The Plaubel Makina 670 in Finland
Plus a Gallery Launch, Budget Printing, Artist Features, & more...
Hey everyone, I hope you’re doing well!
Just in the middle of a two-week break, taking time off to spend with family, disconnect, and recharge. It’s been nice to hang out with the kids, hit up some coastal areas in the UK, and not think about photography too seriously.
We just returned from a few days in North Devon, and of course, I still brought a camera. However, I kept it simple and used a Canon EOS 30 SLR and a 40mm pancake lens, shooting with some Kodak Color Plus. The idea was to photograph my family without being distracted by a more extensive setup.
This is likely the newest film camera I’ve ever shot with, and although it lacks some of the charm and feel that older models have, I feel spoiled with some of its features, like autofocus!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all worked, as it was a last-minute purchase!
Anyway, I still wanted to get out an issue of Field Notes today, as it was a busy month leading up to this break, and I have some things I want to share.
I have an issue coming out next Monday that’s a bit longer. It dives into one specific thing that’s been on my mind. But for today, I thought I’d switch it up, keep this one a bit looser, and chat about some things I’ve been having fun with over the past little while.
Photographing Finland
I mentioned in my last issue that I recently returned from a trip to Finland, where I spent a week visiting the folks from Kamerastore. Finland was so incredibly similar to where I’m from in Northern Ontario—forests, lakes, and two-lane highways that seem to go on forever. It felt like I was back at home.
It was a pretty cool experience, and I’m thankful for them inviting me out and being such great hosts.
I spent two days at the store, exploring their setup and digging through all the gear and parts they had. After that, I managed to sneak out for a day on a mini road trip.
I wanted to get in at least one day of shooting while I was there, so I grabbed the rental car and drove a big loop through some rural areas over twelve hours. Believe it or not, I even found an actual Route 66 while there, haha!
I filmed all of this and am excited to share the video with you next month!
Plaubel Makina 670
For my day of shooting, I decided to use two cameras. The first was my Contax RTS II, which I brought from home. While I was there, Roman from Kamerstore gave it a complete checkover, including testing the shutter speeds and meter accuracy.
It turns out that the meter was underexposing by one stop, which didn’t surprise me too much, as I had suspicions, but it was nice to have that confirmed. The fix for now is to counter it with exposure compensation turned on permanently.
The second choice was a Plaubel Makina 670 from Kamerastore. I’ve been curious about this camera for a long time and have always wanted to shoot with it.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a 6x7 medium-format rangefinder with a beautiful 80mm Nikkor lens that collapses into the body, making it ultra-compact. It also has a built-in meter. Other than that, it’s very simple and straightforward.
I quickly fell in love with the camera's handling; it was so fun to shoot with. I can see myself becoming hooked on it, as 80mm is one of my favourite focal lengths, and it’s a pretty fast lens as well.
Unfortunately, I struggled a bit to find subjects to shoot throughout the day, mostly due to a lack of time and only being able to cover so much ground. This was very similar to how my shoot days in Ontario often felt—lots of driving to get to the next spot.
Regardless, I still shot a few rolls of Gold 120 through the Makina and a roll of Ultramax through the Contax. The film was sent off to Carmencita Film Lab in Spain (who are fantastic, btw), and I just received the scans back today, which look great. I forgot how much I love scans from the Fuji Frontier!
I’m looking forward to getting the negatives back so I can do some high-resolution scans here at home and really get a feel for how the Nikkor lens performs. But yeah, it was such a fun camera to shoot with.
It was also nice to use the Contax RTS II more confidently now that I know its quirks.
Overall, Finland was great, and I definitely plan on going back for a more extended visit at some point in the future. I’d love to head way north and see what I can find!
Gallery Launch
A little while ago, on Instagram, I announced that I had signed on with a new gallery in Brighton called George Gallery. Well, they finally opened their doors a couple of weeks ago. We’re currently offering some images from my An American Mile project—some from the book and others I haven’t released yet.
I’m heading down there this week to check it out in person. From what I’ve seen, though, the space looks great, and it’s exciting to have a few large pieces for sale in a physical location. I was also happy to see two of the three 1 of 1’s sell this weekend.
The gallery is open seven days a week if you’re in the Brighton area and interested in checking out the work. I also have some smaller limited prints available there, and I’m dropping off some copies of An American Mile this week for them to have on hand.
*Also, I should mention that copies of An American Mile are still available for purchase through Subjectively Objective.
Printing At Home On A Budget
On the topic of prints, a few issues back, I wrote about how I started printing some of my work at home again rather than through a lab.
I used to do this all the time, but when I started focusing less on smaller prints and my volume dropped, owning a printer didn’t make much sense.
Well, I recently decided to start offering a smaller rotating open print series every month (something that will launch soon!), and I wanted to print them here in-house rather than at a lab.
So, I needed to buy a wide-format printer again, but I thought it could be fun to find one on the used market, give something a second life, and save some money.
New wide format A3+ printers, here in the UK, cost around £700, but the used market is flooded with previous generation models that are still incredibly capable; you just have to know what to look for and consider certain costs you might incur.
This evening, I have a new video going live on my YouTube Channel that shares my experience doing this. Hopefully, it will help you save some money if you want to start printing your work at home. Even with new inks, I came in around half the cost of a new setup!
Artist Submissions / Features
Lastly, I wanted to mention that in the near future, I’m going to start featuring one photographer's work in every newsletter. I still need to decide exactly how this will look, but I thought it could be cool to share work that inspires me and also give people a chance to have their work reach a new audience.
If you’re interested in submitting, you can email me at info@kylemcdougallphoto.com. I’ll be looking for around five images from a specific project and a brief overview of yourself and your work.
Anyway, that’s it for this one. I’m looking forward to getting back up to speed next week when I return to the office.
That week, I’ll also be announcing my first two workshops. I finally secured a location and am excited to get things rolling with them. So stay tuned for that.
Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!
Always fun to read about photography in Finland from an outsider’s perspective! Kamerastore are awesome.
Love the Plaubel images - I work in Brighton so will definitely be popping in this week to buy a copy of An American Mile! I hadn't heard of the George Gallery, great to see another gallery open in Brighton.