This simple snapshot is a keeper for my wife and me as it records a particular experience of a special place. Turns out that it really is important to record the 'times of our lives', as that old Kodak commercial reminds us. I really like the composition of this photograph, but the whole series of events leading up to making it began as nothing more than a silly little experiment. You see, about month or so ago, I purchased a Pentax KP when I saw them on sale for close out prices. Later, I learned about the so called 'Limited' series of lenses, older versions of which can be bought used for very little money. Together, they make a nice and compact kit, and frankly, that should have been enough. But at some point the silly idea of shooting these lenses -- designed for APS digital cameras -- on film popped into my head, and so I suddenly 'needed' a Pentax film camera to mount them on.
So, I picked up a lot of three ZX-M bodies in 'as-is' condition for $10. By mixing pieces and parts of the three beater cameras, I was able to put together a working body that looks pretty good, too. As you might expect, the 15mm and 21mm lenses don't really cover 35mm film, but they render fine and you can always crop in software or in the darkroom. The 35mm and 40mm lenses seem to work well most of the time, with the 70mm being the best performer over all. The image above was shot using the 70mm f/2.4 lens on Ilford Delta 400. It was souped in Df96, more of an old school developer not really intended for T-grain films, but that is what I had on hand.
It turns out that the ZX-M is a very stripped down little camera and, as a result, is also quite pleasant to use. It is almost entirely plastic, and mine has some extra solder inside to boot, so who knows how long it will continue working. In the meantime, I set it to P mode and use it like a point and shoot camera, albeit with manual focus. Point, focus, shoot, fun.
