Every so often, I decide to put down my daily camera – Leica M Monochrome – and start mucking around with other cameras. I like the Fuji XPro2, which is an amazing little devil. I have also got a certain fondness for Olympus Pen-F (which Chris Michel loaned me). I have a little soft spot for the Leica SL which despite what others says is one of the better mirror less cameras and makes late night shooting a breeze, especially as I find rangefinders hard to use after daylight has faded a bit — my eyes aren’t what they used to be.

But lately, I have been walking around with a point and shoot, auto focus Fuji GA 645i medium format film camera. It is a compact and light weight camera. I can easy throw it in my briefcase. It takes medium format film. I use Kodak Potra or Fuji 400h. I also have some TriX 400. Over the past three weeks I have been shooting with this cutie – making portraits, birthday parties, random street photos and landscapes. I have to say, the film doesn’t disappoint. The film isn’t perfect and that is what I like about it. I love the way it looks when it comes out of the camera. It loses something in scanning, but you feel the moment a little bit.

It is an expensive habit – I shot about 7 rolls – roughly 100 frames in a month. The film cost me about $35 from Amazon and about $250 for processing and scanning. Of the 100-odd frames I got about 30 nice ones and about 20 that qualify as “good.” That’s about $14 a frame I love. I guess, you can’t put a price on love!

You also can’t put a price on the lesson you learn with film — think before you shoot. Compose the photo in your mind before you try and press the shutter. And be deliberate. I am going to see if I can apply many of these learnings to my digital photography.

I have put some of these photos on my photo blog, Om.blog. If you have a chance to check it out, take a look.