Las Vegas on Film | Holga, Polaroid, 35mm

 

For my birthday last month, Chris and I flew to Las Vegas for a long weekend. We met up with my mom and sister and took sooo many photos. I'm lucky that my sister obsesses over capturing every moment of our trips like I do. We pretty much decided we only go on trips for the photographic opportunities. Then we go home and scrapbook the whole dang thing. Kinda nerdy but what else are we gonna do with all those photos? 

I've been slowly transitioning into shooting only film, and I realized on this trip that digital photography has pretty much phased itself out of my life. I used to take hundreds of digital photos every trip, with a few random film photos scattered in-between. In Vegas, I took about 30 digital photos total, and the rest was all film. It's taken a while to get to this point. I think I was mostly afraid that my film photos wouldn't turn out and that I wouldn't have any photos from my trip. But I feel such a connection to film photography, so I'm always much more excited about the images I get at the end of it all. 

 

Vivitar IC 101 35 mm Panorama Camera Review | Hawaii

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Updated June 24, 2026

The Vivitar IC 101 has become one of my favorite vintage point and shoot 35 mm cameras. Before using it, I had never experimented with the panoramic frame before (other than with an iPhone, obviously). I'm honestly not even sure where this camera came from. One day it magically appeared in one of my drawers and it took me years to even get around to trying it out. You can find them on eBay for anywhere from $8-40, so they are super affordable. It's extremely lightweight and doesn't feel very sturdy, but it's really fun and easy to take photos with. I especially had fun taking vertical shots with it, which you can see at the very end of the post. I always love cameras that are tiny and don’t weigh a thing because I travel so often. It hardly took up any space at all in my camera bag, which is a major plus for me!

It’s a perfect camera to start your film photography journey with because it won’t break the bank and it’s incredibly basic. There aren’t any crazy settings or buttons. You literally just look through the viewfinder, press the shutter button and then wind to the next frame! The most difficult part is probably loading and unloading the film, but a tip I always like to tell beginners is to check the winding knob on the top left of the camera. If it’s moving when you’re advancing to the next frame, then the film is working it’s way through the camera and you should be good to go. If you’ve just picked up this camera and you’re wondering if it works, just open up the back of the camera and snap the shutter button while through the middle of the camera. As long as the shutter is firing and you see light flicker through the lens, then everything should be working just fine. Cameras like this aren’t very complicated, so there usually isn’t anything wrong with it if you find it out in the wild. It isn’t a “fancy” camera by any means. You’ll find the images to be soft and that the lens needs a lot of light. I wouldn’t recommend shooting with this camera indoors. A 400 ISO film is probably your best bet, because it will be a nice balance between capturing light and having minimal grain. I highly recommend trying Lomography Color Negative 400 or Kodak Portra 400. If you’re looking for more 35 mm film recommendations, you can read more about my favorite black and white film stocks here or my favorite color 35 mm film stocks here!

I just used this camera for the first time last April, when Chris and I went to Hawaii to get married. We spent 7 days on Maui with our immediate families and then 3 days on Lanai for our honeymoon. The entire time I was using this camera, I wasn't even sure if it was taking photos.! It seemed too easy to just press the shutter release and wind to the next frame over and over again. At some point I even accidentally took a few double exposures. The shutter button got stuck a few times so I would rewind the film a little bit and try again, which resulted in the overlapping images. 

At the end of the roll when it's time to rewind, you simply press the film release button on the bottom of the camera and slowly and gently wind the film until it's finished. It's actually pretty difficult to rewind the film with this camera and I've heard stories of people splitting their film, but I just made sure to take it slow and not force it. So far I have not split a roll, so yay! 

I've included a few sample photos and double exposures below. As you will notice, the images are not very sharp. The camera definitely doesn't have the greatest lens on it, but I really enjoy the vintage vibe that the images produce. The panoramic frame is also really beautiful to look at and I'm so happy that I ended up taking this camera with me on such a special trip. I'll definitely be treasuring these photos forever.

I also have a full YouTube video about the Vivitar IC101 so make sure to give it a watch here! And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Cameras & Cats, to learn more about all of my favorite cameras!

WHERE TO BUY THE VIVITAR IC101 CAMERA:

eBay

Etsy

FILM RECOMMENDATIONS:

Lomography 100 35mm film

Kodak Portra 160 35mm

Fujifilm 400 Color Negative 35 mm

Kodak UltraMax 400 35mm

If you found this post helpful or inspiring, I’d love it if you considered signing up for my Patreon! For as little as $1 a month, you’ll get early access to all of my YouTube videos, plus tons of photos that I don’t post anywhere else. Depending on which tier you choose, you could also receive seasonal prints and/or discounts! I always use all of the proceeds towards cameras, film & processing.

If you have any questions, I’m always happy to help! You can contact me here, or leave a comment below! Thanks so much for stopping by! You can also check out my B&H Photo storefront & Amazon Storefront for more camera/film recommendations. :) Have a magical day!

<3 Myles Katherine

(click to enlarge images)

 
 

Black & White Holga Photos taken in Paris, France

 

I've been lucky enough to visit Paris twice in my life. The first time, I was taking summer classes during my sophomore year of college with my sister. Photography was becoming my new obsession and I had just started using the Holga camera. It's kind of crazy to think that I took the Holga with me and only shot a few rolls being there for a whole month. If I was in Paris now for a whole month, I would probably have a thousand film rolls by the end of that trip! We spent time in almost every park in Paris and we rode bicycles out to Monet's Garden with our cousin Sarah (who was backpacking through Europe). I learned so much from that month in Paris and I have a strange attachment to the photos I took on that first trip, even if they aren't technically the best photos I've ever taken.

The second time I visited Paris was in 2015 with my family but it was only for a few days. I managed to take quite a few rolls of film during that time though. Paris is seriously the most beautiful city I've ever seen and I definitely plan on going back again at some point. And hopefully again and again and again...

I know I say it all the time, but the Holga is truly my favorite camera. I honestly don't know what I would do without it! I feel such a connection to it (which I know is extremely nerdy) and it's taught me so much about film photography. Below are my favorite Holga photos I've taken in Paris so far. If you'd like to purchase a print, you can contact me directly here. <3

Paris 2008

Paris 2015