Spring was starting to kick in. I had been planning a trip with my wife for quite some time, but the pandemic held us back home. We were set on visiting Sibiu, a small medieval city in central Romania or Transylvania.

I packed several film cameras and wanted to shoot some medium format 6×6 color reversal film for a Rollei projector I had bought earlier this year. For this endeavor I chose my old buddy the Yashica Mat 124 TLR. Yes, 124 not 124G. The metal one. I heard stories and legends that this one is even rarer than 124G. For the film, I used the legendary Agfa RSX 100. Some say that it is even better than Astia. Who knows? I like them both. I bought this film along with a mini-stock from a guy in Bucharest that was selling all his E-6 film. Of course, properly frozen.

The date was March 1st. The weather was crisp and changing rapidly. Sun, intermittent clouds, snow, low overcast and overall an eerie feeling. The city offers interesting Central European landmarks with German and Austro-Hungarian influences in the heart of Romania. The frames here were mostly taken in the main square and feature the city hall, the church and some of the main restaurants housed in some very old buildings.

Although the camera has a functional light meter, I used my Sekonic external light meter to get things right on the spot. I would let you decide if it worked or not.

Personally, I believe the film, really does justice to that amazing contrast, light, and colors from that day. I also believe that shooting film, especially slide film, in a fast weather changing environment is quite challenging but it can yield the most surprising results.

The film was developed in Fuji chemicals back at my friends Alex & Stefan allkimik place in Bucharest and scanned by me at home on an Epson Perfection Pro v850 with the stock software.

The frame with the camera itself was shot with Olympus OM-2n and Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 and expired 35mm Kodak Elite 200 color reversal film.

Thanks for reading.

~ Robert

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3 responses to “5 Frames… Of Transylvania on expired Agfa RSX 200 with a Yashica Mat 124 TLR”

  1. Leonel LeyCar Avatar

    Nice images!,
    Well processed and digitalized.
    I love these places, the blue sky and the contrasted ligh…
    The Yashica is a great camera!

  2. Clare Hennessey Avatar
    Clare Hennessey

    Gorgeous images. I love the colour and the contrast, excellent. Thank you for sharing them.

  3. Simply excellent!
    The magic of film, and the patience of a film lover to compose very well, it has been taking you lot of time 😉
    But the results are great : Zen experience 😉

 

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