These 5 frames are my first try at shooting a slide film. About 5 months ago I decided to start my journey into the film photography. And it was a love from the first touch I would say. The whole process from unpacking the film and putting it into the camera, to cocking the shutter, adjusting the settings, focusing and pressing the trigger, all these things were something that I was missing in the digital world. And of course the sound of the shutter of these beautiful old cameras…

Despite the lockdown (it wasn’t so strict in Germany) during these first months of analogue adventures, I managed to try and test different kinds of color negative and black and white films but never trusted myself to check up on the slide option. And after gaining some experience and feeling I decided to try out a slide film. The perfect occasion for this was also the fact that since mid of June travel restrictions between states in Germany were removed and my wife and I decided to spend the weekend on the Baltic coast.

As the try-out film, I chose the Kodak Ektachrome E100. I have read a lot of positive feedback about this film (and in negative versions, I prefer Kodak films too).

Since the slide films are very demanding on the accuracy of the exposure, I decided to shoot on my Minolta CLE. The compact size, super-sharp lens, and of course, the aperture priority mode looked like the perfect combination to me and the guarantee not to screw up the result.

We were lucky with the weather on that weekend. Bright sun and clear sky – the best conditions for shooting a 100 ISO film. As I’m still not so good at picking the right exposure without a light meter, the decision to let the work be done by the camera was the right one for now.

From the beginning of my analogue journey I decided to go the whole way of processing the films by myself. So, usually, I develop and scan all my negatives, doesn’t matter color or black and white, at home. This time as because I didn’t want to screw the whole thing up and had no chemistry for the E-6 process, I decided to give the film for development to one of the local labs (there are a few of them in Berlin to choose from and they all were already open), but to scan the film at home.

In the end, I was quite satisfied with the result of my first try. I was really impressed by the contrast and these vivid, super-saturated colors, about which so much has been written. I will definitely continue to experiment with slide films in the future. I have still a lot to learn here and of course, there is a huge space around for experiments, that is what I also like in film photography. #keepfilmalive

~ Oleg

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4 responses to “5 Frames… From my first roll of slide film and a Minolta CLE + Minolta Rokkor-M 40mm f/2 (Kodak EKTACHROME 100 / 35mm Format / El 100)”

  1. Very atmospheric photos.
    Your pictures brought me back warm memories.
    Many years ago spent 2 years on the coast of Baltic Sea (Saaremaa Island, Estonia).
    Thanks for sharing them.
    And the camera – Minolta CLE – is itself a jewelry 🙂

  2. Wonderful colors. It appears you got all the settings working beautifully. Congratulations on these five “starter” images.

  3. Thank you so much. Great.
    Good pictures, good work : great.
    The Minolta Rokkor-M 40mm is a gem, I have used with Leica, Fuji Digital, and Sony and it is a great lens, I have all these 40mm, included the Leica Summicron-C, the Minolta is brighter and sharper because the coated is better, but the rendering of the Leica sometimes wins, for slide you choose wisely, the Rokkor is better for slide in my point of view 😉

  4. Oleg, thank you so much for the article and the wonderful images. I am not able to do any self developing at present.
    So I depend on a number of places to get my films processed. Without of any problems and with a persistent quality.
    The Minolta CLE is the best Leica CL and never made as such; no doubt about it. I have both and use them with great pleasure.
    Please just keep going here with your photographic skills.
    And, yes; welcome to my country and please, just stay…though I am living in Austria for a couple of decades already.
    My compliments to your wife and stay healthy please.
    Best regards
    Harry

 

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