The Pentax K70 w/18-135mm lens is a lot of camera in a little body! This is a powerful camera, offering a lot of control and great results. I purchased this camera primarily to have an actual waterproof/water resistant camera, not just a 'weather resistant' camera like Fuji claims to be.

This means you can actually submerge your Pentax K70 under running water (as is shown in this video) and it's fine, no water damage. I doubt you can do that with Fuji or Canon that claim 'weather resistant.' Nonetheless, WR is not the only benefit of this APS-C sensor camera.

I took a roll of Fomapan Classic 100 along with my Pentax ZX10 35mm film camera and headed downtown to meet my friend Gabrielle for a quick lunchtime photoshoot. The fact that it was midday did not go unnoticed, and was actually the point of the shoot. I wanted to see how well the film would react in such high contrast situations.

While we did shoot some photos with the sun in play, I also took a handful of shots using available shade to even out the light on her face. The preferred way to do portrait photography on a sunny day would be to seek out shade and shadow areas to place your subject, so the light is even on their body and especially their face. But if you want to get creative, or use high-key lighting directly from the sun, you can certainly break some rules and have some fun with it as well. That's what we did on this particular day using the black and white film.

I purchased this Nikon FM10 on Ebay, along with the Nikkor 35-70mm zoom lens that proved to be fairly sharp and accurate in reading the exposure. Even though I purchased on Ebay from an individual, I was lucky to get a very nice, well maintained camera. Although there were a couple of lines from a magic marker scribbled on focus screen for some reason, it does not show up in photos. The Nikon FM10 takes two (2) LR144 batteries, which are easily available at most camera shops and online.

Kodak Gold 200 Film

Unlike black and white film, I don't develop color c-41 process, but I am fortunate to have a lab within 30 minutes that develops color film for $5 per roll, and offers 72dpi scans for an additional $5. For this roll, I decided to forego the scans, and do those myself on my recently purchased Epson V600. I was very happy with the way all steps of the process turned out, from the framing, developing, scanning and final image, these turned out to be very nice images.

Check out my new Stealth Photographer podcast where I talk about the newly released Ricoh GR IIIx camera, as well as the Canon 16mm RF lens for the Canon EOS RP full frame camera. I also discuss an upcoming trip to St Louis, where I hope to get some time for street photography.
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My second roll of film through my Minolta Maxxum 3xi was my first roll of Arista EDU Ultra 100 (36 exp) black and white. Since I know from my first shoot with this camera in Franklin, Indiana a few weeks earlier that the camera and lens function well together, and seem to both focus and read exposure well, I was confident it would not be a waste of time taking the Minolta 3xi downtown, where I ask people if I can take their portrait while passing them on the street.

It was mid-day in downtown Indianapolis, so the sun was high and harsh, but that added to the contrast of the film. During the times of covid, the best time to capture people out and about in an inner city is typically going to be lunch time. As more things open up, evenings become more of an option. But from where I am, the evenings are the leanest times regarding people out and about in the downtown area.