This week I've been mostly...........[using a mechanical 35mm camera]

[macfred]

Spent a couple of days at the Dutch IJsselmeer (provinces North Holland and Friesland) - shot a few rolls (Neopan 400CN, Ilford Delta 400) with the Rolleiflex 3.5F Planar (metering is getting out of true) using sunny 16 (it's more sunny 11 in this part of the world).
An unstressful way taking photographs in my opinion.

 

[guangong]

After a terrible experience with a battery-dead camera I never use a battery dependent camera away from home. Always carry a meter so even my match needle Leicaflexes and Leica M5 will work with dead meter. Even my Minox C’s and LXs die at the wrong time, so there is a Minox III or B somewhere in my pockets.
I sympathize with those dependent on auto exposure and autofocus who can no longer use all mechanical cameras.

 

[bimmey]

The only 35mm camera I own that is completely manual is the Vittessa T. It has a working selenium meter that is pretty accurate. Mostly it gets used as my motorcycle camera, but I'll take it out this weekend as temperatures will be around -20C

 

[TheRook]

After a terrible experience with a battery-dead camera I never use a battery dependent camera away from home. Always carry a meter so even my match needle Leicaflexes and Leica M5 will work with dead meter. Even my Minox C’s and LXs die at the wrong time, so there is a Minox III or B somewhere in my pockets.
I sympathize with those dependent on auto exposure and autofocus who can no longer use all mechanical cameras.

I don't understand your reasoning. Rather than never using a battery dependent camera again, couldn't you have simply carried a backup battery for the camera from that point on? Surely a spare camera battery will be lighter and smaller than any hand-held meter.

 

[Down Under]

In 2018 (= in less than two days, woo hoo!) I've resolved to shoot more film and make more use of my mechanical cameras rather than rely on digieverything. Partly because I'm quite sick and tired of the bland quickie results I'm getting from digital, but largely as I have hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of 35mm and 120 films lying in state in my two home freezers, and I'm determined to use these up before my cameras (and the photographer) give up on photography altogether and/or bite the dust, whichever comes first. At my age, this is mostdefinitely a No Joke statement...

For the last few months I've been carting around a Nikkormat FT2 (bought in 'as new' condition from the now-legendary Grace's Pawn Shop in KIng's Cross, Sydney in the '80s, for what I thought at the time was a small fortune but now seems like very small beans) and a 35 f/2 with a 28 f/3.5 and an 85 f/2 in the bag. Other than the usual lament about time spent in front of the scanner and laptop and consequent increase in my red wine intake, I'm more than happy with the results and I will continue shooting in this style for all of next year.

I've never been one to 'machine-gun' film through my cameras and I've carried over my film frugality to my digital shooting. Unfortunately too many photographers blitz everything on digital and seem to lack the basic good judgment to know when and how to edit (= delete) their bad shots, so the lot gets posted online and the shooters get offended if/when most of us old-timers decline their heavy hints to log in and look-see. at the 2,849 images they shot of the grandkids at last weekend's Kinder Klub Christmas party.

As for me, as an Official Oldie (and a photographer since 1962) I now happily point out to them that at my advanced age, life is too short to waste valuable time on or, the gods forbid, taking bad photography. If my attitude offends them, well, too bad...

My intended personal goal for the new year is to reduce the amount of shooting I do with my two Nikon DSLRs by at least 50% and re-learning to compose with shadows and highlights as I did for so many years with B&W film.

To return to the technicalities, I no longer put batteries in my three FT2s and set my exposures with either a Weston Master III or V with Invercone or one of my Gossens Lunawhatevers. Also a K2 Nikon filter to spiff up contrast a bit on cloudy day shots and of course the appropriate Nikon lens hood.

I have always thought that photography should be about using the minimum of equipment to produce the maximum of good results. Mechanical cameras fit perfectly into this mind-frame and given a little time and effort in shooting, the results can often be nothing short of astonishing.

 

[Down Under]

Ditto another New Year's project I have in mind, to go out on one of my bush treks whether at home in Tasmania or in Sarawak (Malaysia) where I hang out, with only a 120 folding camera (in my case a Voigtlander Perkeo I), a Weston meter, and one roll of film. Yes, okay, feel free to indulge yourself and take two rolls. Nothing else.

With the right mind-set this exercise can become almost Zen-like in its simplicity. Everything becomes entirely about the image and not the, drat the word, 'technique'. The event will also become all about here (or there, if you prefer) and now (or then, if you prefer). You live for the moment and entirely in the present, and such mundane thoughts as what shutter speed or f/stop to set or other 'technique' nonsense, fly out the window. Being in the moment becomes the entire process of being.

The best part will also be that the rest of us won't have to endure the bittersweet horror of the 3,298 so-so images you posted of your walk in the park with two DSLRs and twenty kilograms of camera bag add-ons. Our lives will be much happier. Trust me on this...