Tom Sebastiano's Mamiya experience

There are two things I really like about analogue photography. Firstly the process. For me it just feels good, from choosing a film stock and format to shoot with, to the slower and more considered shooting style. Constrained by the finite frames on a roll every composition is analysed even if only briefly for its significance and merit. Secondly and probably more importantly for me, is films aesthetic. Analogue photography is to my eyes beautiful, natural and expressive with its gorgeous colours and tonality.

Some time ago I bought two 1969 Mamiya C33 cameras from a retired wedding photographer. He had not used either for almost 30 years and so there was some risk involved in my purchase.

Almost unique to TLR camera's Mamiya's C series has interchangeable lenses. But I was lucky enough to have two cameras so no need to swap lenses. One had a Mamiya Sekor ƒ2.8 80mm lens the other a ƒ3.5 105mm.  My plan was to keep one camera and sell the other. But first I needed to be sure they both worked. I cleaned them and replaced the crumbly old lights seals with new before running some old slave rolls through them to ensure that the mechanism worked.

Once I was confident it was time to test them. The series here is from that test. Using the 80mm to shoot expired (2009) Fuji Neopan 400 and the 105mm with Fuji Pro400H and Kodak Portra 160 I was relieved to see that both cameras worked perfectly and made beautiful photos even after 50 years since they were both manufactured and 29 years since they were last used.

It did make me wonder how many digital cameras of today would still be working in 2069!

Model: Agata Daniluk

Location: Hackney Wick

If you want to see more of Tom's work visit his website http://www.invernodreaming.com/ or his Instagram profile