Film cameras in Seoul - 1.

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The main area to find secondhand camera gear in Seoul is a narrow band of shops which stretches from just northwest of Chungmuro station, through the back of Myeongdong, and along to Namdaemun. The band of shops is interrupted here and there by main roads and fashion malls but essentially one can spend a whole day (at least) browsing the camera trail.

Some shops are high end, such as the many Leica specialists, and some cater more to the collector of odd old film cameras. There's even a large format specialist with a dazzling range of gear from 4x5 to 8x10 and beyond.

One of my favourite shops is Jang-shi Camera in the Howhyun underground shopping centre between Myeongdong and the Shinsegae Department Store. They sell mostly high end gear: Leicas, Contax, and also have Mamiya 7 lenses. Their website is at www.j-camera.co.kr

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Film cameras in Busan

Busan doesn't have as many film camera shops as Seoul but there is a small concentration of them in the Nampo area.

I made just a quick reconnoitre there today - will go back again soon. I saw some nice cameras though. A Nikon F - first model with a Photomic prism; Leica IIIf with an Elmar lens, another with a Summar; Leica IIIg - a real beauty with a Summaron. Also M3, M6 & an ugly duckling M5. Also a CL and a Minilux. Contax T2… and that's just the 35mm stuff.

I won't even tell you about the Fuji 6x17 and a lovely heavy Rolleiflex SLR. The students I saw buying boxes of Velvia 4x5 however rate a mention. Two young girls bought a box each. I tried to engage them in conversation but our mutual knowledge of each other's languages didn't quite mesh. good to see interest in large format.

Whew! There's lots of film activity here! Can't wait to get to Seoul.

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B&W Film processing in the tropics. #filmphotography

Twenty minutes ago I took a one litre bottle of fixer out of my fridge. It was about 4 degrees C. I sat it on top of the fridge to warm up while I went and mixed up the developer and loaded the film on a spiral, reminding myself in the process how much I dislike 35mm film - give me 120 any day.

I just checked the fixer. It is now 25C. A 20 degree Celsius rise in temperature in just 20 minutes just in the ambient air.

I think I should be processing C41...

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last of the batch

polaroid no longer manufactures it's large format instant films. in fact polaroid no longer manufactures any instant films. apparently they are still marketing some of their consumer films, such as pola 600, but they have engaged another company to make it.

thanks to my friend sam, i today obtained an unused and only slightly out of date pack of polaroid 56. this consists of 20 single 4x5 inch sheets of sepia film. one of the sheets is visible to the left of this shot, standing behind my old polaroid 545 film holder - which i had almost consigned to the museum shelf. this could be its last hurrah...

watch for some polaroid sepia images soon.

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