Kamera No Hitsuji #2: The Nicca 5f (With Camry photos!) (Patreon)

Hello! For this week's Kamera No Hitsuji, I wanted to try formatting it a little more like a print publication, that way I can add in little drawings and diagrams. Tell me what you guys think. I'm still working on the format for these so input is highly appreciated.

For a long time I was exclusively interested in newer film cameras; built in light meters were a huge sticking point for me. However this winter a friend of mine from Japan was visiting for a few weeks, and he brought along his Leica IIIa. For those who aren't already familiar, the Leica III is an really old camera; from 1933 I believe. I was instantly enraptured by it; It's ultra-manual, pretty much every step of the process requires operating some knob or switch.

I had to have one. The catch? Leicas are fucking EXPENSIVE. Even older models in less-than-stellar shape can cost upwards of $500 for a body alone. This is what led me to the Nicca. There are actually a lot of different companies who made Leica copies back in the day; Canon, Leotax, Fed over in the Soviet Union. So why the Nicca then? Very simple answer; I thought it was the cutest.

A few of the notable quirks of the Nicca 5f. First, it uses a winding knob instead of a lever. Second, it has a separated rangefinder and viewfinder. Newer rangefinders always have a coupled system; you focus and compose in the same window. So why then would I want a camera with an uncoupled system? Because it's more fun. It's fun to fuck around with little knobs and shit, it makes me feel like a photographer in the ye-olden days!!!

So far, I've shot a few rolls of black and white film through the camera, although I haven't developed any of them yet. I develop all my black and white film at home, so I have quite the backlog! With color film however I can send it off to a lab for $6 a roll, so the first shots I'll be showing you from this camera will be in color, oh boy! When I shot this roll the weather had been off and on rainy for a few days, so I was shooting Fuji 400.

Fuji 400 is a FANTASTIC film stock. People who complain about it are, in my opinion, shitty photographers. You can ABSOLUTELY get beautiful photos on cheaper film stocks, you just need to 1) understand the film's characteristics and 2) shoot in good lighting. Lighting, more than anything is the key to good photos; no film stock can make flat shitty lighting look good (except for Wolfen NC500 but that's a conversation for next KNH).

The first two photos of my Camry were taken around sunset. Sunset is great because you get strong directional light, and dramatic colors. Note the positioning of the car; the passenger side is facing the west, where the sun is setting, and the driver's side is facing the east, where the night is creeping in. This gives the vehicle a nice balance of complimentary colors. Similarly in the next set of photos, the foreground objects are given a slight orange cast from the setting sun. Behind them, the approaching night sky provides some contrast with it's blues and pinks. I also underexposed the film slightly for these photos; about half a stop. Fuji 400/Ultramax blue shifts when underexposed, ie colors are rendered with a slightly bluer hue than they would be at proper exposure. While exposing normally might have still yielded good results, I find that slight under exposure is what's needed to capture this specific mood.

Having a good camera can help you take good photos. Lenses matter more than bodies, but an ergonomic body CAN also make a difference. Having a fun to use camera will motivate you to shoot more, to try harder for sure. The Nicca is extremely fun, I've shot it every single day for weeks now. I get a lot of compliments on it to! Everyone agrees it's a beautiful camera. However, I want to leave one little disclaimer here; you do NOT need this camera to take photos that look like this. The camera did NOT create these photos; the lighting did! Don't feel like you have to go out and buy one of these to get good photos, this is just a fun little camera diary, not an advertisement!!!

Like I said earlier, understanding weather and lighting conditions is THE most important skill in photography. I might argue it's more important than composition; afterall, you can crop badly composed photos to be better, but there's nothing you can do in-post to replicate good lighting conditions. I KNEW I could get these photos ahead of time, I planned them in advance. I knew if I drove out to the country around sunset I could park my car in a field and get that sharp orange and blue lighting. I knew if I walked on the Burnside bridge at roughly 8:45 PM on an overcast day I could get moody pictures of that walk sign with puffy pink clouds in the background. Learn about weather, do your research, note times of day where certain locations look good; you will thank yourself later!