Welcome to another instalment of Feel the Grain, a series of blogs dedicated to my love for film photography. Each blog documents a roll of film, the images developed from it (good and bad!), and the stories behind those images. Without these blogs, the majority of these images would just sit on a hard drive somewhere, never to see the light of day.

But first, introductions…

CAMERA: Praktica MTL-3

FILM: AGFA Vistaplus 200 (expired) 

I love this camera! It’s a 40(ish) year old chunk of solid German metal that leaks light like a sieve and goes “CLUNK” when you hit the shutter! It came with a 50mm 1.8 Pentacon lens which is a pretty common M-42 screw mount lens that offers buttery bokeh (if you can nail the manual focus!). All for £20!

These aren’t the first images I've taken with this camera and they’re actually from two rolls of film shot during the latter half of 2020 (I know, only two blogs in and I'm already cheating!). I also trialled a lazy solution to the light leak issue by reattaching the bottom half of the leather body case and was pleasantly surprised with the results. I mean, why fix light leaks properly? A little bit is nice! 

As always when I shoot film, there’s a real mishmash of images; shot over a long period of time in a variety of locations, with a growing Dylan providing the entertainment as always!

The Praktica MTL-3 is, and will remain, my go-to film camera for the foreseeable future. It's a fun and reliable manual SLR that keeps me on my toes and I love shooting with it - so keep an eye out for more Feel the Grain blogs!

Thanks for reading, take it easy.

Darren

(More shots below!)