People on film by Lester Cannon

"The photos came back great and I was sold on film from then on."

Tell us about yourself.

I am from California but currently living in Germany.

When and how did the film journey begin for you?

When I got back into photography in 2011 I noticed that many of the photographers who I admired or thought their photos had a unique look were film photographers. After seeing the amazing results that film could produce I decided I needed to shoot film also.

I had no clue what to buy and my first camera was a dud Russian rangefinder from ebay that didn't work. After that I bought a Pentax ME Super with a 50mm 2.0. I shot some models with a few rolls of Superia 200. The photos came back great and I was sold on film from then on.

What type of film do you usually shoot and what made you choose it?

Some people have their few select films and they stick to them. I am the exact opposite. I am always trying different film stocks to see if there is something else out there that I am missing out on. I am a huge fan of expired films. One of my favorites is Fuji Sensia 100. This is my number one favorite slide film.

I had never heard of it before but I bought 10 dollar point and shoot from ebay and it came with 10 different rolls of film old expired film. I tried the Sensia and i fell in love with it.
Ever since then I wanted to try everything else. I also like Velvia 100, Lomography 800/100, Superia 200,Elite Chrome, Fuji Neopan 400, Tri-X 400/Tmax-400. Portra and Fuji Pro 400H are awesome but pricey so I stick to Ultramax 400 and Color Plus 200 because they get the job done at less than half the price.

What camera makes you click?

Old cameras are really fun. But what I love are the lenses. Each lens I use, from Helios 40-2 to my Pentax SMC 50mm 1.2 has a certain quality that I like. Sadly these lenses all work on different systems so I have to tote around a body for each lens I want to employ. If there was a camera that could mount every lens I own i think I would own one camera.....(cough...sony a7...)

Lately when I am doing portrait work I take a Pentax MX with a 50mm 1.2, Canon AE-1 Program with an 85mm 1.2, and a Rolleiflex 2.8 Tessar. Thats my A team but I switch it up every now and then to keep things fresh. For street and documentary work my go to is the Yashica T5, then the Leica M6/Canon 50mm 1.8 LTM, or the Pentax MX/50mm 1.2.

Between black and white and colour film which would you choose?

I love BW and Color but id have to chose color

Do you make any experiments on film?

Well I experiment all the time with expired film to see what I get. I tried some film from 1989 and it actually camer out quite well :)

You can find Lester Cannon here:
el3imagery.com
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