RETO Ultrawide and Slim – Steel City Snapper photography

I was pleasantly surprised to hear today that Kodak is introducing a new 120 film choice. Or rather an existing film in 120 format in the guise of it’s consumer grade Kodak Gold. I’ve wished for a lower-cost alternative to Kodak (and Fuji’s) pro-grade films for medium format use so this is great to hear. Of course, here in 2022, Kodak Gold in 120 format is more expensive than Portra or Ektar were just a few years ago, but that seems par for the course at present.

I quite like Kodak Gold in 135 format (although I’ve tended to use Colorplus more), so I’ve splashed out on a pre-order of the 120 format Gold to see how it fares. Hopefully it’ll be in my hands sometime in early April. All things considered though, if colour film maintains its high price point then I’m likely to err even more strongly to my preferred black and white choices purely from an affordability standpoint, with my colour film use limited to where I know it’ll really be worthwhile. I tend to shoot much more black and white anyway so my current stocks of colour film are likely to keep me going for a while yet.

Another colour photo from the Reto Ultrawide & Slim today, and one which exemplifies how much of a scene is omitted when seen through the camera’s viewfinder. In this shot I had composed the scene to include the main arch and the smaller arch to the right. The leftmost arch, the person walking into frame left, and the rear of the car on the right were not present in the viewfinder. I guess I will begin to factor this in as I become more familiar with the camera over time.

Reto Ultrawide & Slim & Agfa Vista Plus 200. Lab developed.

Taken on 6 March 2022

When I visited Kelham Island the other week I decided to follow the river downstream to where it skirts the edge of the town centre and shot a number of black and white photos on that leg of the walk. The photo in today’s post shows the scene just upstream from Lady’s Bridge (which you can see peeking into the shot at the lower right).

I received a new film camera in the mail today. An actual, bona-fide brand-new film camera to boot and, no, it’s not a Leica. Quite the opposite infact – it’s a RETO Ultrawide and Slim, which is a copy of the Vivitar Ultrawide & Slim. It’s a toy camera made almost completely out of plastic, including the lens, with the distinctive feature that the lens is a 22mm focal length, hence the “ultrawide” in the name. There have been a number of copies of the original Vivitar version, of which this is the latest.

I’ve not had chance to try it out yet, but the lens is supposedly quite sharp (although what that means in real terms, I’m unsure), but with a dropoff in quality to the edges of the frame, and with a vignette too. I’m a fan of my Holga and the images it produces, so thought this might be fun to try out. It cost me £30, which is probably more than it is worth (especially considering some other cameras I could buy for the same or less) but, well, I’ve spent money on worse things.

When I get around to shooting with it I’ll post some results and maybe a review.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & & Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Tag: RETO Ultrawide and Slim

More colour from the Reto Ultrawide & Slim (and a new colour film choice from Kodak)

Riverside reflections (and a new camera – the LETO Ultrawide and Slim)