If you have read this site before, it’s no secret that I love my Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 point and shoot camera. I haven’t shot a film camera since I was young (and those were probably disposable cameras only) so these point and shoot cameras have been an easy way for me to get back into shooting film.

Recently I had the idea to run a roll of black and white film through the camera and see how it turned out. I decided to use Ilford HP5 Plus 400 as the film and was very pleased with the results.

A few things to note:

A lot of the outdoor industrial shots were taken midday on my lunch break and the sun was out in full force. I knew this going in but I was restless that day in my office and needed to go out for a walk and take photos.

I tried to take a photo of the giant moon that was visible one night, knowing it would be a risky shot. I didn’t have a tripod so I pulled into a neighborhood store’s parking lot and set the camera on the roof of my car and took two shots. As you’ll see below, neither turned out that great but I was obviously moving too much on the second shot and it resulted in what reminds me of a stick figure made of light.

What I really love the most is how the photos of my sons and their friend turned out. In the first set I had great lighting outside and those turned out the best. The photos near the end of the roll were shot inside at night and the flash did the hard work. I would easily take another roll of this film and just line people up outside and shoot away if ever given the chance.

As I have noted in my other posts on this camera, it suffers from light leaks common with this model. It’s most noticeable when I shoot on a sunny day as you will see in the photos. Sometimes the leaks add a certain character to the photo that I enjoy while other times it’s a little distracting. But on overcast days, like in the first two shots below, the leaks aren’t noticeable at all.

I can’t wait to shoot another black and white roll with this camera.