I go on about this camera.
A lot. It is also one of the cameras I get the most feedback back on regarding my blog posts about it. A few people have reached out to me saying that they purchased it based on my posts. Which is a mildly terrifying fact. These posts were meant as a repository for my ramblings and fevered gear-based machinations, not as advice. Not sure if I should say thank you or I am sorry. But all so far seem pleased with their decision so that is a relief. Back to the task at hand.
Why do I go on about this camera? Easy. All well documented quirkiness aside I love the images it produces. I have used far more expensive cameras with eye watering specs that, when all the stars are aligned, do not produce better images. As implied there are sacrifices, but they are worth it in my book.
This here was a self-prescribed analog intervention. Vintage digital therapy for my analog therapy if you will. I love capturing images with film and all that goes with it, but even I have to admit I have overdone it a bit over the last week or so.
Now that I think about it… might be related to my distracting myself during the lead up to my dearly departed Father’s birthday over the weekend. Of which I quickly relapsed on the day. More to come on that.
Either way, I decided to briefly give myself a break as I had developed a large number of both black and white and color rolls of film over the last couple of weeks. Even found myself using film for occasions where I would usually use digital.
I believe I know why. The sport of it. The greater the challenge, the greater the distraction. While my big boy, when I really just need the pics, kit consists of Sony gear I lean heavily into film and vintage digital for daily use. Modern camera gear has become so efficient, so competent as to almost become video game like. The images are great but the process of capturing seems… soulless? Seems dramatic but that is the word that came to mind. But do not misunderstand me. I have a family portrait shoot coming up and it will be new-fangled sure to get the shot digital all the way. I cannot gamble such on my less than predictable flights of fancy. As much as I enjoy film and vintage digital there will occasionally be missed shots to contend with. But when they do hit? Magic. Or at a minimum very pleasing results I could not have predicted. Anyhoo… Task at hand.
I find vintage digital to be a nice compromise between the ever predictable modern digital and film options. It also often brings an imperfect aesthetic about it that I often prefer over the clinically clean images created by modern digital cameras. Personal preference. One that a customer or others may not appreciate admittedly.
This run about was brief, the images were few, and the subject matter even more mundane than usual… and I do not care. A very busy day. I knew I would not have time to complete a full 36 35mm exposures and it was not worthy of a medium format roll. All were taken while I had a brief break and I stopped to get gas. All were shot using the in camera B&W DNG files. I still love the images produced. Here they are.
That is it. Seven images. All taken within a couple of minutes. As stated earlier mundane subjects. Some, like the fuel pump I have taken many, many times before. And I still like them.
I noticed long ago that when I use the dp2 Quattro I shoot sparingly. Causes me to slow all the way down and it was no different this evening. And I needed a bit of slowing down if I am honest. And that is exactly why I see the Foveon twins as the perfect digital cameras to use when I really would rather be using film. And this was the case here as well. Purely a time killing exercise. And no film was harmed in the process.
That was fun. Next up is a return to analog on my Father’s birthday.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 