Recently I sold my Contax G1 (with 45 mm f/2) and my Nikon FM2N, much to my chagrin. To be certain they still worked I shot a test roll with each of them. Those were probably the last 35 mm films I will expose in my life.
Not only the physical feel of these wonderful cameras, also the distinctive sounds of the mechanics, like the muffled clicks and short quiet film winding of the Contax and the whirring shutter and solid *clack* of the Nikon’s mirror, transported me right back to 1999. That was when I used to shoot with these machines regularly, just before my long hiatus in photography. The funny thing is, though, even the photographs came out like I had made them back then. Apparently I fell back to my old style of spotting “interesting” subjects and composing the shot in the viewfinder while quickly going through the frames in and around my house in Naarden Vesting. The subdued colours and heavy grain did the rest.
I had the films scanned, the photographs look positively retro to me.
