University of East Anglia on Kodak Colorplus 200 + Leica M2

A few weeks ago I was digging through the camera drawer and found a few rolls of Kodak Colorplus 200. Not the most exciting find but given that my preferred film of choice (Fujifilm Pro 400H) is now absurdly expensive, I figured it was time to branch out and find a new film to shoot. Fortunately for me this also coincided with some pretty nice weather here in Norwich so 200 ISO film was actually useable for once! Among other photos on the roll I was particularly pleased with a series I took at the UEA where the mixture of sunshine, concrete and great assortment of ordinary objects made for some interesting photo opportunities.

I’ve been to this place many times but it seems like each time I visit there’s something new to see. We wandered around the numerous access roads used by maintenance staff where we found a plentiful bounty of ordinary objects and a decent amount of bins - excellent! Given current restrictions the campus was super quiet so we were free to safely explore seeing barely anyone save for the odd delivery person.

I took along the Leica M2 for this venture, it’s a great little camera and the Voigtlander lens is as sharp as my eyes need it to be. The only thing I miss is having internal metering, using the app on my phone is annoying and sunny 16 is only useful when the scenes evenly lit in my experience. If I could retrofit the meter from my Olympus OM-1 to the Leica it would a match made in 35mm heaven..

On that subject, the Olympus OM-1n that I picked up recently which I initially thought looked to be in great shape in fact needs quite a bit of repairing unfortunately. Something to do with damaged shutter speed gears but it’s in too nicer shape cosmetically to not invest a bit of money in. I picked up a 35mm F2.8 lens for it too so I’m hoping to do a little head to head with the Leica/ Skopar combo, I mean who doesn’t like some SLR vs rangefinder action? In addition I've also had the Mamiya Six folder back from the repair shop so expect some more 6x6 features in the near future. Anyway, back to the photos.

Interestingly this is the first photo I’ve taken in a while which strays from the usual eye-level perspective. I mean I quite like it, but I’d say 90% of the photos I take nowadays are with the camera parallel with the ground. I’m in two minds about how this approach limits me in both a good way and bad way. The scenes and objects I observe are most frequently at ground level so over time I find myself rarely looking up or down. This approach makes for more continuity between shots and has allowed what I consider to be my own style to develop. However it has also had the unfortunate side effect of possibly missing out on interesting angles and opportunities. Maybe it’s time to start looking up every once in a while but in the meantime, here’s a pole in a bush.

So will I use Colourplus again in the future? Heck yes! The price is reasonable enough that I can pick up a few rolls at a time although no doubt there’ll be a price rise in the near future. The 200 ISO rating makes it more of an occasion film, for when the suns out and will stay out long enough for me to take 36 exposures (so a month or so) but I’ll definitely be keeping some on hand. If they made this film in 400 or 800 speed I would probably use it full-time but in the meantime, I’m still on the look out for a suitable replacement for Pro 400H *sobs*..

Dev and scan by the guys over at Take It Easy.

Larry