Back in 1999 I saw the total solar eclipse whilst on a family holiday somewhere in Devon. This year, with the eclipse hitting 94% coverage here in Cardiff, I grabbed a couple of friends and headed for Cardiff Bay in the hope of capturing other people enjoying the event. I brought two cameras with me - the Rolleiflex 3.5F Planar, and a Nikon Z8 with the 24-70mm f/2.8 II.

As I was waiting out the intense heat before the eclipse started at a local pub (£7 a pint, in Cardiff?), I remembered that there is a 1:1 crop mode in the Nikon Z8/Z9 that I've never used. After all, why would you willingly discard a notable portion of the RAW images you capture when you can just crop in post? But as someone who enjoys a Rolleiflex, and thus square format, far more than I ever expected to, this is what I chose to go with; I find visualising compositions so enjoyable in 1:1, and with the large files from the Z8 I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I've never particularly liked the 3:2 aspect ratio to begin with. It is rather odd that Nikon chose to implement this as a complete format change, rather than a crop visible only in the JPEGs, but oddly this actually somewhat appeals to me. There's no rescuing a bad framing.

Curiously I've also found myself using the straight-out-of-camera JPEGs for these photos, as there's something I particularly like about Nikon's monochrome profiles. These were taken using the Deep Tone Monochrome profile, and though I can emulate it from the RAWs in PhotoLab, I might as well just use the JPEG files as they're exactly as I'd want them anyway. This monochrome profile certainly seems to have some sort of built-in red filter, and some very nice shadow gradation.

This photo was featured in the Glass Eclipse 2026 Highlights

Now on the Rolleiflex I opted for Ilford Pan F+, which is a 50 ISO film. This was a mistake. I had somehow forgotten that during an eclipse that the light would disappear - hence why the photos during the darkest point, above, are all on the Nikon. However I did get a few shots on either side of the eclipse that I am rather pleased with. Pan F+ is my current favourite B&W film as it has this really pleasing dark tonality with soft highlights that just gives everything a 50s vibe.

The Rolleiflex is what ignited my appreciation for square format photos, as there's something very freeing about composing in the format. It's certainly my favourite way to do street photography these days, and it helps that the Rolleiflex charms people when they see me using it - it's a very friendly camera.

You'll notice a large difference in the tones between this Pan F+ roll and the Nikon's shots, and that's mostly down to the built-in red filter on the Deep Tone Monochrome profile. I do own a red filter for the Rolleiflex, but rarely find myself using it, especially with the light loss on 50 ISO film making everything more challenging.

Now I have another roll of shots from the Rolleiflex to develop, but I've come down with a stinker of a cold and the last thing I want to do is stand inside a small darkroom processing film, so consider this a to-be-continued-if-any-of-them-are-good.