What made you want to try half-frame, what was your first half-frame camera?
I first started looking at half frame cameras just before Covid, I was looking because I felt a need for a more serious camera that I could put in my pocket, maybe not my jeans pocket, but at least in a coat pocket. To that end an Olympus Pen F was top of my list, in particular the Pen FV would have been my favourite, with the improved mechanics and no light meter function to worry about. However, the cost of finding a nice example cooled my need for the nice pocketable camera, and I kind of forgot about it. That was until around Christmas 2023 when Hamish (35mmc) advertised that he was selling his Original Olympus Pen, the fully manual one first released in 1959 with a 28mm f3.5 lens. So as is usual, on impulse I just jumped on that, and it was my start with half frame photography!
What is it you like most about Half-frame?
Well, the convenience of a small pocketable camera is still important to me, and now with the Pentax 17, the built in flash makes it even more convenient for those social occasions when we just want to carry an inconspicuous little camera. Having said that, the creative spark that the half frame brings with it, that perhaps you don’t fully realise until you start using one, is perhaps even more important than the size. The inherent frugal use of film encourages you to experiment, to dare I say it waste film, to take multiple shots of the same subject, from diptychs to pentaptychs (did I just make up that term for five-fold images?) it is this very freedom to try more things than you might normally, with some hits and admittedly some serious misses, that encourages the creativity, and it is this creative freedom that has become the thing I like most about half-frame.
Favourite subject and/or Half-frame photo?
Do I have a favourite subject? I’m not sure I do, I tend towards documentary photography, photographing a lot of local subjects on the coast, boats and lighthouses etc, manmade objects that we stumble upon in the natural landscape. Equally though I’m happy around town documenting the city and preserving it’s changes. I suppose the real question is, have the subjects I home in on changed since using half frame? I would say not, however perhaps the way I see them changes when I have a half frame camera to use. For a start I usually would be toting a 20-28mm equivalent lens, but with the Pentax 17 that I use now, I’m restricted to a narrower point of view with a 37mm equivalent focal length. So, it’s not quite so easy to take in the expansive view of a proper wide lens, it forces you work a little differently, to zoom out with your feet, to look a little closer and the excellent close focussing ability of the Pentax 17 encourages those little detail shots.
Your top tip/s for shooting half frame photos?
One thing is I like to use with half frame is a fine grain film, it brings the images up to the sort of quality you might expect from a regular 35mm camera, especially as many half frame cameras are equipped with surprisingly good lenses. Boosting the B&W contrast with a filter, yellow, orange or red depending on your film choice, that will help with the apparent clarity of your photo too. Having said that, I do plan to go the other way at some point, and try grunging it up with some ISO3200 film, but I’m not there yet… soon !
The other tip is to just go crazy with film, to try every little idea that comes to you, there will be some things that don’t work, but then others will fully reward you for your experimentation, and what’s more you won’t have wasted a whole lot of film trying things out!
