Hi all,

I've been using half-frame equipment for a couple of years, after
picking up a cheap Olympus Pen EES at a second hand store. I only used
it for black and white work, as processing and printing colour print
film is pretty expensive, and took at least a week. Most of the minilabs
around where I was (Wellington, New Zealand) weren't too keen to print
two photos on one sheet of paper. But this suited me, as it gave me an
excuse to get back into the darkroom.

A year or so ago, I bought a Yashica/Kyocera Samurai X4.0, which is also
a lot of fun, although personally I prefer shooting with the "portrait"
format of the Pen, and the Pen's simplicity. I enjoy using filters with
the Samurai, and the multi-exposure feature is also fun to use. I've
found a lab where I am now (Bogotá, Colombia) which is happy to develop
and print colour negative film from half frame cameras, although there
is a lot of cropping, so I'm sticking to Black and White for now.

I think for me, the best thing about shooting half-frame, is that it's
brought a bit of fun back into my photography, and I'm thinking more
when I take the shots. I felt the same when I was using my father's old
medium format gear... I wish he hadn't sold it all!

Cameron