than an issue. Just embrace the blur and grain. The second film on hand was a bit better, but some 800 or even 3200 film would not have hurt. Could have pushed the film but I honestly did not think of that until just now… Da’ well. On to the camera, lens, films, and pics.

Camera and lens.

Contax G Zeiss Planar 45mm f/2 — Contax G1 – Zeiss Planar 45mm f/2

Links above cover them well, but both are favorites. Honestly only a faster than f/2 lens from perfection in my eyes… Which would be my Contax 137 MA Quartz + 50mm f/1.7 if you take AF off of the table now that I think about it. Anyhoo…

Film 1

Both films were developed together using Cinestill df96. The aforementioned ISO 100 film, Rollei RPX 100. A real star with good light.

But looking over my Flickr archives I now see that I use, and by extension subconsciously prefer evidently, Rollei RPX 400 far more (10x the keeper images) often. Noted for next time. A little grain and blur was on the menu. Here are the images I kept from that film.

Film 2

Actually considered punting and grabbing the digital camera I brought along, but I decided to stick to the plot and out in some Ilford HP5 ISO 400 film instead. Another favorite.

Here are the shots I kept.

In retrospect, the RPX did about as well as the HP5, but I will also admit the sun dropped by the time I got going with the HP5 so there was less sunlight working its way into the shot. The concerns I had during the scanning process went away once I saw the final images. Helped give an old time vibe to the photos that very much matched the throwback mood of the evening.

Nice fellas. Good times.

-ELW