I gave a brief review of the Nikon F501 about two years ago. Since then, I have done nothing with the camera; it has just sat in a drawer. I also bought a roll of Kodak Portra 400 film which has sat in my camera for the best part of the year. It was about time I used it. The weather has been a bit shit down here recently — 40 days of rain — but there was a small break in the weather, so I went out with the camera. I didn’t go far, just along a lane near my house where I walk our dog. Occasionally, the sun broke through the clouds. There were some amazing snowdrops, but for the most part the conditions were drab. I sent the film off to be developed at Analog Wonderland, who also scanned the images for me. I was actually very happy with the results, considering it has been 20 or so years since my last roll of film. What I didn’t enjoy was the shooting experience; I found the F501 very noisy, particularly the motor drive, and also the annoying beep which was easily knocked on. I am very much looking forward to trying out the Voigtländer Bessa R, which is a totally manual rangefinder camera. It will be my first rangefinder experience.
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