I originally had a trip planned for the Ithaca, NY area the second week in October to hike and photograph waterfalls with Autumn colors. But given the current state of the world with COVID and the fact that I was a bit apprehensive of such a long trip on my own, I decided to stay closer to home this year and spend several days in Hocking Hills State Park, renting a cabin there so I could make the most of my days without having to make the long drive there from home and back.

I tried to pack light this year for the trip – hiking gear, clothes, food, and camera gear/film. For film I only packed my trusty RB67 ProSD and some backs/lenses, along with a Nikon N80 35mm film camera with a “nifty-fifty” 50mm f/1.8D lens. More on the N80 later on.

I also brought some Nikon digital gear “just in case” it rained buckets – I’ve learned before in the past that trying to lug around the RB67 on wet and slippery trails in the rain is the makings for disaster for both me and the RB67.

Thankfully the weather was great the days I was there, and the digital gear never came out of the pack.

I tried to make the most of the trip as the Autumn colors weren’t fully popping yet and the water wasn’t flowing great due to a rather dry past few months. I decided to focus primarily on hiking, carrying a lens or two extra with the RB in the pack, and also the N80 slung around my shoulder. For the trip I shot only two films – Kodak Ektar in 120 and 35mm panos in the RB, and Fuji C200 color in the N80.

If you’ve never heard of Fuji C200 before, it’s a “consumer grade” film found at Meijer and drugstores in three packs. It used to be super affordable, as early last year when I purchased several packs it was only $9.99 a pack locally, but now is closer to $13-$15. That’s still not bad compared to many other films. It’s fairly fine-grained, sharp, and fairly true to color. In certain light and conditions, it can lean a bit “cool” as most Fuji C41 films do.

I learned on the first day at Hocking Hills that, even though I planned the trip during in-school season on weekdays, the park was packed. I hit Old Man’s Cave trail before dawn and I was the first one there; by the time I left at 10:30 there were hundreds of cars in the parking lot. That quickly made my decision to hit places that could be crowded early, and save more remote off-the-beaten-path places for mid-day and afternoons.

The Nikon N80 that I brought with me is, in a word, AMAZING. This was a film camera body I’ve always ignored, turning my nose up at the “prosumer” grade offerings and preferring bodies such as my F, F4, F5, etc. I bought the N80 about 2 years back on a whim because it was super cheap, and in great condition. I’ll spare you all of the details about the camera, as there are plenty of great reviews online and on YouTube from recent months. I watched the review from Matt Osborne (aka “Mr. Leica”) and that review convinced me to dust off my body and shoot it a bit in the weeks before the trip. I was impressed. Paired with the 50mm f/1.8 it was light, fast, and took great images. It was almost like a super high-quality point & shoot camera - if you just put it in aperture priority mode and let the great metering system do its thing. After spending the time with it before the trip, I decided to bring it along to document and shoot nearly everything I found interesting, but not interesting enough to drag out the RB67 from the pack and set it up. As you can guess, I shot a lot more images with the N80.

The N80 and the 50mm f/1.8 combined were less than $100 total, so for such a cheap entry fee this is a perfect camera for those wanting to get into film and want the niceties of auto-focus, metering, etc.

I won’t recap every day and post every shot from the N80, but here is a small selection of some of my favorites from the trip.

 The important things I learned, or more-than-likely were reminded of, on this trip:

1. Getting away, no matter if its somewhere you’ve been before, is important for your mental well-being.

2. Remember to make your trip more about the trip and the experience, and make photography secondary. You’ll still get great shots.

3. Sekonic light meters do not like to be submerged in water. Thank-goodness for my OC issues and packing a second one as a back-up for the trip.

4. There are deer out in numbers this time of year in Ohio, and they tend to like to be on the gravel road in the curve just as you are cresting a hill.

5. Getting your Pathfinder out of a ditch by yourself in the dark is no fun, but does give you a sense of accomplishment when completed.

6. Getting home and staring at 15 rolls of film that you need to develop and scan can be daunting, but worth it in the end. Again – sense of accomplishment.

That’s all for now. I may do a more in-depth review of the N80 in a future blogpost. Or not. Maybe if we stop talking about great, lesser-known film cameras they won’t all keep creeping up in price. 

 Jeremy