In your bag number 215, Polanri
Another European bag for you today, this time from Belgium. Polanri has a love for lomo and a love for film. He also runs a site which is a brilliant idea for sharing film. Check it out.
Hi, I’m polanri, from Brussels in Belgium and here’s a photo of my current every day bag.
The Bag:
It’s is an Artisan & Artist Acam 7100. It’s small, securely padded inside, comfortable and doesn’t look too much like a camera bag. It’s got a very handy zipped pouch in the flap that is just big enough to fit 10 x boxes of film (as disposed on the picture). I always wear it “sling-style” on my back so it’s not in my way and I have hands free when I’m shooting. This bag’s only drawback is that it’s not rain proof, I never had to go under heavy rain with it but I know I should avoid to do so..
Batteries:
SR44, LR44 and CR1/3N batteries for the Lomo’s and for the Leica. I always prefer SR44 (Silver Oxyde batteries) for the Lomo cameras as I have read that they have a longer life and keep the same voltage until the end instead of slowly decreasing. The LR44 batteries tend to give lower voltage at the end, which will give erroneous cell measurement.
Lomo’s:
The red Lomo LC-A is a genuine Lomo from the 80’s, made in Russia, before the model was bought by Lomography and production transferred to China. It has been modified by Roger Lean in the UK with red lizard skin, an MX switch and a flipped lens.. Yes, a flipped lens, it produces a very interesting “zoom-blur” effect on each picture while keeping the center of the image sharp (check out http://www.flickr.com/search/ss=2&w=92494654%40N00&q=flipped&m=text)
The black Lomo is the super-rare LC-M, build in an unknown number of units (between 1000 and 3000, I’ve read) by the Lomo factory in St. Petersburg at the end of the 80’s. It was intended to be a successor to the LC-A but they never really started mass production, possibly because of the deal with Lomography. I found this one brand new in box on a Russian auction site, but you can sometimes (like once every 2 years) find one popping out on eBay.
Compared to the LC-A, the LC-M goes up to 800 ISO, focuses a little closer and is supposed to have an improved shutter mechanism (although mine already had the sticky shutter problem two times). I had it serviced by Roger Lean also and asked him to cover it with black lizard skin at the same time (he will gladly do that, as long as you send the skin with your camera.. If you don’t know Roger Lean just Google the name; he’s like a God for Russian camera collectors..).
I mostly use the Lomo’s for FilmSwap.in, a project I have co-founded with a friend. It’s an online platform that makes it easy to organize film swaps with anyone across the world to and create amazing double exposure photos. We just recently opened the web site in Beta, there’s still a lot to do but the process already works, so come try it out,
it’s fun! Check out http://www.filmswap.in/
The Leica:
I love Toy Cameras and Lo-Fi photography but when I want to make “nice” photos, I use my Leica M7 0.85 which I bought second hand a few months ago. It was a little bit dusty inside and the film advance was cranky so I sent it for service in Solms and I just got it back, like new, and with an MP viewfinder (yeah, that wasn’t cheap, by the way..)
I also have a Leica M6 TTL (not pictured here), which was my first Leica bought one year ago. I currently keep it as backup for the M7. There’s a lot to say about Leica cameras but I think the best argument is just to hold one in your hand and look through the viewfinder. After I did that at a camera store, I only had one idea: getting my own Leica. My Nikon D80 DSLR I was using at the time was suddenly like a bulky expensive plastic toy camera to me (sorry Nikon lovers), it ended on eBay for 1/5 the price of my M6..
The M7 is dressed all in black, it came with the Leica logo in black so I added a black leather half case from Luigi, black leather Acam 290 wrist strap from Artisan & Artist and a black Thumbs-Up CSEP-1S.
Lenses & Filters:
The lens on the Leica is the “legendary” Canon 50mm f1.2 LTM which is my main lens, I was lucky enough to find it in great condition and complete with the original leather box, the sun shade and the “Canon” branded cap. I always have a polarizing filter on it (to protect the lens). I add a yellow filter when I shoot black and white and an ND8 filter so I can use this fast lens wide open even on a bright sunny day.
The Canon is not exactly what you can call a “sharp” lens, but at 1.2 or 1.4 it produces a gorgeous bokeh, so creamy you could nearly spread it on a slice of bread :)
Then I have a wiiiiide angle, the Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 Super Wide-Heliar, model 2 (RF coupled) with the external metal viewfinder. It’s a cheap lens, just for the fun.. I like to take pictures of tall trees or buildings with it, anything big, shoot from close, gets distorted on the sides.. I also have a polarizing filter on it, and a matching yellow filter because with such a wide angle you tend to have a good portion on sky in your pictures and thus you get impressive skies with great clouds in black and white.
And my last lens, the Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f1.7 Asph. which is the lens I use the least, I don’t know why.. I just prefer shooting through the 50mm I think.
Accessories:
Finally, I take a Field Notes notebook and a pen, so I can take note of what’s on the picture when I shoot a roll for FilmSwap.in. And the little calculator.. is not a calculator; it’s a card reader for my online banking software.
About me:
I’m not a professional photographer and I don’t travel a lot, I take most of my pictures around where I live or sometimes on vacation. I mainly shoot nature, landscapes or architecture. I would love to get into some street photography but I’m not sure I would dare to go close to people and take a picture.. Anyway I’ll probably try someday.
Links:
My Home Page: http://www.paul-henri.com/
My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/polanri/
Digital Toy Camera PhotoBlog: http://digitoy.polanri.com/
Film Swaps: http://www.filmswap.in/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/polanri
More about me: http://about.me/polanri
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful bag Polanri, it is brilliant to see some of those Lomo’s in the bag. I really love your idea for filmswap, this is something that more people should get involved with. Check out the links and make sure you comment.
Keep them coming folks, we need more submissions, so get your bag on Japancamerahunter.com. Send me a hi resolution image of the bag (please make sure it is horizontal) and its contents, with some details about yourself and what you shoot. Oh and don’t forget your contact details (twitter, flickr, tumbler et al). Send the bag shots here.
Cheers
Japancamerahunter
