Mixing up the old and new

I did something that some photography purists (if they exist) might regard as just plain wrong. I used an classic (old) Ricoh 35ZF to shoot with (new) 35mm 100 iso Lomography color film.

The Ricoh 35 ZF is a camera with a fixed lens made in Taiwan by Ricoh in the late 1970's. It has a Rikenon 40mm f2.8 lens and uses zone focusing. It can be operated fully manually or when you use a battery you can use the light meter and the automatic aperture setting. My camera was really good taken care of by its previous owner. It has almost no marks on it. There was only one thing I had to fix. The owner had stored the camera for many years with the battery still in it and the battery had corroded. This seems to happen a lot with old film cameras. Luckily the corrosion could easily be removed by using some vinegar and a cotton bud. When I popped in a new battery, I used a 1.4 volts hearing aid battery, the light meter came to life. Succes! :)
The Ricoh 35 ZF is a very compact beautifully designed camera and has a sturdy, boxy build. It's almost fully made out of metal.  All the settings (iso/asa, focus distance, shutter speed and aperture opening) are done on the lens. Which makes forgetting to take the lens cap off an impossibility ;-) 

To test the camera, I took the camera with me while walking the dog and had it in my pocket when going to work. Most of the time when I go to work, on bike or by car, I pass this old picturesque farm. I like the cloudy sky in this photo. Lomography color film has lots of blues and yellows, which makes for nice pictures when photographing for example (cloudy) skies.

This picture was taken near the office where I work. From home to the office it's about a 10 minute drive by car and about 20 minutes on my bike. Which is very convenient.

Every working day I cross this bridge. In the late winter/early spring, beautiful sunsets can be seen there around the time I'm heading back home after a days work.

I take most of my photos while walking the dog. I walk about an hour every working day and in the weekends my walks are about twice as long. We (Nikki and I) take this route along the tracks quite often. The tracks are used by the PON automobile company. There are no trains using the tracks in the weekend and even on working days they only drive twice a day (very slowly).  

This is the (un)loading platform, where the cars are driven of the train onto the PON automobile parking lot. As you can see no signs of life during the weekend when this photo was taken. An excellent place to walk or run if you're a dog ;-)

Lots of trees are blossoming this time of year. Luckily I do not suffer from hay fever, so I can really enjoy them.

Near the inner city of Leusden the signs of spring can be seen. Many bulbs are sprouting through the grass. Many cities in the Netherlands have bulbs planted in grassy areas like these. 

When walking with Nikki I almost always see new things that I want to photograph because they're beautiful or just funny or strange.   

On our big weekend walks we almost always walk through the nearby forest area. I love nature. When Nikki was young she was allowed to walk of the leash here. But when she became aware that there were rabbits and deer nearby, she had to walk on the leash to prevent her going after wildlife.

Even though Nikki is already 8, see behaves like a playful kid. Not unlike myself, she never seems to have fully grown up ;-) 

It's late afternoon, the sun is setting, we arrive home while this farmer sprays the young corn plants on his land.

Nikki had her long walk and rests satisfied on her makeshift pillow catching a few more rays.

My first time experience with the Ricoh 35 ZF is very positive. Because it's so small and light, it really is no problem to take it with me on a walk. Getting things in focus is still a bit hit or miss (the results depend on how good you are at judging distances). Although the more experience I have shooting with this camera, the more keepers I'll probably have.