In your bag No: 1584 – Martyna Sz.

Don’t let the cutesiness fool you, Martyna is serious about her gear and loves experimenting with eclectic film in these babies.

Hi, my name is Martyna and I am from Warsaw, Poland. I started as digital photographer and gradually fell in love with vintage cameras. I usually use retro gear typical for my location. On my shelves you will find a lot of Practicas, Zenits, Smienas and Zorkis. I collect old, homeless cameras which still needs some love. They are usually brought by my friends who don’t know what to do with them or I found interesting, cheap pieces on the internet auctions. 

I started my journey with old lenses attached to my digital Canon (plastic Zenitar 50mm is still one of my favourites) and then decided to try my luck with my father’s analog Zenit 12 xp (which is known for tearing the film up. That’s how exactly our journey ended). It was around five years ago and since then my setup grew up quite a bit but I still don’t have a specific go to one. I used to love Canon ae1 Program until it got soaking wet during kayaking. Then I tried to replace it with Pentax super me or much newer Canon 300 V but both of them are so much different I can’t choose between them. If I want to be more adventurous I am taking one of my Practicas. In the picture you can see my custom, shiny LTL3. Love her for the surprises with  light leaks she causes (and yes, I don’t know why, but I think about analog cameras as girls whereas I refer to digital ones as boys). I try to repair all of my cameras myself and since these old ones have really boring and usually destroyed faux leather case I replace it with more girly, sparkly, glittery one. I don’t even like glitter but I find these black lining extremely boring as for my taste, especially if you already have 50 similar cameras in your collection.

As for film I usually use expired rolls bought in bulks. I love unexpected results, random light leaks, grain and desaturation. Once I bought a full stash of Fujicolor 200 expired in 2008. I loved green, warm tint it had. We have some regional negatives – ORWO from NRD, Foton from Poland and modern black and white FOMAPAN from Czech Republic. You can sometimes even find some strange ones from supermarkets as Tesco. Since I love experimental photography I love to make filmsoups and soak the negatives in different liquors or choose some strange films from Lomography (purple one is actually amazing but definitely too expensive as for my middle-European income). When I will finally become rich and famous, I will definitely buy a truck full of my favourite portra 160!

I develop my black and white rolls myself in my small kitchen (I learned it thanks to the power of the internet 2 years ago) and this winter I’ve built my first darkroom for prints. My retro enlarger Adjutar from 50/60s is a little too big for my bathroom but I am glad I managed to make my childhood dream come true!

And now about my bag:

My pink sturdy backpack is from aliexpress. I added some custom separators to make managing all this gear easier. Inside you can find my digital canon eos 1300 D. I usually use it with canon 50 mm 1.4, cheap Yongnuo 35 mm or my favourite Zenitar which can be attached to Praktica or Zenit (I actually like this lens much more than famous Helios). If I decide to use Canon 300 v instead I can easily swap lenses between digital and analog camera (perfect solution for street photography when traveling). Sometimes I take my medium Praktisix for photoshoots. It absolutely blows minds of people, who have never seen this kind of viewfinder.

Ps. I can sometimes get crazy when it comes to accessories, but I assure you, I am definitely grown up lady :)

You can find me on instagram: http://instagram.com/fot.tynka

Thanks for sending us your bag shot Martyna. Yeah, i can see how analog cameras are girls and digital ones are boys ;)

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Japancamerahunter