Infected with … the 35mm Film Virus

Making Film Simulations.
That was the reason (apart from the sporadic film shots which I sometimes take) to start to shoot more 35mm film.
Without a “real” photo it is virtually impossible to match digital pictures to film, at least if you want to fine-tune as accurately as possible anyway.
But my old Olympus OM10 had problems, the manual adapter had given up, the shutter faltered and the mirror regularly hangs, so it has become almost useless.
That is why I had invested in a (new) Olympus OM2000, bought a while ago in the UK, but due to Brexit it is still in transit – which is a shorter word for “it will take a while and maybe more”, I think about 4 weeks now.

But every disadvantage has its advantage, a famous Dutch footballer once said.
So in the meantime I found a working Oly OM10 locally, and also an OM20 and OM40 in very good condition.
So we are “armed” to start shooting again with film, and I did !
The only downside is the long wait for the development of the film,
these days it takes weeks, and Covid doesn’t help, but the results are always worth it.

But there was more to it.
The young guy I bought the Oly OM20 from was bitten by the “35mm film virus”. His enthusiasm in shooting film was quite infectious, and yes, without realizing it I got it to – again!

The only cure is to fuel the viruses need (I think), so I needed to add another Olympus to my – meanwhile growing – collection 🙂
I already have several Oly SLRs by now, so I took a look at the small compact cameras, type rangefinders such as the Olympus 35RC or Pen EE.
But they all had problems, either difficult batterys (mercury 625) or a selenium cell that is no longer reliable …
Few options, all more point and shoot, and I wasn’t really looking for that.
And then, scrolling through eBay, I saw it on my computer screen, an Olympus Pen F.
Rangefinder look, but technically an SLR.
No light meter, everything manual, interchangeable lenses …
And it looks just gorgeous! do I need to say more …
and now we have to wait again for it to be delivered,
but also something to look forward to,
and of course in time there will be a review,
only, we are not there yet, hopefully the cure works or we need more “medicine” !

Update 17/02/2021, just this morning I got a message by mail from the carrier Pitney Bowes – it’s still in the UK, but they can’t find my address, probably because it’s in Belgium and not in the UK – this is also perfectly stated on the shipping documents, which I had to check online for them, maybe Belgium disappeared together with Brexit? I cannot understand that suddenly everything has to be so much more difficult.