Monomad Challenge. Analog Black & White film project with my old Rollei B35 a journey back in time with analog an old camera.

A week or so ago I did a post in “Photography Lovers” about finding my first old film camera in the loft almost an 50 year old Rollei B35. Everything seemed OK with it apart from a few cosmetic issues to fix, such as worn paint and peeling leatherette with the old glue. Well Hivers that’s all fixed and looking good the only issues left are the B35 logo which wiped off with the alcohol I used to clean the glue off with, I think life might be too short to attempt to replicate that. And the Selenium light meter that has stopped functioning but I have a work around for that.

The camera seems clean and dust free inside too and everything mechanical seems to function OK. The 3 element Zeiss Tessar lens looks clear and I can’t see any sign of fungus or scratches which is good.

So I thought I’d put a couple rolls Ilford HP5 through it to check the light meter, shutter speeds etc. So Hive Monomad Fans here is that journey into the past. But it might get a bit wordy taking old film there is a bit of waiting around and plenty of time for waffling.

I ordered the film from from Analog Wonderland, the price was OK and the also sell single rolls unlike Amazon who seem to want to sell you multiple roll packs. Ordered on impulse on the Sunday before the spring bank holiday. A week later a couple of rolls of, 24 shot 400 ASA Ilford HP5 Plus turned up. So time to get to grips with analog photography again. It is handy as you get a returns box and address labels with the film so you can send them back for processing which is handy.

According to Ilford the 35mm ISO 400 film, is medium contrast, all-purpose black & white film. Ideal for action, documentary and available light photography. So should work for my project and flexible enough for starting at the bottom of a learning curve again.

As this is as much to check settings as get some photos I’ve dug out one of my wife’s old posh Moleskines to make a film, shots and settings logbook to help make sense of things when I get my negatives back which could be a few weeks looking at development times and options. It’s quit a change from banging away with the camera on phone till you get a shot you like and deleting the rest. It’s probably the first thing I’ve hand written for years to apart from Christmas cards too.

Looking on line the Selenium light meters can degrade over time so that would always be an issue so I dowloaded a light meter app for my iPhone to check the meter reading. All seemed OK for a few days but the camera light meter reading seemed to be slowly dropping so I’m not very confident if it’s left in the light it dies completely so the iPhone meter reading it is. Still it is almost 50 years old.

Loading the first roll was interesting. Glad I did a bit of checking on YouTube Rollei changed the loading method and it’s been about 40 years since I put any film in the camera, the way the film slots in is not obvious and the opposite way than you think.

Film loaded up and finally we are good to go.

I wont bore you with a shot by shot for the first few rolls but I’ll give you a few highlights. I did plan to do one shot with the meter setting, but that seems to have died so it’s just iPhone light meter app reading. Which should show up any exposure problems when they are developed. Which will be a week or two down the road by the time I get the negatives back. Well Hivers the first couple of shots were just abstracts of light and shadow around the house and while this one is from my iPhone the ones on film should be something similar.