Shooting Medium format

I have just begun shooting the second roll of 120 film on my newly refurbished Yashica D. The first was an Ilford SFX 200, expired, and now I am shooting a Kodak Gold 200, recently expired (February 2025).

I was halfway into that black and white film when I decided to go out for some shots early one evening, as the sun set. It was a busy weekday and I had in mind to shoot the last frame as a long-exposure of traffic as seen from an overpass.

I have been making notes of the settings for each frame in order to study the photos and see what mistakes I have been making - I have made mistakes, for sure.

I took some photos down at the Three Powers Square in Brasília. The architecture side of the place and the special lighting was very enticing, even though I was shooting monochrome. The place was quite busy still and I felt quite at ease pulling the Yashica out of my bag and carefully framing and adjusting my shots.

It is the kind of camera that forces you to slow down. Framing is tricky, so is focusing (I am learning to use the magnifying glass to help achieving proper focus). With the light quickly fading, both framing and focusing became increasingly complicated.

I have to say that, after its servicing, the image I get through the display is a lot clearer, a sign that both lenses were dirty/contaminated, as well as the display itself.

This type of camera demands you to take your time. Its mirror system inverts the images so, to frame up you have to move the camera down, to frame to the left you need to move it to the right, and so on. It’s counter-intuitive and for SLR users it can be quite confusing. It’s better to practice it in bright daylight.

This was taken early one morning, at around 7AM, and I was not sure how it would come out. After a little bit of curve adjustment, I was happy. 1/60seconds, f/11.

Shortly after this photo, I took this one. f/3.5, 1/125s.

One thing in common was that I had to take my time, framing, focusing, composing.

The last one I took that day was this one, full of mistakes, but I kinda like the end result. Taken @ f/11 for 15 seconds.

Something weird happened on this day. Frames 10 and 11 were double exposures of sorts. I think I need to be more careful when winding up the film. Again, there’s no rushing with this type of cameras.

So, first results made me happy. I’m not totally satisfied, though. That will come in time.