Roll 291
Film: Kodak Vision3 500T/5219
Developed & scanned: DEP Lab 2025/9/12
Camera: Mamiya U Autofocus 35mm f2.8
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I've finally made up my mind to move from Micro Four Thirds to a full-frame system for digital work. I've been using M43 to shoot for clients, but photography is really just one part of the service I offer — web design remains the core of what I do. The occasional client shoot still tends to be static content: interiors, products, things that are relatively controlled.
In practice, I stopped shooting film after roll 333. Partly because I didn't want to keep accumulating the pressure of writing up every roll, and partly because I wanted to experience what life looks like when you shoot digital. My current digital camera is a Canon EOS 6D Mark II, released in 2017 — the only SLR on the market that combines built-in GPS, a top-deck LCD, a vari-angle screen for self-portraits, side-access memory card slot, and the lightest weight in its class: 765 grams with battery and card.
I shoot almost exclusively in portrait orientation, so the 6D Mark II's flip screen is genuinely useful — I can compose from the hip without contorting myself. Battery life is rated at around 1,200 shots, which gets close to the carefree feeling of shooting film with no battery anxiety.
Day to day, I keep the rear screen folded closed and just glance at the top LCD for settings. After each shot, I pull the card, plug it into my phone via a card reader, and process it in the mobile version of Lightroom. I've built a preset I call "Anti-digital Digital Preset" — it adjusts only contrast and tone curves, leaves color untouched, and auto-applies to every raw file the moment it comes in. No editing time needed; it just comes out looking the way I want. Remarkably, it works across all shooting conditions — which gets close to the convenience of dropping film off at a lab and getting it back already done.
Digital is still digital, not film. But it feels like a new toy. Everything on my social accounts (Facebook, Instagram) is digital now. Film photos don't feel quite right for social media to me — so they'll stay here.
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The camera for this roll is the Mamiya U Autofocus 35mm f2.8 — one of the rare compact cameras that combines manual film advance, a lens cap, and autofocus. Build quality isn't great, and most copies still circulating in the used market are faulty ones. I bought two bodies; both had problems. In the end I cannibalized one to repair the other.
This one came with a focusing issue, so usable frames were limited — only 9 made the cut. The camera was repaired after this, and I even brought it to Hokkaido later — you'll see those rolls in due course.
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#1
Fish tank test.
#2
On the MRT one day. One advantage of shooting with a manual-advance, autofocus camera: nobody notices you just took a photo. Since this was the first roll through this camera, I wasn't shooting anything important — just trying to burn through the roll and find out whether the camera worked.
#3
The ancestral spirit tablet at home. Starting from April 2026, this blog has been published in English and Japanese as well — the hope being that it might reach readers abroad. The translations are done with AI and I don't review them myself, so I genuinely have no idea whether they read naturally. Something like "ancestral spirit tablet" — I have no idea how that comes across.
#4
Flash-blocked test shot.
#5
Flash-off test shot. I was sleeping without air conditioning around this time — just a fan.
#6
This morning I drove from Taipei to Hsinchu before 8am for a client meeting.
#7
A view I pass every morning on my run.
#8
I did my military service as a fire service substitute (cohort 73), which left me with a few bits of fire safety knowledge. Like these fire hydrant marker signs — there's a small arrow at the bottom pointing toward the hydrant's exact location.
#9
Following on from the last shot — sure enough, there's a fire hydrant right where the arrow points. That information is critical when a fire engine is searching a street for a water source. On the topic of hydrants: don't park in front of one. If firefighters need to use the hydrant next to your car, they are legally permitted to smash your window to run the hose through. Fire hoses operate at such high pressure that they can't be bent like a regular garden hose — so there's no other way.
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That's this roll — Mamiya U Autofocus 35mm f2.8 with Kodak Vision3 500T/5219. Thanks for reading.
