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What I've Learnt from Shooting on Film
A critical look at the Olympus mju ii, a classic 90s point-and-shoot film camera
On 29th October 2022, my Olympus mju ii broke. Or, to put it another way, I broke it.
Accidentally, of course.
While trying to take a photo in a park in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, I dropped it on the ground. And, well, that was it. After four years of intermittent use, my little film camera departed the world with barely a whimper.
Besides being incredibly fragile, to such an extent that a single drop was enough to undo it, the camera had been a pretty permanent fixture in my life up until then. Due to its incredible lightness, I would carry it around in my backpack and completely forget about it, bringing it out only when the urge to shoot presented itself.
In hindsight, though, its lightness, which at the time was one of its most appealing characteristics, was probably also what made it break so easily. Its light plastic shell offered no protection from hard knocks; a single drop could imperil it at any moment. And when that moment did arrive, what was particularly aggravating was the fact that I had just loaded a new roll of black-and-white film — Ilford XP2 Super 400. Now, that 11 or so euros I had spent on the film at a Kodak store…
