A year ago I bought a job lot of 35mm film from a seller at a Car Boot Sale, which included Kodak Gold, Colorplus, Portra,, Fuji 200, Cinestill 800T and some odd rolls of random stuff like one roll of Lomography Lomochrome Metropolis. It worked out about around £3 and all looked unused. Since then I have shot several rolls and all came out fine.

When my new Petri 1.9 Color Corrected Super arrived, I fancied shooting something different, and as I had to go into the city chose the Metropolis. I had to do some research on the film prior to shooting as I had not used before, and was interested to see what it would be like.

It was a rainy day so metered for ISO400 - Lomography say you can meter for ISO 100-400 with this film…

I have shot this composition many times and love the juxtaposition between the hard architectural lines and the natural form of the tree. This time I waited for a human element to add something else to the shot. The blurred car adds the movement of cars on this busy road, and the face on the advertising poster smiling at the guy walking up the road completes the scene.

The colours are very muted and it lends itself perfectly to a drab day in the city - I would normally shoot black & white in these conditions so colour is a bit of a novelty. I find different films to have their niche conditions where they work best, and going by these images I may have found Metropolis’ on the first attempt!

I feel the meter got it slightly wrong on this one above, but that is a theme when using the TTArtisan Light Meter II, that I should know by now! It always seems to meter slightly over. Plus I was a second or so late on taking the shot - she is blocking the full view of the cool old American car!

Although the Metropolis is quite grainy, it is perfect for gritty city images - crisp clean photographs are not always the best way to go!

Considering this is the first roll I have shot, and in a new to me camera, the results are really pleasing. I only wish I had more time, and another roll to shoot some more of it, but with winter only a couple of months away there is plenty of time.

A few days later I found myself in the city again, but with totally different conditions, so as Lomography states you can change the ISO throughout the film, I metered at ISO200 in the sunshine to see how it effected the images. I do prefer the ISO400 ones in the rain to be honest, but if is the only film you have with you, it still works. I have shot Kodak Gold 200 at 100, and Ilford HP5 400 at 800 before, but never changed mid roll.

I do like the images from this film, and would buy some more for it’s subtle colours, and gritty look to shoot in the city. It would be a good film for shooting things like brutalist buildings where it’s attributes fit perfectly. Plus it gives an alternative to my go to film (HP5) on dark rainy days.

Lomochrome Metropolis…

My new TLR - Mamiya C3