I've been finding it hard to find inspiration to take out my camera and get some photography done recently so I decided to purchase an Olympus OM1N to take up film photography.

To be honest I got the urge to take up film photography whilst youtubing (digital rev was doing some analouge camera reviews and Jarod Polin from fro knows photos was also vlogging about film cameras at the time) so I decided to join the party.

The process of selecting a camera was a dificult one, I knew I wanted something really old camera with no automactic functions I wanted something purly mechanical without the need of electricity. So I was watching camera reviews on digital rev and the where reviewing the Olympus OMD-EM-5 and they had shown the OM1 at the beggining of the video insinuating that the OMD was based on the OM1. Being the Canon man that I am I found it hard to not at least take a look at the classic canon cameras of the past and I was really close the purchasing the Canon F-1.

I purchased the Olympus OM1N off eBay for $40 and I was immideatley impressed when I got my mits on it. The viewfinder blew my mind as it was bigger than the viewfinder of my Canon DSLR at the time (I owned a Canon 500D). I was also impressed with it's size (it's was 70% smaller than other SLR's in it's time in the 1970's so it's even smaller by todays standards and it was a hit amongst travel photographers of the time). I also enjoy fiddling with the winder and playing around with the shutter and apature rings (that are located on the lens).

Amongst my research of the Olympus OM1(N) I came across a method to execute a double exposure (this is a tedious task that involves pressing a few buttons and holding the winder and flipping a switch). I was worried about testing this out thinking it was a ploy to troll those whome wouldn't know any better but I was pleased with the results once I got my developed film back.

So the first thing that I noticed when I was shooting film with this camera was the lack of an LCD screen to review the picture that you just took (I never noticed how much I chimped until I started shooting with this camera) I couldn't help but laugh everytime I look at the back of the camera it happens a lot! It took a while for me to get used to. I was also impressed with the ergonomics of this camera I found it easier to change the settings on the Olympus OM1(N) than on my Canon 500D (I have to fiddle a bit just to change the settings when the enviroment I'm in changes). Having said that not all is smooth whilst holding this camera, it's bloody heavy! And it's made of metal (I'm shooting in winter and I fear touching it because the camera gets cold). I enjoyed shooting with this camera but to be honest but I got frutrated about how long it took me to get through one roll of film and not seeing the pictures that I had taken.

Something I found fun about shooting with the Olympus OM1(N) is selecting film to shoot with (shooting digital all my life I had never experienced this). Choosing your film is like choosing a new sensor for your camera. I chose to shoot with Fuji Film over Kodak simply because Fuji still make a decent contribution to photography to this day (unlike Kodak in my opinion). I was shocked when I got my first roll of film back (the pictures from the first roll I developed sucked balls). I continued to shoot film because I was determined to improve and lo and behold I did with my next batch photo's that I developed. I learn't that I had to shoot differently with this camera because of it's format.

I found shooting in black and white was illogical to me because I could always photoshop the colour shot to black and white, I thought shooting in balck and white was for hipsters. I must have been converted somewhere down the line this was the most satisfying Photographic experience I've had in quite some time, I amazed with the results.