Revival of an old passion

Shortly before COVID, my friend showed me her grandpa’s old camera collection. This is how I first got interested in film photography, and she ended up selling me one of the cameras. I bought some rolls of film and ordered a fitting battery, and a few weeks later when everything arrived and I had some time to spare, I did a small photoshoot.

Funny thing… I never developed the film and it is still in a random stockpile in my basement.

I think I also did accidental double-exposures, opening the back midway and jamming the film, in the end ruining the film, but I’ll never know.

During COVID, I met a new friend who knew about film photography and I asked her what to do with my Canon AE-1.

So I gave that friend my camera to inspect, and she actually brought it to a repair shop to restore it. It made sense for it to stay in her hands. She showed me all the things you could do with it.

After the COVID lockdowns were mostly over and everything normalized again, I got reinvested in my old hobby. I bought several point-and-shoots and Polaroids. I enjoyed having the physical medium in an age where everything is digital. But I always “longed for” the feeling the canon gave me.

Around 2024, my mom found some old cameras from the GDR (East Germany). I restored them myself as much as I could, but they were all in rough shape. Like really bad. So sadly, to this day I’ve never taken photos with them.

Today I got mail - a new Canon AE-1, fully restored, refurbished and like “brand new”. I bought a new one from a shop in Munich , and after some lessons from my friend who helped me, I feel ready to take photos with it again.