Flexaret Automat with Lomochrome Purple

I recently shot a roll of Lomochrome Purple with my Flexaret Automat VII. I wanted to try the Purple with one of my medium format cameras since a 120 roll of film has only 12 exposures. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like shooting film with a purple tint and wasn’t going to commit to more than 12 images.

The funny thing is, a while ago (I believe it was last autumn), I had a roll of 35mm Lomochrome Purple and started shooting it with my Olympus Pen-EE. I was wondering if having 2 half-frame images in purple would look interesting. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that meant I would need to shoot 72 purple images. As it turned out, my outing with the Purple was the outing where the shutter stuck in my Pen-EE. I was never able to finish that roll.

Although it’s sad that my Pen-EE stopped working, it was probably a good thing that I didn’t take 72 purple images as the novelty of the Purple wears out quickly.

That’s not to say the results aren’t interesting. The Purple mainly turns greens purple. Blues end up a somewhat green-ish and/or a kind of silvery gray. Skin tones actually aren’t affected that much.

Part of the reason I wasn’t particularly thrilled with my results is that knowing that greens would be affected the most, I went out looking for greens, the result being some obnoxiously purple images.

The pictures I like better are the ones with a better distribution of colors. My favorite is the picture with the FMC Tower in the background.

I think another reason I wasn’t pleased with the outcome was that the film is rated ISO 100-400. I never shot a film with a range ISO ratings so wasn’t sure what to shoot at so just settled for 200. Some of the pictures turned out a little dark in the shadows in addition to being too purple.

Plus, the last image from the roll didn’t quite make it and is partially cut off.

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t look so hard for green things to take pictures of. I doubt I will be getting another roll of Lomochrome Purple any time soon, but if the impulse to shoot with it again ever comes to me, I’ll need to read up on how better to navigate the 100-400 ISO range.