 Got me a new camera My name is David Patton when I started photography. I wanted to make art. I wanted to be a landscape photographer But with a family to feed and bills to pay I decided it would be better to be working photographer than a starving artist So I took a job as a photojournalist 25 years and thousands of assignments later. It was time to go back to my first love. It was time to follow my passion Come along on my journey to become the best black and white photographer I can be whether it be film or digital I will be sharing what I learned through my successes and my failures and hopes to inspire and educate This is my journey This is bright in the edge. Well, it's near to me. I Picked up a mint condition in tax 645 in Just came today Trying to run a few rolls of film through it best way to get to know a camera is to take it out and use it I wasn't gonna make a video today I'm just gonna go out and test the camera But that what the heck? Miles is bringing along I'll talk about some of the features this camera has over my last model. So I'm gonna spend the next couple days Putting this camera through its paces should be kind of fun Probably won't shoot a lot tonight Got head over to the coast in the morning. Well, there's some interesting skies I'm really struggling to find something to stick In the foreground of these skies something below the clouds Really just don't want a picture of clouds I'll take a couple shots We'll get us get it started anyway probably pick up where I'm leaving off tonight in the morning They'll run over the coast Over there, it's a quiet morning on the Oregon coast take this camera for For a few more shots today Got up about four this morning Some actually some nice color behind me That doesn't really mean a whole lot to me right now. So I'm shooting black and white. I just made a shot It's just some reflections tide pool. Nothing doesn't fancy all the shots that I'm doing on this roll or this next roll or two will be with the camera's multi-segment metering I Might do a little bit with spot metering But I really want I really need to test out how this meter is reading the scene So when things are happening fast, I need to know if I can trust it. I need to know if I need to Compensate one way or the other So I'm bracketing a little bit more than I normally do That's probably why I'll shoot more than one roll of film Even find enough subject matter Need to keep looking for some more stuff kind of waiting for the Delight to even out it's kind of bright in the background dark in the foreground. I took a frame, but I'm not sure that's gonna work It's trying to emphasize the reflections in the wet on the water in the sand here, but it might be too much Dynamic range needed for this for this scene Tides coming in so I don't know how much time I'm gonna have I Hear out here in some of these areas gonna have to probably work a little quicker than I I would like to Talk a little bit about so far what I'm liking about this camera I'm loving the controls. I love to have the Shutter speed dial exposure compensation dial and an aperture ring. It just really feels like a camera My older one was just push button stuff. It took a little bit getting used to this is so much more natural for me to use The other thing I really like about this is it uses the same film backs so I can take The film back off my old 645 and use it on my 645 in That's a really smart. I think that's really smart for Pintax to do that Another cool thing is all the lenses work on all their cameras From the 645 to the 645 in the 645 in to and to their digital cameras If your their latest was the 645 Z all these lenses work to varying degrees They have newer lenses Designed for their digital cameras, but you can mount any of the or any of their lenses on their digital cameras as well Now that I've got a new camera does what does that mean? I? Think that means I'm really Getting more serious about shooting film There's something about it that has really kind of got me Maybe guess I've used digital so long. It's so nice to have a different process a different challenge I really enjoy learning something new and so using this different camera different process It's become quite refreshing it's kind of sparked some some Creativity in me with photography again. I'm really enjoying it. I'm actually having fun with it again There are a number of reasons why I decided to get with the newer body instead of the The older one because you can you get those older ones out there for quite a bit cheaper for me I've had two battery holders just fall apart just Get cracks and deteriorate and I don't know if just because the plastic so old that the cameras came out in like 1984 and I'm hoping and it looks like the newer bodies have a little more robust battery holder So I couldn't see just going out and getting another camera if the battery holders are going to be falling apart and failing And I also wanted the dials and I wanted a brighter viewfinder the old one has a pretty dark viewfinder So I'm finding it a lot easier to focus this newer camera. I also like the modern metering Spot meter center-weighted my lot my old one had just center-weighted and I also like that this has a I Think it's six segment evaluated metering multi-segment and Really that I've been testing that out on this roll just to see Where where the exposures are I mean I may be able to rely on it quite a bit For handheld shots this camera also works really well Just feels like a a chunky 35 millimeter This first roll has been a lot of fun to shoot and hopefully I got something We're showing in this video kind of feel like I'm forcing the shots because I want to Get this roll shot up and and see what I see how this camera works. I think I'm only gonna expose one roll though I'm kind of excited and I want to just shoot a bunch of film But it would be prudent for me to shoot this roll I think I've got one frame left and just develop it See what the camera is doing now if anybody is out there that's Considering going with one of the Pintak 645 models. I've heard a lot of people suggest getting the starting out with the the oldest one and Economically that's probably a good way to go if you can find one that's got a decent battery holder But it might be worth just spending a few hundred dollars more and getting something Little newer like these are like ten years newer ten years is quite a bit difference in Cameras, but if it's the only way you can get into it and you really want to try it then By all means go for the older version That's I wrestled back and forth was it worth for me to spend two hundred dollars on a Older one that I could have also have problems with their the battery department Or would it be is it was it worth adding another three hundred dollars? Four hundred dollars for something that I really wanted I Have wanted this camera since it was announced back in I think 1997. This was my dream camera. I Was so excited when I got this yesterday when it came in the mail I was like a little kid. I was I've never been that excited about any of my digital cameras to me They're like hammers. They're just tools but this this kind of takes me back back when I really was passionate about photography and was excited about taking pictures and Maybe that's why I needed this camera Just to feel that excitement again That feels like Christmas like a little kid with this camera my goal is to get to know this camera well enough Get to know it as well as my digital cameras to where I can go out and not to think about it too much and Just focus on finding some really cool pictures finding some really cool art Right now I still feel like I'm kind of experimenting experimenting with filters experimenting with film Experimenting with cameras Kind of like it beyond the experimenting stage and get back to creating and I think I'm getting close to that point I Don't think of my photography has been all that fantastic this last few months But I'm learning and I think that that's okay. It's I'm it's I'm just enjoying myself And I think that's the big part of photography. You gotta enjoy it Well, I think I'm gonna take this home process the images and Hopefully you'll see them in this video So till next time Thanks for coming along for the ride