APS-olutely Auto - or Using My Obsolete Canon EOS

[Wow! This is my 300th post!]

I first saw the EOS IX7 in a picture and it looked so small. It also looked very much like a camera I'd never feel the inclination to use. Yet, here I am, already on my third roll in a fortnight. And it's colour film at that. How did I end up here?

In late summer of this year I had bought a Canon EOS 5000 for a pittance. I'd never cast an eye on the EOS-cameras since I am usually a manual exposure kind of person. But the EOS 5000 was the one auto-exposure camera that had caught my attention with manual shutter settings on a control wheel instead of those annoying menus.

Come November and I'd not finished an entire roll yet through my EOS. Yet on the Swedish auction site an EOS IX7 surfaced and was sold for a steal (~ €15).

Canon EOS IX7

Yes, it's an APS-system camera. A system which, yes, is discontinued. But, yes, I had three rolls of Fuji Superia 200 ASA with 40 exp for sale in my camera shop. And every once in a while they do pop up at bargain prices on the web.

And - yes - I already owned a pancake lens for the system. And it would be nice to see how some of my favourite SLR lenses rendered photographs on colour film. I never use colour film any more with my vintage cameras unless it's experimental in some way.

And - yes - the camera body is very small for an SLR.

Here's a comparison in size between a 135-film cartridge (right) and one for APS film.

Colour Photography with a Difference

Photographing in colour is different from making black & white photos. For me b&w photography is very much about catching light. And colour film is all about - drumroll! - colour. I expose for rather strong contrasts (deep blacks mostly) on b&w film. With colour, these days, I just am not intrigued by straight colour photographs. For my digital photos colour is always there, but I use lenses that distort either colour or (out-of) focusing. And I use a colour setting that enhances the colours. I don't want them to emit 'This is what it looked like,' rather 'This is a photograph.'

So, with the EOS IX7 I've initially used a vintage Yashica 50 mm lens (which is stuck at f/2,0 and which focuses no further than 3 m) for the first three rolls. Here's what Carmencita Film Lab got out of my first negs:

I've adjusted all the photos for stronger shadows.

Thank you for reading my blog! Check our my Instagram at #ourbooksmalmo and my Etsy shop getOurBooks where you can find plenty of analog camera equipment!

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