Travel with only film camera, that’s a risky bet right? It’s fine if you are shooting film in your homeland, because you don’t tend to be too disappointed if you miss or ruin a shot. Because you can always go back to the same spot again. Furthermore, you know where to buy films if they run out, or where to get camera fixed when it malfunctions.

However, while travel, you don’t know when will be the next time you will visit again. Of course we wouldn’t want to miss any shots.

With digital camera, you can spam all you want. With film, at least for me, I tend to take only 1-2 shots for one scene. Before this, I always use the hybrid travel style: travel with both film and digital cameras. Problem? 2 cameras are too heavy (for me) and I feel overloaded. Instead of enjoying the trip, my mind was always on ‘which camera to use’. Or I would be too busy switching cameras.

Hence, for the most recent trip to Bangkok in February, I decided to only bring film camera. I only brought my Nikon FM2, 50mm f1.8 lens. As it was a short 48hours gateaway, we mainly just wanted to shop till we drop (LOL). Hence, we were mainly in Chatuchak weekend market, Talad Neon and Artbox Bangkok. We skipped all other sight-seeing spots.

My film camera malfunction

I always thought the Nikon FM2 is sturdy like a tank. Little did I expect it to fail on me, especially during a trip! I don’t know what happened, the shutter release was stuck. At that time, I had only taken 24 shots on my Kodak Gold 200. I took the film out anyway just to examine what’s going on inside. Too bad I couldn’t figure out why. The next day, I sent the unfinished film (heart-broken) to develop for 100Baht.

Thankfully, things happened in Bangkok, which is not a place like Tibet where it is possibly a once in a lifetime trip. So, I wasn’t feeling too sad because later on I just enjoyed shopping and not think about taking photos.

Moral of the story?

Always have a backup. In our digital era, things are not too bad. We have our smartphones with us all the time. Imagine in the olden days, how? But the thing is, camera shops selling film cameras should be everywhere back then. Just like how we see camera shops in almost all corners in our cities.

I’ve sent my camera to the ‘hospital’ and the repair fee is SGD$150-180 zzzzzzzzzzz

Lastly, watch my 48 hours in Bangkok video in YouTube if you are interested!