This should be a familiar sight by now, as I take this photo as one of my basic test shots with every camera, it seems.
After some online research, I discovered that the going price for developing and printing 127 film is about $15. With this in mind, I opted to order a proof sheet from Main Photo, instead of individual prints, just to save a couple bucks. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me that this would totally eliminate any chance the lab had of adjusting the tonality of individual frames (that is, making sure all the different pictures came out right).
So, I now have a particularly dark proof sheet, all but the above picture, and three negative strips that won’t fit into my scanner. However, I did some experimenting with the scanner, and discovered that scanning black and white negs in reflective mode isn’t a complete loss:
Although I don’t think my scanner has a very professional… what’s it called? Delta-V? It’s been a long time since VCT 208 or whatever it was. Anyway, I don’t think my scanner is terribly good at capturing the differences in grays, especially when scanning transparencies in reflective mode, but it’s a decent enough scan to help evaluate the camera, I think.
Basically, if I’m planning to do some shooting outdoors, in sunshine, and decide to go all artsy, maybe I’ll get some more 127 film and bring the Brownie as a backup. Apart from that… I’m not in love with it. Maybe I’ll change my mind if I get some reprints made of a few of the images on this roll, or if I try taking some snowy winter pics and get real prints made.
My opinion as of this moment, though, is that the Brownie Bullet is merely a neat and functional art-deco knick-knack I got for super-cheap at the thrift store.
