Frugal Film Project 2024 – Recap + What’s in Store for 2025?
It’s a wrap!
My 2024 Frugal Film Challenge is complete. 12 months of shooting the same low-cost camera and film. What are some of my takeaways from the experience? Let’s get into it.
THE GOOD
Before the challenge, I could confidently say that I knew some film stocks very well – ACROS, Ektar, HP5, and Tri-X were my usual go-to’s and I always knew what to expect from them. While I used other film stocks on occasion, there was nothing else that I really stuck with for any amount of time. Shooting the EZ400 (Foma 400) for 12 months enabled me to really get to know the film well. I pushed it, pulled it, did long exposures, and used different developers with it. My favorite recipe is to shoot it at ISO 250, and develop with Rodinal 1:25 with very gentle agitation.
I learned to embrace the grain. EZ400 (Foma 400) has a lot of grain for its speed, much more than other 400 speed films like HP5 or Tri-X. The gritty look of the film, especially when pushed, is very distinctive and I’ve grown to like the look.
It got my creative juices flowing. Shooting the same film and camera every month with a deadline motivated me to get out there and shoot, even when I didn’t really want to. And trying to do something different for each month helped keep me out of a creative rut.
The Nikon F80 is a very capable camera when paired with the 50mm f/1.8. It’s light, fast, and easy to use. I’ve used N80/F80 bodies several times in the past, but this was the first time I really spent an entire year with one.
The Frugal Film Project facebook group is a great place to share images and is drama-free. This is a welcomed change compared to other photo groups I currently belong to or have belonged to in the past. Everyone is very supportive and kind.
THE BAD
The Nikon F80 just barely made it across the finish line for the challenge. The door latch broke (again) 2 months into the challenge, and trying to be true to the $75 limit, I didn’t want to do a permanent fix with the $40 metal latch. So I super-glued the latch back together and its seemed to work fine since. The battery door broke off in July, and I was able to replace it with a door from dead donor N80. But then during this month’s session, the latch on the replacement door broke off while in the dark and I had to use a liberal amount of gaffer tape to hold the door shut to finish the session. To be fair, the F80/N80 bodies were “prosumer” bodies that weren’t built to the same quality as the F100/F5 bodies, and age hasn’t been very kind to them.
Batteries – the Nikon F80 just eats them. I went thru 5 sets of CR123 batteries in 12 months of shooting 12 rolls. Thankfully the batteries are cheap, but its annoying to turn it on to go out only to find it dead. And twice the batteries just died during long exposures. Long exposures are a huge drain on the system. In hindsight, I should have probably pulled out the batteries when the camera wasn’t being used.
Below are some of my favorite images from this year. Click on the first image to open and scroll through them.
So, am I doing the FFP challenge again in 2025? You betcha. I’ve been toying around with camera and film selection for the next year, and at one point was certain I wanted to do medium format film with a Rolleicord I picked up super cheap at an estate sale that needed a lot of TLC and cleaning. However, I’ve really embraced shooting 35mm for the challenge and like the larger number of shots available on the roll to experiment and create. I’ve also found a love of rangefinder cameras in 2024 – especially my QL17 GIII.
Knowing that my black QL17 GIII punches WAAAAY above the $75 cost limit for FPP, I decided to keep my eyes open for a QL19 GIII in silver. The QL19’s go for a lot less $$ than their slightly faster brother, without really giving up any image quality or enjoyment of use. I mean, f/0.2 is not much of a difference, is it?
Canonet QL19 GIII with Fuji 400 film
Perseverance paid off - in November I found a QL19 GIII on eBay for $50 including shipping. It needed some new foam seals and a good cleaning. After spending a few hours putting in new seals and cleaning, I put 2 test rolls through it and it works like a champ! So the QL19 will be my FFP camera for 2025.
Film of choice for this year? I’m going with Fuji 400. Color will give me several new creative choices this year.
Below are a few of the ideas I’ll be contemplating each month. Once again, I plan on doing something different every month to keep it interesting!
Film Soup
Redscale
EBS – Exposing Both Sides
Double Exposure
Bleach Bypass
Cross-Processing
Stand Development
Will you be participating in the Frugal Film Project for 2025? It’s a great way to push boundaries while proving that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on gear and film. If you need any help or suggestions, please feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to chat with you!
As always, thanks for reading.
Jeremy
