Tried out film for the first time.

I have been looking for a film camera for quite a long time to bring back my childhood memories. Since I am still a newbie to shoot with film camera, I had decided to buy a reusable film camera before I explore it deeper. After gathering some information online, I bought my first reusable film camera which is Kodak M35.



The first reason why I choose M35 is because the price is affordable enough to purchase especially for those who want to try out something new but don’t want to spend much. There are various color options that could make you hesitate if you have “choice difficulty”. I’ve chosen the yellow color without a moment’s hesitation as it is the classic color by Kodak.

I’ve tried the camera with different types of film like Kodak Colorplus 200, Kodak Pro Image 100 and Ilford Pan 400. I did not have high expectation for this reusable camera, but it definitely performed better than I expected if you can get the hang of it. That being said, I don’t know why the photos sometimes turned out blurred, I guess is because of the focusing distance.





The camera comes with built in shutter speed of 1/120s and F10 aperture, nothing much you can control over the image quality. The sharpness of the photos also quite nice if you shoot some mid distance photos. Basically, the colors of photo have not much different despite using different type of film, all are coming out pretty flat, soft and low contrast. This is not a big issue as we can do some editing after it.

Due to the low aperture of the camera, I’ll suggest you guys to use the film with higher ISO, the most preferred ISO range for me is about 400. The camera has a built in flash, so it is easier to take pictures in indoors or dark places. However, make sure your object is not too far because the flash is not powerful enough. I was not that satisfied after plenty times I used the flash, so I would kindly advise you to shoot in daylight to reduce the possibility of underexposed.



Another interesting feature is we can wind the film manually, we need to push the roller after each shoot, it is totally satisfying. Besides, we need to beware of how we hold the camera while taking pictures, make sure your fingers are not placed on the lens barrel if don’t want to spoil the photos, this is because the lens is much wider than what we can see in viewfinder.



To be frank, the first impression when I hold this camera in my hand was like a toy. It is very light and compact so you could bring it to anywhere, but it looks a bit “cheap” due to the plastic housing around the camera. Open up the back of the camera is a simple plastic structure, I managed to load my first ever film into the camera under the guidance of my friend. But don’t worry, you’ll be more familiarized and addicted to it after plenty times of practices. I’m quite satisfied with the overall performance of Kodak M35 in terms of color, and lightning even though it is an entry level model. Kodak M35 is a great choice to get started my film photography journey and suitable for entry users or beginners like me.


A blog post by OHY