I’ve been a bit lethargic the past week or so, it’s been hot and sticky in the afternoons, with intermittent showers that bring little or no relief from the heat, meaning that I really havn’t done any work outside in the garden other than mow the lawn and the nature strip.

Oh, and I did manage a bike ride one morning before it got too hot.

I did get as far as driving over to the big hardware store in Myrtleford to buy the bits to put together a zucchini cage to allow me to finally plant them out and protect them from the pouched demons, otherwise known as possums, which this year have destroyed most of my summer vegetables, but I’ve yet to summon the enthusiasm to spend a sweat soaked hour or two putting it together.

What I have spent time on, as part of retro photography, is investigating half frame 35mm cameras.

Put simply, a half frame camera takes a smaller size image than the standard image on 35mm film allowing you to squeeze 72 images onto a standard 36 exposure 35mm cassette, the idea being to lower you costs as you only use half as much film and your developing costs are the same.

Of course, you don’t get something for nothing – half frame camera images are taller than they are wide, as opposed to normal 35mm negatives which are wider than they are tall, and this use of portrait mode met some resistance when they were first introduced.

To the Instagram generation, used to mobile phone images which use portrait as the default, this is probably less of an issue.

Given that getting hold of film, and more, getting it processed, can be a bit of an adventure in itself, with shortages of film and developing chemicals, there’s an attraction in economizing on film usage.

You can buy all-plastic basic half frame cameras from Kodak and Agfa through Amazon, as well as some of the big online camera retailers.

These all plastic cameras are basically slightly more sophisticated versions of the cheap disposable cameras that used to be widely available, with the crucial difference that they can be reloaded with film, and used multiple times.

(Before digital totally displaced film I would sometimes use a waterproof disposable camera when sailing or kayaking – a former partner managed to totally write off a moderately expensive camera on a rain soaked horse ride, and after that I was always a little more cautious than I had been. I even sometimes took a disposable camera bike riding for the same reason)

Reviews of these all plastic cameras seem to be positive, but when reading the reviews you need a little caution – a lot of them seem to be written by people who got into the pandemic era retro photography boom, and where the plastic camera might be their first, and only film camera.

That said, more critical reviews by more experienced photographers, also seem to suggest that the cameras work well and produce decent images within their limitations.

They are all fixed focus fixed exposure cameras with an optional flash for lowlight photography, but obviously you are going to be limited in what you can take. In Australia, where the sunlight is brighter and more intense than in Europe, you might find some pictures to be a bit washed out.

The one thing that everyone does comment on is how small and light they are compared heavier more retro cameras, meaning they can be dropped in the bottom of a back pack and carried round just in case opportunity or inspiration strikes.

However, a little digging around on ebay shows that there are a reasonable number of half frame cameras for sale at an affordable price, mostly Olympus Pen models – in fact I’ve seen some for sale in working order for not a lot more than the plastic cameras.

Fully reconditioned ones are also available for a price, but as with all reconditioned cameras they tend to be pricy.

If I was in the market for a half frame camera – which I’m not – I’d probably take the risk and buy a non reconditioned one from Japan without any serious defects.

However, given I have fridge tray full of unused film and some working 35mm cameras, I’m not.

But, if I get seriously into the retro photography thing it’s a consideration given both the cost of film and processing…