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Julian Tanase Photography

My Minox journey continues…

Olympus XA2 in Denmark

Olympus XA2 in Denmark

A bit later than it should’ve been, this trip. I mean, I was never one for Lego (never had it in my childhood, never played with it), but my daughter…well, this is another story. She is very much into Lego, she has castles and dragons and cities, and another million of things built. She really enjoys these, together with any number and types of puzzle games of course.

I took her to Billund in Denmark for the 3 days, and while she enjoyed the Legoland and Lego House and Lego this and Lego that, I prepared myself to have a blast with my cameras. And I had a blast indeed, especially in the House and Park.

The weather was worse than I expected: heavily overcast, with no sun and no shadows. I had taken with me an Olympus OM1, an XA2, Minox LX, Minox EC and Minox B. Film was Ilford HP5, Agfa APX 100 and Fomapan 100 (35mm) and APX 100, Agfa Color 200, Fomapan 100 and Ilford FP125 (Minox).

While shooting the film I thought I am wasting it, but I had some hopes for the 400. The rest of the film, due to its slow sensitivity, had to be shot at an aperture not higher than 8, actually more like 5. and lower. You can see why I thought film will be completely wasted.

As it turned out, this was not the case. Most of the shots outside were taken with the 100 film, while I kept my 400 for the interior in the Lego House. True, some of the 400 frames were taken in the park as well, but most of them indoors.


OLYMPUS XA2 – ILFORD HP5 400


The XA2 was never one of my go-to cameras, when I wanted something special; for that purpose, I always took the Nikon F4 with a Nikkor 35-70/1.4, or the manual marvel that is Olympus OM1. Well, that has changed with Legoland visit, for I never thought the XA2 will be so marvellous a camera, handheld/indoors/no flash.

The negative was processed in Ilford’s own ID11 for 11mins @20*C, 1+1 dilution, stand development.

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