In 2023, I inherited an Olympus OM-2 SP 35mm camera from my Grandad. I hadn’t used a film camera in more than 20 years, but having one of my own made me want to give it another go.
My first experience with film photography had been in the early 2000s, while I was still in high school. I took an introductory photography course offered by my school and used my father’s old Olympus 35mm camera. I enjoyed it, but not enough at the time to continue with photography as a hobby. It wasn’t until I was able to afford my first digital camera that I really began to pursue photography.
My Grandad and me washing his car. Coventry, UK. Likely taken by my father, mid-1980s.
Initial Excitement
When I arrived home with all of my Grandad’s camera gear, I began researching how to get started: purchasing the right batteries and my first rolls of film, and learning how to properly load the camera. We had a trip to Japan coming up a few months later and I was excited to use it while on the trip, so it was important to get a handle on things.
I decided to start with the cheapest film stock available to me locally, Fujifilm 400. Once I felt ready and had the camera loaded, I headed out around Coquitlam to try it.
First roll around Coquitlam – Fujifilm 400
Learning Curve
Immediately, it was apparent that there was going to be a learning curve. Being locked into a single ISO, focusing manually, adjusting the aperture on the lens and using a shutter-speed control around the lens mount—it was all very different from my experience with digital. The fairly dim viewfinder made focusing particularly difficult, and even after some practice I was still hit and miss.
While I didn’t find the controls immediately intuitive, I did enjoy the process. I tried to be a bit more deliberate when taking a photo. That said, I did occasionally forget to check that the photo was properly exposed prior to taking the picture, resulting in wasted frames.
First roll around Coquitlam – Fujifilm 400
First Results
In addition to getting familiar with the camera, I wanted to test it to ensure everything worked as expected. Once I finished the roll of film I took it to Kerrisdale Cameras to drop it off for development and scanning.
The results were…fine. Not really anything particularly great, but at least I knew the camera worked and I had taken some time to get used to the flow of film photography. I enjoyed how different the experience was from shooting digital and looked forward to exploring it further on our upcoming trip to Japan.
Next up in Returning to Film: Settling Into Film — taking the camera to Japan and shooting more regularly.