After a long time in Africa, for the first time in Kenya
We took a photography trip or actually a holiday trip to Kenya at the end of January 2024. The destination was Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and the Masai Mara for six promised days.
The weather didn’t really favor the trip and it rained every evening. We were able to enjoy the morning lights one morning, but some pictures were created, although not any great WOW pictures.
I collected my favorites from the trip for this post. I also had a film camera with me, a short write-up about that below this post.
FILM
As a film camera on the trip, Olympus 35 RC, which is a very small rangefinder camera made in Japan in the 1970s.
The camera has an E. Zuiko 42mm lens with f2.8 aperture. The camera has adjustable aperture, shutter speed or can be used with automatic aperture according to shutter speed. There should be enough scale in apertures f/2.8-22 and the shutter speed 1/15 – 1/500 control to be able to shoot even in bright midday light.
I found the camera used on Fotoman when I picked up a few more memory cards for the trip. In that context, the longing came again to shoot a film and that film’s own atmosphere! The camera was tested by the staff and a few rolls had been shot with it, so I could trust its functionality.
I found one roll of Kodak Portra 160 in the fridge, but i had to get a couple more. Three rolls of 36 pictures was quite an optimal amount. As the second film, I chose Kodak’s Pro Image 100, which is very close to Portra, on the recommendation of the Fotoman staff.
The prices of films have risen in recent years, which means that filming is not profitable at all. Roughly, you can calculate that film + development + scanning will be in the 30-35 euro range, i.e. about one euro per shot! With digital, you don’t have to think about it in the same way.
