Photo walk with the Nikon EM
It feels like it is always summer here in Austin! Today was no different when we grabbed a Nikon EM camera and a roll of Kodak UltraMax 400 film to test. We drove over to Zilker Botanical Garden to see if we could snap some photos while in the shade.
The Nikon EM feels retro in all of the right ways. Put in the batteries, set the aperture, and you are ready to go! There is no turning on the camera - it is just ready to shoot. The 50mm lens is the perfect middle ground where it works well for wide landscapes, but also takes beautiful portraits and close ups as well.
We were especially impressed by how easy and intuitive the focusing system is for a camera released more than 40 years ago. It was a breeze to get perfectly sharp close up shots of the beautiful plant life. The light meter also did a great job of getting balanced shots in mixed lighting. We were worried that some of the darker areas might be underexposed. To our delight everything turned out great when we got the roll back from the lab!
The heat had taken its toll on the plants at the garden, so we packed up and made our way over to South Congress. This is a very popular street in Austin filled with shops and restaurants.
The Kodak UltraMax 400 excelled with all of the bright colors of South Congress. The 400 speed of the film allowed us to shoot with a smaller aperture thereby giving us the beautiful deep focus seen in these shots. We were aiming for super sharp photos with a deep depth of field to capture all of the little details.
It is impossible to walk down South Congress without noticing all of the incredible neon signs advertising the local restaurants and shops. They are so much fun to shoot on film. We will need to go back at night time to capture these in all of their glory!
Overall we were extremely impressed by how this roll of film turned out from the Nikon EM. Every exposure on the roll turned out well, even in shots like this one with bright highlights on the car and shadows in the the vines growing on the building.
If you are looking for a film camera with fully manual controls this is a great option. The Nikon EM is so much fun to shoot with. The ability to remove the lens and try out new ones in the future is a major plus.
This would be a great camera for photography students or if you just want to really upgrade the quality of your film photography! We will definitely be shooting more rolls with this camera in the future.
