I absolutely love shooting analogue film. And I have a sizable collection of cameras to shoot with. Each one has its purpose and reason, best for different things. And the collection is always growing...
First, my two favourite manual SLR cameras: Grandpa Roger's Canon AE-1 and A-1. I love using these to photograph cars and racing, and sometimes out and about photographing medieval buildings.
Out of the two, I usually go for the A-1 since it has a few automatic functions like shutter and aperture priority modes. But even with those, it's still at it's core a manual camera. Thanks to Grandpa, I have a small collection of lenses and I have a new adapter allowing me to use them on my state-of-the-art very modern Canon R6. The old lenses on the new camera is the perfect combination for capturing the day-to-day of Medieval Living History.
A few years ago at the Goodwood Revival, I captured the image (top) of a Barracuda as the driver celebrated at the end of the race. When I finally developed and printed the image and showed it to my dad, he realised the photo was similar to something else he'd seen. We looked through the packet of Grandpa's car photos, and just before the end, the bottom image appeared. The similarities are almost haunting. The numbers on the cars, the waving driver, the direction and sharpness of the car itself. Both cars are American cars of an era. Mine, a Plymouth Barracuda, and grandpa's 1964 Ford Falcon.
I had never seen this image before. It was taken in the 1960s at Brands Hatch, so not on his 1970s Canons. But this image has stuck with me since.
My next favourite camera is a medium format TLR: a Yashica Mat.
This one doesn't have quite the same interesting story as Grandpa's Canons above. This was a very lucky purchase when my old Seagull 4B-1 was no longer suited to my purposes. The first time I shot with this camera, I was struck by how much better and sharper the images were. The Seagull had been pretty good, but this one was a thousand times better.
I now mostly use the Yashica for portraits, notable my re-enactor portraits. The beautiful bokeh from the f3.5 lens is perfect for those images.
The Kershaw King Penguin is what can only be described as a camera purchase done for the *vibes*. I like penguins. I like cameras. There is a camera that is called a penguin. Logically, I must have it. I will acknowledge it was not an expensive purchase unlike some things on this list. And some things are are being... looked at.
It is a medium format camera that takes 6x9 images rather than the 6x6 square photos from the Yashica. This makes it quite useful for larger landscapes or towering fortresses and churches.
It's a fairly basic folding camera. Only two shutter speed options, 1/50th and Bulb, and two aperture options, f11 and f16. And it is also fixed at infinity focus. Perfect for buildings and scenery, not so good for portraits.
Another recent purchase, a small compact Rollei 35 LED. The perfect pocket sized little camera. I take this one around living history encampments since it's easier than faffing with Uncle Stephen's EOS 5 and the big bulky lens. A fixed lens camera, with a small light meter in the viewfinder. You set the shutter speed and then slowly turn the aperture until the light in the viewfinder turns green.
Looking at it's size, you might think it's a small half frame cameras, but nope. Full frame 35mm.
The focusing can be a little trickier. I have to gauge the distance between the back of the camera and the subject and then set the focus to that distance. I suspect I need quite a bit of practice with it.
The only thing left to do with it is put Rollei film through the Rollei camera.
And finally, Great Uncle Stephen's Canon EOS 5. Perhaps the most boring of the bunch.
It is effectively the same as any Canon DSLR apart from the lack of screen. I use this camera most during the battles themselves and in jousting, the autofocus of it making it a little easier to capture the action.
The other advantage is being able to use the same lenses on this camera as on my digital R6. Less heavy lenses to carry around with me all day! And, as an added boost, I can use my longest lens to capture action happening all the way on the other side of the battlefields, or get right in as the lances smash. Chuck a 2x teleconverter in there and I can zoom so much closer.