Since early 2017 I have been shooting film again. Trying out different film types and discovering the distinct qualities that each one offers has been very enjoyable. (See my previous blog posts "Back to Film" and "Toronto Street Photography on Kodak Portra 400 film" for more).

Early this year I began using my Dad's old Olympus Pen EE-3 half frame camera (click here to see samples of this camera on ebay). It is a small camera and easy to carry around, but also has other features that make it interesting. The EE-3 shoots two images for every one image shot on a regular 35mm SLR camera. So a roll of 24 provides 48 images. A roll of 36 gives 72 exposures. The default field-of-view when looking through the EE-3's viewfinder is also unique. Instead of a landscape view, as I see when using my Canon AE-1 film camera, I get a portrait view. These two elements add variety to the regular shooting experience.

As a result of the EE-3's half-frame nature, my processed image files come with two images, instead of a single image. I didn't really take this image-pairing aspect into account when I first tried out the camera - I just wanted to confirm if the camera actually worked properly. On my second roll of film though, I tried to be more intentional with the opportunity to create "diptychs", or image pairs that add interest when side-by-side.

Here are sample images shot using the Olympus Pen EE-3 camera - in images pairs as delivered to me after being processed and scanned. (Images shot on Kodak Portra 400 and Fuji Velvia 50)

Portra 400 Half Frame 2018-1.jpg

And here are the same images, but cropped down to individual images, unpaired:

Kodak Portra Half Frame 2018 - cropped-1.jpg

I threw a bonus one in there - of a busker in Ottawa's ByWard Market neighbourhood. (If you know the artist, please let me know who he is so I can send him a copy of that image!)

I've had fun using the EE-3 and look forward to shooting more with it in the future.

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