Sprocket holes in 35mm film are usually outside the boundary of the picture. But the other day, Paul showed me some of his pictures taken on an Ilford Sporti 4 which include the holes in the picture and it got me thinking*. I decided to run some 35mm film through my LOMO Lubitel and see what happened.
*About plagiarism of his work.
The Lubitel usually takes 120 roll film and produces images 6 ×6cm in size. With 35mm film, you get an image that’s 6cm tall, 3.5cm wide and has sprocket holes running vertically.
So here goes, with a customary view out of my balcony to get us started.
Some double yellow lines in the road. I hadn’t realised how shallow the depth of field was (or how inaccurate the focussing).
A nearby electricity substation. Ever tried shooting landscape with a TLR, looking sideways into the upside-down viewfinder?
And finally, at the end of the film, a snap of Hana. Shame it got cut off, because she looks great in this picture.
I’m pretty sure I need to calibrate the focussing in this camera. I took care to ensure that the image in the viewfinder was always in sharp focus, so I think the gearing between the viewing and taking lenses has fallen out of sync.
In several of these photos you can also see a white circle. This is the red window for watching the film numbers advance on paper-backed roll film. Of course, 35mm doesn’t haven’t a paper backing so any light leaks fog the film. The Lubitel has a little metal shutter to cover the window but clearly it’s not 100% effective.
Jonathan Gazeley 