{"id":50692,"date":"2026-09-15T05:03:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/blog\/50692"},"modified":"2026-09-15T05:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:39:17","slug":"ep306-%e5%af%ab%e9%80%b1%e8%a8%98-ricoh-gr21-21mm-f3-5-%e8%88%87-ilford-pan-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/blog\/50692","title":{"rendered":"EP306: Writing a Weekly Journal \u2014 Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5 with Ilford Pan 400"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nRoll 306, and another one with the GR21.<\/p>\n

Camera: Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5
\nFilm: Ilford Pan 400 black-and-white film
\nDeveloped & scanned: DEP Lab 2025\/12\/3<\/p>\n

-<\/p>\n

Sometimes I help my son, who\u2019s in second grade, with his homework. Recently he had to write a weekly journal entry but had no idea where to start. I thought, \u201cA weekly journal? Come on, your dad\u2019s great at this! I can easily write a thousand words without even trying.\u201d So I started asking him questions like these:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did you do this weekend?\u201d
\n\u201cHow did that make you feel?\u201d
\n\u201cWhy do you think it made you feel that way?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d take his answer to one question and use it to ask the next.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m strongly against giving children the answers to their homework. I wouldn\u2019t even give them a \u201cgeneral direction,\u201d because finding that direction is the hardest and most important part of thinking. But it\u2019s so easy for parents to supply one\u2014and end up controlling it. A child wants to draw but doesn\u2019t know what to draw, so a parent blurts out, \u201cHow about drawing this or that?\u201d The child gets stuck inside that frame, and it becomes harder for an original idea to emerge.<\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve spent a lot of time taking stock of my life. Financially, I\u2019ve calculated that my total debt is NT$1.77 million. It\u2019s slowly coming down, but I won\u2019t finish paying it off for another 12 years, in 2038. By then I\u2019ll be 52, my son will be 19, and my mom will be 77.<\/p>\n

My dad died of a brainstem stroke when he was 56. I often use his age as a measure of my own time. I turn 40 this year, in 2026. If I were to die at 56 too, I\u2019d have 16 years left. Once I faced that hypothetical, I realized how short life is. Some things suddenly mattered much more, while others mattered much less.<\/p>\n

-<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#1
\nWaiting to pick someone up at Taoyuan Airport. Bought a Coke to stay awake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#2
\nBuying coffee to stay awake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#3
\nI really do like the iPhone Air.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#4
\nIt takes some creativity to make a condom ad like this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#5
\nI passed an auto repair shop with an astonishing pile of stuff out front. How do they find anything? Then again, maybe they have their own system.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#6
\nI seem to be seeing more Honda Super Cubs lately, but motorcycles are really expensive these days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#7
\nSaw the light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#8
\nOut on my bike.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#9
\nI\u2019m glad there\u2019s a small hill near home where I can ride now and then. I still miss the days when I went on a long ride every week, though.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#10
\nI can never remember what place I\u2019m looking at from this angle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#11
\nFor this kind of landscape, 21mm is still too wide. A 35mm or 50mm lens would have been just right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#12
\nThe owner of this territory.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#13
\nTaking this photo with a rather risky reliance on friction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#14
\nThe frame isn\u2019t touching anything. Only the front of the saddle is holding the bike up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#15
\nFilm really struggles with contrast this high.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#16
\nI should take more ordinary photos with the GR21\u2014because that\u2019s what most people will actually get when they own one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#17
\nI wanted to photograph something in the distance, but the GR21 is terrible at that. Can we stop saying wide-angle lenses are great for landscapes? All I got was the weeds right in front of me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#18
\nThis is a restroom. I have a feeling there are plenty of surprises inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#19
\nMy road bike is a 2017 Giant TCR Advanced 2. Somehow it\u2019s nearly ten years old already.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#20
\nAs a kid, I thought nothing tasted better than freshly pressed sugarcane juice. Looking at this photo, I can almost smell the sugarcane.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#21
\nMy son joined a caster board club at school, so now he knows how to ride one. That morning, I ran while he rode his board, and we went out to exercise together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#22
\nShowing my son his dad\u2019s usual running route.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#23
\nI really can\u2019t recommend the Ricoh GR21. If you\u2019re buying one, just get a GR1v\u2014though I only have a GR1s myself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#24
\nFather and son together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#25
\nRacing the birds overhead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#26
\nOn our way home after exercising, my son asked if I wanted to photograph this sport bike. I said, \u201cSure\u2014let\u2019s do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#27
\nLooks good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n#28
\nI meant to test the resolution and see whether I could capture the tiles on that building clearly. I may have chosen the wrong film.<\/p>\n

-<\/p>\n

That's this roll \u2014 Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5 with Ilford Pan 400. Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n

-<\/p>\n

Next up: EP307 \u2014 The original Fujifilm Klasse 38mm f2.6 with US-market Fujifilm 200<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roll 306, and another one with the GR21. Camera: Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5 Film: Ilford Pan 400 black-and-white film Developed & scanned: DEP Lab 2025\/12\/3 - Sometimes I help my...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1856,2412],"tags":[2025,2039,2857],"class_list":{"0":"post-50692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ilford-pan-400","8":"category-ricoh-gr21","9":"tag-deplab","10":"tag-iso-400-black-and-white-film","11":"tag-21mm-"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50719,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50692\/revisions\/50719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeals75.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}