Ferrania Eura: The Italian Holga

Ferrania is a brand that all Italians of a certain age know, at least also in name only, because until the ’70s the advertising signs and neon signs appeared often in alignment with the photographers “shops” even in the remotest villages. Who then did not use at these times at least one Ferrania film roll? In short, it was kind of our local Kodak. Currently, this brand has returned to the attention of analogue photography enthusiasts with a crowdfunding operation to reactivate the film production lines once famous both in Italy and abroad. Anyway, is not the film that I want to speak about here, but a medium format camera: Ferrania Eura. Built since 1959/early ’60s, the Eura was a kind of Italian Holga, but made in a more refined and reliable way as well, with a decidedly higher level design.

World Pinhole Photography Day

Today has been the World Pinhole Day. A day dedicated to the simplest forms of photography: stenopeic (Aka:pinhole) photography. Just a light-proof container, a tiny hole (such as that made by a needle) and the sensitive material (film, paper, liquid photographic emulsion etc.) and we can experience an image that materializes. Despite not having much time and not being able to find the most significant places, I also wanted to pay my humble tribute to this fascinating and ancient technique.

Lomo Smena Sl – Just twelve frames of (1992) Expired Orwo Np20

This time I deal with one of the most popular cameras in the world: the Lomo Smena. In the specific case (just to complicate a little the affair) the SL version, adopting a sort of variation of more known “Rapid” loading system, introduced by Agfa in 1964. Born as an antagonist of the Kodak 126 system, it was adopted by some brands, but didn’t have long nor too fortunate life. I have to say about, that in my childhood I used repeatedly Kodak Instamatic cameras, either in 126 or 110 and perhaps one Agfa 110 … but I’ve never seen a Rapid or SL model.

Caput Mundi – Lomography Color negative 400 Test

Generally (and you can see it all in this blog) I prefer to shoot with film in black and white. Both from the point of view of personal expression and because I believe that is easier and cheaper to self-develop b/w instead of color. Occasionally, however, (you may have noticed this too) I like to take some color photos. I do not have so much experience in this regard, having only used the Kodak Ultramax 400 35mm and a couple of Fujifilm (Pro 400H and Reala 100) in medium format.

Pinhole – Holga 120 WPC Plus Adox CMS 20 in FX-39

It was a long time I wanted to start shooting with a pinhole camera. To begin with, I got an Holga 120 WPC which was waiting patiently to be used. And so, yesterday morning, taking advantage of a beautiful day in late January, I was immersed in an immensely  fascinating and immortal landscape: the Roman Forum and the Palatine hill.

Unwanted Lomography

Recently, I’m testing some interesting cameras from the Voigtlander Vito Series. In particular, I took a couple of rolls with the Vito Clr. I have to say that this is a rather “unlucky” camera. In fact, during the development of the first roll I had a light leak, due to a broken seal in the  Rondinax and the second roll once developed, I realized that the film was suddenly dragging “crazy” giving random uneven spacing. I will describe in greater detail in another post the Clr, but for now, I wanted to dedicate this one to the random overlapping frames. Involuntary diptychs and triptychs, in perfect Lomography style …… Well, it could be worse! 😉

A bit of Color – Holga again

Not happen often, because I prefer to shoot in b/w film and develop it by myself, something certainly less complicated than the color and also for economic reasons (at least here in Italy the costs for lab-development of a color negative reached 8 € or more) , but when it takes …. it takes. At times a bit of color can not miss. Besides, I wanted to see how would the Holga GN work in this case.

Holga: First Contact

Just some shots from my first Holga 120 GN roll. I experienced a problem loading the reel but….. isn’t Lomography based on unexpected..? 😉