Previously I wrote that the Nikon FG-20 is not a suitable camera for practising photography. I argued that its flawed ergonomics got in the way of a pleasant shooting experience and could even cause exposure mistakes. And yet I found myself retrieving it from storage, loading two fresh LR44 batteries and a roll of expired Ferrania Solaris 100 into it, and using it to shoot more pictures of flowers in the garden.
I have to say that using the camera this time was not as bad as expected, perhaps because with the camera fixed on a tripod, I didn’t have to manipulate its controls, thus avoiding bad exposures from mishandling. But the experience remained underwhelming, mostly due to its small viewfinder making the exposure meter difficult to read.
In retrospect, I think that I needed to be convinced of the FG-20’s shortcomings one last time before putting it away for good, given my particular fondness for its looks and its size.
The pictures from the roll are not great. I was impatient during development and did not allow the temperature of the chemicals to stabilise enough. I’m also conscious of excessively agitating the film tank and potentially causing the negative to be over developed by doing so. The final images are grainier than they should be for ISO 100 film.
Some people say that the grain gives these photos the “film look”. But a well-exposed negative actually produces very clean images, such as the one below, shot on ISO 400 film.
Several factors must be considered in judging the quality of final pictures: age of the film, age of the development chemicals, accuracy of the exposure, development process, scanning process, and editing. Given my inconsistent results from consistent use of expired film, I think it’s right to blame my amateurish development process for any quality shortfall.
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