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To the point. I will write what I have said many times already, about myself. I'm kind of the old soul trapped in a bit younger body. Of course I've got something of small boy's excitement when it comes to exploring new things and toys. That doesn't change the fact that usually, in most of times, I am behind the schedule with new technologies - and I'm never sad about that, because life is long and I will find the appropriate time for me to explore something that is just fresh now, probably in about 3 years:) See, I don't mind the new technologies and the progress that the society or scientists do - while I'm around with my 25 years old Pentax SLR camera. I like to read about new things and I know that one day these new things of today will be new for me. And then I'll have more time to enjoy using and exploring them at my own pace, as everyone will be busy with something else, new. It is same story for me with cameras, computers and mobile phones, as it is with cars for example. I still don't like diesel 'tractors' and since the big boom when there was more diesels in every-day use than 'proper' petrol cars, it's only about 5 years or so. And people are waking up again - in that time they realised that the true cost of using diesel cars everyday is bigger because of servicing and repairs costs, they also found that pushing diesel to common use was just a governmental propaganda (of few, mainly European countries). In that time I was faithfully using petrol cars, as they are simply better and more pleasant to drive, while the manufacturers of cars has used that time to develop really good petrol engines. They are now almost as economical as oil-burners, they are very eco-friendly and most important - they are still fun to drive - unlike even most powerful diesel cars. In this pursuit of eco-eco achievements manufacturers has to fit turbochargers to most of petrol engines - making even the smallest ones fun. In the same time, thousands of diesel users had to swap injectors, dual-mass flywheels and God knows what else - which definitely was not wallet-friendly to owners and it was also not so eco-friendly (as they are produced more waste to dispose and CO2 when new parts for their cars were made in factories...).
Anyway, back to the cameras and black-white subject:) I always liked old-looking photographs and real old photography from times when Zenit and other similar products were kings (in Poland). Everything old and using 35mm is interesting for me. So I decided to try myself B&W film in my favourite camera so far - Pentax from late '80s. The outcome was not as good as I was expecting, but I was not doomed. In fact, to my surprise some of my first B&W pictures were liked on 500px. I know now how it looks and works and I know that time used for mastering the knowledge (and settings of camera) when using black and white film is worth for me much more than any time spend trying to improve pictures from digital cameras using photoshop (and lightroom, and others). And you know that I don't do that anyway, as I don't like photo-creaming software and never praise people who are spending hours with one picture, smoothing out a pixel-size 'imperfections', as it's not true and it is not art either. It might be a skill. But still, in my opinion you need much more skills to do good pictures on old SLR. Therefore I still haven't got DSLR, I'm prolonging time until the moment that I get one because I need to master my SLR, before I add D to the equation. And in case of black and white digital photography - removing colours from photos using the software is artificial for me, pointless. Unless you can afford the real treat which is the world's first digital black and white - Leica M Monochrom. This is something that I can dream about like a small boy dreaming about the new toy, new special toy that is so exciting as new car, or something else which you cannot simply play enough with in your mind, that it will not go away because you've played with it in your mind so much. So one day I'll have the Leica M Monochrom and it will be new then for me, it will be as new as any old car that I didn't have yet - exciting. Till then - I'll use 35mm SLRs, my bridge, any other camera and maybe I'll get Pentax DSLR - because they got a soul, something that make them different from Canon...
For results of my first B&W film please see my 500px gallery.
There's more to come as the second roll of B&W is ready to develop now.