Kodak Gold 200

I was very excited for this roll. This is because for I received a Yashica Mat 124G as my Christmas present. The Yashica Mat 124G is a Twin Lens Reflex camera (TLR) for short that shoots 6X6 medium format images. The 124G does have a light meter although it isn't very accurate which I would find out much later. For this roll I went off on what settings the camera was telling me to input. For the roll and for the next couple of rolls I was in Cornwall once again with my family. Me and the family decided to go back to where we stayed earlier on in the year and it was a very nice break away especially over the New Year.

All of these images that you see above were shot in Polperro. Polperro was a nice little village town and it was fun to walk around it. Shortly before we arrived, the sun was shining bright and the sky was very blue. Unfortunately that was then when I decided to load my camera. By the time we got to Polperro the sun wasn't as bright and so shooting Kodak Gold 200 was challenging to say the least. I had to use some rather very slow shutter speeds which were not ideal in this situation. This was my first time using the camera and so I was still figuring out how to hold it for the best comfort. A few of the shots on this roll was either very under exposed or there is some very visible camera shake. Even the ones here that I like, if you zoom in quite far you will see some camera shake.

That wasn’t the only issue. When I was loading the camera I mistakingly went past the starting line so right off the bat I ruined one of the film. I also had a problem where the camera just wouldn’t fire however looking back now that was most defiantly just user error. A lot of the errors that I have faced with this camera have been just that. It wouldn't be such a huge problem except for the fact that I wouldn’t be able to rectify my mistakes going forward until after our holiday because that is when I got the majority of my film from this trip developed. 

User error and first time mistakes aside, I am a big fan of how these turned out. Medium Format really does look different to standard 35mm and there is much less visible grain because the negatives are of  a much larger size. I am very happy with my present and I really enjoy using the camera. It is a very unique experience compared to other cameras because TLR’s are waist level cameras meaning you look down to compose the shot instead of putting it up to your eye.